Why horror fans gotta be such haters?

THE DEVIL INSIDE

PEOPLE BE HATIN'...

I'm gonna hold off on reading all this stuff if no other reason than so I can form my own opinion on the movie when I see it. This same thing happened to THE LAST EXORCISM when it came out, and I ended up really liking it (except for the ending which everyone agrees is incongruous and from another less intelligent movie).

What is kind of bothering me though is the consistent bashing of horror films that come out theatrically by horror fans on line as the films are released specifically for what ever success they may have. THE DEVIL INSIDE had a big opening weekend, so horror fans explode at everyone who went claiming they are somehow idiots (I've read that a bunch today), if a sequel or remake is successful then all remakes or sequels must suck. The monster movie CREATURE makes it into theater in a wide release with thousands of prints without the help of a major studio (you know like used to happen to indie movies years ago) and there is a backlash that used to only be for child molesters...

I'm not necessarily defending all these movies. I haven't seen THE DEVIL INSIDE or CREATURE. I want to see both of them. I meant to see CREATURE but didn't even know it was playing my town until the week after it was gone. My fault, not the distributor's. The complaints I hear about THE DEVIL INSIDE sound somewhat legit, a bad use of a tired cinematic trope with the found footage thing and an ending that should of been the beginning of the third act. Fair enough. But that doesn't explain why horror fans want to hate so much. It seems to me that no other fandom inspires so much direct and outright rage, directly at the filmmakers and films themselves. So many fans go into the film's or even the reading up and discovery about the films looking to RAGE about something. 

If you were super excited to see the particular movie, and it turned out to be really bad, I can understand being upset. Or if the movie starts out really great, but becomes a total mess and lets you down, I can even understand that. I get the remake thing, though I have calmed down about it considerably over the years, as many of the films have gotten better, and most of the originals have been gorgeously remastered for Blu ray and look BETTER now than they EVER did. But none of that seems to be the real problem. There is just an overriding sense of anger and disenfranchisement that hangs over the fandom that explodes in the cybersphere at the drop of a hat. 

You don't see these fans discussing what WORKS in a movie. Almost never. But you always see discussions of the things that were messed up, and should have been done better. About how this particular director has gone way past their useful date. 

It is a curious phenomenon, one that sometimes makes being a fan a little unpleasant. I sometimes can do it too,and am aware it it. But more often than not I want to be moved by a movie and look for that to happen. I go in to even the biggest piece of shit rooting for the movie to do its job, which is entertain me. Not make me walk away an angrier person.

© Andy Copp