My 2 Cents... Based on a True Story

I automatically have a reaction whenever I see these 5 words fade onto the screen.

Based on a true story? What part? Better yet, what story?

Consider the actual story of Ed Gein. Kinda hard to believe that Hitchcock's Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre were both based on this same true story!

In too many cases, BOATS movies usually take a tee-niney portion of the actual incident, and manage to blow it up into a rendition that in no shape or form represents its origin.

Still, whenever this phrase comes onscreen, whether at the beginning of the movie, at the end of the movie, or somewhere in an article featuring the writer/director/actor, I have to use a very large five-pound bag of salt in order to believe them, much less swallow their claim.

I've found it's a lot easier to think the story was plucked from thin air and elaborated on. Otherwise I lose a great opportunity to enjoy the movie because I'm wracking my feeble brain trying to figure out where the idea for it came from.

My 2 Cents... For What It's Worth

For What It's Worth regarding the state of horror movies today...

The slasher flick really hasn't changed that much since the 70s when Friday, the Thirteenth and Halloween took the genre and turned it on its ear. In fact, slashers are pretty much formulaic.

* Slasher originally "died" or went into hiding, and came back.
* Add group of high school/college kids/young adults
* Put kids in abandoned building/countryside/cave/choose isolated location.
* Add a dash of sex,
* And slasher begins to off the kids one at a time.
* Hero and heroine are the only survivors...barely.
* They manage to get rid of/kill the slasher.
* End of movie...maybe.

We've seen a resurgence of zombies and vampires with new and exciting results. Just look at the "rabid" zombies of 28 Days Later, or the vamps in Let the Right One In or 30 Days of Night.

My question is this: when is the slasher genre going to get a reawakening like the others have?