Latest generation takes horror films to new, scarier level

Fiction isn't scary. Life is scary.

The Halloween season always brings about new movies labeled "horror" and termed "scary."

The Jason movies (the "Friday the 13th" franchise) have a box set that includes 11 movies. Freddy appears in the nightmares of teenagers on Elm Street seven times. The two villains cross in one of those movies.

These movies never really scared me. Well, in the interest of honesty, after seeing one "Nightmare on Elm Street" I was terrified to sleep in my waterbed.

But most of these movies didn't really scare me.

The latest generation of horror film franchise is the "Saw" series. These have come miles from the kill him, chase her, kill everyone except a virgin who will return in the next installment. These films don't just kill people. The people in them kill people. They put the characters in the position to either die or kill the other character in exchange for their own life. Then once they kill the other person, they get killed somehow anyway.

They don't portray one inhuman villain as the killer. They portray humans as killers.

The horror flicks of old left the viewer walking out of the theater looking over her shoulder for some lunatic in a hockey mask. The directors and storytellers of "Saw" have viewers walking out of theater looking at themselves and each other wondering, could I? Would he?

I guess it just seems easier to watch one person kill people and picture yourself as a victim than it is to watch seemingly normal people kill people and picture yourself as a murderer. The scariest thing for me about those movies is that those scenes, the gore, that story, existed in someone's mind before it was on the screen.

On a lighter note, it does give me hope when the classics continue to be made. A Freddy Krueger update is in the works. Last year Rob Zombie refreshed the story of Michael Myers in a remake of the original "Halloween."

"Halloween" celebrates 30 years of horrifying audiences this year. John Carpenter started the trend of unkillable villains in 1978 with the story of Michael Myers, who comes back on Oct. 31 to kill his only remaining family member and everyone else he comes across.

This Halloween if you see the wild-haired, masked murderer wandering the streets, wish him a happy birthday and then run up the stairs; it's that easy.

Now, if you hear someone suggest "Let's play a game," you've got a lot more to deal with.