Why Horror?

Why Horror? (2014)

Runtime: 81 minutes

Directed by: Nicolas Kleiman/Rob Lindsay

Starring: Some tool “journalist” I haven't even heard of before

From: Don Ferguson Productions

You know, the question asked in the title of this documentary... it never got a satisfactory answer.

I would have never even heard of this if not for Shudder recently adding it and several people on Letterboxd giving this a skewering; plenty seem to think it's OK but some were real unhappy with this and that did pique my curiosity. In hindsight, for much of this I was thinking that I should have listened to those negative reviews.

This follows a “journalist” I've never heard of before, Tal Zimerman. I follow a few horror sites, such as Bloody Disgusting... this is a schmuck completely new to me. He is a bearded hipster tool w/ glasses, as if the Internet isn't already too full of those! He was all too happy to have his mom be scared by watching random horror footage in an obvious experiment... in addition, he yelled at mom for looking away from said horror footage AND he was all rude about her getting Dario Argento's name wrong-he was not a guy I enjoyed following and having this be centered around, in other words.

There was some information new to me-such as horror from before there was film along with some of the psychology behind humanity's love of being scared-but much of what was said here was obvious so I can't imagine Tal's fellow horror fans will get much from this; I imagine those that aren't will get more out of the “no s---, Sherlock!” moment of Tal noting that he and a fellow fanboy from Japan have shared experiences regarding the genre. Mr. Zimerman at least got to travel around the world while this was in production, although it certainly seemed like he implied that Mexico wasn't part of North America, which is a revelation that did not make him look too good.

Besides the fact that this seemed more like an exercise for Tal to brag about how much a fan he is than answering the questions that were presumably the thesis of this documentary, some had a big problem with how the subject of misogyny in the genre was broached but brushed off superficially; as others have noted, “the final girl” does not excuse how that has been an issue in the past. Furthermore, it does not help credibility-wise when one of the talking heads (IIRC, an editor for a horror magazine) talked about guys bringing girls to see a genre movie at the multiplex so that “she'd get wet” and “he'd get some nookie”... some things should have been left on the figurative cutting room floor.

I wish this would have been done in a different way or different format, as it could have been more interesting and I wanted more of the historical stuff and less of the obvious nonsense; I don't know if this will even have much to offer for those that are not genre fans and have questioned its popularity. I suppose it was nice to hear that-for example-Don Coscarelli was real impressed when he first viewed the original The Ring, but otherwise I do get why some hated this even more than I did.