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《招魂》(The Conjuring)在今夏意外大热 The Remakening: What Scares Us Now-第1页

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The Conjuring,' a surprise hit this summer, is an old-fashioned demon-in-the-house story, almost charming compared with the grisly torture films of the recent past. There is a terrifying antique doll, hovering ghost-hands that clap, and self-slamming doors, but nary a meat hook in sight, or even much blood. Its R-rating is just for being scary.

Which isn't to say movie gore is dead. In this year's 'Evil Dead,' a remake of the 1981 cabin-in-the-woods film, one woman bisects her tongue with a blade, another saws off her arm with an electric carving knife.

Somewhere in between on the carnage meter is the just-released 'Carrie,' director Kimberly Peirce's remake of the 1976 Brian De Palma classic, adapted from the Stephen King novel. This year also brought 'Mama,' about two little girls raised in an isolated cabin by a malevolent mommy-ghoul. 'The Purge' and 'You're Next' slyly take on home-invasion attacks. 'Insidious: Chapter 2' continues the disturbing tale of a family that can't shake unexplained household horrors no matter where they move.

Almost any way you slice it, horror is surging. On television, AMC's 'The Walking Dead' broke several records when it premiered to 16.1 million viewers in its fourth season this fall. FX's 'American Horror Story' continues to build.

Low-budget movies and their sequels which used to look cheesy are now more realistic -- and profitable. In a year when big-budget films have crashed noisily, 'The Conjuring' was made for only $20 million and grossed more than $300 million world-wide. 'Insidious: Chapter 2,' made for about $5 million, has grossed $81 million in North America. It had more ticket revenue than any other movie in September.

Horror films so far this year have taken in $495.7 million at the box office, 52% more than at the same point last year. That comes after 2012 was 21% higher than 2011, according to media measurement firm Rentrak.

Amid the remakes and revivals, horror filmmakers are confronted with a question: What's scary now? After years of films exploring dismemberment, torture, and human centipedes, what can still shock audiences? Horror is about fear of the unknown, and audiences have learned the language of horror cinema almost too well. We know what's coming when city folk arrive in a backwoods town. We've seen the fleeting shadows on walls, the ghastly face that flashes in the medicine-cabinet mirror and all the other shockers punctuated by screeching bursts of sound, known as 'jump scares' -- like the hand that reaches from the grave in the original 'Carrie.' The audience jumps.

'It's like a bad joke that's been around too long. You don't want to be the one to tell it,' says Wes Craven, the director-writer behind the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' series among others. 'Like the guy who goes to a dark door, and then turns his back to it and calls out somebody's name. And you wait three seconds, and you know the jump is coming through the door. You can't do that. But you can do that if you don't have the jump at the door, and they go into another room and sit down, and the chair falls through the floor into hell.'

Filmmakers agree that what makes movies like 'The Conjuring,' 'Insidious' and 'Carrie' frightening aren't the jumps or gross-outs. It's our attachment to the characters, our vicarious fear of what's happening to them.

'I mean, look, hanging people from meat hooks is scary,' says Ms. Peirce, the 'Carrie' director. 'The problem is you're gonna run out of road after a while. You can go to excess gore and a level of pornography with violence, or you can make the characters people that the audience care about.' Stephen King has said: 'Love creates horror.'

Scaring is caring. That comes down to old-fashioned storytelling, making characters sympathetic and real. Audiences want to relate to them. But the audience, too, has changed: It's more female.

'The audience that drives these movies is women under 25,' says Jason Blum, whose production company Blumhouse has thrived on micro-budget horror with the 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Insidious' movies. 'I'm not talking about 'Twilight.' I'm talking about 'The Conjuring' or 'Insidious' -- really scary movies.'

The new 'Carrie' brings its story into the video era. The mean girls who taunt Carrie White in the locker room record her humiliation with camera phones and upload it to the Web. The 'Evil Dead' remake adds a contemporary twist too. Rather than arriving at the isolated cabin to party, a group of young adults assemble to help their friend Mia kick a heroin addiction. Of course, they inadvertently summon demons, but here their friend's nightmarish behavior and visions are chalked up to the DTs.

It isn't that today's horror films have abandonedclassic scares. Filmmakers have needed to raise their game in almost every sense to sell the scares to a more experiencedhorror audience. Compared with the classic slasher flicks of the 1980s, today's horror films have subtler scripts, less campy acting, better cinematography, and more intense sound. Low-budget movies don't need to look so low-budget anymore, unless they do it on purpose, presenting their tales as amateur footage that makes us feel as if the victims experiencing paranormal terrors could be us. Gory effects have advanced. Even low-budget actors these days are gorgeous.

In the original 'The Evil Dead,' which Sam Raimi wrote and directed at age 21, dopey teenagers recite corny lines, then get killed. The remake, gory as ever, features more refined dialogue. 'I know I look like roadkill,' Mia jokes when her brother arrives. 'No, you look beautiful, as always,' he says. 'And you're a charming liar, as always,' Mia says.

Moviemakers have mastered the art of making the mundane terrifying, using little details to make situations feel natural before they get supernatural. 'Insidious' finds fright in a baby monitor, which can be an implement of torment for parents even when working properly. It becomes especially unsettling when it transmits a whispering demonic voice.

In 'The Conjuring,' Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston move their family into a new house on a sunny day. The peppy Zombies song 'Time of the Season' plays as they haul boxes and joke around. It's fun.

Soon, the daughters play a hide-and-seek game and accidentally dislodge a wall panel inside a closet, and the dad gripes: 'Alright, what did we break now?!' He sees that behind the wall is a hiddenstaircase to a cellar, lights a match and heads down for a look. There is nothing really new here, but we're sure wishing he didn't do that.

James Wan, the film's director, who also started the 'Saw' franchise in 2004, says: 'I take something familiar, and I take it up a notch, and supernatural forces start to intervene and I play with them.'

Even Eli Roth, who directed 'Hostel' and is known for so-calledtorture porn, says it isn't about the gore. 'If you just repel people with violence, people are gonna go 'what's the point?'' he says. 'But if you can engage them in a story that gets their blood pumping and gets them screaming, that's the goal. The horror movies that really catch fire tap into a fear that everyone is feeling but no one is articulating.'

Horror films have striven to feel disturbingly real for decades. Many, from 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974) to 'The Conjuring,' have been 'based on a true story.' Low-budget filming techniques -- hand-held cameras and documentary styles -- came along to make scenes feel truer and more unsettling. Mr. Craven had worked on documentaries but never a feature film before making the brutal 'The Last House on the Left.'

It's no wonder horror movie cliches have created a fertile market for parody. The 'Scary Movie' franchise, whose fifth installment premiered in April, has grossed an astonishing $896 million world-wide. 'Hellbenders,' released last week, takes a whack at exorcism movies.

Well-worn horror tropes also have provided a laundry list of gimmicks filmmakers need to work around -- or use to misdirect audiences anew.

'It's just a catalog in your mind of things you've seen and maybe have been so successful that they've been imitated time and time again, each time by somebody on a lower budget and with less talent,' says Mr. Craven, who made 'Scream' in 1986.

What's scary now? How about real life? Zombie dramas like 'World War Z' and 'The Walking Dead' play to multiple modern fears: escalating global violence, disease outbreak, our fears of losing our own minds as we age. 'World War Z,' whose giant budget was a glaring exception, is the top-grossing horror movie in the U.S. of the past 30 years, according to IMDb. 'The Purge' flicks at fears about our safety in an age of unexpected real-life terror.

Mr. Roth's first film, 'Cabin Fever' (2002), had young folks at a rural cabin succumbing to a flesh-eating disease rather than demons. His 'Hostel' was about obnoxious Americans who tour Europe seeking women to exploit but end up having their own bodies sold into a torture-for-sport ring. Mr. Roth's forthcoming film, 'The Green Inferno,' is about trendy eco-activists who travel to Peru to save a dying tribe but end up as victims of cannibals. Turns out the natives were just hungry. ('The irony is, I love to travel,' Mr. Roth says about his films.)

'It goes back to Grimm's fairy tales, about children's fears of the world,' Mr. Roth says. 'I think horror movies are fairy tales for adults. You can't sit there at your job and scream. You have to put on a brave face and carry on. But in a movie theater, for the next two hours, you are allowed to be terrified.'

影

片《招魂》(The Conjuring)在今夏意外大热，它讲述的是一个古宅闹鬼的老式故事。与近期的虐待题材恐怖影片相比，它几乎算得上招人喜爱。它囊括了让人毛骨悚然的古董玩偶，发出拍手声的徘徊不去的幽灵之手，自己砰砰关上的房门等元素，但完全看不到钩人的肉钩，场景也不是非常地血淋淋。它被评为R级只是为了听上去吓人吧。

 

Everett Collection

图片：美国经典恐怖片

这并不是说血腥的场面已经消亡。在今年上映的《鬼玩人》(Evil Dead)中，一名女子用刀片把自己的舌头一切为二，另一名则用电动切肉刀把自己的胳膊锯了下来。该片翻拍自1981年一部讲述发生在林中木屋的恐怖故事的同名影片。

 

恐怖程度居中的是刚刚上映的由金伯利·皮尔斯(Kimberly Peirce)执导的《魔女嘉莉》(Carrie)，它翻拍自从斯蒂芬·金(Stephen King)的小说改编而来、布赖恩·德帕尔马(Brian De Palma)1976年的经典影片。今年上映的恐怖片还包括《妈妈》(Mama)，它讲述了两个小女孩在一座与世隔绝的小木屋中与一个邪恶的鬼妈妈共同生活的故事。《人类清除计划》(The Purge)与《你是下一个》(You're Next)悄悄上演了民宅遭入侵的故事。《潜伏II》(Insidious: Chapter 2)则延续了上一部的恐怖故事：这一家人无论搬到何处也无法摆脱灵异的家宅恐怖事件。

 

FilmDistrict

《潜伏2》（2013年）讲述了一个老宅闹鬼，邪灵附身且事件更加灵异的故事。它发生在一个如你我的家庭一样的幸福家庭中。

基本上无论你从哪个方面来看，恐怖片都在兴起。电视剧方面，AMC电视台的《行尸走肉》(The Walking Dead)第四季在秋季首播时吸引了1,610万观众，打破了好几项记录。FX的《美国恐怖故事》(American Horror Story)也在继续积聚人气。

 

在过去，低成本恐怖影片及它们的续集看上去比较蹩脚，现在它们则更逼真更赚钱了。在大制作影片纷纷败落的这一年，制作成本仅2,000万美元的《招魂》在全球揽获了逾三亿美元票房。《潜伏II》的制作成本约为500万美元，但它在北美的票房高达8,100万美元，而且它在9月份更是雄踞票房榜首。

 

今年以来恐怖片共吸金4.957亿美元，较去年同期高出了52%。据媒体市场调研公司Rentrak的数据显示，2012年的恐怖片票房又比2011年高出21%。

 

Illustration by Tim Gabor

图中为克洛艾·格蕾丝·莫瑞兹(Chloe Grace Moretz)饰演的片名角色嘉莉，她的两旁分别为《招魂》中的古董玩偶安娜贝勒(Annabelle，图左)和简·利维(Jane Levy)在《鬼玩人》中饰演的米娅。

在这股恐怖片翻拍风潮中，恐怖片导演们面临着一个问题：现在什么算得上恐怖？多年来，肢解、虐待以及人体蜈蚣等桥段不断被尝试，还有什么能惊吓到观众？恐怖在于对未知的恐惧，而如今的观众太了解恐怖电影的表达方式了。我们知道城市居民在到达一个偏僻小镇后会发生什么，看多了影子从 面迅速掠过、药柜的镜子中闪现恐怖面容的桥段，以及被突然爆发的尖叫声烘托的更强烈、称为"突然惊吓"的其他恐怖元素，比如原版《魔女嘉莉》中那只突然从坟墓中伸出的手。观众们会被它吓得一跳。

 

《猛鬼街》(Nightmare on Elm Street)系列等影片的导演兼编剧韦斯·克雷文(Wes Craven)说："就像一个被讲得太多的冷笑话，你不希望自己成为讲这个笑话的人。比如一个人走向一扇阴暗的门，然后背对这扇门叫某人的名字，这时观众知道等上三秒钟，突然的惊吓会从门这里出现。你不能这样拍。不过如果你没有在门这里安排突然惊吓，你就可以这么拍，接下去安排他们走进另一个房间中坐下，然后椅子突然透过地板陷入了地狱中。"

 

电影导演们认同，让《招魂》、《潜伏》和《魔女嘉莉》这些影片恐怖的并非突然惊吓或令人作呕的场景，而是我们对角色的喜爱，对他们的遭遇那种感同身受的恐惧。

 

Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection

《灵动：鬼影实录》（2009年）。在这部基本用非专业器材拍摄的DV影片中，几乎没有发生任何恐怖的事情，正是这种"几乎"显得恐怖。

《魔女嘉莉》的导演皮尔斯说："我的意思是，你看，用挂肉钩钩人确实恐怖，问题是一段时间后你就会无计可施。你可运用极端血腥和某种程度的暴力色情，或者可将角色塑造成观众关心的人。"斯蒂芬·金曾说过："爱带来恐惧。"

 

令人恐惧也就让人担心。这可归结为传统的讲故事方式，让人物招人喜爱且真实。观众希望与他们心意相通，不过现在的观众群也发生了变化：其中更多的是女性。

 

影视制作公司Blumhouse的贾森·布卢姆(Jason Blum)说："推动此类影片发展的观众是年龄在25岁以下的女性，我所说的不是像《暮光之城》(Twilight)那样的片子，而是《招魂》或《潜伏》之类的影片──真正恐怖的影片。"Blumhouse凭借《灵动：鬼影实录》(Paranormal Activity)和《潜伏》等超低成本影片发展起来。

 

Everett Collection

《驱魔人》（The Exorcist，1973年）。对导演威廉·弗里德金(William Friedkin)而言，它讲述的是善良战胜邪恶的故事。对大多数人而言，恐怖的是小女孩说话时发出的是恶灵的声音。

新版《魔女嘉莉》将故事背景放在了视频时代。一群恶毒的女孩在更衣室中嘲弄嘉莉·怀特(Carrie White)，用拍照手机将她受辱的情景拍了下来并把它传至网络。《鬼玩人》的翻拍版也增加了现代元素，片中的那群年轻人去到那个与世隔绝的木屋不是为了开派对，而是聚在一起帮助他们的朋友米娅(Mia)戒除海洛因瘾。当然，他们也都在无意中招来了邪灵，但是此片中他们朋友的可怕行为与幻觉被归因为震颤性谵妄。

 

这并不意味着当今的恐怖电影抛弃了经典恐怖桥段。现在的导演需提高他们在几乎各个方面的竞争力，以使恐怖桥段能让更老练的恐怖片观众买账。与上世纪80年代典型的血淋淋的画面相比，当今恐怖片的台词更精妙，表演更自然，摄影技术也提高了，音效也更震撼。低成本电影不一定看上去就是制作低廉的，除非他们是有意那么做，以非专业录像的方式来呈现故事，让我们感觉经历那些超常恐惧的受害者仿佛就是我们自己。影片恐怖效果已经提升，现在即使是低片酬的小演员也非常棒。

 

Everett Collection

《得州电锯杀人狂》（1974年）。影片风格凶残而令人恶心，它给观众带来了更温和的恐怖片所没有的发泄感。

在山姆·雷米(Sam Raimi)于21岁编剧和导演的原版《鬼玩人》中，那群呆头呆脑的年轻人满嘴了无新意的台词，后来他们都为邪灵所害。依旧血腥的翻拍版的台词则更为文雅，比如米娅在她的哥哥到来时开玩笑说道："我知道我看上去惨不忍睹。"她的哥哥则回答："不会，你看起来很美，一如既往地美。"米娅回道："你是个迷人的骗子，一如既往地迷人。"

 

导演们掌握了将日常事物变得恐怖的技巧，在它们变得诡异之前，先利用小小的细节使它们让人感觉自然。《潜伏》在婴儿监控器中找到了恐怖点，它在正常运作时对家长来说也是一个折磨人的东西，发出低沉的魔鬼般的声音时更是让人觉得特别恐怖。

 

在《招魂》中，莉莉·泰勒(Lili Taylor)与罗恩·利文斯顿(Ron Livingston)在一个阳光明媚的日子里把家搬到了一所新房子中。在他们搬运箱子、打闹逗乐的过程中，配乐是僵尸合唱团(The Zombies)欢快的歌曲《爱的季节》(Time of the Season)，气氛非常欢乐。

 

Universal Pictures

《妈妈》（2013年）。怪异的孩子一直是恐怖片的常见题材，由一个恶灵养育的凶残的孩子则更进了一步。

很快，他们的女儿们玩起了捉迷藏的游戏，并无意移动了一个壁橱中的一块 板。他们的父亲抱怨道："好吧，这次弄坏了什么东西？！"他发现 后有一段通往地下室的隐秘楼梯，于是点燃一根火柴下去一探究竟。这个桥段实际上没有任何新意，但是我们肯定都希望他要是没那么做就好了。

 

该片导演温子仁(James Wan)说："我运用了大家熟悉的东西，然后对它做了进一步发挥，接下来超自然力量开始介入，我又开始运用它。" 温子仁也是《电锯惊魂》(Saw)系列第一部（2004年）的导演。

 

《人皮客栈》(Hostel)的导演、因所谓的虐待色情片知名的伊莱·罗思(Eli Roth)指出，恐怖片不只是与血腥有关。他说："如果你只是用暴力来让大家心生恐惧，他们会想'这有什么意思？'如果你能让他们参与到一个让他们血液沸腾、大声尖叫的故事中去，这就达到了目的。真正引发强烈情感的恐怖片会发掘每个人都感觉到但没人说出来的恐惧。"

 

Paramount Pictures

《僵尸世界大战》（2013年）。它利用了人们对失控世界的恐惧，这部僵尸题材片成为美国30年来票房最高的恐怖片。

过去数十年来，恐怖片一直力图带来让人恐慌的真实感。从1974年的《得州电锯杀人狂》(The Texas Chain Saw Massacre)到《招魂》，许多电影都"根据真实故事改编"。此外，低成本的拍片技巧──使用手持摄像机及采用纪录片风格──也使影片场景更有真实感、更让人恐慌。在拍摄场面凶残的《魔屋》(The Last House on the Left)之前，克雷文一直拍摄纪录片，从未拍过剧情片。

 

恐怖片的老一套为仿作提供了利润丰厚的市场是不足为奇的。《惊声尖笑》(Scary Movie)系列影片令人惊讶地在全球收获了8.96亿美元票房，它的第五部也在今年4月上映。刚于10月上映的《鲵鱼》(Hellbenders)则尝试了驱魔题材。

 

已经被用滥的恐怖手法也提供了一长串电影导演需绕开──或者用来重新误导观众──的招数。

 

Universal Pictures

《人类清除计划》（2013年）。它是一部伦理道德剧，讲述了美国的富人与穷人之间的故事以及我们对各自的恐惧。

曾在1986年执导《惊声尖叫》(Scream)的克雷文说："它只是你脑海中一系列你见过的东西，它们可能一直都非常受欢迎，不断地被人模仿，每一次被采用更低成本和才华更低的人模仿。"

 

那么，现在什么才算恐怖？现实生活算不算恐怖？《僵尸世界大战》(World War Z)和《行尸走肉》等僵尸题材影视剧运用了多种现代人的恐惧：逐渐升级的全球暴力、疾病的爆发以及我们对自己变老时意识不清的恐惧。IMDb的数据显示，《僵尸世界大战》是美国过去30年间票房最高的恐怖片，例外的是它是一部惹人注目的大制作恐怖片。《人类清除计划》则触及了在一个现实恐怖事件会突然爆发的时代，我们对自身安全的忧虑。

 

在罗思的首部影片《尸骨无存》(Cabin Fever，2002年)中，一群来到一处乡间木屋的年轻人染上了一种会让人通身腐烂的怪病，并未受到恶灵的挟制。他的《人皮客栈》讲述了几名令人讨厌的美国人游历欧洲，企图猎艳却最终被卖到一个以折磨虐待人取乐的场所的故事。他即将上映的影片《绿色地狱》(The Green Inferno)讲述的是一群时尚的环保活动人士去往秘鲁拯救一个濒临灭绝的部落，最终却受到食人族攻击的故事，结果是那些土著只是太饿了。（罗思在谈及其影片时说："讽刺的事情是我喜欢旅行。"）

 

他说："恐怖片可以追溯至格林(Grimm)童话，它讲述的是儿童对世界的恐惧。我认为恐怖片则是成人的童话。你无法在端坐着工作的时候尖叫，你得装出勇敢的样子并要继续下去。但是，当你坐在电影院中，在接下去的两个小时中你可以无拘无束地表达恐惧。"


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