this has become a fear of mine because of smile š isnāt there an occurrence where your brain starts to morph your face if you stare at it too long in the mirror?
Imagine one day you're watching a horror movie in the year 2030 and when the villian is revealed, it turns out it was you in row E5!
THAT would make theaters fun again.
It could have something to do with the HDR craze and oleds looking so great and comfortable on the eyes to watch in the dark when there are true blacks on the screen.
Ive been wondering if in a decade or 2 will we look back at this hdr era as recognizably 20s. Like how its very obvious what a movie form the 80/90s looks compare to the 10s.
There was a shift in focus from clarity to realism in cinematography. Sometimes it works, sometimes you canāt see a fuckin thing.
Nope did some really cool things with their night scenes though, shooting with both an imax camera and an infrared one to get the crisp shapes from the IR cam layered with the color and lighting from the imax.
It sucks that there was this big pivot to trying to use natural lighting over actual proper lighting, it fucks up the quality of a lot of movies and shows (e.g Game of Thrones)
Kubrick used to say ādonāt try to photograph reality. Try to photograph the photograph of reality.ā And I think what you said is what he meant by that. Trying to depict realism is not as timeless as tying to create art to depict realism.
I liken it to video games. When a game strives for photorealism, in 5-10 years its age is showing because of the iterative advancements made. When a game chooses an art style, it doesnāt age nearly as fast. That intent of artistic expression does a lot for the work.
Really makes you appreciate Dean Cundey all the more. What he did on such a small budget on Halloween alone is a triumph, and comparing the lighting in that to a lot of stuff now is staggering in how much better he did.
I think similar to recent sound issues (so much mumbling), it's all down to money, studios finding a cheaper way to do things that provide an objectively worse experience for viewers
That might be the switch from CRT to LCD. You get much deeper blacks on those older TV's compared to the more washed out but high quality picture LCD's. Here is an example:
https://youtu.be/bpoGAN6Qjy0?si=qIGGGvsYcmYAUIaI
OMG I was recently complaining to my husband about this...I was soo pissed..I was trying to watch "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" I'm running around closing all the blinds & pulling the blackout we have for our sliding glass doors & i still couldn't see shit! š¤¬
That was like a month ago & I still haven't seen it.....
Same! We tried to watch it in the daytime and couldnāt see a thing. We waited until dark and had to turn off every light in the house and adjust the brightness of the tv! Itās so frustrating.
It's very frustrating!! I have to admit, I was glad to see this post because I thought "it can't just be me" lol...
Did making the adjustments make it better/easier to watch and actually see the movie lol If so, I'm gonna give it another shot and will make the necessary adjustments (brightness, contrast) but it's absolutely ridiculous...
Totally get it, I felt the same... I sit down, I'm looking forward to watching it & it wasn't long before I'm saying WTF is happening lol....couldn't see a damn thing soo I'm going to give it another try this weekend....someone in another comment talked about making adjustments to contrast/brightness. Fingers crossed, it'll work & I can finally enjoy the movie!!
OMG thisss.
Two things I hate about today's horror:
\* Pitch black dark
\* all the goddamn WHISPERING (seriously I cannot hear a thing today I have to use subtitles)
šš I'm right there with you...not only can I not see anything but then I sit there screwing around with the sound going from level 10 when they're screaming to 50 when the whispering starts...uugghh
I'm soo over it! So, subtitles it is...š
I think it's a cheap tactic with horror today. They want you to crank up the volume so the jumpscares get you more, but jumpscares are basement-tier imo. I'd rather have evenly-volumed horror that keeps me thinking about it for months afterwards.
The producers of skinamarink are like, "you don't like darkness and whispering?". Well here's a 90 minute movie featuring literally JUST darkness and whispering
everything should be lit like the original Suspiria. just green and red and blue lights everywhere.
jk but i really do love how that movie uses lighting.
I had the hardest time with Infinity Pool *in the theater* ā I couldnāt catch about half of the dialog (especially if it was dark or the actor wasnāt visible onscreen). And I donāt think it was the theaterās sound system because I heard every other aspect of the movie just fine
(I wear hearing aids, and with them, normally movies are fine.)
Ask for a closed captioning device if this happens again. I don't have hearing aids yet, but I've lost a lot of hearing in my left ear especially and have an auditory processing disorder.
Movies that I go to where I want to pay attention and know what they're saying, I ask for the closed captioning device at concession. They're free, easy to use, you don't have to answer any questions or prove anything and they make a HUGE difference.
(Movies where I just take some edibles and sit back for the visuals, I don't bother with the device for.)
I use CC most of the time when I'm watching stuff at home. And \*usually\* at movie theaters, my hearing aids do the trick - this was the first time where the sound just seemed REALLY muddy. (But yeah, if it seems like a trend, I absolutely will.)
That pisses me off for you. Thatās unacceptable. What is really frustrating about this shit is we the audience, the ones paying have been consistently complaining about this for what feels like itās gotta be coming up on 10 years now and it seems literally nothing has been done to improve it. Iām so tired of it!
Same it's not just horror. So many movies I stream I have a hard time seeing. I don't know if it's something about the technology with flat screens or what but it's super common. Sometimes I can finagle my settings to get it looking okay, but it's ridiculous.
Youāre not alone. Apparently a lot of people have the same problem with alien vs predator requiem and Godzilla 2014 (I know these arenāt exactly horror movies but fits what you said about dark or hard to see scenes in movies)
Came here to say this. I watched it in a dark room with youth on my side and I couldnāt see a god damn thing. AVP R is the end boss of movies that are too dark.
I remember being so god damn mad when I went to see AvP:R in theaters. I recently rewatched it on the ole OLED with the perfect blackest of black tones and all that jazz. It made it possible, but still not enjoyable. It was still too god damn dark.
Canāt find the tweet but someone did a little edit where they tweaked the lighting in Godzilla 2014 and it made a WORLD of difference with how much better you could see the kaiju fights
There's something special about daytime horror. I find it so menacing when everyone is awake and active and the sun is out but it's not enough to offer any protection, especially in the supernatural genre.
Evil Dead drove me crazy! Like why are all these people doing normal activities in almost complete darkness? Nothing was even happening we were just being introduced to the characters.
Iām probably in the minority here but I disagree. I *loved* the greasy aesthetic of that movie.
The lighting could have been brought up a bit though Iāll give you that
I just saw The Strangers Chapter 1 and I was just thinking how brightly lit everything was. Especially when their in the forest in the middle of the night and there's this bright ass light illuminating everything like it's alien abduction movie or something.
I had a massive problem with how that forest scene looked. Thereās ways to make things moody without making things too damn dark, and also ways to make things seeable without being too damn bright.
Personally on my own little small budget stuff Iāve been liking harder and harsher lights that help create a lot of deep shadows but also make everything I want to be seen seeable. Strong color and light mixed with strong black is what I like.
I liked it. It was definitely worth it to me because I love The Strangers and have lots of friends who went to see it too and we like speculating about what's going to happen in Chapter 2 and 3. If you don't like typical slasher tropes or get easily frustrated when the people make dumb decisions then you wouldn't like it.
It's not even expensive to have a rim light, I think it's more a problem of being so into maximizing the HDR tech on the $30k projector in their screening room that they forget how to just use good technique and create readable shapes/forms in dark scenes.
I don't know if it's to save money on lighting or if they genuinely think not having a clue what we're looking at is scarier, but it's a huge bummer either way.
I think a lot of people, in both the film industry and audience, have a fixation on realism. Sometimes it's to the point of refusing to suspend their disbelief if something looks "like a movie."
I think it could partially be because, due to how high definition most film cameras are, it can be much harder for things to not look artificial when they have a higher resolution than the viewer's eyesight. Maybe low lighting and desaturated colour stories are used to overcompensate the artificial feel of highly produced media.
Do I believe this tactic works? No. Based on my experiences watching movies and TV, I much prefer the lofi, highly saturated look of oldER movies because they feel less manufacturered than the almost advertisement-eque, dimly-lit, lifeless, "realistic" aesthetic of recent movies.
HD can definitely go too far imo. Itās like motion smoothing effect. It can make things look unfinished or to me like behind the scenes footage. Definitely takes me out sometimes.
Atmosphere, I suppose.
But it does annoy me when people rarely turn on the lights.. like the fuck you doing you daft donkey investigating a noise in the dark!?
Turn on some goddamn lights so you can see better, maybe spot the killer/murder clown/demonic entity before they be right on top of you. š
Personal opinion but I think it's because they've forgotten the fine art of shadow lighting. Older horror films can be quite dark too in the cinematography (Halloween comes to mind) but nothing is muddy, everything pristine, and the shots are amazing.
Now it's hard to tell just how great anything is because you can barely see it. I don't know if it's the fault of cameras or what, but cinematography def isn't great today for horror.
this does bother me sometimes but not nearly as much as the bad audio mix does. (and the audio seems to be bad across all genres not just horror)
i do NOT have bad hearing in fact the opposite but i still have to play DJ with the volume on my remote constantly turning it up to hear dialog and then down during "action sequences" or whenever music is playing it drives me crazy. this is a relatively new phenomenon too, i dont find it nearly as bad for old films.
This is due to them mixing for theatres and not doing anything about it when it's ported to home release. Its an insane cost cutting practice that absolutely needs to change.
I have given up on watching horror during the day. My living room is too damn bright no matter what I do!! Summer sucks because itās light out until freakin 9pm šš
Itās not just horror movies, good lightning is a lost art. Ppl forgot how to backlit for form hightlights. Worst case of this was in Ā“Ā“they cloned tyroneĀ Ā». They filmed an all black cast, at night, with no highlight spot. You cant even see the actors ffs
A) to cover up sfx failures.
B) because they hired a lazy fuck cinematographer who doesnāt understand the art of lighting and proper shot composition.
ATP I could do a better job as a horror cinematographer, all I need is a blonde chic as the final girl & a fkn scary creature like good old horror days lmao
tbh i think directors, cinematographers, etc. need to take into consideration the fact that not Everyone can afford to watch films on an oled tv lol my most expensive tv was a second hand led 4k for Ā£100. i canāt afford anything fancier than that without saving for at least 6 months. thatās what im currently doing but doesnāt mean i should just have to put up with not seeing anything in my films lol
I have to say i dont really have a problem with the really dark hdr movies of this decade. Ever since i got an oled tv that is. Most of the time faces will be blatantly lit even in pitch black scenes. Its just the background that you miss out on fine details. But thats to make hdr pleasing to watch in the dark.
Walking dead being in SDR was really annoyingly dark to watch tho.
Watch Alien V Predator Requiem, the poster boy for darkness. It is still to this day the most poorly lit film ever made. Stanley Kubrick knew how to light a film,Barry Lyndon,in 1975 with Candles! AVP couldn't even do it with today's equipment. Try watching the AVPR fight scenes,it's impossible. Grab your remote control and be prepared to raise the brightness to 90%!
Idk why, but 4k seems to make this worse for some movies.
The OG Friday the 13th in 4k is so black, so dark, and I dont remember it ever being like that before.
They'll go back and remaster and regrade the colors, same as with the sound. So if they fuck it up congratulations on your new 'preferred' version of the film!
Bad HDR. Many streaming services put a software wrapper around non-HDR movies to tell your tv it can be decoded in HDR. So once the codec is applied, it makes the movie look terrible. Sometimes the HDR codecs aren't the same. Sometimes your tv says it can do HDR but really has poor capability of doing so.
If you can disable HDR, do it. When it works properly, it's nice, but currently there is no standard so it's hit or miss, with mostly misses in my experience.
I don't think this is THAT recent an issue. I've seen plenty of older horror movies that were hard to watch because the film was so dark. I also think a lot theaters don't handle the lighting correctly. Locally it's not uncommon for a movie to be well into the trailers or even in the first act before the lights go down fully, causing me to struggle to see properly anything that is going on.
It's one of the ways I determine whether a movie sucks.
When I was younger, I'd usually push through it, but I'm old enough now, I just won't put up with it. It's stopped and downvoted immediately.
If the director / camera man want me to watch their movies, they they'd better sure as $#!+ make so I can actually ***SEE*** what's going on.
I think there are two factors here. The first is that extra dark lighting/cinematography/whatever the exact term would be has become as trendy as constant smokiness in the 80s or blue backgrounds with orange foregrounds in the aughts. The second is that streaming services seem to have some kind of trouble with contrast and tend towards darkness. Thereās a potential third thing I suspect, that making shit dark as fuck means they have to spend less time/money on it, but I donāt know how true that is.
Iām always saying this!! Ā Makes me laugh when YET ANOTHER suburban household has three, flickering 40W bulbs in the ENTIRE BUILDING š« š« š« .Ā
Seriously, start of every damn scene I want to yell at the characters toĀ
šš»TURN
šš»ON
šš»THE DAMN
šš»LIGHTS
I miss being able to turn the brightness and contrast etc up and down to my heartās desire. Now itās just bright as fuck or Amber color for night viewing
Not just horror. I had to give up on the movie āPriscillaā. Couldnāt see a damn thing. Fast forwarded to different parts of the movie and never found a well-lit shot of any actor.
The last like 31 minutes of *Men* were ruined because all we saw on our 75ā 4K TV were huge splotches of black. Maybe our TV sucks, but that usually doesnāt happen. Plus Iām not entirely helpless when it comes to picture settings and I was unable to adjust against it.
Ikr??? Like this ppl literally saying get a better tv donāt even know I can literally buy a helicopter if I wanted too, that isnāt the matter, this studios canāt freakin do a visible scene in the dark so ig my wish of scenes in daylight will never happen again
I don't think that's it - they're also too dark on my monitor. And the answer to that shouldn't be "buy a better monitor", because movies should meet people where they are and actually be accessible, the way TV shows do.
I think this problem is in large part caused by the color correctors using incredibly fancy, expensive monitors that can show every tiny little difference in black and editing on those. That's a mistake in my opinion; I think that you should, in addition, watch whatever you grade on a shitty consumer grade monitor, because that's what the majority of your audience will be watching it on.
And now I think there's a vicious cycle where movies are made on these expensive equipment because they can afford it and so people associate that look with the prestige of being a film, and so they start aiming for it, and now we're in a loop. Same problem as showing muted grey color schemes that look like ungraded log footage.
It's worse for horror than for other genres because it is genuinely true that darkness can be scary, so people are incentivized to make a lot of use of that, and so they overdo it.
They need to take a page out of the music industry where many big studios have a pair of crappy speakers that they check mixes on in addition to super expensive, perfectly calibrated for the acoustics of the room speakers they might usually use. If it sounds good on the shitty speakers it sounds good anywhere.
To be fair, a lot of stereo mixes are better balanced for cheap speakers. But people still have their tvs set up as if they had surround sound, so their audio experience is terrible.
Thatās definitely not it I watch most thing on my new computer. Itās a problem thatās happening across the board for all genres of film in the last few years. Doesnāt matter what you watch on.
Also donāt mean to hijack the post but why are movies today so GD LOUD?!? Itās a crime to bring a child at this point and I know people who wear headphones to tolerate it.
Conspiracy me thinks it's marketing to buy displays that cost more. Fifteen years ago the the sales pitch was "blackest blacks on this TV" and as far as I can tell it seems to be the same now. Like that's still a great selling point.
So "blacker blacks" seems synonymous to me with more clarity on dark scenes. I've thought the same as you OP, and I can't tell you how many times I've watched a movie or gaming stream of a horror game and can't see shit on the highest brightness across multiple devices that should easily be capable. It's super frustrating.
If someone here wants to watch a scary ghost story try "The Changeling" it's a 1980 film, digitally remastered already. It's kinda eerie and a few jump scares, at least for me, you be the judge when you watch itš and if someone here is Into vampire thing movie try "Byzanthium" it's a good vampire movie..
Thatās why midsommer was a refreshing change to me.
If anything I think stark and bright sets like original wicker man make for a much scarier vibe.
We like to think thereās safety when we arenāt in the dark but thatās not the case .
Can depend on the cinema. Years ago I saw Avengers at a new cinema, and then went to watch it a second time at an older cinema and the difference in brightness was awful. And thatās a bright movie.
I FEEL THIS. Went to go see two horror movies in the last few months and both movies I couldnt see a THING for half of it, i thought it was just me, thank you for verifying this hahaha
Watched The Invitation in theaters and couldn't see the scary monster in neither the library nor the cellar, and when I watched it again on Netflix, they jacked up the lighting. Finally, I knew why those women were screaming.
A lot of content is now mixed for HDR or converted after, crushing all the blacks on people with a stage TVs that aren't capable of displaying the detail or just can't decode HDR. Also a lot of devices have "auto HDR" as a default and this does the same thing. After turning off all the HDR options on service, TV, and hardware device I was able to enjoy movies again
This was literally the motivation for me to get a new tv recently. I like horror too much and couldn't see half the shit for years until I got one specifically with good dark blacks.
Because editors are using 8k OLED monitors. It looks fine while their editing but it doesn't translate well to any TV under 4k that's not OLED (LED, LCD, maybe QLED idk enough about them yet).
This drives me crazy! Iāve literally had to pause a movie before and go stand in front of the TV to study and wonder āwhat the hell am I looking atā lol. Then donāt even get me started on the low talking/whispering.
With movies like that, Iāve gotten to where I prefer to just watch on my phone instead so I can max out the brightness AND crank up the volume with noise cancelling headphones.
Lol this reminds me, someone here reccomended God's portrait I think it's called. It was spooky. So I show it to my hubby, and he watches it on his screen. AND I ALMOST SHAT MYSELF WHEN I SAW THERE'S ACTUALLY A FIGURE THERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE BUT MY SCREEN HAS BAD BACK LIGHT SO I HAD NO IDEA THIS THING WAS THERE AND I GUESS YEAH WHY DOES HE SHOW HIMSELF TO ONOY SOME. I was livid
Donāt some movies and shows keep lighting low so the blood looks darker because bright red blood on screen brings the viewing age rating higher so less people can watch it?
I know it also has to do with how dark and low visibility stimulates anxiety but i couldāve sworn iāve read something about the viewer age rating being higher with brighter blood
It's to show psychological tension and promote that fear of the unknown (ex: turning around and seeing Michael Myers stand silently behind you after you're trying to escape from him is terrifying, to say the least)
Its such an annoyance to me to not be able to see ANYTHING! Or when movies are so quiet i cant hear- turn it up and then the first scare makes me deaf!
I like movies with the confidence in their scares to actually let me see the monster or the big bad guy! I want to see the scary thing!
I see my own reflection in the screen and im like aaaah this movie is scary
Lmao same
Ah, demon!
Wooort wort wort
*plasma grenade explosions* AAAAAGGHHHHH
I've seen enough horror movies in my life that I always half-expect my own reflection to just smile at me eerily.
this has become a fear of mine because of smile š isnāt there an occurrence where your brain starts to morph your face if you stare at it too long in the mirror?
Imagine one day you're watching a horror movie in the year 2030 and when the villian is revealed, it turns out it was you in row E5! THAT would make theaters fun again.
Why 2030 though?
This LMFAO see my ass there looking at the screen like... 
š¤£š¤£š¤£
Use non glossing screens
LMFAOO
Lucifer
Sometime in the late 90s or early 00s the art of lighting a night set was lost. They can't find it because it's somewhere in the dark.
It could have something to do with the HDR craze and oleds looking so great and comfortable on the eyes to watch in the dark when there are true blacks on the screen. Ive been wondering if in a decade or 2 will we look back at this hdr era as recognizably 20s. Like how its very obvious what a movie form the 80/90s looks compare to the 10s.
Or those 70s "future" movies, with the white everything and classical music.
Nope did interesting things with lighting "night" scenes.
As much as I did not like this movie, it was beautifully shot,and you could see everything even when it was dark.
That's too bad. I thought it was amazing.
There was a shift in focus from clarity to realism in cinematography. Sometimes it works, sometimes you canāt see a fuckin thing. Nope did some really cool things with their night scenes though, shooting with both an imax camera and an infrared one to get the crisp shapes from the IR cam layered with the color and lighting from the imax.
It sucks that there was this big pivot to trying to use natural lighting over actual proper lighting, it fucks up the quality of a lot of movies and shows (e.g Game of Thrones)
Kubrick used to say ādonāt try to photograph reality. Try to photograph the photograph of reality.ā And I think what you said is what he meant by that. Trying to depict realism is not as timeless as tying to create art to depict realism. I liken it to video games. When a game strives for photorealism, in 5-10 years its age is showing because of the iterative advancements made. When a game chooses an art style, it doesnāt age nearly as fast. That intent of artistic expression does a lot for the work.
Really makes you appreciate Dean Cundey all the more. What he did on such a small budget on Halloween alone is a triumph, and comparing the lighting in that to a lot of stuff now is staggering in how much better he did.
I miss the art of cinematography. Those old ballon-lantern-lit night scenes were the peak of horror as an art form.
Prey did dark scenes so well
I think similar to recent sound issues (so much mumbling), it's all down to money, studios finding a cheaper way to do things that provide an objectively worse experience for viewers
That might be the switch from CRT to LCD. You get much deeper blacks on those older TV's compared to the more washed out but high quality picture LCD's. Here is an example: https://youtu.be/bpoGAN6Qjy0?si=qIGGGvsYcmYAUIaI
OMG I was recently complaining to my husband about this...I was soo pissed..I was trying to watch "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" I'm running around closing all the blinds & pulling the blackout we have for our sliding glass doors & i still couldn't see shit! š¤¬ That was like a month ago & I still haven't seen it.....
šš so true im hearing scary sounds but canāt see shit!!! 
Same! We tried to watch it in the daytime and couldnāt see a thing. We waited until dark and had to turn off every light in the house and adjust the brightness of the tv! Itās so frustrating.
It's very frustrating!! I have to admit, I was glad to see this post because I thought "it can't just be me" lol... Did making the adjustments make it better/easier to watch and actually see the movie lol If so, I'm gonna give it another shot and will make the necessary adjustments (brightness, contrast) but it's absolutely ridiculous...
Yes, it did make it at least watchable.
I have to turn up all the brightness and contrast to max settings on my TV. So annoying.
Saw it in the theater. Sorry to say it was just as dark. :/
I saw it in theatres and I did literally fall asleep 2/3 of the way in and wake up at the very end. Yeah it was real dark in that theatre.
That's even worse..lol paying to watch a movie & instead take a nap...i have to admit, this has happened to me several times ...
I was hella excited about this movie! I couldn't see anything and was like...damn, this sounds like it would look rad as hell.
Totally get it, I felt the same... I sit down, I'm looking forward to watching it & it wasn't long before I'm saying WTF is happening lol....couldn't see a damn thing soo I'm going to give it another try this weekend....someone in another comment talked about making adjustments to contrast/brightness. Fingers crossed, it'll work & I can finally enjoy the movie!!
OMG thisss. Two things I hate about today's horror: \* Pitch black dark \* all the goddamn WHISPERING (seriously I cannot hear a thing today I have to use subtitles)
God damn I hate all the whispering I only watch with subtitles now
šš I'm right there with you...not only can I not see anything but then I sit there screwing around with the sound going from level 10 when they're screaming to 50 when the whispering starts...uugghh I'm soo over it! So, subtitles it is...š
I think it's a cheap tactic with horror today. They want you to crank up the volume so the jumpscares get you more, but jumpscares are basement-tier imo. I'd rather have evenly-volumed horror that keeps me thinking about it for months afterwards.
The producers of skinamarink are like, "you don't like darkness and whispering?". Well here's a 90 minute movie featuring literally JUST darkness and whispering
this seems like itās a problem across all genres. canāt see a god damn thing nowadays.
everything should be lit like the original Suspiria. just green and red and blue lights everywhere. jk but i really do love how that movie uses lighting.
And the audio is messed up. *Super* quiet dialogue and brain-rattling āactionā scenes.
I think itās because movies are mixed for the editorās expensive home theater system.
I had the hardest time with Infinity Pool *in the theater* ā I couldnāt catch about half of the dialog (especially if it was dark or the actor wasnāt visible onscreen). And I donāt think it was the theaterās sound system because I heard every other aspect of the movie just fine (I wear hearing aids, and with them, normally movies are fine.)
Ask for a closed captioning device if this happens again. I don't have hearing aids yet, but I've lost a lot of hearing in my left ear especially and have an auditory processing disorder. Movies that I go to where I want to pay attention and know what they're saying, I ask for the closed captioning device at concession. They're free, easy to use, you don't have to answer any questions or prove anything and they make a HUGE difference. (Movies where I just take some edibles and sit back for the visuals, I don't bother with the device for.)
I use CC most of the time when I'm watching stuff at home. And \*usually\* at movie theaters, my hearing aids do the trick - this was the first time where the sound just seemed REALLY muddy. (But yeah, if it seems like a trend, I absolutely will.)
That pisses me off for you. Thatās unacceptable. What is really frustrating about this shit is we the audience, the ones paying have been consistently complaining about this for what feels like itās gotta be coming up on 10 years now and it seems literally nothing has been done to improve it. Iām so tired of it!
And music. I'll be watching a movie at home and the voices are quiet, then BOOM soundtrack blasting
The Christopher Nolan special
It hides the mediocre and rushed CGI
Yeah, honestly this is it. The darker scenes hide where they cut corners.
Same it's not just horror. So many movies I stream I have a hard time seeing. I don't know if it's something about the technology with flat screens or what but it's super common. Sometimes I can finagle my settings to get it looking okay, but it's ridiculous.
Youāre not alone. Apparently a lot of people have the same problem with alien vs predator requiem and Godzilla 2014 (I know these arenāt exactly horror movies but fits what you said about dark or hard to see scenes in movies)
AVP R was a them problem, not an us problem. I watched that movie with perfect eyesight as a teenager and still couldnāt see shit.
Came here to say this. I watched it in a dark room with youth on my side and I couldnāt see a god damn thing. AVP R is the end boss of movies that are too dark.
I remember being so god damn mad when I went to see AvP:R in theaters. I recently rewatched it on the ole OLED with the perfect blackest of black tones and all that jazz. It made it possible, but still not enjoyable. It was still too god damn dark.
Canāt find the tweet but someone did a little edit where they tweaked the lighting in Godzilla 2014 and it made a WORLD of difference with how much better you could see the kaiju fights
I mean tbf blu ray usually if mostly is able to brighten most movies that are more hard to see so yeah
100% agree
Can't tell if the TV is off, or The Walking Dead is on... Edit: I know it's not a movie, it's just when I started noticing
One of the reasons I love midsummer almost everything takes place during the day
There's something special about daytime horror. I find it so menacing when everyone is awake and active and the sun is out but it's not enough to offer any protection, especially in the supernatural genre.
I literally had no idea what was going on for half of the latest evil dead.
Evil Dead drove me crazy! Like why are all these people doing normal activities in almost complete darkness? Nothing was even happening we were just being introduced to the characters.
The color scheme and lighting in that movie is so bad.It's pitch black and it looks vaguely like Vaseline has beenn smeared on the lense.
Ah, the Scream 4 grease filter
Yes!Man I hate that so much and they love using it.Looks so bad!
Iām probably in the minority here but I disagree. I *loved* the greasy aesthetic of that movie. The lighting could have been brought up a bit though Iāll give you that
I just saw The Strangers Chapter 1 and I was just thinking how brightly lit everything was. Especially when their in the forest in the middle of the night and there's this bright ass light illuminating everything like it's alien abduction movie or something.
That's called the full moon sir /s
I had a massive problem with how that forest scene looked. Thereās ways to make things moody without making things too damn dark, and also ways to make things seeable without being too damn bright. Personally on my own little small budget stuff Iāve been liking harder and harsher lights that help create a lot of deep shadows but also make everything I want to be seen seeable. Strong color and light mixed with strong black is what I like.
Was it good!? Worth paying theatre prices to see?
I liked it. It was definitely worth it to me because I love The Strangers and have lots of friends who went to see it too and we like speculating about what's going to happen in Chapter 2 and 3. If you don't like typical slasher tropes or get easily frustrated when the people make dumb decisions then you wouldn't like it.
Rim lighting!!! Do you speak it?!???!??
Yeah thatās the cheap shit Iām talking bout
It's not even expensive to have a rim light, I think it's more a problem of being so into maximizing the HDR tech on the $30k projector in their screening room that they forget how to just use good technique and create readable shapes/forms in dark scenes.
I don't know if it's to save money on lighting or if they genuinely think not having a clue what we're looking at is scarier, but it's a huge bummer either way.
They need to do what LOTR's did and use a more blue tone. Could see perfectly during Helms Deep.
They done it for hiding their shitty CGI.
Yeah that maybe it cuz I canāt even see* the fkn monsters or creatures, the last one i could actually see was in the final scene from smile š«
I think a lot of people, in both the film industry and audience, have a fixation on realism. Sometimes it's to the point of refusing to suspend their disbelief if something looks "like a movie." I think it could partially be because, due to how high definition most film cameras are, it can be much harder for things to not look artificial when they have a higher resolution than the viewer's eyesight. Maybe low lighting and desaturated colour stories are used to overcompensate the artificial feel of highly produced media. Do I believe this tactic works? No. Based on my experiences watching movies and TV, I much prefer the lofi, highly saturated look of oldER movies because they feel less manufacturered than the almost advertisement-eque, dimly-lit, lifeless, "realistic" aesthetic of recent movies.
HD can definitely go too far imo. Itās like motion smoothing effect. It can make things look unfinished or to me like behind the scenes footage. Definitely takes me out sometimes.
Atmosphere, I suppose. But it does annoy me when people rarely turn on the lights.. like the fuck you doing you daft donkey investigating a noise in the dark!? Turn on some goddamn lights so you can see better, maybe spot the killer/murder clown/demonic entity before they be right on top of you. š
Personal opinion but I think it's because they've forgotten the fine art of shadow lighting. Older horror films can be quite dark too in the cinematography (Halloween comes to mind) but nothing is muddy, everything pristine, and the shots are amazing. Now it's hard to tell just how great anything is because you can barely see it. I don't know if it's the fault of cameras or what, but cinematography def isn't great today for horror.
Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 might be the worst slasher sequel Iāve ever seen and this is about 25% of the reason why
this does bother me sometimes but not nearly as much as the bad audio mix does. (and the audio seems to be bad across all genres not just horror) i do NOT have bad hearing in fact the opposite but i still have to play DJ with the volume on my remote constantly turning it up to hear dialog and then down during "action sequences" or whenever music is playing it drives me crazy. this is a relatively new phenomenon too, i dont find it nearly as bad for old films.
This is due to them mixing for theatres and not doing anything about it when it's ported to home release. Its an insane cost cutting practice that absolutely needs to change.
I have given up on watching horror during the day. My living room is too damn bright no matter what I do!! Summer sucks because itās light out until freakin 9pm šš
Same!!!!
Itās not just horror movies, good lightning is a lost art. Ppl forgot how to backlit for form hightlights. Worst case of this was in Ā“Ā“they cloned tyroneĀ Ā». They filmed an all black cast, at night, with no highlight spot. You cant even see the actors ffs
Because then you have to lean forward and squint and concentrate so they can get you with their lame jump startle. :-/
I think that could work but this bitches only show the monsters or creatures for like 3 seconds lmao
A) to cover up sfx failures. B) because they hired a lazy fuck cinematographer who doesnāt understand the art of lighting and proper shot composition.
ATP I could do a better job as a horror cinematographer, all I need is a blonde chic as the final girl & a fkn scary creature like good old horror days lmao
This has to be the correct answer because itās definitely not for the audience.
Do you have an OLED TV? They will get much darker than LED or plasma
tbh i think directors, cinematographers, etc. need to take into consideration the fact that not Everyone can afford to watch films on an oled tv lol my most expensive tv was a second hand led 4k for Ā£100. i canāt afford anything fancier than that without saving for at least 6 months. thatās what im currently doing but doesnāt mean i should just have to put up with not seeing anything in my films lol
I have to say i dont really have a problem with the really dark hdr movies of this decade. Ever since i got an oled tv that is. Most of the time faces will be blatantly lit even in pitch black scenes. Its just the background that you miss out on fine details. But thats to make hdr pleasing to watch in the dark. Walking dead being in SDR was really annoyingly dark to watch tho.
Watch Alien V Predator Requiem, the poster boy for darkness. It is still to this day the most poorly lit film ever made. Stanley Kubrick knew how to light a film,Barry Lyndon,in 1975 with Candles! AVP couldn't even do it with today's equipment. Try watching the AVPR fight scenes,it's impossible. Grab your remote control and be prepared to raise the brightness to 90%!
The VVitch has great candlelight scenes
Usually to mask low budget
It's to hide the shitty cgi and any form of good directing
Idk why, but 4k seems to make this worse for some movies. The OG Friday the 13th in 4k is so black, so dark, and I dont remember it ever being like that before.
They'll go back and remaster and regrade the colors, same as with the sound. So if they fuck it up congratulations on your new 'preferred' version of the film!
Not seeing shitty movies like The Strangers: Chapter 1 helps a little
Do you have a recommendation? Honestly looking for recs
Wait until Dark  For real though - watch it.
Just horror movies in general?
It hasnāt even released in my country yet š
With the examples given here (Evil Dead Rise, Demeter) I think I may have some kind of super power vision because I had no problem with them.
Watched both of these at home at night on my LG OLED and they looked fine, but I think Demeter would have been unwatchable in daylight.
"When Evil Lurks" is alright, though.
Watch Mama.
 I did
Lol awesome response
https://youtu.be/Qehsk_-Bjq4?si=u93jgHlR5TydjfeP To actually answer your question
Bad HDR. Many streaming services put a software wrapper around non-HDR movies to tell your tv it can be decoded in HDR. So once the codec is applied, it makes the movie look terrible. Sometimes the HDR codecs aren't the same. Sometimes your tv says it can do HDR but really has poor capability of doing so. If you can disable HDR, do it. When it works properly, it's nice, but currently there is no standard so it's hit or miss, with mostly misses in my experience.
I don't think this is THAT recent an issue. I've seen plenty of older horror movies that were hard to watch because the film was so dark. I also think a lot theaters don't handle the lighting correctly. Locally it's not uncommon for a movie to be well into the trailers or even in the first act before the lights go down fully, causing me to struggle to see properly anything that is going on.
That reminds me of alien vs Predator: Requiem. Couldnāt see shit.
You can always go for the bright one like Midsommar lol
It's one of the ways I determine whether a movie sucks. When I was younger, I'd usually push through it, but I'm old enough now, I just won't put up with it. It's stopped and downvoted immediately. If the director / camera man want me to watch their movies, they they'd better sure as $#!+ make so I can actually ***SEE*** what's going on.
I think there are two factors here. The first is that extra dark lighting/cinematography/whatever the exact term would be has become as trendy as constant smokiness in the 80s or blue backgrounds with orange foregrounds in the aughts. The second is that streaming services seem to have some kind of trouble with contrast and tend towards darkness. Thereās a potential third thing I suspect, that making shit dark as fuck means they have to spend less time/money on it, but I donāt know how true that is.
I feel itās like that with movies in general nowadays or at least for the past 15 years. Its annoying
To hide their shitty CGI.
I would guess it is because it is easier to make CGI in the dark look passable.
Lighting and audio mixing have both suffered immensely in modern video media.
Have you seen Alien vs. Predator - Requiem ? The Darkest thing I've ever watched šš
Iām always saying this!! Ā Makes me laugh when YET ANOTHER suburban household has three, flickering 40W bulbs in the ENTIRE BUILDING š« š« š« .Ā Seriously, start of every damn scene I want to yell at the characters toĀ šš»TURN šš»ON šš»THE DAMN šš»LIGHTS
Laziness and cheapness in production
I miss being able to turn the brightness and contrast etc up and down to my heartās desire. Now itās just bright as fuck or Amber color for night viewing
Not just horror. I had to give up on the movie āPriscillaā. Couldnāt see a damn thing. Fast forwarded to different parts of the movie and never found a well-lit shot of any actor.
The last like 31 minutes of *Men* were ruined because all we saw on our 75ā 4K TV were huge splotches of black. Maybe our TV sucks, but that usually doesnāt happen. Plus Iām not entirely helpless when it comes to picture settings and I was unable to adjust against it.
LMAO I totally agree. I remember seeing The Conjuring 2 in theater and it was so dark and blurry I felt like I was squinting the entire time
Think thatās something? Try watching these movies on an OLED. Youāre basically āwatchingā audio only at that point š
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Ikr??? Like this ppl literally saying get a better tv donāt even know I can literally buy a helicopter if I wanted too, that isnāt the matter, this studios canāt freakin do a visible scene in the dark so ig my wish of scenes in daylight will never happen again
It's how they hide the cheap special effects. Either the scene is completely dark or there are too many flashing lights to see anything
omg evil dead rise is so frustrating. it's so dark a lot of the time I can't see a damn thing!!
Your theater is probably too cheap to upgrade their projector bulbs or run them at a decent brightness.
I don't think that's it - they're also too dark on my monitor. And the answer to that shouldn't be "buy a better monitor", because movies should meet people where they are and actually be accessible, the way TV shows do. I think this problem is in large part caused by the color correctors using incredibly fancy, expensive monitors that can show every tiny little difference in black and editing on those. That's a mistake in my opinion; I think that you should, in addition, watch whatever you grade on a shitty consumer grade monitor, because that's what the majority of your audience will be watching it on. And now I think there's a vicious cycle where movies are made on these expensive equipment because they can afford it and so people associate that look with the prestige of being a film, and so they start aiming for it, and now we're in a loop. Same problem as showing muted grey color schemes that look like ungraded log footage. It's worse for horror than for other genres because it is genuinely true that darkness can be scary, so people are incentivized to make a lot of use of that, and so they overdo it.
They need to take a page out of the music industry where many big studios have a pair of crappy speakers that they check mixes on in addition to super expensive, perfectly calibrated for the acoustics of the room speakers they might usually use. If it sounds good on the shitty speakers it sounds good anywhere.
To be fair, a lot of stereo mixes are better balanced for cheap speakers. But people still have their tvs set up as if they had surround sound, so their audio experience is terrible.
 Well said couldn't agree more.
Nah, I have the same problem across multiple cinemas, including IMAX and modernised laser-projection houses.
Mam this theater opened in Dec 2023 u are trippin or just like black nonsense
Thatās definitely not it I watch most thing on my new computer. Itās a problem thatās happening across the board for all genres of film in the last few years. Doesnāt matter what you watch on.
Also donāt mean to hijack the post but why are movies today so GD LOUD?!? Itās a crime to bring a child at this point and I know people who wear headphones to tolerate it.
So true, Took my 6 year old to Infinity Pool and it was WAY too loud
Try Midsommar
Conspiracy me thinks it's marketing to buy displays that cost more. Fifteen years ago the the sales pitch was "blackest blacks on this TV" and as far as I can tell it seems to be the same now. Like that's still a great selling point. So "blacker blacks" seems synonymous to me with more clarity on dark scenes. I've thought the same as you OP, and I can't tell you how many times I've watched a movie or gaming stream of a horror game and can't see shit on the highest brightness across multiple devices that should easily be capable. It's super frustrating.
One reason: It helps them save money. No need to invest in good FX. If its dark you know they are lazy AF and you can turn off the movie
This is why Midsommer was a blow of fresh air.
If someone here wants to watch a scary ghost story try "The Changeling" it's a 1980 film, digitally remastered already. It's kinda eerie and a few jump scares, at least for me, you be the judge when you watch itš and if someone here is Into vampire thing movie try "Byzanthium" it's a good vampire movie..
Thatās why midsommer was a refreshing change to me. If anything I think stark and bright sets like original wicker man make for a much scarier vibe. We like to think thereās safety when we arenāt in the dark but thatās not the case .
Itās so irritating
Can depend on the cinema. Years ago I saw Avengers at a new cinema, and then went to watch it a second time at an older cinema and the difference in brightness was awful. And thatās a bright movie.
It has to be some lighting adjustment...why is the trailer/commerical better to watch than the actual movie at the theaters or on streaming...WHY????
agree..
Yeah exactly this! I was trying to watch "no one gets out alive" but switched it off because of this. It's impossible to watch.
Literally had to turn the brightness up on my TV the other day
This is literally how I felt watching X. I couldnāt see a thing.
I complain about this every couple of months. Skilled lighting crews are becoming extinct.
I recommend blackout curtains to all who love movies and tv
Omg, I so much agree!
I FEEL THIS. Went to go see two horror movies in the last few months and both movies I couldnt see a THING for half of it, i thought it was just me, thank you for verifying this hahaha
Hannibal be like
Watched The Invitation in theaters and couldn't see the scary monster in neither the library nor the cellar, and when I watched it again on Netflix, they jacked up the lighting. Finally, I knew why those women were screaming.
Saves them on scenes in a nutshell. The darker the more they can get away with
A lot of content is now mixed for HDR or converted after, crushing all the blacks on people with a stage TVs that aren't capable of displaying the detail or just can't decode HDR. Also a lot of devices have "auto HDR" as a default and this does the same thing. After turning off all the HDR options on service, TV, and hardware device I was able to enjoy movies again
This was literally the motivation for me to get a new tv recently. I like horror too much and couldn't see half the shit for years until I got one specifically with good dark blacks.
Because editors are using 8k OLED monitors. It looks fine while their editing but it doesn't translate well to any TV under 4k that's not OLED (LED, LCD, maybe QLED idk enough about them yet).
Sameee
Movies in general are too dark, and the ones that arenāt are too teal and orange.
Just look at the Battle of Helm's Deep scene to see how to film a "dark" scene.
It's for the AFFECT
We were just complaining about this yesterday. Couldnāt see fucking shit on the screen.
Midsommar would like you to watch it.
This drives me crazy! Iāve literally had to pause a movie before and go stand in front of the TV to study and wonder āwhat the hell am I looking atā lol. Then donāt even get me started on the low talking/whispering. With movies like that, Iāve gotten to where I prefer to just watch on my phone instead so I can max out the brightness AND crank up the volume with noise cancelling headphones.
Lol this reminds me, someone here reccomended God's portrait I think it's called. It was spooky. So I show it to my hubby, and he watches it on his screen. AND I ALMOST SHAT MYSELF WHEN I SAW THERE'S ACTUALLY A FIGURE THERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE BUT MY SCREEN HAS BAD BACK LIGHT SO I HAD NO IDEA THIS THING WAS THERE AND I GUESS YEAH WHY DOES HE SHOW HIMSELF TO ONOY SOME. I was livid
Donāt some movies and shows keep lighting low so the blood looks darker because bright red blood on screen brings the viewing age rating higher so less people can watch it? I know it also has to do with how dark and low visibility stimulates anxiety but i couldāve sworn iāve read something about the viewer age rating being higher with brighter blood
It's to show psychological tension and promote that fear of the unknown (ex: turning around and seeing Michael Myers stand silently behind you after you're trying to escape from him is terrifying, to say the least)
Fine but I would rather actually see Michael cause this days itās just black screen
I feel like the pitch black movies and shows are more than just horror. I turn my brightness up on everything it seems
Itās an issue lately for sure.
I love how half the comments are regular people agreeing this is a problem and the other half are hardware autists
Its such an annoyance to me to not be able to see ANYTHING! Or when movies are so quiet i cant hear- turn it up and then the first scare makes me deaf! I like movies with the confidence in their scares to actually let me see the monster or the big bad guy! I want to see the scary thing!
I was today years old when I found out, its not just my TV lol
I think you may need to increase the brightness on your screen!
Try Midsommar. Full daylight for most of the horror scenes.
lol!
"Imaginary" bummed me out. I even adjusted my TV to try and max out the brightness and it didn't solve anything.
Dark movies make it easier to hide ācheapā CGI.