Paper, or Burlap?

The Halloween costume-manufacturing sector has got to be upset. It seems that Hollywood is changing the face of terror. It seems all you need to do to be scary nowadays is cut a couple holes in a bag or a sack and stick it on your head.

El Orfanato, considered by many to be the scariest movie of 2007 featured the ghost of a child who walked around with a burlap sack on his head. Now, two movies are continuing the concept. Baghead is about some filmmakers who decide to create a horror movie based on a guy with a sack over his head—when things start to go wrong. The Strangers is about a couple that is attacked by three masked strangers in their remotely located house.

There is something unsettling about a guy with a sack on his head. The idea is, you just imagine that you suddenly discover a guy with a sack over his head looking in your window. Whoa, creepy, huh? Actually, the creepy thing is the idea of some guy looking in your window. That is the current trend that is truly scary in movies: the idea of total random violence and murder. Funny Games from last year (itself a remake from the same director), or even a classic like Hitchcock’s Rope. The idea that someone would kill just to kill is really disturbing. And the worst part is that it happens. Germany has struggled recently with a spat of young people attacking the elderly, apparently all for kicks.