Horror films get a bad rap. The genre is rarely taken seriously. After all, how many Oscars have been given to horror films? On the other hand - how many other genres have created such diehard fan bases or given a new meaning to the word sequel? There is a reason we aren't on "Gone with the Wind XII - Rhett vs. Captain Von Trapp - This time it's personal."

Horror films are more than good bloody fun. They could save our lives. Norman Bates taught us that it is important to lock the bathroom door if you're showering in a motel. We also know we should resist the impulse to torch the neighborhood pedophile and if someone tells you they'd "like to play a game" - well - it's time to leave.

I love Freddy, Jason, and Michael as much as any sixteen-year-old slasher geek. Halloween was the first horror film I saw in a theater, when I was, gulp, around nine (I know, I know), and it affected me so much that when I became a filmmaker - my first film, "Red Canyon," was also a horror film.

But I have to confess - that while I love Freddy, Jason, Michael, and even occasionally, Jigsaw - I don't love what they've become. Seeing them now is a little bit like seeing a venerable member of the community - a beloved teacher perhaps - turning tricks on the corner for ten bucks. Alas, the boys have become easy. I don't like to single anyone out, but Jason - he's done over ten sequels...and frankly - after seeing him with one movie, then another, well you've got to wonder...is this really someone I want to bring home to mom?

This has happened before to the likes of Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man (and yeah, they were scary at the time). Those films worked so well they made sequels, then combinations, such as the not so memorable: "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man." Finally, those creatures became spoofs and B-movie staples. Eventually, the lack of innovation and new ideas in Hollywood led to a sort of horror hiatus for the next thirty years.

So what does that have to do with us? Does the title "Freddy vs. Jason" raise any warning bells? At a time when the world economy is very tight, and the distribution networks for film are shrinking faster than contestants of "The Biggest Loser," the people with the money, power, and increasingly less and less competition - are not choosing to innovate or tell new and fantastic stories - they are doing what is easy. Re-packaging the boys over and over again: Freddy, Jason, and Michael and a few other classics like "Last House on the Left."

And I confess - I was excited when Rob Zombie chose to do a re-make of the original "Halloween". Zombie had just made "The Devil's Rejects", which was a terrifying and brilliant film. But when I saw Zombie's "Halloween", I realized the original film still works better and always will. Halloween was a film of its time and the sequels and remakes, well ultimately, they're just imitations.

Copying seems to be what Hollywood does best lately. Some of the most interesting and innovative films to come out of studios in the last ten years have been remakes of Asian cinema. "The Ring," "The Grudge," "The Eye," and "Pulse", among others. But in all fairness, in some cases the American versions have been better. The Ring gave me the scariest ten seconds of my life.

Unfortunately, the new ideas in horror over the past decade or so - when not skinned from Asia or Europe - have come from independent filmmakers. Even SAW, the newest addition to the Hollywood sequel juggernaut, got its start in the indies. Rogue Pictures has made a few notable films, but for some reason horror seems to loose something when it's done by committee. Maybe it needs the personal connection with the deepest fears of one storyteller to give it a heart.

I'm sure a few Indie horror films will break through, or get picked up by studios, like "Paranormal Activity," every now and then, but as an Indie filmmaker myself - I can tell you - it's not pretty out there. Studios have always had the advantage of squeezing smaller films out of theaters, but now Blockbuster is closing 20% of its stores and moving toward the rental box model. The boxes hold maybe 60 titles at most - so if you do the math - it makes a lot more sense for the boxes to represent studio films that already have advertising behind them.

As a genre we've been moving through a spate of remakes lately. Rob Zombie, my former hero, fell off the pedestal when he agreed to make "Halloween II"...a remake of a sequel. And don't get me started on the remake of "Nightmare on Elmstreet."

Maybe certain horror films should be given the status of classics. There is a reason people don't try to remake "Gone with the Wind" - if horror were more respected maybe they'd leave Jason, Freddy, and Michael alone - and let them shine in their original glory. If they did studios might actually invest in new ideas and new monsters that are creatures of our time. Not pale imitations of past brilliance.

As for Rob Zombie and I, although it can never be the same again, I guess we'll always have "The Devil's Rejects".