Extreme gore becomes the life of Horror films: Searching for purpose in the blood and gore of horror movies
Originally published in Buffalo High School's Hoofprint newspaper, December 18, 2008.
The characteristic damsel in distress comes home exhausted from a full day of work. She sets her keys on the kitchen table, and her feet hypnotically take her upstairs. She flicks on the light in her bedroom and slips into her pajamas before seeing the man in the corner standing behind the door. He leaps out at her, and his knife descends into darkness; the mirror of her scream reflected in its blade. Blood spurts out of her neck as if she was storing buckets of red paint in her jugular.
"Nowadays, it seems that filmmakers use gore too frequently, often as a means to overcome the film's inadequacies," said John Gugie in his internet blog, The Ins and Outs of Gore in Horror Movies: Gore, What is it Good For? "But gore itself doesn't make a good film, no matter the film's genre or story. In my opinion, the best use of gore is in lighter-hearted horror such as Dead Alive and Evil Dead 2. In these films, the gore's so over-the-top that it can't help but be funny."
The fact is that gore in horror movies is becoming increasingly prevalent. While some students feel that twelve liters of blood coming out of the killer's victim isn't quite enough, 72% of students said that they "dislike the excessive amount of blood in horror films."
"It's ridiculous that there would be that much [blood] in horror films," said senior Rachel (last name removed). "It's not scary; it's just ridiculous."
Students listed their favorite horror films as 28 Days Later, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Shining, with the original Saw ranking as most popular.
Sixty-six percent of students said that they think a good horror movie includes more "edge-of-your-seat" suspense rather than gore, while 19% believe that horror movies need a better plot. 14% said a combination of suspense and improved plots would be optimal.
"If somebody's arm gets cut off, there should be a good reason," said junior Nick (last name removed). "And there should be a realistic amount of blood."
Surprisingly, the majority of students and teachers seemed to agree with each other on this topic.
"Real fear is tapping into the imaginations of the viewers," said English teacher Mr. Squadroni. "[A good horror film is] one that gets inside your head, not one that blasts you with gore."
English teacher Mr. Robinson also agreed with the statement that current horror films are too bloody.
"My favorite horror films are The House of Wax, The Birds, the original Bela Lugosi Dracula, The Shining, Psycho, and Carrie," said Robinson. "[Gore] leaves out the suspense; the imagination."
"Classic horror or thriller films engage the viewers and their imaginations," University of New Hampshire's cinematics studies expert Delia Konzett said in an article entitled Best Horror Films Skip the Gore by Robert Roy Britt. "[Alfred] Hitchcock was great at this and never underestimated the imagination of the typical moviegoer. His famous Psycho shower scene from 1960 did this in a masterly fashion. We never see the knife enter flesh; it's shown from various angles going through stabbing motions filmed in fast-paced and fragmented montage style that are alternated with close-ups of the shower and parts of Marion Crane's body and her face as he's screaming."
Clearly, the real terror doesn't lie in what filmmakers show viewers--it's what we don't see that scares the Mountain Dews at midnight out of us.
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"I look at you all
see the love
there, that's sleeping
while my guitar gently weeps." --George Harrison
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Published Date
12/18/2008 12:00:00 AM
Published In
Buffalo High School's "Hoofprint" newspaper
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