Hello, my horror-ites! Hope your 2016 so far has been a scream! Our last New Year’s Eve Necessary Evil definitely started 2016 off on a fun, creepy note so let’s keep this bus barreling forward! Did any of you happen to catch The Forest this past weekend? From the box office numbers, I’m guessing not, which is fine because word is the flick sucks. Of course this got me to thinking, when was the last time nature was truly scary? It seems nothing scary has been Happening with nature in a very long time. Today, I’d like to suggest a means for amending that.
IDEA: A scary movie involving the woods and nature that actually IS scary.
OUTLINE: I know it can be tough to find ways to make nature scary. And I’m not talking about putting a scary killer or monster in the woods and using THAT to make nature scary. That is not the same thing. We need to make the forest ITSELF, the trees, the plants, the dirt, etc, frightening. Sure, that could sound stupid because there really aren’t too many good nature horror movies.
I did some research and learned about a story where a man unknowingly grew a fir tree in his lung. Obviously it was a small tree, but it was still bodily possible! That idea alone is pretty freaky, so let’s take that to the next level! Nature, ie: plant life, can be compatible with human bodies.
Now for the movie, let’s say there is a forest somewhere. A forest flowing on pure evil. Anyone who enters this forest is never seen again. The forest is alive in the sickest of ways. The first human being to ever enter slipped and became impaled on a tree. However, he did not die… exactly. The tree’s cells blended with his and soon branches began to grow through and from him. He mutated with the tree until both were one.
Upon realizing the unbelievable nutrients they gain from assimilating with a human, the plant life looks to obtain more. They use the half man/half tree mutant like a puppet to stalk and abduct other people entering the forest and form more mutated hybrids. The forest now lives in a whole new horrifying way. The hybrids are fast, deadly, freaky-looking, and will stop at nothing to get hold of their nutritious human prey
WHY IT COULD WORK: First off, this could work because if done right, it will be something that hasn’t happened in horror for a long time. The nature horror film could become the new hit subgenre in the way that torture porn was years ago. Plus, you’d have to go all out and fully embrace a hard R-rating in the gory manner with which the plants assimilate with the humans. If done in a shocking enough manner, genre fans will flock to it!
CHARACTERS: The main characters here are the plant life. The special effects actually need to have the trees and plants come across as actual characters working a sinister plot. Once the forest’s hybrid army is big enough, you can have a group of unaware campers enter and attempt to make it out alive.
CONCLUSION: The combination of nature and horror is one tough sell. Lately, anybody who has tried to tap into the sub genre has failed miserably. If one wants to succeed in turning the woods into a horror villain, I say you have to be willing to get insane and gory with how it all goes down. A tree by itself isn’t very scary, but a tree burrowing its way into your skin, coursing through your veins, ripping apart your insides and turning you into its mindless drone is pretty damn unsettling!
How do you feel about all this? Can a nature-themed horror movie that actually brings the scares ever be made? The only one I can remember being somewhat scary was 2008’s The Ruins which follows a similar pattern to the movie I’m suggesting. Am I crazy? Load up your thoughts and fire them bullets below! And if you have any ideas that you think should be made into horror reality, let me know at mikecatalano@joblo.com.