Movie geeks like to argue until they are blue in the face about which period in time is really the “golden age” of horror cinema. This is to be expected considering a nerd’s propensity to argue, but I usually turn into a screaming Simpsons-style “Comic Book Guy” when someone tries to tell me that horror is flourishing today.

Not that there haven’t been any horror movies released in the last few years that aren’t worth watching. “Bug” is still one of the best psychological horror movies I’ve seen in a while, “28 Days Later” practically reinvented the zombie genre for a whole new audience, and even the better “Saw” movies had a few decent scares.

What bugs me is that the spark of creativity and the strong political messages have almost vanished entirely from the industry, so all we’re left with is remakes of both American and Japanese classics. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” had imagery pulled straight out of the Vietnam war, the zombies of “Night of the living Dead’s” slow shambling was meant to imitate the slow march of the protesters of the time, and “Carrie” was a shot at the American school system.

Strong messages that managed not to preach and still give audiences a good old-fashioned scare. The only two modern movies I can think of that actually have a message are “Bug’s ” main character spreading paranoia much like a terrorist and “Cloverfield’s” 9/11 imagery, with the last one hardly being counted as true horror.

Also, even though the genre has pretty much fizzled out at this point, it’s worth touching on “torture porn.” I think the fundamental problem with that kind of horror is that, like even the worst schlock horror filmmakers of the ‘80s, the gore is emphasized as an artificial way of ratcheting up tension. When you show me a man walking into a room carrying a toolbox and approaching a bound women, whatever I imagine will happen to her will be much worse then anything the director will ever show me.

I believe that is one of the reasons I found the eyeball scene to be one of the most awkward and hilarious moments in all of “Hostel.” Thank God I didn’t see that film in theaters, I probably would have busted out laughing. The tried and true methods of suspense will always beat out gore, and to highlight my point, I watched the original Halloween on TV. Even after all these years and all these special effects, that movie is still a nail biter.