Less can be more on big screen

Back in the ’70s, one way to tell if a horror/ science fiction movie would rise to the level of the requisite revulsion was this ad line: “Nurse on duty at all times.”

This was plastered on ads on seemingly every low-rent scarefest. Yet it didn’t occur to anyone lining up for, say, “The Corpse Grinders,” to question the qualifications of a health care provider so down on her luck that she’d have to stoop to hanging around third-run theaters all day, providing relief for moviegoers overcome by a toxic combo of fear and Jujyfruits.

Back then, the presence of those six little words about these no doubt mythical nurses – I don’t know anyone who actually saw one – was a promise of experiences so horrific that they could only lead to the dutiful hands of a medical professional. It was a great marketing gimmick.

Those legendary nurses came to mind recently while watching Ridley Scott’s “Alien” prequel, “Prometheus,” now open in theaters. This anxiously awaited horror-thriller would certainly have sent us over the edge a generation ago. Technology has advanced so much and the ability to deliver cinematic shocks is so refined that, if this had been available 40 years ago, the nurse would have been overwhelmed like a drowning man in a rip current.

But there’s been a lot of water – and blood – under the horror-movie bridge since the ’70s. Yes, there are some terrifying scenes in “Prometheus.” Yet, by the end of it, I felt like I was trapped inside just another summer blockbuster. It’s not that “Prometheus” isn’t well done, but it feels like Scott not only wanted to outdo his original “Alien” from 1979, which remains a classic of the form; he also wanted to keep contemporary audiences sated with unnecessary 3-D and a climax predictably riddled with explosions.

It’s a cliché, but it bears repeating: Less can definitely be more.

Which brings me to what may be my favorite film of the season so far: the special effects-deprived but genuinely tense Norwegian film “Headhunters.” The movie – about two guys (one of whom is Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from “Game of Thrones”) involved in a deadly cat-and-mouse game across Oslo – may turn out to be the true skin crawler of the summer. There’s one scene that made me so uncomfortable that I had two thoughts: 1) You don’t need a lot of special effects to create horror when you’ve got humanity and 2) where’s that nurse when you need her?

It may be too much to hope that with the box-office disappointments of “Dark Shadows” and “John Carter” – the Lehman Bros. of Hollywood – that the industry will start to think that bigger is not always better. After all, the allure of an “Avengers” payday is too well-entrenched.

But there’s also a lot of talk this summer about the small movies people are seeking out and turning into low-key successes: “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Bernie” and, yes, “Headhunters.” If there’s a handful more of these in the next couple of months, it could be a sign that a percentage of Hollywood’s audience – especially its older audience – is hungering for something different.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on cinematic razzle-dazzle entirely. I’ll probably be right there with the best of them for “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Meanwhile, maybe I’ll see “Headhunters” again. First, I have to make sure when the nurse is going to be there.