Why do we even like horror in the first place?

[LuvablePsycho]

Originally Posted by Bloof

While im probably at bit older than you guys i also loved Scooby Doo but then again, Scooby Doo has been around for a long time! I love most horror for the mood it creates. I love 80's horror but i have a harder time with some of the "newer" horror. I hate the term torture porn but i guess along those lines.

I find it ironic how people refer to today's horror movies as "torture porn" when most of them aren't even as violent as the ones from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. In fact most horror movies that get released these days get a PG13 rating when back in the day it seemed like they were all rated R.

But yeah modern horror movies suck.

[Bloof]

Originally Posted by LuvablePsycho

I find it ironic how people refer to today's horror movies as "torture porn" when most of them aren't even as violent as the ones from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. In fact most horror movies that get released these days get a PG13 rating when back in the day it seemed like they were all rated R.

But yeah modern horror movies suck.

As i mentioned, i hate the term torture porn mainly because i dont know what one has to do with the other. Im referring to movies like Hostel or Saw etc. I love alot of the newer supernatural films. I cant even explain why Michael Myers slashing apart teenagers is any less real than Hostel but to me...it is.

[knife_fight]

Not to belabor my point, but the Scooby-Doo analogy is only meant to convey that I'm still entertained by how unreal horror films can be. I still like to be scared, and try to be scared, in the safe comfort of my own home.

Stephen King, in Danse Macabre, seems to think horror is a coping mechanism. The horrors of the real world are genuinely scary, so we watch horror and breathe a sigh of relief, "Well, at least I don't have a burnt-up wienie chasing me in my dreams!"

[LuvablePsycho]

I never watched the Saw movies (and I have no intention of seeing them because they look stupid) but I thought Hostel was such a retarded movie. It wasn't scary, it was intentionaly offensive towards certain types of people, and I got the feeling that somebody enjoyed torturing animals when I was watching it. I guess those two movies are true examples of "torture porn", but most modern horror movies aren't like that at all. They're all either supernatural rip-offs of The Ring and The Grudge or fake documentaries like The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. Or they're crappy remakes of great classics.

And yeah I think that fictional horror helps to distract us from the real horrors of the world because reality is much MUCH scarier.

[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by LuvablePsycho

... I thought Hostel was such a retarded movie. It wasn't scary, it was intentionaly offensive towards certain types of people, and I got the feeling that somebody enjoyed torturing animals when I was watching it. I guess those two movies are true examples of "torture porn", but most modern horror movies aren't like that at all. ...

I saw Hostel a few years back. What was intentionally offensive towards certain types of people? I'm not disagreeing with you, I just don't remember anything like that.

Originally Posted by Dead Bad Things

Uhhh...I like watchin' people die..I mean the suffering of the characters is one of the highlights of the genre. Is there somethin' wrong with macabre obsessions? Depends on which circle your in....

DBT, did you like watching the torturing/suffering of the characters in Hostel?

[LuvablePsycho]

Originally Posted by Sculpt

I saw Hostel a few years back. What was intentionally offensive towards certain types of people? I'm not disagreeing with you, I just don't remember anything like that.

I forget which country it was set in (I think somewhere in Eastern Europe?) but it seemed to me like they were implying that everybody in that country was evil. You had people paying money to torture and murder tourists who came to that country and you had a gang of kids who murdered people over gum. Also just about every woman in the movie except for the two Japanese girls was a whore.

It kind of reminded me of how in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre all of the Texans were shown to be inhumane and evil.

[Dead Bad Things]

The sound of women shrieking in terror is like music to my ears. Shattering my illusion of what is safe, staining my mind and corrupting my thoughts with morbid imagery and prose give me joy. Tragedy, sorrow, death and macabre fill me with an increased lust for life.

[Elvis_Christ]

I am a fan of visceral cinema and horror is the only genre that delivers on this regularly. On one side it's good fun, mindless splatter, over the top characters and total escapism. On the other is shows the gritty dark and fucked up side of human nature with realism. It's one of the few genres that pushes boundaries.

[Dead Bad Things]

Yeah right Bloof....wow..
Mods if you can hear me...for the love of Cthulhu...delete post! Delete post!

[Sculpt]

Originally Posted by LuvablePsycho

I forget which country it was set in (I think somewhere in Eastern Europe?) but it seemed to me like they were implying that everybody in that country was evil. You had people paying money to torture and murder tourists who came to that country and you had a gang of kids who murdered people over gum. Also just about every woman in the movie except for the two Japanese girls was a whore.

It kind of reminded me of how in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre all of the Texans were shown to be inhumane and evil.

Wow, Luv, we think alike. After I posted my question to you, I remembered the Czech and Slovakia officials, likely prompted by their tourist constituents, said they were offended by the portrayal. And they should speak up, great opportunity to shop tourism to the Czech Republic and Slovakia...

Wiki-
The film's release was accompanied by strong complaints from Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Slovak and Czech officials were both disgusted and outraged by the film's portrayal of their countries as undeveloped, poor, and uncultured lands suffering from high criminality, war, and prostitution,[12] fearing it would "damage the good reputation of Slovakia" and make foreigners feel it was a dangerous place to be.[13] The tourist board of Slovakia invited Roth on an all-expenses-paid trip to their country so he could see it is not made up of run-down factories, ghettos, and kids who kill for bubble gum. Tomáš Galbavý, a Slovak Member of Parliament from the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union – Democratic Party, commented: "I am offended by this film. I think that all Slovaks should feel offended."

If you pointed this out, I would have remarked that it's rather silly because it's not like Texans were offended by the portrayal of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre... cause not only is it fiction, every place has bad places or bad people...

But I forgot about the kids killing for bubblegum... I guess that would make people think the country was desperately depraved.

I like the director, Roth's response...

Defending himself, Roth said the film was not meant to be offensive, arguing, "Americans do not even know that this country exists. My film is not a geographical work but aims to show Americans' ignorance of the world around them."[13][14] Roth has repeatedly argued that despite the many films in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, people still travel to Texas.

...throw fellow Americans' ignorance under the bus. Unfortunately, most Americans don't know Czech and Slovakia exist, along with 90% of the other countries of the world.

Originally Posted by Dead Bad Things

Yeah right Bloof....wow..
Mods if you can hear me...for the love of Cthulhu...delete post! Delete post!

I guess I missed the car wreck. Let me guess, somebody (who starts with an "E") got tired of us ignoring his inciting posts?