Come on...where's the real truth for contemporary horror
John Carpenter said it perfectly mid-way through in that we give directors like Craven (for Last House on the Left) too much credit in that LHOTL was social commentary. Like Eli Roth's criminally over rated Hostel, these are not great social comments on America.
LHOTL is an excellent film, but it is an excellent exploitation film...and a film that can only be a product of its time - i.e. US cinema became more independent following the mid-60s boom, of which European cinema had been for many years. Before that, it had been controlled implicitly by a studio system. The horror genre will always thrive through independence.
With Hostel, it is again a product of its time (okay it has trite, spoon feeding themes in it, but still...). It is a reaction to how desentisised we are with the genre, a marketable push again by Hollywood studios to cash in on real issues - it's painful really.
Another point made here was that the barrage of updates/remakes of 70s horror that has become more gory and violent due to violent world events.....don't give me that, it is purely we are used to dumbed down violence, not just from news reports but by the need to shock and go one step further with what has previously been made (can you imagine a remake of TCM with no blood in it, like the original - the studios wouldn't take the risk). The US studio system would remake anything if they could. If the point was that these remakes reflected social ills, why is it that the slew of Eastern horror, mainly from Korea and Japan are tame versions of their original sources, and not bloody, shocking versions. Again, it is a studio ploy, nothing more, nothing less.
I think the real depth to US contemporary horror was missed here again with this doc. We've heard the same trite academic stances before, over and over, with no counter argument.
And that is why another poster on this board makes a good point that 70's US exploitation cinema is just as important, as it existed outside of the studio systems, away from franchises, pushing boundaries and normal expectations, much in the way that there is a wealth of amazing European exploitation films (Italy, Germany and Spain being obvious, but many more beside).
All this doc shows is the marketable historic arc of the horror film....and for that motivation, misses the point entirely.
"Gran'pa was always tha best...."