Here’s the thing; when I watch a trailer for a new movie that I’m told is in the horror genre, I get seriously ticked off when all I see is another costumed lunatic dispatching yet another collection of hapless twenty-somethings in a variety of grisly manners – after all the females have shown their boobies, of course. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against boobies; what gets me is that what I’m watching is a slasher flick being presented as a horror story, and that’s just fraud.

What happened to the definition of horror in today’s cinema? When did encounters with the supernatural, the unexplained and the unnatural become equated with some psycho with interchangeable sharp instruments, a lame agenda and a questionable excuse for following it? I’m not saying that these movies aren’t scary or effective; what I am saying is that they’re not horror.

Even though some pretty horrific things happen in slasher movies – the bloodier the better, it seems – we’re still dealing with a human being who, if the victims ever thought about fighting back, would probable have his/her butt handed to them. Sound familiar? That’s what’s going on in the Scream trilogy, the I Know What You Did Last Summer flicks, Prom Night and a continuing list as long as your arm. Why is that horror?

I recently saw A Haunting in Connecticut, and even though it was pretty tame to get the PG rating, I felt that I was watching a true horror story. Here we have a creepy setting with supernatural elements and some grisly goings-on, all the required elements that are missing from standard slasher fare. The Grudge series is another fine example of true horror is cinema; you’re in it up to your ears in those, and what makes it scarier is that there doesn’t seem to be any way out. Great stuff.

Not that you can’t have both. Let’s go back to the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Here you have what is essentially a serial killer, but he’s already dead, and he comes after you in your dreams. That’s a pretty good one-two punch, and probably explains why it generated so many sequals.

Don’t get the impression that I think slasher flicks suck; I don’t. I just believe in truth in advertising. If I’m in the mood for a horror movie, and the packaging says it’s a horror movie, then when I get home I’d better be watching a horror movie and not another R-rated remake of Ten Little Indians.