On Red Bands and Dark Ride

Does anybody else get really excited whenever a red band trailer comes on screen? The truth is that they’re rarely anymore graphic or obscene than one that’s been approved for all audiences, but there’s a sense of the forbidden that’s hard to pass up. We want to see something that we aren’t supposed to see. It’s the same reason we watch horror movies and go into haunted houses ever October.

I recently watched a film called Dark Ride. Directed by Craig Singer, it was one of the original 8 Films to Die For in the After Dark Horrorfest back in 2006. I’ve seen a handful of these film over the years, and while they don’t really live up the billing of movies too graphic and terrifying for theatres, some of them are definitely worth a watch. Others aren’t.

Back to the point. The Red Band trailers got me thinking of other similar marketing campaigns that caught my eye. The first thing that came to mind was Paranormal Activity. I remember my friend sending me videos of the audience freaking out during advanced screenings, with a request to get it sent to a nearby theatre. It got me interested. And while I did like it, I may have gotten a little too excited about the Evil Dead reboot and its “scariest-movie-ever-made” taglines.

Honestly people have been trying to scare us with movies for decades. So why would I believe that there were eight movies too scary for theatres all of a sudden? If there are than I don’t want to see them because they’re truly twisted. But we still buy into taglines every once in a while and expect a new brand of horror on occasion. Why? Like red bands, there’s potential for anything.

The narrative in Dark Ride is straight forward enough. It follows a group of college kids on vacation for spring break, who stop to spend the night in an abandoned horror attraction that proves not to be so abandoned after all. Not many points for originality admittedly. In fact, this movie hit about every major horror trope there is.

The more you see them the more interesting horror tropes start to seem. We’re afraid of the things that kill us of course, so why are our horror scenarios so farfetched? Our horror movies should be about car crashes, heart disease and war. These deaths don’t frighten us because while they may not be completely natural, they have become normal.

I think the genre is at its best when it shows us a perversion of the things we love and the things we idealize. Take Dark Ride for example. I used to go to an amusement park called Joy Land when I was little, growing up in Kansas. There was a dark ride there. I always used to love to do it, but I was always scared. Even after the 10th time through, after you know nothing in there will hurt you, you can still be scared. Maybe it’s because there’s a part of you that thought one of the scares would come to life.

Fear is nostalgic. It knows what we loved and what frightened us when we were children and it turns it on us. It takes dream scenarios, like a young and reckless spring break with friends, and turns it into a nightmare instead. While Dark Ride wasn’t a great movie, it definitely made me think a little. And it was entertaining enough to make it to the end. Don’t take that as a recommendation.

The After Dark Horrorfest as a whole is rich in its own right though, and worth the viewing especially if you’re looking for a marathon.  Look out for childhood fears and joys cropping up next time you pop in a DVD, but don’t blame me if you get A Scary Dream.