Acquire, Hire or Fire: Horror.

​This feature is where we discuss a topic of film and decide which three movies from that specific topic fit into the categories of ‘acquire, hire or fire’. We will be getting guests to do their versions too. Guests may include readers, fellow writers or even stars of film. Today, it’s our Editor-in-Chief Adam Ray Palmer.
 
'Acquire' means a film you would buy, 'Hire' means you would rent it and 'Fire' of course means you wouldn’t give it the time of day.
 
Today’s theme is ‘Horror’.

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Hire:
My ‘hire’ film is for a specific reason. The Strangers is the first horror film that made me feel deeply uneasy. You see scary films with zombies and aliens but I just can’t get behind the ‘horror’ of them. The Strangers however, is extremely unnerving with how simple the plot is. A group of masked mentalists terrorise a household, simply because “they were in”. It’s that specific scene when that sentence is said where it makes you think this could easily happen to you. The Strangers has intelligent writing, great acting, cool deaths and more importantly; makes you wince in fear. 

Fire:
The ‘fire’ film was a toss-up between two shockers. One was The Happening starring Mark Wahlberg and the other was Piranha 3DD with The Hoff. And then, I sat back and thought about it. One of them actually tried to be a decent film, and Piranha 3DD is so bad I could cry that I lost 90 minutes of my life. This film is like a horror crossed with a porno, it literally has no idea what it is doing and the director must have had no script. It’s not scary, it’s not intelligent and the least said about The Hoff the better!

Acquire:
The horror film that is my ultimate is again for a specific reason. Saw is the first horror film that I thoroughly enjoyed for more than just a ‘scary thrill-seeking treat’. I could have picked any of the Saw films one to three but I had to go with the one that started it all. Saw isn’t a simple horror, it’s a lot more than that. It has the jumpy sequences, it has the gore, it has the over the top deaths but also a running ‘whodunit’ side plot. It’s that side plot that makes Saw my number one horror film. It’s one of the most astute horror films I have ever seen and will always be the movie that made me think differently about the genre.