Tis’ the season to be scared.

Halloween is upon us and unlike many of you who focus on what party to attend, I look forward to what scary movies are being released.
If you’re a fellow horror-junkie, then watching scary movies during October is an important ritual. I used to be the person that craved a haunted house or corn maze, but in the past couple years, I’ve lost the feeling. Something about screaming teenagers hiding in bushes making out just really turns me off. So upon preparing myself for the upcoming holiday, I waited in anticipation to see what creative genius would scare me this time. To say the least, I am incredibly disappointed this Halloween.

So far we have “Carrie” and “Insidious II” in theaters. I will admit that “Insidious II” had some decent parts, but I couldn’t help but prepare for some of the buildup scenes. I mean come on, the music gets intense then completely shuts off, I know something’s up.

As far as “Carrie” goes, I haven’t seen this version of the Halloween classic but if I could get a quarter for every time somebody tried to recreate a classic horror movie, I’d have, well, a bunch of quarters. I did happen to watch the 1976 Sissy Spacek version and felt more disturbed than anything. But with this modern version staring Chloë Grace Moretz all I can envision is her period scene in “Movie 43.” Now that is a horror scene, hanging out with a guy you really like, your stomach starts to throb, it feels like you’ve been stabbed in the back. Boom. It’s your period, date over. Don’t even get me started on the pig blood scene…maybe under Moretz’s credentials it says, “Works well with blood.”

While there aren’t many horror movies in the works this Halloween, it’s still fun to focus on the ones we grew up with. I know everyone gets that little spark of excitement when you see “Hocus Pocus” playing on ABC Family. Do we like these movies because we know that at one point they gave us those Halloween chills? Why is it that these movies harbor around the idea of the paranormal yet some of them leave us with the warm and fuzzes? Obviously an answer could be the audience.

Producers shed a bit of light-heartedness on the subject to let the viewers have an upper hand on the villains. But then we have those movies that shake you to your core, make you take a second look at things and actually make you scared. The scared feeling like when you’re driving down the wrong part of Clifton and you feel like somebody is going to run out into the middle of the street with a machete.

It’s time for something new. Horror movies are becoming too predictable. We are seeing the same thing created in different ways. I’m not telling you to go out and watch every scary movie and see what reoccurring theme ties them together. I just see a dramatic drop in intensity in new age horror movies. It looks as though, right now, I will stick with what Netflix has to offer.

 khoppes@mavs.coloradomesa.edu