When did scary movies start going too far?

[ecstatic]

It's a typical Saturday night. You and your friends have the night planned out to perfection. You're going to rent a movie, eat junk food until your stomachs burst, and stay up as late as humanly possible. On the way to the movie store, it's unanimously decided that you'll rent a scary movie, and you end up renting the scariest one you could find in the store. When you pop it into the DVD player and prepare to be scared, you're greeted with something you did not rent: A bloody, graphic massacre of limbs being sawed off, eyes being pronged out, intestines being harvested, and a weak plot-line that doesn't really make any sense.

Basically, you rented a huge, disgusting disappointment. Most times, you don't even end up finishing the movie; too repulsed to continue watching after the guy had each of his fingers bashed to pieces with a hammer. Movies and TV shows these days have become downright morbid. Is there anyone out there who actually wants to watch someone getting eaten alive or thrown into a trash compactor? What happened to the good scary movies, the ones that had you at the edge of your seat? Nobody knows.

Over the years, movies have gotten increasingly, violently graphic, and for no apparent reason. Maybe our society has become more violent-natured, but what about the rest of us who just want to see a good scary movie again?

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/whatever/article/509527

I agree. I no longer enjoy horror movies. Too disgusting. I'll pass on the next installments of Saw and Hostel.

[90-percent]

1. Don't forget

Don't forget Sarah Silverman.

Her show is getting downright revolting.

This must mean I'm getting old, huh?

-90% Jimmy

[Donnachaidh]

9. I agree 100%

I've always wondered who she was related to at Comedy Central - she's not talented. She's not funny. The latest advert equating diarrhea with the Holocaust? WTF?

[chelsea0011]

54. What? you don't find poop and marrying your dog drop dead hilarious?

I've tuned in to her show and can't get through 10 minutes. I haven't found anything the least bit funny. And reviewers loved her in "The Aristocrats", but I just found her to be not funny and certainly not shocking.

[DJ13]

2. The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre

That seemed to be the start of the gore.

(Some might even go back to the original Exorcist, but that was just being true to the book.)

[nxylas]

23. Actually, there was very little gore in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre

It has a reputation for being much more bloody than it actually is.

[YOY]

38. Bingo.

All the gore and violence is in your mind in TCM. The brilliance of the film was that.

[spanone]

3. watch the original 'the day the earth stood still' real fear NO gore...1951

revulsion is not scary, it's disgusting

[ecstatic]

5. hehe... I plan to see the one that just came out. Hopefully it's just as good! nt

[CTyankee]

20. It got horrible reviews. I was thinking about seeing until I read the reviews.

REally. Don't waste your time or money. I for one am sick of plunking down my money and spending a coupleofhours of my life in a wasted effort. It just serves to make me angry...

[burythehatchet]

19. For that matter, Psycho, the movie that left my DNA sligtly altered, showed

some bloody water going down the drain, and that was the most gore in that movie IMO.

[soothsayer]

22. that's sci-fi, not horror

[jedr]

26. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"

Saw it on the "late show" ( how many of you remember that?) when I was a kid. Couldn't look a milkweed pod in the face again for years! Scifi or horror, call it what you will...still a damn good movie.

[Tunkamerica]

27. everything was better in the good old days

and yes there are people who want to see this. an ex of mine loved gory movies. To pretend like it just happened is ridiculous. Technology and bigger budgets have just allowed the violence to seem more realistic.

[ewagner]

30. The Day the Earth Stood Still

I have a release of the original movie on VHS still wrapped in Plastic....I think it was one of the best sci-fi movies ever made.....I'm not planning on seeing the Special effects extravaganza of the remake....

[Mojorabbit]

4. I am collecting

old black and white horror movies as they no longer show them around Halloween

[Donnachaidh]

6. the first horrific for us was The Last House on the Left

It was disgusting then, and is still one of the biggest pieces of filth now.

[ZombieHorde]

13. That movie was fucked up, not gory, but definitely disturbing.

I was surprised to see that type of movie from Wes Craven, he usually does kid horror, such as The Nightmare on Elm Street series.

[L0oniX]

15. Heheh ..I took a first date to that one and she was a preachers daughter.

:evilgrin:

[ZombieHorde]

24. Nice. My wife liked that movie.

[MikeE]

29. Actually that movie, (the original Last House on the Left)

was about the Vietnam war. I saw interviews with the director and writer. They were capturing the what young people were feeling at the time,(remember there was still a draft). In particular, there was one scene where a girl is forced to walk into a lake and then shot. That scene imitates a very famous photo from the Vietnam war that caught a soldier basically doing the same thing to a young girl.

I think this new series of films, Saw, Hostel. etc. is the artists way of dealing with our current war and the torture that this administration has perpetrated. I don't watch them myself, (I prefer the more supernatural and sci-fi), but, I think they serve a very important role; that of helping us as a society articulate and come to terms with what has happened. I already don't see nearly as many being made. Now we are moving to another genre, (vampires are hot now).

[Wilber_Stool]

32. It was 1971.

I had just returned from Vietnam. I met a girl and we decided to go see a movie with some of my friends. We chose the new scary movie "Last House on the Left". When we got to the theater, there was a priest in the lobby handing out something I didn't take. I must have had a little PTSD at the time because once the mayhem started I literally freaked out. I couldn't believe any one could be entertained by this kind of shit. I grabbed this girl and as we left the theater, I started to scream " You sick mother fuckers. You like this shit. Come on outside I'll show you some fuckin' blood. See how much you like it then." As we walked through the lobby the priest kind of turned away as we past. I'll never forget that. I only saw the girl a couple of times after that. Didn't even know what PTSD was at the time.

[NashVegas]

44. Based on an Ingmar Bergman Flick, No Less

Check out The Virgin Spring.

Besides the gore, the biggest difference is in the ending.

[JVS]

Sounds fun

[snot]

7. About 35 years ago.

[Warpy]

8. When Hollywood falls out of love with special effects

and starts hiring decent script writers, we'll see a return to the kind of movies that had us all freaked out. Remember "Rosemary's Baby?" There were few special effects in that one and I remember a pale friend exiting the theater with me saying "Gawd, I need a drink!"

Suggesting horror is much more effective than showing it. Having to imagine what is occurring just off screen is much more harrowing than having to see it on the screen.

The irony is that decent writers, directors and actors are probably a lot cheaper than the special effects.

I do exempt "Alien" from this, though. That thing was nasty, and the best movie monster ever.

[izquierdista]

14. And once your imagination works

Then you can graduate to real entertainment -- reading books!

[ewagner]

31. You are right

Rosemary's Baby was terrifying without special effects....

[Hanse]

10. Is this an essay from one of those fundamentalist Christian movie reviewers?

The ones that count all the swear words and which?

If you want to turn off a horror movie because it's too gory, fine, just don't pretend the problem is with a horror movie.

[Berry Cool]

28. Actually, no, it's by a 10th grader. n/t

[ZombieHorde]

11. who actually wants to watch someone getting eaten aliveI!

I do!

Over the years, movies have gotten increasingly, violently graphic

Sadly, this is not true.

Horror movies are actually way toned down compared to what they were in the 70's and early 80's.

Very few modern horror movies can compare to the disturbing graphic violence that once was. Oh well, hopefully there will be a revival.

[ColbertWatcher]

12. After the Hollywood money people got a visit from Karl Rove.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1651173.stm

[balantz]

16. When that one Wayans bro was rolled up like a doobie? n/t

[sandnsea]

17. I don't know, Jaws?

I'm a fan of old-fashioned mystery movies. I'm starting to think they were better in black and white too.

Still, I love a good gorey movie. A good one. The first Saw was great. As was Jaws. They need to have some story line though. Plain old gore is not very appealing. Some of it is so bad it becomes comedy. IIRC, The Ring was in that category. Sometimes the movie is so bad you have to keep watching to see how much worse it will get.

[burythehatchet]

18. Seems you're identifying two genre, suspence and gore

Hitchcock is suspense as I enjoy it, loose intestines is gore, and the combination of the two, films like 28 Days, are one of my favorite genre.

[Initech]

21. I hate the whole horror-snuff genre.

That's just it. Filmmakers have somehow managed to blur the line between horror and snuff. It's quite disgusting.

[ZombieHorde]

25. It's quite disgusting.

Delightfully disgusting.

[Qanisqineq]

33. I completely agree

I used to love horror movies. Not only has the bloody violence gotten more graphic but I've noticed that rape or other molestation of women is being added. That is something I cannot stand watching. I quit watching horror movies.

[snake in the grass]

34. This is a crap article...

...written by someone who doesn't know what she's talking about. 'Final Destination' was her introduction into the horror/gore genre? She's only about a quarter of a century behind the times. Give me a break!

The scariest movie I have ever seen was 'Jesus Camp'. That one will keep you awake for weeks.

EDIT: Just noticed the author is a 15 year old which raises the question as to why she would be watching this stuff anyway? Shouldn't she be sticking to PG-13? I detect some poor parenting here!

[Whisp]

35. The Saw movies.

when torture is entertainment, coincidental to Gitmo.

[ZombieHorde]

36. There was no such thing as torture before B-horror movies.

There was no such thing as lust before porn.

There was no such thing as violence before video games.

[Forkboy]

37. Tess apparently didn't see any horror movies from the late 70's, early 80's.

Or bother to look any deeper than her own 15 year history on Earth before trying to put it in a social context.

Today's movies are no different from them, maybe even tamer for the most part. I think the movies like Saw and Hostel are silly, but to act like that kind of violence is anything new is a stretch.

I remember scenes like Frank Robinson being ripped apart by hooks in Hellraiser, the guy being torn in two by zombies (and then eaten, naturally) in Day of the Dead. Movies like Cannibal Ferox, Re-Animator (oral sex from a severed head), Maniac, I Spit On Your Grave, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Basketcase, etc. All these movies were shown in theaters, and were readily available in every video store when they came out.

I watched them all, and I'm fine. :freak:

Over the years, movies have gotten increasingly, violently graphic, and for no apparent reason.

Not really. Movies go in cycles, and when things are tense (late 70's - mid 80's, 2001 - present) we tend to see a rise in movies that reflect the increased anxiety in society. It's no coincidence that the so-called "torture movies" came out after Abu Ghraib, when the idea, and accompanying horror, was in the minds of so many, including film makers. Horror movies and stories let us confront our fears, conscious or subconscious, in a safe enviroment, and torture is a huge fear for almost everyone with a brain.

If the writer doesn't like these kind of movies that's fine (I think Saw and Hostel were tedious, a much bigger crime to me than being gross), but to claim there's no "apparent reason" or cause is just wrong. I don't expect her to know horror movie history and/or it social ramifications, especially given her age. Unless she's going to write about it. ;)

The writer could have easily have looked a little deeper than this. I give Tess a C-. I wrote better essays in the five minutes before class started. :evilgrin:

[Orrex]

39. Good post!

:hi:

[timtom]

41. And I grew up reading EC horror comics.

They were the very goriest.

And they had a beautiful, sardonic sense of humor throughout.

And I abhor violence in real life.

Then, there's Bruce Campbell...

[Orrex]

40. Nothing's more annoying than a genre critic who's ignorant of the genre

Horror and gore have been around almost as long as film. The only differences today are that films have a more sophisticated marketing mechanism, and the special effects are more convincing.

Here are just a few films from decades past that were pretty graphic and horrifying even by today's standards. The effects weren't up to today's polished CGI standards, but the explicit gore was definitely there:
Basket Case (1982)
The Big Meat Eater (1982)Bloodsucking Freaks in Ghoulovision aka Day of the Woman aka I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
The Incredible Torture Show (1976)
Un chien andalou (1929)

And that's just off the top of my head--there are many more where they came from.

Sound like the author needs to research the genre a little more thoroughly before writing a follow-up to this tepid and predictable critique.

[NashVegas]

45. The Problem Isn't the Genre

The problem is the genre creeping out into mainstream.

I believe we are in the beginning stages of a pushback against extreme violence in popular entertainment, and a decent chunk of it is going to come from creative people in the business who don't want to be a part of promoting nihilism. Another chunk will come from people who want to be paid for their work (see below).

Early in the fall, Paste Magazine dedicated an issue to the subject and threw in this magnificent quote: Judging by the canonization of Cormac McCarthy, who writes about scalpings and coin-flipping symbols of death and babies roasted on spits and the Apocalypse Blooming From Every Man’s Evil Heart, nihilism is now so universally confused with profundity that even the serious literary establishment can’t see that he’s really just Stephen King without the entertainment value.


There's another, more financially-based reason the pushback will be tolerated: the top pirated movies lists of the last two year -

http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-and-tv-shows-2007-080101/
http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-2008-081211/

Are almost fully dedicated to violent mainstream fare. Conclusion: the violence-loving demo is less inclined to pay for its entertainment than all those little girls going to see Twilight.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

46. Yep, nihilism is not good.

If I see anything violent or gory, I have nightmares.

The plotless and pointless violence seems to have taken over.

I don't want to watch that crap.

Suspense in movies, like Hitchcock movies, is a lost art.

I want to watch positive stuff, without being an unrealistic goody-goody.


I used to work at the courthouse and I listened to several murder trials. Also capital murder (murder in the commission of another felony). Senseless murders. No reason they were committed. Clueless defendants.

I've seen this depraved crap on the reality channel and it is horrifying. Not like the sanitized dead people with a smear of blood on their mouth, shown on the detective shows.

[4lbs]

42. Lots of horror movies made during the 1980s have quite a bit of gore in them.

However, I once read that the best horror is that which is imagined because the human mind can often imagine much worse things than if they are actually shown.

For example, a scene where a person comes upon a closed door, with a small amount light coming from under it. The person (and the movie audience) hears footsteps on the other side, a scream, some struggling, some pained gasps and gurgling sounds, and then a thump.

Something similar is portrayed in the classic PC video game "Unreal", where just hearing a person being attacked and ripped apart by a Skaarj (think Predator type alien) in the opening level is much scarier than actually seeing it done in the game.

What would people imagine is happening? Think of how horrific and unnerving it would be to only hear such a thing happening right on the other side. One doesn't need to actually see anything to get the idea that a person was being attacked and murdered on the other side of the door. The real horror comes from the suspense of not knowing exactly what was being done and who the people were (murderer and victim).

[Forkboy]

53. Hitchcock had a great way of looking at it.

He was explaining the difference between shock and suspense. He said to picture two men in an office talking. A few minutes later a bomb goes off under the desk and kills them. That, he said, was shock. Now, start the same scene again, only at the start show the audience the bomb and the time left. Then let these two prattle on about the weather while the bomb ticks down. That, he said, is suspense. :)

Personally, I like both approaches. I love the art of special effects, so the gore stuff doesn't bother me in the slightest. Some movies beg for it. The remake of The Thing wouldn't be the same sanitized. Dead Alive wouldn't be the same without the lawnmower scene at the end. And Planet Terror wouldn't even have been made in the first place.

If you have a serious movie, like Saving Private Ryan, the gore works because it's the truth of how it was. These kind of gore effects are much more realistic than anything I mention above, and pack more of a punch due to the subject matter. In both cases, the gore is there for an artistically valid reason, but Saving Private Ryan will get a pass, whereas a simple "horror" movie wouldn't. I think people see that as serious stuff, as thus more valid. But Saving Private Ryan and The Thing are both valid works of art, no matter who likes which one better. I try to judge movies (and music) based on what the creators are trying to do and how close they come to achieving that, not against other movies or bands.

Having said all that, I also love the Hitchcock approach in movies like Psycho or Rear Window. Both styles have their place and time, and I can appreciate both.

And I remember that part in Unreal. :)

[Iggo]

43. Night Of The Living Dead.

I loves me some gore, and I'm pretty sure that's the one that started the over the top stuff.

[mackerel]

47. Now that's a classic!

[stlove1000]

48. There are always going to be bad movies.

Every year bad movies are made and it used to be that they were rarely seen. Now those bad movies have invaded the mainstream because apparently there is a mass market for them. The key is to do a little research and check out the movie reviews before viewing. You find out a lot about the gore factor from the reviews.

[HardWorkingDem]

49. During a period in the 70's where...

so many "horror" movies and monster movies turned into nudity and rape movies. There is something very troubling to me when movie makers make movies where nudity, rape and murder are thrown together to titillate the teen viewers in a gratuitous manner.

I can remember there was this one period of time where a bunch of these movies came out - Humanoids from the Deep and crap like that.

Then of course the latest incarnation of torture-porn that is going on.

[Supply Side Jesus]

50. Hellraiser

First saw it long ago, I remember saying..."what the fuck?! This gore is completely unnecessary!" I think I was 12. All gore crap led to this garbage filling the multiplexes now.

[Forkboy]

52. You can't blame romantic comedies on Hellraiser.

:evilgrin:

[Sandrine for you]

51. Never too far... I want a movie who kill his viewer...