Connect with us

Editorials

25 of the Decade’s Most Influential Figures in Horror

Published

on

While there were far too many influential figures in the horror genre this decade to include them all here, below are the 25 that were (arguably, of course) its greatest movers and shakers. From the video game revolution to sequel-happy movie studios; from the dark world of metal to the pages and panels of horror literature, love `em or hate `em the below 25 simply made too much noise to ignore. If you think we missed anything, throw it in the comment section below and say your piece. It’s all welcome!

25 OF THE DECADE’S MOST INFLUENTIAL
FIGURES IN HORROR!

Editor’s Note: This list is in no particular order and was compiled by Chris Eggertsen, Bloody Disgusting staff writer. This was NOT voted on or chosen by the entire staff.

Alexandre Aja


Defining work: High Tension (2003)

Why he’s on the list: Aja ushered in the era of extreme French horror with his gory High Tension and attained mainstream credibility after directing the successful remake of `70s exploitation classic The Hills Have Eyes. In the process, he opened the Hollywood door for contemporaries like Xavier Gens (Frontiere(s)), Pascal Laugier (Martyrs) and Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury (Inside). Whether or not his career continues to flourish Stateside, he’s the man responsible for opening the blood-spattered floodgates.

Alan Ball


Defining work: True Blood (2008-2009)

Why he’s on the list: Ball had dabbled (more like rubbed our faces) in death before, particularly with his hit HBO series Six Feet Under, but True Blood marked the first time he crossed over fully into the realm of the supernatural. By doing so he managed to tap into the Twilight zeitgeist and spawn a genuine pop cultural phenomenon. Of course, his show’s so good it probably didn’t need Stephanie Meyer to succeed.

Danny Boyle


Defining work: 28 Days Later (2003)

Why he’s on the list: Boyle’s zombie art film 28 Days Later unleashed the modern wave of walking dead movies on American multiplexes, but none of his adherents were able to match his uncompromising vision. As an Oscar-nominated director, his foray into horror gave a rare boost of critical respect to a genre often relegated to the cultural dustbin.

Bungie Studios


Defining work: The Halo series (2001-2009)

Why they’re on the list: Considered the Xbox’s “killer app” and largely credited with the initial success of both the original console and the Xbox 360, the influence of developer Bungie’s Halo series on the next generation of first-person shooters cannot be underestimated. Breaking records with each new installment in the franchise, 2007’s Halo 3 grossed $170 million in its first 24 hours of release, a feat even Hollywood had never managed. The series has gone on to spawn five bestselling novels, two graphic novels, and countless other associated merchandise. The film version, now postponed indefinitely, has attracted the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Neil Blomkamp, and Peter Jackson to the table. Undoubtedly, it’s become one of the most successful franchises ever, in any medium.

Guillermo del Toro


Defining work: Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Why he’s on the list: With The Devil’s Backbone del Toro proved there were still visionaries left in the horror genre. With Hellboy and its sequel he demonstrated that he could meld his unique sensibilities with a large-scale Hollywood production. With Pan’s Labyrinth he created a modern-day classic that shattered boundaries. Like The Silence of the Lambs before it, his Franco-era dark fantasy became the rare horror film to transform into a year-end critical darling and major awards contender.

Michael C. Hall/Daniel Cerone/Clyde Phillips


Defining work: Dexter (2006-2009)

The creative team behind the hit Showtime series about a blood-spatter expert/serial killer with a moral grounding are responsible for creating a genuine word-of-mouth sensation. While exec-producers Cerone and Phillips have exited the series (Cerone after the second season and Phillips after the fourth), Hall may be the man most responsible for the show’s success. He has accomplished what few actors could with his darkly humorous portrayal of the titular character: he’s made a serial killer likable. The fourth-season finale of the show became the most-watched single episode on Showtime ever. Water-coolers are buzzing.

Maynard James Keenan (Tool/A Perfect Circle)


Defining work: Lateralus (2001)

Why he’s on the list: While Tool may have come of age in the `90s, their greatest influence wouldn’t be seen until the `00s, upon the release of the double-platinum-selling Lateralus. The progressive tendencies of the band were carried to their logical extreme with this album, which cemented their status as the Radiohead of prog-metal. Of course, lead singer and creative force Maynard James Keenan didn’t rest on his laurels during the band’s long hiatus leading up to 2006’s 10,000 Days; his formation of platinum-selling A Perfect Circle with guitarist Billy Howerdel early this decade gave us the rare side project that nearly lives up to its forebear.

Robert Kirkman/Tony Moore/Charlie Adlard


Defining work: The Walking Dead series (2003-2009)

Robert Kirkman’s critically-acclaimed Walking Dead series brought a level of sophistication to the zombie sub-genre rarely seen in comic books, with a plot as focused on its human characters as on the guts and decapitations. Tony Moore set the tone with his award-winning black-and-white artwork in the first six issues; Charlie Adlard took over after the sixth issue (although Moore continued to draw the covers through issue #24). Kirkman has translated the series’ success to the television format, with a planned AMC series executive-produced by Frank Darabont set to debut next year.

Michael Bay


Defining work: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (2003)

Why he’s on the list: Facts are facts, no matter how painful they may be. And the fact is, no one person was more responsible for the glut of horror movie remakes in the `00s than Michael Bay. They may not be works of art; they may even represent a cynical cash grab (duh). But there’s no denying that Bay is the instigator of the most pervasive trend in the horror genre over the last ten years (and the man most burned in effigy by fanboys). There’s certainly something to be said for that.

Mastodon


Defining work: Leviathan (2004)

Taking the world of metal (not to mention the music industry as a whole) by storm upon its release in 2004, Leviathan is considered by many the pinnacle of progressive metal band Mastodon’s oeuvre thus far. The heaviness and dark themes of the band’s previous work was combined with polished melodies on the Moby Dick-inspired concept album, the result of which was a work that defied easy description. With Blood Mountain and this year’s Crack the Skye, the band has followed through on their early promise and brought mainstream critical acceptance back to heavy metal.

Cormac McCarthy


Defining work: The Road (2007)

It may seem strange to include an author who has been releasing novels for over 40 years on a list of movers and shakers in the `00s, but Cormac Mccarthy’s 2007 The Road not only earned him the Pulitzer Prize, it became an Oprah Book Club selection and subsequently shot onto bestseller lists. Considering that the book tells an exceedingly dark tale, detailing a bleak post-apocalyptic world and horrific acts of cannibalism, these twin feats (not to mention that the novel was adapted into a major, awards-bait Hollywood film) are all the more impressive.

Stephanie Meyer


Defining work: The Twilight series (2005-2008)

Second only to the Harry Potter phenomenon this decade, Stephanie Meyer’s young-adult vampire series has sold over 85 million copies worldwide (and counting). While critics can gripe about the books’ literary merits and horror fans can bitch that the series shouldn’t be covered in the horror film press (this website included), the massive success and influence of the franchise on pop culture is undeniable. The copycats are rising up in droves (see shameless coattail-rider The Vampire Diaries), but none of them have a chance in hell of topping Meyers’ monolithic achievement.

Takashi Miike


Defining work: Audition (2000)

Why he’s on the list: Ever the prolific auteur, Miike has directed over 40 films since the beginning of the decade (that’s four films a year). The sadistic and unnerving Audition may have put him on the map in the States, but the films subsequent to it proved he wasn’t just a one-hit sensation. While he was often lumped in with the J-Horror trend, the controversial director has subsequently proven his worth as a stand-alone brand.

My Chemical Romance


Defining work: The Black Parade (2006)

Why they’re on the list: One of the musical acts most associated with the “emo” movement, My Chemical Romance also perfected what’s been termed the “neo-goth” aesthetic in their performance image. Sure, the band is radio-friendly “punk-lite” more than anything, their music only a shade removed from the likes of Fall Out Boy. But the pop hooks are utilized in service of dark lyrics dealing with somber issues like death, murder, loss and tragic love affairs. By the time concept album The Black Parade was released in 2006, lead singer Gerard Way had become a pinup boy for 13-year-old goth girls everywhere.

Steve Niles


Defining work: 30 Days of Night (2002)

Possibly more than any other comic book writer this decade, Steve Niles is responsible for bringing the horror genre back to prominence in the world of comics in the `00s. Gory vampire fable 30 Days of Night (co-created by artist Ben Templesmith) proved to be his breakout success, spawning a series of successful follow-ups and a well-received Hollywood film directed by David Slade. Other adaptations of Niles’ work on the horizon include 30 Days of Night direct-to-DVD sequel Dark Days, Wake the Dead with Jay Russell attached to direct, and Freaks of the Heartland helmed by David Gordon Green.

Oren Peli


Defining work: Paranormal Activity (2009)

Why he’s on the list: Much like The Blair Witch Project at the end of the last decade, Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity sent the message to Hollywood (again) that bigger doesn’t necessarily equal better. Some might say the kudos are premature, but consider this: an entire new division dedicated to nurturing films made for under $100,000 was created at Paramount due to his movie’s success. Not to mention that despite the inevitable backlash, Peli crafted a pretty good flick.

Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino


Defining work: Grindhouse (2007)

Why they’re on the list: You could try to separate these two filmmakers into their own individual mentions, but it wouldn’t make much sense considering that their Grindhouse collaboration represented the ultimate expression of their mutual obsessions. While the two films were quite different stylistically, the directors’ love of Z-budget exploitation filmmaking was of a piece. The double-feature flopped upon its release, but it’s subsequently become a midnight-show favorite at theaters across the country. Like its shoestring inspirations, the film has become a cult classic all its own. Separately, the two directors’ towering 21st century genre achievements came in the form of Kill Bill (Tarantino) and Sin City (Rodriguez).

Eli Roth


Defining work: Hostel (2006)

Why he’s on the list: While Saw reeled in audiences with its traps and mind games, Roth stripped the sub-genre labeled by the media as “torture-porn” to its bare essentials with Hostel. With that film and its follow-up, along with his earlier indie hit Cabin Fever, he showed a flair for tongue-in-cheek humor that was completely lost on his most adamant critics. Hordes of cheap imitators followed in his wake.

Slipknot


Defining work: Slipknot (1999)

Why they’re on the list: Following in the theatrical footsteps of groups like Kiss, Gwar, and Insane Clown Posse, Slipknot catered to the horror crowd by integrating horror movie-inspired masks into their image and stage show. Some saw it as a gimmick, but the band nevertheless managed to turn out four solid metal albums in the last ten years that proved to be both critical and commercial successes. At the same time, they provided further proof of the horror community’s buying power in the music business.

System of a Down


Defining work: Toxicity (2002)

Why they’re on the list: Amidst the barrage of weak, “nu-metal” acts like Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park and Staind that were unleashed upon the listening public in the late `90s and early `00s, System of a Down broke the mold with their brand of wildly unhinged, neo-gothic alt-metal. Following on the heels of their well-received self-titled debut, Toxicity proved to be their breakthrough album; lead singer Serj Tankian’s guttural growl sounded like a rallying cry in the wake of Fred Durst’s frat-boy whine. Twin album follow-ups Mezmerize and Hypnotize upped the insanity quotient even further and went on to become platinum-certified best-sellers.

Team Silent


Defining work: The Silent Hill series (1999-2009)

While they haven’t attained the mega-selling status of more action-packed video-game franchises such as Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead, the Silent Hill series introduced a unique psychological depth into the arena of horror-themed video games that hadn’t really been seen before. Team Silent, the staff responsible for the first four titles in the ongoing series, crafted a truly unnerving atmosphere that more than any game before or since approximated the feel of walking through a horror film.

Valve Corporation


Defining work: Half-Life 2 (2004)

It’s been a good decade for the folks over at Valve. In 2004 their highly-anticipated, long-in-the-making sequel Half-Life 2 sold millions of units and won many top awards in the video game industry. Following on the heels of this success, the co-op video game Left 4 Dead and its follow-up Left 4 Dead 2 have become hugely popular first-person shooters. This is due in part to the integration of the artificial intelligence component coined “The Director”, which gives vidders a truly cinematic experience during gameplay. The sales of the first entry were more than doubled by follow-up Left 4 Dead 2 last month, giving the developer another viable franchise.

Rob Zombie


Defining work: The Devil’s Rejects (2005)

Why he’s on the list: Few could have anticipated that House of 1,000 Corpses would be such an assured entry into directing for the monster-obsessed musician; fewer still could have predicted the mainstream critical respect he would garner with The Devil’s Rejects. His remake of Halloween was simultaneously loved and reviled by horror fans, but in a decade of watered-down, faceless PG-13 fare he at least had the audacity to follow through on his Southern-fried vision. In the process he revived horror’s punk-rock spirit.

James Wan/Leigh Wannell/Darren Lynn Bousman


Defining work: The Saw franchise (2004-2009)

Why they’re on the list: Produced for $1.2 million, Saw was a shot in the arm to lovers of gore everywhere upon its release in October of 2004. Masterminds James Wan and Leigh Wannell, more than anyone this decade, revitalized the horror genre and made it marketable again. For his part, Darren Lynn Bousman took the reins with aplomb and became a major creative force in the series as director of the first three sequels. Five years after its debut, the franchise has become the highest-grossing in horror history.

Edgar Wright


Defining work: Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Why he’s on the list: When it was released with little marketing in April of 2004, Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead was barely a blip on the pop cultural radar. That’s before it went on to become one of the most successful horror comedies of all time. He’s since inspired a slew of imitators, but compared to the razor-sharp wit of Shaun, they cut about as deep as butter knives (although some would argue Zombieland came close to matching it).

Advertisement
Click to comment

Editorials

‘The Fog’ 19 Years Later: There’s a Reason You Don’t Remember This John Carpenter Remake

Published

on

The Fog remake
Pictured: 'The Fog' (2005)

John Carpenter’s illustrious catalog of horror and non-horror classics has already seen three remakes (Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, and this column’s focus), with at least one more kinda-sorta confirmed on the way (Escape from New York). If you consider 2011’s The Thing enough of a remake, notch another on the bedpost. It makes sense; Carpenter turned his no-bullshit attitude into a masterful filmmaking style, and those listed titles harbor nostalgic admiration. We’re probably closer than we think to seeing Bryan Fuller’s Christine remake for Blumhouse or a contemporary They Live, while Dwayne Johnson’s Big Trouble in Little China sequel project fades away. Imagine Julia Ducournau’s Christine should Fuller exit, or what about if James Gunn booked a brief horror vacation away from the DCEU for his take on They Live?

Carpenter’s brand of down-and-dirty storytelling mixed with societal commentaries make his works perfect for generational updates, but they can’t all be winners.

Take 2005’s woefully tragic The Fog, for example.

Rupert Wainwright’s disastrously shallow remake lacks the finesse of even a crusty barnacle attached to the underbelly of Carpenter’s original. During a period of horror cinema inundated by remakes, The Fog asserts itself as one of the worst. The 2000s had a very “show, don’t tell” approach to horror filmmaking and leaned on grisly violence popularized by Saw, all exploited in their lowest forms throughout The Fog. Bless both Carpenter and the late Debra Hill for serving as producers, but Wainwright and writer Cooper Layne do their salty source shanty zero justice.


The Approach

‘The Fog’ (1980)

Carpenter’s The Fog is successful because of the auteur’s influence. Between his stronger emphasis on churchly greed, eerie musical score, and abilities as a simplistic yet impactful visionary, viewers get plenty of “bang for their buck” in 90 minutes. Wainwright doesn’t possess those qualities and relies on archaic horror templates without any investment. In an era where computer graphics were still advancing, and some producers only valued horror as gory inserts within a lax narrative, Wainwright’s direction equates to background noise. There’s nothing spectacular or signature about the filmmaker’s approach, as recyclable as the plethora of 2000s horror films plagued by the same churned-out doldrums.

Smallville heartthrob Tom Welling follows in the footsteps of fellow WB/CW stars like Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki to shepherd his own horror remake, playing Tom Atkins’ role of fisherman Nick Castle. He’s a descendant of Norman Castle, one of the founding fathers of Antonio Island, which is located off the Oregon coast. It’s been over 100 years since the island’s bustling Antonio Bay community was established, and to celebrate an upcoming anniversary, a statue is commissioned that displays its founders as a dedication to their contributions. Mayor Tom Malone (Kenneth Welsh) wants everything to be perfect, but little does he know Antonio Bay is about to have an undead problem to confront when a mysterious fog rolls in thick as sauna steam.

The bones of The Fog are all there, but both needlessly overcomplicated and disparagingly unkempt. Carpenter introduces his film with an eerie ghost story told around a campfire that becomes a grave truth for Antonio Bay — Layne’s remake screenplay does backflips to try and explain the unexplainable. Nick’s charter fishing vessel unleashes the curse when second-mate Spooner (DeRay Davis) rips open a burlap bag concealing curse items with the boat’s anchor because the film doesn’t trust audience comprehension past any viewer’s eyesight. One of the biggest scourges upon 2000s horror cinema was creators believing their audiences were as dumb as algae-covered rocks, causing them to spell the obvious out in even more blatant and less captivating methods.


Does It Work?

The Fog remake carpenter

‘The Fog’ (2005)

The adjustments Wainwright oversees in 2005’s remix are a bungle of what out-of-touch producers presumed horror fans wanted to see at the time. Carpenter’s quaint coastal atmosphere is eradicated by Spooner’s Girls Gone Wild behavior or the need to belabor flashbacks that lay out every grim detail about Captain Blake (Rade Šerbedžija) and his lepers. Antonio Island’s tainted history is still prevalent as a driving force behind the weather-based haunting, but where Carpenter leaves us to imagine the atrocities founding fathers committed, Wainwright and Layne lean on time jumps that detract from overall moods for cheap betrayal thrills. The remake retains less reflection, whereas Carpenter’s original better depicts a town reckoning with its horrifying heritage — an example of hollow vengeance versus frightening introspection.

Maggie Grace co-stars in Jamie Lee Curtis’ hitchhiker role, except she’s no longer affable nomad Elizabeth Solley; she’s Kathy Williams’ (Sara Botsford) daughter, Elizabeth Williams. Her ties to Antonio Bay are supposed to represent how we can’t escape our fates, fair enough. What’s unfortunate is Layne’s need to shoehorn relationship drama because she’s (apparently) the love of Nick’s life despite his handful of hookups with KAB radio DJ Stevie Wayne (Selma Blair) while Elizabeth fled her hometown for six months — a love triangle situation that adds no special sauce and is practically forgotten. Carpenter is fantastic when letting his characters exist without bogging their arcs with fifty reasons why they’re exactly where they are in any given scene. Wainwright is no mimic, nor does his film’s desire to tangle characters together as friends, lovers, or family members add further intrigue. If anything, it adversely tanks character development because there’s no resident we intimately care about.

Which brings us to the “fog” of it all. Carpenter’s maggot-ridden swashbucklers from the deep are memorable and creepy, while Wainwright pulls his haunted visuals from a grab-bag. Sometimes, they’re atrocious see-through animations made of mist — other times, indiscriminately human entities. One victim contracts leprosy as his punishment, another fried to ash upon touch, and yet another is dragged underwater by invisible hands — there’s zero continuity to Wainwright’s justifiably antagonistic forces. They become a Mad Libs gaggle of props fitting whatever scare-of-the-hour The Fog decides is necessary at that moment, none of which ever collaborate in unison. That includes Captain Blake’s parting climax, in which he abandons his group’s attack on Antonio Bay because he claims Elizabeth as his ghost wife after it’s clear she’s the spitting image of Blake’s 1870s lover [insert seventy thousand question marks].


The Result

The Fog remake tom welling

‘The Fog’ (2005)

The Fog remake is everything I despise about thoughtless horror outputs rolled into a briny clump of seaweed and misbegotten reinventions. It’s hardly scary, unable to let audiences invest in atmospheric spookiness, and so wildly incompetent. Each scene gets progressively worse, starting with the reveal of evil personal belongings stamped with identifiable “Hallmarks” that become pieces of a puzzle that never gets finished. Carpenter makes you feel the offshore breeze rolling in with his fog, sending chills up your spine as these scurvy-soaked scoundrels start stabbing and hooking Antonio Bay residents. Wainwright doesn’t ever grasp what his iteration of Blake’s demons should look like or how they should cause havoc, so he starts throwing basic horror visuals at the screen out of desperation.

Revolution Studios’ The Fog downgrade sinks thanks to primarily messy effects, hampered by the early millennium’s digital capabilities. That’s not exclusive to awful ghost illustrations that look like someone just decreased the “Transparency” slider in Photoshop. The fog, the TITULAR FOG, doesn’t even hold up to Demon Wind standards (in which the wind is essentially fog, roll with it). Wainwright and his team brainstorm ideas that sound rad on paper — an older woman gets barbecued, a ghost outline appears in fog like Imhotep’s sandstorm face, a younger woman is attacked by seaweed — but execution almost exclusively whiffs. The remake’s drunkard generalization of Father Malone (which is such a slap in the face to Hal Holbrook’s fantastic original performance) should meet an epic death when Captain Blake levitates glass shards as a containment circle, but three pieces fly through Malone’s body, and it’s over. That’s the level of SFX disappointment that festers throughout 2005’s The Fog, all buildup with no reward.

The film’s finale feels like a prank; the rest of the conflict’s resolution is lost at sea. Carpenter’s much heavier scolds against organized religion’s dirty dealings help give his film an identity down to the glimmering golden cross, while Wainwright goes as generic as they come and abandons ship when the well runs dry. Nothing justifies the kind of conceptual excitement that comes along with worthwhile remakes, whether that’s copycat role replications (I love Selma Blair, but her Stevie doesn’t match Adrienne Barbeau’s presence) or storytelling reductions that choose numbing violence over folkloric sensations of dread. We love a horror movie that’s critical of early America’s disgusting colonization tactics, but The Fog doesn’t know how to turn those frustrations into a compelling genre production. Whatever’s kept from the original holds no candle to Carpenter’s version, and whatever’s added — like Nick and Elizabeth’s awkward shower sex scene set to softcore porno music — brings nothing of value.


The Lesson

‘The Fog’ (2005)

Just because your remake starts with a banger like Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down Swinging” doesn’t mean the film itself is a banger. There’s no world where I’d recommend Wainwright’s The Fog over Carpenter’s titanically superior original, and I say that as a leading Aughts horror remake champion. It’s another Nu-Horror approach that strips away commentary crucial to the plot’s intrigue since all Layne musters is a non-creepy and waterlogged story that feels like an unwieldy CW episode — not meant as a compliment. Not even the chiseled beauty of an early 2000s Tom Welling in a wool turtleneck can save this travesty from becoming another forgotten wreck.

So what did we learn?

● Not all CW figureheads have a hit horror remake in their blood.

● Less is so often more when it comes to horror movies, as long as you’re selling scares and confidently telling a story within your means.

● Some movies from the 2000s horror era will always suffer thanks to dodgy digital effects because while it was the shiny new toy everyone wanted to play with, golly, the technology was rough to start.

● Horror fans can be easy to please, but they’re also first to call out your bullshit — get out of here with these ghosts and their inability to pick a lane.

Wainwright’s film never knows what kind of horror movie it wants to be, and that’s the kill shot. Is it a slasher flick? Zombie movie? A large-scale haunted house blueprint? There’s never any indication that Wainwright or his screenwriter conceptualize a path forward, so they barrel on, praying there’s enough horror familiarity to appease the masses. There isn’t, it’s a boneheaded slog, and that’s that. Horror fans deserve better than to be fed the equivalent of table scraps for 100 minutes. To each their own and all, but now that I’ve finally seen 2005’s The Fog, the only times I’ll think about this movie again will be if someone interacts with my Letterboxd post.

Continue Reading