I was recently forwarded an article about the new wave of Brit flicks about to hit us; this time they’re going to be from the horror genre, in fact something of a Hammer Horror revival courtesy of us Brits is apparently gaining momentum and ready to bowl us off our feet in terror. As someone who’s had first hand experience of this supposed horror revival through working on a fellow filmmaker’s witch and vampire based feature film, I was naturally curious. Also, a few months ago on the BBC’s early morning news programme, I remember someone bragging about how they had purchased the Hammer Horror title and intended to fund various projects.
The UK Film Council are now ploughing money into British horror, attempting to emulate the success of Hammer Horror during the 60′s, which so widely influenced the US film scene. Neil Marshall, director of Dog Soldiers, mentions that the council weren’t interested in horror a few years back as, apparently, it was not part of British culture. But now it’s okay (partly because of the success of Dog Soldiers) and everyone’s doing it and it’s going to be huge and Britain is going to go horror mad blah blah. I can see a few things wrong with this.
For starters, the filmmakers I know personally have been producing horror for about six years odd now, they’ve sold/given away their films, but continue to carry on their noble effort, always chanting the motto, “you don’t need a name actor when horror is the star.” Neither are millionaires, both have full-time jobs and all the films are, well, not very good at all. But this motto has now been adopted by the UK Film Council; low budget, able to make its money back, good investment, and doable now we’ve changed our minds on what constitutes British culture. Oh crap. Look’s like we’re in for more crap.
We’re a very business-like nation us Brits, once even described as a nation of small shop keepers, could it be this attitude has migrated to the creative world? Making horror films for these practical reasons does not shout visionary, does not sound like the voices of story lovers with something to say, and certainly is not the fanfare of original and inspiring work. The article also states the UK Film Council’s reasoning of what is and what isn’t British culture. I’m wondering who told those guys that films should be about our culture!? Films are stories, maybe they’re wrapped in cultural specifics, but at heart if they’re any good they’ll hold a universal archetypal story. I can imagine the council throwing away great stories because they’re not British culture set, I can imagine them wanting films with tea bags and cricket and that oh so British cultural trait, ethnic minorities. In short what so many UK filmmakers complain about, the philistines in Hollywood not showing an interest in their projects, is what the UK Film Council have become, not accepting good material because it doesn’t fit in with their manifesto. The irony here is that Hollywood isn’t run by philistines, but by people who recognise great stories, and you didn’t get yours sold because your story sucked! Sure, they’re not all great and yes, they are aimed at specific markets, but that’s another rant. Now maybe they don’t get many good project ideas here in the UK, maybe there are few scripts worth producing, but is going for a guaranteed investment taking into account minimal project expenditure and looking for a way to bypass the hard work of writing a good story ever going to advance the medium of film?! I doubt it. Why do you think an American sold the Hammer Horror name, damn sure if it was worth anything the UK Film Council wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
So, in conclusion, the new digital cinema systems being implemented in the UK, along with cheap horror films with no story, along with snobs that know little about the value of story governing UK film, makes it look like staying in and watching Sky is going to be your best option for a while. Add to that the market specific nerd dominated American studios efforts and the world has another crisis on its hand, a distinct lack of good story. And as a great writer once wrote (I forget his name): if story declines, then civilisation’s centre cannot hold
. It certainly seems like it’s been shuddering recently.
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