robin2099

Why are these such a hard sell nowadays? Is it because audiences expect and want more "depth"? Is it because attention spans are shorter? Is it because movies are being made more on the marketing concept than the story concept?

Some of the best movies were simple concepts:

Jaws: A killer shark attacks swimmers.

Halloween: A masked killer murders people on Halloween.

Predator: An alien hunter hunts soldiers in a jungle.

Alien: A deadly alien ends up on a cargo shuttle.

A Nightmare on Elm St: Deceased child murderer Freddy Krueger is burned alive and kills the kids on Elm St in their dreams.

Now a days we get:

The Meg:


Halloween:



Predator:


Alien:


A Nightmare on Elm St:


Sure some simple concept movies sneak through(47 Meters down, The Shallows) and yet it seems like Hollywood doesnt want to make them by and large anymore, instead choosing to be "epic." So what is so hard about making them today?

E Unit

It's easier to replicate an original than to come up with something original.

Groucho

I feel like you're being a bit unfair because you're comparing the "tag line" of the original movies with the full plots of the remakes / sequels. For example The Meg is being advertised as "Jaws with a Giant Shark" and none of the other plot bits you mention are part of the marketing push.

That said, there have been several original simple concept movies that have been popular in recent years: The Purge, Get Out, The Quiet Place...even last year's best picture winner The Shape of Water. Etc.

Goat3001

I guess when you're doing a remake (and some being remade for seemingly the 10th time), you need to expand the story so it doesn't seem so redundant.

Paff

I'd argue that movie concepts that seem simple usually have more going on, and that's why those movies become classics. Halloween was cited as a "masked killer on Halloween", but I think there's a lot more going on. Specifically, it takes place in the suburbs, a location not used often in horror up to that point. In almost every previous horror movie, it was the spooky castle, the haunted house, the graveyard, the woods, whatever. You could sort of blame the protagonists for going where they don't belong. But Halloween brought it home. Hell, it's in the tagline of the movie.

Now, in many of the examples cited in the first post, the commonality is a detailed backstory. A why. I agree with some of this to an extent, and I gotta at least partially blame George Lucas and his prequel trilogy. Seriously. The original trilogy of Star Wars, we didn't know why Darth Vader was such a mean MFer, and there was some mystery. He was a Jedi who fell to the Dark Side. Don't know how, or why, and it didn't matter. But then Lucas made three films where we just had to see why, and it was a total letdown.

And it seems that in most movies now, especially "reboots", they take great pains to give us a detailed backstory.

story

Lots of spoilers in that OP...

E Unit

I don't think anyone's lives will be greatly affected by the spoilers.

inri222

story

There's little indication the post is going to have major spoilers about recent releases. We're a forum about movies. Yeah, I think there's impact.

Paff

[Frasier Crane] Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. In Citizen Kane, Rosebud is his sled. In Murder on the Orient Express, EVERYONE did it! [/Frasier Crane]

Giantrobo

Wait, what?

Jay G.

Just guessing, but I think Groucho's concept for The Shape of Water is "woman falls in love with fish-man," not just the concept of a fish-man itself.

rw2516

What amazes me about Halloween is nobody thought of it sooner. It seems like such a no brainer.
Teen horror movies had been around since the 50s.
Babysitter urban legends had been around forever.
I have to wonder, if you walked into offices of AIP with the concept of Halloween circa 1965, would they think it was brilliant or throw you out.

Groucho

My definition was even broader than that, I really just meant "New IP".

Paff

The more I think about it, the more I think the OP is conflating "simple concept" with "expanded backstory".

Most of the movies listed, new and old all are simple concepts, and in the cases of the remakes they could still fall under the "simple" description. The only difference is in the backstory. Now if you're saying that today's movies have to explain too much, I'd agree (see my Star Wars example a few posts up). But the concepts of the movies are really the same.

Hokeyboy

Let's greatly minimize "classic" movies and needlessly over-aggrandize "contemporary" movies. Got it

RichC2

John Wick was a man seeks revenege for the death of his dog.