A Beginners' Guide to Horror as Written by a Beginner

Image via Villains Wiki

Well, it's Halloween. You know what that means: time for people to pretend they care about horror movies for one month!

And it's really a shame that this obsession will go on for only a month: Horror movies do not get all of the respect they deserve (I blame found footage). Sure, horror is starting to get attention on TV ("The Walking Dead," "Hannibal," "Bates Motel," fifty new witch shows all premiering on Lifetime), but cinema is really where the genre began, and where it is at its best.

Unfortunately, horror has been one of my pop culture blind spots for years. I have been lucky enough to take a class about the genre and explore it more on my own and have a newfound appreciation for it. Maybe it's my fault for thinking that "Saw V" represented every horror movie ever.

What I am trying to say is that I am a relatively new horror fan. Unfortunately, I cannot dig up any obscure examples to show how savvy I am, as I've only seen one movie made by George A. Romero. However, I can be your Introductory Horror Spirit Guide, and lay out the basics. In my opinion, these are ten essential horror movies to kick off your love of horror movies with. Let me remind you that you can watch horror movies after Halloween ends:

The Reel Deal Goes to Cannes Update #8: Don't Go Back in the Water

Film festivals are a great place to catch films both new and old. Even if you've seen a film a million times before, a new setting can make a world of difference.

Last night, in perhaps one of the most perfectly planned events I have ever been to, "Jaws" was screened on the beach. If "Jaws" wasn't scary enough already, the beach element really helped. It made the horror of the man-eating shark much more intimate, and way too plausible for comfort. Spielberg's film has not aged a day since its release, and in fact gets better with each passing year. Despite its status as a classic,  a film like "Jaws" would have trouble getting made today. Unlike today's usual horror films, it is filled with long stretches of no action. Yet, the long stretches create more buildup and more suspense, which is why "Jaws" is still one of the scariest films ever made.

The audience also partly made this experience so special. Multiple moments garnered thunderous applause, including the moment when (SPOILER!) Quint (Robert Shaw) is eaten by the shark. Is that because everyone wanted him to go, or because it is such a memorable moment? I think it is much more of the latter. The reason a good theatrical experience can triumph any other way to watch a film is because audience participation means so much. It guides your expectations, and the laughter, cries, or applause act almost as a second soundtrack.

A memorable moment from the "Jaws" screening was meeting Benh Zeitlan, the very young director of the much buzzed about "Beasts of the Southern Wild." Clearly, he is not fully adjusted to fame and being recognized yet, as he was kind and even a little reserved. He told us that "Jaws" is his muse, and this screening was beyond  a special experience for him. Here lies the beauty of a great film festival: it is the intersection of films old, new, and future. It is a film convention, showroom, and marketplace. And Cannes is its king.

After the Jump: Jacques Audiard's "Rust & Bone," and Marion Cotillard's possible next chance of winning an Oscar.

How to Deal with Losing: Steven Spielberg

After this past Sunday's ceremony ended, I promised everyone I was done with the Oscars for at least the next few months. But as they say in just about every action movie ever made: "just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in." What I have today is a great clip I was sent this morning of Steven Spielberg reacting to the Oscar nominations in 1976. In the previous year, "Jaws" took audiences by storm. In this clip, Spielberg is none too pleased to find out that despite a Best Picture nomination for "Jaws", the Academy failed to recognize his directing.

Spielberg blames his snub on commercial backlash. That is a possibility, as most of the nominations in the past few years have been for lower grossing movies. But then again, no one is going to nominate "Transformers" or "Breaking Dawn" for Best Picture. I am guessing the real case is that Spielberg just missed the shortlist, given that the nominated directors were Milos Forman, Sidney Lumet, Stanley Kubrick, Robertrt Altman, and Federico Fellini. That's a hard group to compete with.

Anyway, this is a great video to give you some insight on what filmmakers think of the Oscars. It will also give you a hint of what the 1970s was like. Its an especially different Spielberg than we were used to, a man who was fighting the system before he ultimately became it.

Watch the video after the jump: