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Have slasher films polluted the horror genre?  Director Robert Zemeckis thinks so.

In making the promotional rounds for his new film, Disney's A Christmas Carol, the director took on the subject in relation to some intense scenes featured in the PG rated animated film based on the Charles Dickens story.   Watch a clip!

The versatile filmmaker who hit it big with the Back To The Future franchise starring Michael J. Fox, has been perfecting the motion-capture process in his most recent animated films (The Polar Express, Beowulf, Monster House) but he's also had his hands in the horror genre. 

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Through his Dark Castle production label, he has produced films such as House of Wax, Ghost Ship, Thirteen Ghosts, House On Haunted Hill, The Frighteners, and TV's Tales From The Crypt.  Zemeckis and Joel Silver founded Dark Castle Films, named after William Castle, a famous director of gimmicky horror films and B Movies in the 50's and 60's. Their goal was to recreate some of William Castle’s earlier films, but recently Dark Castle has concentrated on original films such as The Orphan (Peter Saarsgard, Vera Farmiga) and White Out (Kate Beckinsale) released earlier this year.     

In his latest motion-capture 3D film, Disney's A Christmas Carol, Zemeckis introduces one of the ghosts of Christmas past in a frightening manner. In a scene when the ghost of Jacob Marley appears to Scrooge (voiced by Jim Carrey), you hear the ghost coming before you see him and Scrooge cringes in the corner watching the door in anticipation. The ghost's chains drag along the floor louder and louder as it comes closer.  The audience holds their breath just like Scrooge. Then, when Jacob Marley bursts through the door, Ebenezer Scrooge leaps in fright as did the adults and children in the theater.    Watch user movie reviews of film

When CineMovie TV recently asked the veteran film director about the "horrifying" ghosts he created in Disney’s A Christmas Carol, he was very eager to put things straight between horror and suspense.

“Here’s what has happened in the world, we’ve got to straighten things out. There’s a very, very, very useful dramatic tool called tension and suspense, that when used well, it’s very entertaining and it’s a lot of fun. And it makes a film, or a stage play experience, and even reading a novel like Dickens’ A Christmas Carol a very entertaining experience. It’s been polluted into the word "horror" by slasher movies and all these other things, and the two shouldn’t be inter-mixed, mixed up with each other. So, feeling a sense of suspense, or tension, which I think I’m pretty good at, doesn’t mean that I’m presenting horror to anybody. It’s just that I’m winding the audience up a little bit because it’s a ghost story.”

Call it horror, suspense or terror, Robert Zemeckis certainly has created some intense moments in Disney's A Christmas Carol but children may not see the difference and just call it plain scary.  But then again, a little scare never hurt anyone --- well, maybe just the parent's wallet when the electric bill arrives this Christmas. 

A Christmas Carol is now playing in movie theaters.

Melanie Wilson  

Visit her blog at LAMelbox.blogspot