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The Conjuring,' a surprise hit this summer, is an old-fashioned demon-in-the-house story, almost charming compared with the grisly torture films of the recent past. There is a terrifying antique doll, hovering ghost-hands that clap, and self-slamming doors, but nary a meat hook in sight, or even much blood. Its R-rating is just for being scary.
影片《招魂》(The Conjuring)在今夏意外大熱，它講述的是一個古宅鬧鬼的老式故事。與近期的虐待題材恐怖影片相比，它幾乎算得上招人喜愛。它囊括了讓人毛骨悚然的古董玩偶，發(fā)出拍手聲的徘徊不去的幽靈之手，自己砰砰關(guān)上的房門等元素，但完全看不到鉤人的肉鉤，場景也不是非常地血淋淋。它被評為R級只是為了聽上去嚇人吧。
Which isn't to say movie gore is dead. In this year's 'Evil Dead,' a remake of the 1981 cabin-in-the-woods film, one woman bisects her tongue with a blade, another saws off her arm with an electric carving knife.
這并不是說血腥的場面已經(jīng)消亡。在今年上映的《鬼玩人》(Evil Dead)中，一名女子用刀片把自己的舌頭一切為二，另一名則用電動切肉刀把自己的胳膊鋸了下來。該片翻拍自1981年一部講述發(fā)生在林中木屋的恐怖故事的同名影片。
Somewhere in between on the carnage meter is the just-released 'Carrie,' director Kimberly Peirce's remake of the 1976 Brian De Palma classic, adapted from the Stephen King novel. This year also brought 'Mama,' about two little girls raised in an isolated cabin by a malevolent mommy-ghoul. 'The Purge' and 'You're Next' slyly take on home-invasion attacks. 'Insidious: Chapter 2' continues the disturbing tale of a family that can't shake unexplained household horrors no matter where they move.
恐怖程度居中的是剛剛上映的由金伯利?皮爾斯(Kimberly Peirce)執(zhí)導(dǎo)的《魔女嘉莉》(Carrie)，它翻拍自從斯蒂芬?金(Stephen King)的小說改編而來、布賴恩?德帕爾馬(Brian De Palma)1976年的經(jīng)典影片。今年上映的恐怖片還包括《媽媽》(Mama)，它講述了兩個小女孩在一座與世隔絕的小木屋中與一個邪惡的鬼媽媽共同生活的故事。《人類清除計劃》(The Purge)與《你是下一個》(You're Next)悄悄上演了民宅遭入侵的故事。《潛伏II》(Insidious: Chapter 2)則延續(xù)了上一部的恐怖故事：這一家人無論搬到何處也無法擺脫靈異的家宅恐怖事件。
Almost any way you slice it, horror is surging. On television, AMC's 'The Walking Dead' broke several records when it premiered to 16.1 million viewers in its fourth season this fall. FX's 'American Horror Story' continues to build.
基本上無論你從哪個方面來看，恐怖片都在興起。電視劇方面，AMC電視臺的《行尸走肉》(The Walking Dead)第四季在秋季首播時吸引了1,610萬觀眾，打破了好幾項記錄。FX的《美國恐怖故事》(American Horror Story)也在繼續(xù)積聚人氣。
Low-budget movies and their sequels which used to look cheesy are now more realistic -- and profitable. In a year when big-budget films have crashed noisily, 'The Conjuring' was made for only $20 million and grossed more than $300 million world-wide. 'Insidious: Chapter 2,' made for about $5 million, has grossed $81 million in North America. It had more ticket revenue than any other movie in September.
在過去，低成本恐怖影片及它們的續(xù)集看上去比較蹩腳，現(xiàn)在它們則更逼真更賺錢了。在大制作影片紛紛敗落的這一年，制作成本僅2,000萬美元的《招魂》在全球攬獲了逾三億美元票房。《潛伏II》的制作成本約為500萬美元，但它在北美的票房高達8,100萬美元，而且它在9月份更是雄踞票房榜首。
Horror films so far this year have taken in $495.7 million at the box office, 52% more than at the same point last year. That comes after 2012 was 21% higher than 2011, according to media measurement firm Rentrak.
今年以來恐怖片共吸金4.957億美元，較去年同期高出了52%。據(jù)媒體市場調(diào)研公司Rentrak的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，2012年的恐怖片票房又比2011年高出21%。
Amid the remakes and revivals, horror filmmakers are confronted with a question: What's scary now? After years of films exploring dismemberment, torture, and human centipedes, what can still shock audiences? Horror is about fear of the unknown, and audiences have learned the language of horror cinema almost too well. We know what's coming when city folk arrive in a backwoods town. We've seen the fleeting shadows on walls, the ghastly face that flashes in the medicine-cabinet mirror and all the other shockers punctuated by screeching bursts of sound, known as 'jump scares' -- like the hand that reaches from the grave in the original 'Carrie.' The audience jumps.
在這股恐怖片翻拍風(fēng)潮中，恐怖片導(dǎo)演們面臨著一個問題：現(xiàn)在什么算得上恐怖？多年來，肢解、虐待以及人體蜈蚣等橋段不斷被嘗試，還有什么能驚嚇到觀眾？恐怖在于對未知的恐懼，而如今的觀眾太了解恐怖電影的表達方式了。我們知道城市居民在到達一個偏僻小鎮(zhèn)后會發(fā)生什么，看多了影子從 面迅速掠過、藥柜的鏡子中閃現(xiàn)恐怖面容的橋段，以及被突然爆發(fā)的尖叫聲烘托的更強烈、稱為“突然驚嚇”的其他恐怖元素，比如原版《魔女嘉莉》中那只突然從墳?zāi)怪猩斐龅氖帧Ｓ^眾們會被它嚇得一跳。
'It's like a bad joke that's been around too long. You don't want to be the one to tell it,' says Wes Craven, the director-writer behind the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' series among others. 'Like the guy who goes to a dark door, and then turns his back to it and calls out somebody's name. And you wait three seconds, and you know the jump is coming through the door. You can't do that. But you can do that if you don't have the jump at the door, and they go into another room and sit down, and the chair falls through the floor into hell.'
《猛鬼街》(Nightmare on Elm Street)系列等影片的導(dǎo)演兼編劇韋斯?克雷文(Wes Craven)說：“就像一個被講得太多的冷笑話，你不希望自己成為講這個笑話的人。比如一個人走向一扇陰暗的門，然后背對這扇門叫某人的名字，這時觀眾知道等上三秒鐘，突然的驚嚇會從門這里出現(xiàn)。你不能這樣拍。不過如果你沒有在門這里安排突然驚嚇，你就可以這么拍，接下去安排他們走進另一個房間中坐下，然后椅子突然透過地板陷入了地獄中。”
Filmmakers agree that what makes movies like 'The Conjuring,' 'Insidious' and 'Carrie' frightening aren't the jumps or gross-outs. It's our attachment to the characters, our vicarious fear of what's happening to them.
電影導(dǎo)演們認同，讓《招魂》、《潛伏》和《魔女嘉莉》這些影片恐怖的并非突然驚嚇或令人作嘔的場景，而是我們對角色的喜愛，對他們的遭遇那種感同身受的恐懼。
'I mean, look, hanging people from meat hooks is scary,' says Ms. Peirce, the 'Carrie' director. 'The problem is you're gonna run out of road after a while. You can go to excess gore and a level of pornography with violence, or you can make the characters people that the audience care about.' Stephen King has said: 'Love creates horror.'
《魔女嘉莉》的導(dǎo)演皮爾斯說：“我的意思是，你看，用掛肉鉤鉤人確實恐怖，問題是一段時間后你就會無計可施。你可運用極端血腥和某種程度的暴力色情，或者可將角色塑造成觀眾關(guān)心的人。”斯蒂芬?金曾說過：“愛帶來恐懼。”
Scaring is caring. That comes down to old-fashioned storytelling, making characters sympathetic and real. Audiences want to relate to them. But the audience, too, has changed: It's more female.
令人恐懼也就讓人擔(dān)心。這可歸結(jié)為傳統(tǒng)的講故事方式，讓人物招人喜愛且真實。觀眾希望與他們心意相通，不過現(xiàn)在的觀眾群也發(fā)生了變化：其中更多的是女性。
'The audience that drives these movies is women under 25,' says Jason Blum, whose production company Blumhouse has thrived on micro-budget horror with the 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Insidious' movies. 'I'm not talking about 'Twilight.' I'm talking about 'The Conjuring' or 'Insidious' -- really scary movies.'
影視制作公司Blumhouse的賈森?布盧姆(Jason Blum)說：“推動此類影片發(fā)展的觀眾是年齡在25歲以下的女性，我所說的不是像《暮光之城》(Twilight)那樣的片子，而是《招魂》或《潛伏》之類的影片──真正恐怖的影片。”Blumhouse憑借《靈動：鬼影實錄》(Paranormal Activity)和《潛伏》等超低成本影片發(fā)展起來。
The new 'Carrie' brings its story into the video era. The mean girls who taunt Carrie White in the locker room record her humiliation with camera phones and upload it to the Web. The 'Evil Dead' remake adds a contemporary twist too. Rather than arriving at the isolated cabin to party, a group of young adults assemble to help their friend Mia kick a heroin addiction. Of course, they inadvertently summon demons, but here their friend's nightmarish behavior and visions are chalked up to the DTs.
新版《魔女嘉莉》將故事背景放在了視頻時代。一群惡毒的女孩在更衣室中嘲弄嘉莉?懷特(Carrie White)，用拍照手機將她受辱的情景拍了下來并把它傳至網(wǎng)絡(luò)。《鬼玩人》的翻拍版也增加了現(xiàn)代元素，片中的那群年輕人去到那個與世隔絕的木屋不是為了開派對，而是聚在一起幫助他們的朋友米婭(Mia)戒除海洛因癮。當(dāng)然，他們也都在無意中招來了邪靈，但是此片中他們朋友的可怕行為與幻覺被歸因為震顫性譫妄。
It isn't that today's horror films have abandoned classic scares. Filmmakers have needed to raise their game in almost every sense to sell the scares to a more experienced horror audience. Compared with the classic slasher flicks of the 1980s, today's horror films have subtler scripts, less campy acting, better cinematography, and more intense sound. Low-budget movies don't need to look so low-budget anymore, unless they do it on purpose, presenting their tales as amateur footage that makes us feel as if the victims experiencing paranormal terrors could be us. Gory effects have advanced. Even low-budget actors these days are gorgeous.
這并不意味著當(dāng)今的恐怖電影拋棄了經(jīng)典恐怖橋段。現(xiàn)在的導(dǎo)演需提高他們在幾乎各個方面的競爭力，以使恐怖橋段能讓更老練的恐怖片觀眾買賬。與上世紀(jì)80年代典型的血淋淋的畫面相比，當(dāng)今恐怖片的臺詞更精妙，表演更自然，攝影技術(shù)也提高了，音效也更震撼。低成本電影不一定看上去就是制作低廉的，除非他們是有意那么做，以非專業(yè)錄像的方式來呈現(xiàn)故事，讓我們感覺經(jīng)歷那些超常恐懼的受害者仿佛就是我們自己。影片恐怖效果已經(jīng)提升，現(xiàn)在即使是低片酬的小演員也非常棒。
In the original 'The Evil Dead,' which Sam Raimi wrote and directed at age 21, dopey teenagers recite corny lines, then get killed. The remake, gory as ever, features more refined dialogue. 'I know I look like roadkill,' Mia jokes when her brother arrives. 'No, you look beautiful, as always,' he says. 'And you're a charming liar, as always,' Mia says.
在山姆?雷米(Sam Raimi)于21歲編劇和導(dǎo)演的原版《鬼玩人》中，那群呆頭呆腦的年輕人滿嘴了無新意的臺詞，后來他們都為邪靈所害。依舊血腥的翻拍版的臺詞則更為文雅，比如米婭在她的哥哥到來時開玩笑說道：“我知道我看上去慘不忍睹。”她的哥哥則回答：“不會，你看起來很美，一如既往地美。”米婭回道：“你是個迷人的騙子，一如既往地迷人。”
Moviemakers have mastered the art of making the mundane terrifying, using little details to make situations feel natural before they get supernatural. 'Insidious' finds fright in a baby monitor, which can be an implement of torment for parents even when working properly. It becomes especially unsettling when it transmits a whispering demonic voice.
導(dǎo)演們掌握了將日常事物變得恐怖的技巧，在它們變得詭異之前，先利用小小的細節(jié)使它們讓人感覺自然。《潛伏》在嬰兒監(jiān)控器中找到了恐怖點，它在正常運作時對家長來說也是一個折磨人的東西，發(fā)出低沉的魔鬼般的聲音時更是讓人覺得特別恐怖。
In 'The Conjuring,' Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston move their family into a new house on a sunny day. The peppy Zombies song 'Time of the Season' plays as they haul boxes and joke around. It's fun.
在《招魂》中，莉莉?泰勒(Lili Taylor)與羅恩?利文斯頓(Ron Livingston)在一個陽光明媚的日子里把家搬到了一所新房子中。在他們搬運箱子、打鬧逗樂的過程中，配樂是僵尸合唱團(The Zombies)歡快的歌曲《愛的季節(jié)》(Time of the Season)，氣氛非常歡樂。
Soon, the daughters play a hide-and-seek game and accidentally dislodge a wall panel inside a closet, and the dad gripes: 'Alright, what did we break now?!' He sees that behind the wall is a hidden staircase to a cellar, lights a match and heads down for a look. There is nothing really new here, but we're sure wishing he didn't do that.
很快，他們的女兒們玩起了捉迷藏的游戲，并無意移動了一個壁櫥中的一塊 板。他們的父親抱怨道：“好吧，這次弄壞了什么東西？！”他發(fā)現(xiàn) 后有一段通往地下室的隱秘樓梯，于是點燃一根火柴下去一探究竟。這個橋段實際上沒有任何新意，但是我們肯定都希望他要是沒那么做就好了。
James Wan, the film's director, who also started the 'Saw' franchise in 2004, says: 'I take something familiar, and I take it up a notch, and supernatural forces start to intervene and I play with them.'
該片導(dǎo)演溫子仁(James Wan)說：“我運用了大家熟悉的東西，然后對它做了進一步發(fā)揮，接下來超自然力量開始介入，我又開始運用它。” 溫子仁也是《電鋸驚魂》(Saw)系列第一部（2004年）的導(dǎo)演。
Even Eli Roth, who directed 'Hostel' and is known for so-called torture porn, says it isn't about the gore. 'If you just repel people with violence, people are gonna go 'what's the point?'' he says. 'But if you can engage them in a story that gets their blood pumping and gets them screaming, that's the goal. The horror movies that really catch fire tap into a fear that everyone is feeling but no one is articulating.'
《人皮客棧》(Hostel)的導(dǎo)演、因所謂的虐待色情片知名的伊萊?羅思(Eli Roth)指出，恐怖片不只是與血腥有關(guān)。他說：“如果你只是用暴力來讓大家心生恐懼，他們會想‘這有什么意思？’如果你能讓他們參與到一個讓他們血液沸騰、大聲尖叫的故事中去，這就達到了目的。真正引發(fā)強烈情感的恐怖片會發(fā)掘每個人都感覺到但沒人說出來的恐懼。”
Horror films have striven to feel disturbingly real for decades. Many, from 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre' (1974) to 'The Conjuring,' have been 'based on a true story.' Low-budget filming techniques -- hand-held cameras and documentary styles -- came along to make scenes feel truer and more unsettling. Mr. Craven had worked on documentaries but never a feature film before making the brutal 'The Last House on the Left.'
過去數(shù)十年來，恐怖片一直力圖帶來讓人恐慌的真實感。從1974年的《得州電鋸殺人狂》(The Texas Chain Saw Massacre)到《招魂》，許多電影都“根據(jù)真實故事改編”。此外，低成本的拍片技巧──使用手持攝像機及采用紀(jì)錄片風(fēng)格──也使影片場景更有真實感、更讓人恐慌。在拍攝場面兇殘的《魔屋》(The Last House on the Left)之前，克雷文一直拍攝紀(jì)錄片，從未拍過劇情片。
It's no wonder horror movie cliches have created a fertile market for parody. The 'Scary Movie' franchise, whose fifth installment premiered in April, has grossed an astonishing $896 million world-wide. 'Hellbenders,' released last week, takes a whack at exorcism movies.
恐怖片的老一套為仿作提供了利潤豐厚的市場是不足為奇的。《驚聲尖笑》(Scary Movie)系列影片令人驚訝地在全球收獲了8.96億美元票房，它的第五部也在今年4月上映。剛于10月上映的《鯢魚》(Hellbenders)則嘗試了驅(qū)魔題材。
Well-worn horror tropes also have provided a laundry list of gimmicks filmmakers need to work around -- or use to misdirect audiences anew.
已經(jīng)被用濫的恐怖手法也提供了一長串電影導(dǎo)演需繞開──或者用來重新誤導(dǎo)觀眾──的招數(shù)。
'It's just a catalog in your mind of things you've seen and maybe have been so successful that they've been imitated time and time again, each time by somebody on a lower budget and with less talent,' says Mr. Craven, who made 'Scream' in 1986.
曾在1986年執(zhí)導(dǎo)《驚聲尖叫》(Scream)的克雷文說：“它只是你腦海中一系列你見過的東西，它們可能一直都非常受歡迎，不斷地被人模仿，每一次被采用更低成本和才華更低的人模仿。”
What's scary now? How about real life? Zombie dramas like 'World War Z' and 'The Walking Dead' play to multiple modern fears: escalating global violence, disease outbreak, our fears of losing our own minds as we age. 'World War Z,' whose giant budget was a glaring exception, is the top-grossing horror movie in the U.S. of the past 30 years, according to IMDb. 'The Purge' flicks at fears about our safety in an age of unexpected real-life terror.
那么，現(xiàn)在什么才算恐怖？現(xiàn)實生活算不算恐怖？《僵尸世界大戰(zhàn)》(World War Z)和《行尸走肉》等僵尸題材影視劇運用了多種現(xiàn)代人的恐懼：逐漸升級的全球暴力、疾病的爆發(fā)以及我們對自己變老時意識不清的恐懼。IMDb的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，《僵尸世界大戰(zhàn)》是美國過去30年間票房最高的恐怖片，例外的是它是一部惹人注目的大制作恐怖片。《人類清除計劃》則觸及了在一個現(xiàn)實恐怖事件會突然爆發(fā)的時代，我們對自身安全的憂慮。
Mr. Roth's first film, 'Cabin Fever' (2002), had young folks at a rural cabin succumbing to a flesh-eating disease rather than demons. His 'Hostel' was about obnoxious Americans who tour Europe seeking women to exploit but end up having their own bodies sold into a torture-for-sport ring. Mr. Roth's forthcoming film, 'The Green Inferno,' is about trendy eco-activists who travel to Peru to save a dying tribe but end up as victims of cannibals. Turns out the natives were just hungry. ('The irony is, I love to travel,' Mr. Roth says about his films.)
在羅思的首部影片《尸骨無存》(Cabin Fever，2002年)中，一群來到一處鄉(xiāng)間木屋的年輕人染上了一種會讓人通身腐爛的怪病，并未受到惡靈的挾制。他的《人皮客棧》講述了幾名令人討厭的美國人游歷歐洲，企圖獵艷卻最終被賣到一個以折磨虐待人取樂的場所的故事。他即將上映的影片《綠色地獄》(The Green Inferno)講述的是一群時尚的環(huán)保活動人士去往秘魯拯救一個瀕臨滅絕的部落，最終卻受到食人族攻擊的故事，結(jié)果是那些土著只是太餓了。（羅思在談及其影片時說：“諷刺的事情是我喜歡旅行。”）
'It goes back to Grimm's fairy tales, about children's fears of the world,' Mr. Roth says. 'I think horror movies are fairy tales for adults. You can't sit there at your job and scream. You have to put on a brave face and carry on. But in a movie theater, for the next two hours, you are allowed to be terrified.'
他說：“恐怖片可以追溯至格林(Grimm)童話，它講述的是兒童對世界的恐懼。我認為恐怖片則是成人的童話。你無法在端坐著工作的時候尖叫，你得裝出勇敢的樣子并要繼續(xù)下去。但是，當(dāng)你坐在電影院中，在接下去的兩個小時中你可以無拘無束地表達恐懼。”
