I know that there is a place for horror movies. There are several horror movies that are among my all time favorites. Watching such a flick becomes a vehicle for dealing with the all too real horrors that are marching in step with us 24/7/365. I get it.
This being said, I have a hard time getting into many of the ‘newest’ horror films that are produced today. There is a difference between horror and torture porn. Torture porn may a reflection of our times but if I wanted to really view it all I have to do is watch the 6 o-clock news, read an article online (or – gasp, in a newspaper), look toward the genocide & it’s aftermath from Rwanda or to Darfur or watch the latest listing of the body counts from the war in Iraq and there it is – live and local; horror, misery and despair. I didn’t even have to shell out $9.00 to see it at the multiplex. I understand the need for this ‘new’ style of horror films – aka – torture porn, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna support it at the theaters, with DVD rentals or by wearing the merchandized tee shirt. You see the real thing is already horrific enough for me. I don’t feel the need to be entertained by the latest re-invention of a snuff film.
I don’t blame the storytellers, the problem, most assuredly, rests with yours truly. I need hope. Watching the hopeless just doesn’t do it for me. Art is a reflection of life and to me life is hope. Horror, misery and despair all bow to hope since without it they simply don’t exist. I know that the converse is true too but at the end of the day I’ll stack my eggs in hope’s basket. Corny? Too bad, that’s the way it is.
See you at the movies.
1 comment:
I watched the “Saw” movies, because the plot was kind of unique. But like you, I started to get sick of the torture and the fact that the nemesis (a man supposedly dying of cancer) can keep getting away with all of these dastardly deeds of his.
Of course, torture porn is not new. Go back to the celluloid atrocity, "Mark of the Devil"; while it might be tame by today's standards, it was basically sold to people as an endurance test.
The one film, to this day, that I still can not bear to watch is "Last House on the Left", it is downright barbaric. And though there is a revenge theme (as we see in all of Wes Craven's horror films), I can't make it past the initial scenes when the maniacs torture the two young girls in the first half of the film.
Ah, for the days of Michael Myers and his white washed Captain Kirk mask.
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