Ok so this one seems a little cliche to moan about; but damn is it annoying as hell. It's pretty simple to gather what this little rant will be in reference to; the large lack of any good and truly original horror films in recent years. Away from the torture porn fascination of the mid 2000's, the only horror films to have been released as of recent are all ghost and possession stories that seem to work on a familiar and repetitive formula.
There's usually a family (a patriarchal and authoritative figure of a father, the strong willed but always passive aggressive mother and usually a few kids. It is a requirement for the children to be annoying as hell though). This family who we are for some reason supposed to feel a level of sympathy for end up moving to a new home, for multiple reasons (although the new job scenario seems to be a bit of a studio favourite) and from there on the parents are dismissive of the children finding something creepy and then the shit really hits the fan. Jump scares are bound to happen and make up effects are bound to be pretty average as the family make the senseless move of not leaving the fucking house, but staying where they are like absolute idiots. This formula (though tweaks have been made here and there) can be applied to the insidious franchise, the conjuring, the last exorcism franchise, the sinister franchise and probably plenty of others that I can't be bothered to list off.
Though this formula has sort of become the norm, that isn't to say that all of these films are bad, in particular the Conjuring, Insidious films and Sinister are all fairly creepy and reasonably well made (though I cannot speak for Sinister 2 as it looked particularly shit). This rant isn't so much looking at the quality of these films so much as looking at the fact that they are all very predictable, and through that, quite infuriating to watch.
There have been some truly fantastic horror films that go against this formula in the last 5-10 years, for example, there is Drew Goddard's fantastic deconstruction of films like the Evil Dead franchise with Cabin in the Woods. This film took the expectations of the audience and flipped it on its head by adding characters who weren't helpless morons (unless forced to be so against their will by those controlling the "game") and giving the genre an interesting and almost comedic modern twist. Furthermore, there was Adam Windguard's You're Next, a kinda black comedy horror that took the home invasion horror genre and instead gave us Rambo in a cabin, by supplying the audience with one of the strongest female characters in horror memory. Adam Windguard went on to make 2014's The Guest (a particular favourite of mine) which was another genre bending stroke of brilliance, sort of like drive meets the Terminator.
Most importantly, and probably the best horror film of the last few years, 2014 saw the release of Australian horror masterpiece, the Babadook. The Babadook reminds me so much of Stanley Kubricks masterpiece The Shining, in that this isn't so much a horror film about ghosts and ghouls as much as it is about human nature, and the emotional strength and durability of a character (in this case, Essie Davis' character). A film that truly gets under your skin and provides the audience with some truly horrific imagery despite the audience barely witnessing the actual creature.
Nevertheless, if horror films could aim to be a bit more like The Babadook or The Guest (although this years It Follows was bloody fantastic as well, and similarly stylish to The Guest), then we could see a resurgence in truly original and interesting horror films. That said, it would be good for the studios such as Lionsgate and Blumhouse to take a short break from the genre and rethink the plots.
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