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万圣节来了，今年你打算怎么度过呢？化妆游园、鬼故事大会，还是到处串门trick or treat？除了奇装异服和糖果零食，别忘了看一两部吓得人哇哇叫的恐怖片哦。到底怎样才算是一部优秀的恐怖片？恐怖大师斯蒂芬·金给我们现身说法——
阅读小提示：文章篇幅虽短，但语言生动传神，可从中学习如何深入浅出地阐明道理。
While walking back to my hotel after a Tuesday afternoon showing of The Strangers, I found myself wondering what’s scary and what’s not. What makes such a little film with only one star (Liv Tyler) work in the first place? That the question interests me shouldn’t amaze anyone, since I’ve worked in the scare-’em-silly field for years.
One thing that seems clear to me, looking back at the ten or a dozen films that truly scared me, is that most really good horror films are low-budget affairs with special effects cooked up[捏造]
in someone’s basement[地下室] or garage. Horror is an intimate[内部的]
experience, something that occurs mostly within oneself, and when it works, the screams of a sold-out house are almost intrusive[扰人的].
Those big studio execs[即executives] don’t seem to understand that most moviegoers recognize all the computer graphics of big movies, which blast[摧毁]
our emotions and imaginations, instead of caressing[爱抚] them with a knife edge.
The scariest sequence[电影情节] I can remember is in Night of the Living Dead. The heroine is chased back to her car by a zombie[僵尸] with white hair and dazed[茫然的] eyes. She locks herself in only to discover her brother has taken the keys. The zombie reaches down, finds a rock, and begins to bash[猛击] it against the car window. The first time I saw this (and twice after), the scene reduced me to[使陷于] jelly[像果冻似的抖动].
One more problem: big movies demand big explanations, which are usually tiresome[无聊的],
and big back-stories, which are usually cumbersome[讨厌的]. If a studio is going to spend $80 or $100 million in hopes of making $300 or $400 million more, they feel a need to shove[推]
WHAT IT ALL MEANS down the audience’s throat. Is there a serial killer? Then his mommy didn’t love him. A monster from outer space? Its planet exploded, of course. But nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical[正相反的] to the poetry of fear.
That’s why I can’t imagine that anything in big movies will match dialogue like this in one particularly terrifying scene of The Strangers.
‘‘Why are you doing this to us?’’ Tyler whispers.
To which the woman in the doll-face mask responds: ‘‘Because you were home.’’
In the end, that’s all the explanation a good horror film needs.
一个星期二的下午看完《陌路狂杀》之后，我在走回宾馆的路上一直在思考“何谓恐怖、何谓不恐怖”这个问题。让这样一部只有一个明星（丽芙·泰勒）撑场的小片子大获成功的原因何在？我对这个问题感兴趣并不奇怪，因为我从事“把他们吓傻”这一行已经很多年了。
回想起那十多部真正把我吓倒的恐怖电影，我能确定的是，大部分优秀的恐怖电影都是低成本制作，里面的特效就在某人的地下室或车库中捏造出来。恐怖是一种内心体验，几乎都是由内而生；当它奏效时，一座被卖掉的房子里的阵阵尖叫便（多余得）扰人。那些大型电影公司的高层似乎没搞懂一点——大部分电影观众能分辨出大片中所有电脑合成的（特效）画面，这些画面不能用（恐怖的）刀刃刺激我们的情绪和想象力，只会让我们无法感同身受，也无从想象。
我记忆中最吓人的情节出自《活死人之夜》。女主角被一只目光呆滞的白发僵尸赶回自己的车子。她把自己反锁在车里，却发现她哥哥把钥匙拿走了。僵尸俯身捡起一块石头，然后将它狠狠地砸在车窗上。第一次看到这里时（后来看了两次还是如此），这个场面把我吓得浑身发抖。
此外还有一个问题：大片要详加解释，这往往会无聊透顶；大片还需要庞大的背景故事，这又往往令人厌烦。如果一家电影公司打算投入八千万或一亿美元，希望收获三亿、四亿甚至更高的票房，他们便觉得有必要将“这一切到底是什么意思”填进观众的脑子。影片中有一个连环杀手？那是因为他妈妈不爱他。有一只外太空怪物？它的星球肯定爆炸了。然而噩梦的存在不受限于逻辑，事事说明就变得毫无趣味可言——这些都与恐惧的诗意背道而驰。
那就是为什么我无法想象大片中会出现类似《陌路狂杀》里一个格外恐怖的场景中的对白。
“你什么要这样对我们？”泰勒低声问道。
对此，戴着娃娃脸面具的女人回答：“因为你在家。”
归根结底，那就是一部好的恐怖电影所需要的一切答案。
阅读小提示：文章篇幅虽短，但语言生动传神，可从中学习如何深入浅出地阐明道理。
While walking back to my hotel after a Tuesday afternoon showing of The Strangers, I found myself wondering what’s scary and what’s not. What makes such a little film with only one star (Liv Tyler) work in the first place? That the question interests me shouldn’t amaze anyone, since I’ve worked in the scare-’em-silly field for years.
One thing that seems clear to me, looking back at the ten or a dozen films that truly scared me, is that most really good horror films are low-budget affairs with special effects cooked up[捏造]
in someone’s basement[地下室] or garage. Horror is an intimate[内部的]
experience, something that occurs mostly within oneself, and when it works, the screams of a sold-out house are almost intrusive[扰人的].
Those big studio execs[即executives] don’t seem to understand that most moviegoers recognize all the computer graphics of big movies, which blast[摧毁]
our emotions and imaginations, instead of caressing[爱抚] them with a knife edge.
The scariest sequence[电影情节] I can remember is in Night of the Living Dead. The heroine is chased back to her car by a zombie[僵尸] with white hair and dazed[茫然的] eyes. She locks herself in only to discover her brother has taken the keys. The zombie reaches down, finds a rock, and begins to bash[猛击] it against the car window. The first time I saw this (and twice after), the scene reduced me to[使陷于] jelly[像果冻似的抖动].
One more problem: big movies demand big explanations, which are usually tiresome[无聊的],
and big back-stories, which are usually cumbersome[讨厌的]. If a studio is going to spend $80 or $100 million in hopes of making $300 or $400 million more, they feel a need to shove[推]
WHAT IT ALL MEANS down the audience’s throat. Is there a serial killer? Then his mommy didn’t love him. A monster from outer space? Its planet exploded, of course. But nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical[正相反的] to the poetry of fear.
That’s why I can’t imagine that anything in big movies will match dialogue like this in one particularly terrifying scene of The Strangers.
‘‘Why are you doing this to us?’’ Tyler whispers.
To which the woman in the doll-face mask responds: ‘‘Because you were home.’’
In the end, that’s all the explanation a good horror film needs.
一个星期二的下午看完《陌路狂杀》之后，我在走回宾馆的路上一直在思考“何谓恐怖、何谓不恐怖”这个问题。让这样一部只有一个明星（丽芙·泰勒）撑场的小片子大获成功的原因何在？我对这个问题感兴趣并不奇怪，因为我从事“把他们吓傻”这一行已经很多年了。
回想起那十多部真正把我吓倒的恐怖电影，我能确定的是，大部分优秀的恐怖电影都是低成本制作，里面的特效就在某人的地下室或车库中捏造出来。恐怖是一种内心体验，几乎都是由内而生；当它奏效时，一座被卖掉的房子里的阵阵尖叫便（多余得）扰人。那些大型电影公司的高层似乎没搞懂一点——大部分电影观众能分辨出大片中所有电脑合成的（特效）画面，这些画面不能用（恐怖的）刀刃刺激我们的情绪和想象力，只会让我们无法感同身受，也无从想象。
我记忆中最吓人的情节出自《活死人之夜》。女主角被一只目光呆滞的白发僵尸赶回自己的车子。她把自己反锁在车里，却发现她哥哥把钥匙拿走了。僵尸俯身捡起一块石头，然后将它狠狠地砸在车窗上。第一次看到这里时（后来看了两次还是如此），这个场面把我吓得浑身发抖。
此外还有一个问题：大片要详加解释，这往往会无聊透顶；大片还需要庞大的背景故事，这又往往令人厌烦。如果一家电影公司打算投入八千万或一亿美元，希望收获三亿、四亿甚至更高的票房，他们便觉得有必要将“这一切到底是什么意思”填进观众的脑子。影片中有一个连环杀手？那是因为他妈妈不爱他。有一只外太空怪物？它的星球肯定爆炸了。然而噩梦的存在不受限于逻辑，事事说明就变得毫无趣味可言——这些都与恐惧的诗意背道而驰。
那就是为什么我无法想象大片中会出现类似《陌路狂杀》里一个格外恐怖的场景中的对白。
“你什么要这样对我们？”泰勒低声问道。
对此，戴着娃娃脸面具的女人回答：“因为你在家。”
归根结底，那就是一部好的恐怖电影所需要的一切答案。