BEING A SELF-PROCLAIMED horror film fanatic, all I want is one good scare — something that will haunt me for days on end and wake me up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat, screaming for my mommy.

But as of late, modern horror cinema has yet to deliver. As for the disgust, repulsion and blood quotients however, these recent horror films pass with flying colors.

“Saw IVâ€Â had plenty of gross out moments and countless deaths that left me in a desensitized stupor.

I left the theater thinking, “I just viewed every possible way a human being can be maimed, mutilated or killed in ninety minutes.â€Â

This film had me squirming in my seat, covering my eyes and mastering control of my gag reflex.

But did it scare me? No.

And that is the problem with recent horror films: They substitute suspense and terror with blood and gore.

The number of people who die in “Saw IVâ€Â is ridiculous. There isn’t any character onscreen long enough for me to know them and care about them enough to be horrified by their inevitable grisly death.

The first “Sawâ€Â was an excellent movie. It focused on two men trapped in one room trying to figure who had done this to them and why.

The audience got to spend time with these characters, see them develop, and when it came down to the horrific and mind boggling conclusion, it was absolutely terrifying.

Now it seems as though characters are only put in a “Sawâ€Â film simply to be set up to be killed.

No character development. No sympathy.

And therefore, no suspense or real feelings of terror felt by the audience.

The state of horror films today truly is abysmal. They lack any kind of suspense or build-up.

That̢۪s what scares me: the anticipation.

Modern horror films just show too much and believe having unbelievably high body counts makes their film a horror film, when really these are more like action films than anything else.

Take a classics, for example: Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.â€Â

Only two people die in that film, and it is still considered one of the best, if not the best horror film ever made. It is atmospheric, suspenseful and has great creep-out moments that build anticipation to a horrific payoff that really frightened and stuck with audiences for generations to come.

Not all recent horror films have fallen prey to the blood-and-gore, make-you-squirm tactic these days. Neil Marshall’s smash hit “The Descentâ€Â was an excellent horror film that was, in fact, a great hybrid of gore and suspense. “The Descentâ€Â is probably the best horror film to come out in recent years.

It centers on a young group of women who get trapped while exploring caves in the Appalachian Mountains and have to battle the horrific creatures who live in those caves. This movie was well written, ingeniously directed, and brilliantly acted. Marshall is a horror director to watch: he knows it takes more than just blood and gore to scare audiences.

“The Descentâ€Â builds and builds, playing on the essential fears of being lost, losing loved ones, betrayal, darkness and claustrophobia.

The creatures don̢۪t come out until almost the end, after you already have basically lost your mind with fear and anxiety as you go on this journey with these women.

So I am demanding new and young filmmakers follow suit and make a horror film that is actually scary and not just repulsive.

Violence and killing are not what makes a good horror film — it’s having a good story and character development.

For Halloween, many people celebrate by watching films that scare them.

Don̢۪t grab your friends and go to the theater just yet unless you want to be grossed out. If you want to be scared, though, I recommend staying home and renting some older horror classics.