Scary, Seriously

I agree with much of Mary McNamara’s commentary on the state of the horror film (“The Rules That Horror Films Live and Die By,” Sept. 11), but I believe she skirts the primary reason for the popularity of “The Others.” Like “The Sixth Sense” and “The Blair Witch Project” before it, “The Others” has surprised Hollywood to become an unexpected hit.

Why? McNamara provides a number of factual and aesthetic reasons for these films’ success, but I believe she misses the simple and direct answer: These films are rare examples of recent films that take the “horror” element seriously. Most of today’s so-called horror films are either bloody comedies full of “ironic” wiseacre characters (“Scream” and its rip-offs) or slasher crime films (“Friday the 13th,” part infinitum). “The Others,” “Sixth Sense” and “Blair Witch” all treat the audience with the respect that these are indeed horror stories, without the need to brush it all off as “just a joke.”

Hollywood should have taken notice last year when a three-decade-old film (“The Exorcist”) managed to scare up more box office than virtually any horror film released in the last few years. The lesson should be to make a horror film that is truly scary and to treat the subject seriously.

JOE STEMME

Culver City