Early September I saw Lights Out (couple of sweet moments…check it out). However the body count was low…2 cops (who were collateral damage and not related to the horror at hand and 1 proper killing from the horror-monster (well…and 1 suicide but again mainly collateral damage)).

All the new horrors (the James Wan horrors…Insidious’, Conjurings etc.) low body counts; that seems to be the latest horror trend. It’s like they make you invest in the characters or like the plot.

Think the last decent body counts were Screams. It wasn’t always like that plus I dunno how effectively that truly is.

Asked google about old school horror body counts and I learned:

“Jason Voorhees has killed approximately 146 people in just 12 films, that’s an average of 12.2 slaughters a film.
Michael Myers has killed approximately 94 people in 10 films, an average of 9.4 murders a film.
Freddy Krueger has killed approximately 35 people in 8 films, just an average of 4.4 massacre’s a film.”

I ain’t gonna count so I’ll just take what I read online at face value.

That Jason has licked off 146 people is crazy talk. I concede a valid point to the recent Wan night terrors movies…that’s 146 actors the Friday producers hadda hire…well “actors” in some cases (“Baby can you run in the woods topless?”). So low body count makes the modern horror movies cheaper as you’ve less actors to pay, cast…plus you save all that fake blood.

Economics aside though.

It was the body counts that added to the horror…like anybody and everybody could go out…nobody was safe. There was also the fun…after awhile you recognized the cues: “Hey baby let’s go out to the woods and smoke weed!” you start rubbing your hands together because you know that kid is next. You don’t know how Jason is gonna take him out you just know he’s next. Jason, Fred and Mike always delivered…their follow-through was consistent.

And considering how lazy we tend to get, how we coast…complain insteada create follow-through is pretty scary.

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Ziggy Was Here January 8, 1947 – January 10, 2016

Also published on Medium.