The Horror taboo
 

I have always thought there is a taboo in horror. That you dont kill or hurt children. there are some films that break this. But it is one thing that does not happen too much. It is a very unplesent thing to see in a film and not something you would want to see.

Then you probably shouldn't watch Who Can Kill A Child.

I hate when ducks are murdered on screen - it just really gets to me.

I was very pleased when that infamous Fulci film had no avian torture in it at all.

I've said this before, but non-simulated animal killings in horror movies are unforgivable.

ROFL @ Ferox...

A viewing of Salo...or even the climax of The Mist.

Ketchum's The Girl Next Door.

Children have been killed in films since the silient era of the cinema, all the greats have done it, Karl Freud, James Whale, Fritz Lang, it would be very hard to name a director who has not killed off children, Disney included.:eek:

in films its just acting and make believe,but it does happen in real life im afraid!m.s.p has a few,but again it aint real.i enjoyed this film but didnt like the baby and mother scene as a baby that young cant act and apparently the mother in that scene was its real life mother!not good!!!

I think you're right that they dont show children getting killed. But it actually seems the theme in alot of horror movies as of late to make a child (that was hurt or killed) the antogonist...The Ring, Stir of Echos, The Grudge, ( all of which I think are good movies) Original and remake of the Night of the Living Dead (girl in the cellar), Dawn of the Dead Remake (kills the protagonists BF), Actually just gonna stop naming zombie movies all together. Dead children are a mainstay in the genre...Then you got the Omen, the Good Son (more suspense/thriller but still makes the point). But I'll give ya this. its rare that they actually show it happening.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how common it is to have a child killed off in a horror movie. It doesn't bother me for the most part (it is fake after all), and I think the previous poster was right when he said that you don't see a detailed gory killing of a child the way you would an adult.

One of the most disturbing things I've ever seen involving a child wasn't a horror movie; it was that old Sally Field TV movie 'Sybil'. Trust me, you DON'T want to see what happens to Sybil as a little girl.

Yes, Sybil stayed in my mind for a long time after I watched it. It was more horrible, because it was a true, if slightly elaborated. But these vile, evil and completely fucked up mothers do exist. Every day I work with people who have been abused and yes- women who do this to their cildren do exist. What makes it a more difficult pill to swallow is the fact that these things are done not only bu women, but to their own children which is the biggest taboo. I once nursed a 'real life sybil' who suffered things that we as a team found unbelievable to nurse. And this was in a middle class, well to do family-not backwoods scum of the earth.
Sometimes art immitates fact!

It never ceases to amaze me, the things people are capable of doing. The stories of child abuse I've heard make me sick to my stomach and haunt my sleep, so I admire your courage to work with people who have been abused.

You're silly.;)

I always thought that story was highly disputed though I've not read much on the real case.

true

but that scene IS from a movie....although it's originally in english.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074156/

Oh yes, I know. Just hope the person who started this thread didn't watch it.;)

It was disputed and still is, there were arguments that the ideas were implanted as part of false memory syndrome, but split personality and 'flashbacks' are a very real part of the ways that those who deal with unimaginable horrors deal with it. The correct term for 'split personality' is multiple personality dissorder. I know people who have 'dissociated' for days at a time and found themselves 100's of miles from home and not known how they got there. We have regularly had to have police helicopters and dog handlers out to find these people. The things they are capable of as a result of the horrors they have experienced are truel horrible, grusome and very sad. The worst I have come across was a woman who actually carved the calf muscle from her legs while dissociating.
It is sad and beggars belief that often the people responsible for this amount of pain are not very often prosecuted.
The time that nursing these people stops making my heart ach is the time I will stop.

Mainstream horror movies usually always stay above the belt.The adults are always adults who are capable of fighting back,which makes it fair game.If it shows ANYBODY who is too weak to defend themself or is totally helpless for whatever reason and is being horrifically tortured or abused as a result (simple murder doesn't bother me in any case),that is very sickening imo and I can't bare to watch.It makes me physically sick.I've seen helpless people being tortured in the most horrific ways imaginable and it haunts me.

Children have been killed and harmed before and I've seen sex abuse towards children in horror movies,although rare.Also,children aren't capable of fighting back,so it is not in any way fair game where we can safely shout at the screen "Fight back"!

I would also like to highlight the fact that I have seen a lot of stuff which involves something horrible and particularly grusome happen to a child on TV,cartoons (Grizzly tales for grusome kids namely),but they have all been really horrid,monstrous thugs or just really dispicable brats.

"Just repeat to yourself it's only a movie - only a movie - only a movie."

My nan and grandad won't watch a movie that involves animals for two reasons,the first being that they are fanatical animal lovers and the second reason being that movies sometimes do it for real,meaning it's not acting.It is actual,real cruelty or a killing.
With humans,it's 100% acting,gauranteed,but in some cases with animals,it's done for real.

Yes, non-simulated animal killings are unforgivable.

I thought this had been outlawed.
I cant watch animals being killed on camera,, knowing its real, I am a member of Peta- let the verbal start! And defy anyone who has watched any of their campaign films to watch a film knowing animals were being killed for fun and not feel sickened.
This is why I have never watched Apocalypse Now.

I'm sure it's been outlawed in the U.S. and the U.K., but I don't know about other countries. Men Behind The Sun was made in Hong Kong and they probably didn't have any laws against it at the time (1987 or 1988).

Watched men behind the sun recently- found it a very very sad film which made me cry and haunted me. The scene with the cat was horrible, but the part which I found most disturbing was the little mute chinese boy. T found the whole film very well put together and stark, but that does not mean I enjoyed it. Certainly not on the level of other Asian films. I couldn't tell myself 'its only a film',, because the reality it was based on was evil beyond imagination.

I was so disturbed by the scene where the Chinese boy met his fate I didn't even want to talk about it.

Don't Peta kill animals too?

Apparently... http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

WOW interesting website....Peta and their supporters seem to be complete hypocrites..

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...3/deaddogs.gif

Yeh it's pretty fucked. A lot of animals lost out at the expense of their advertising budget.

PETA is all fashionable activism really.

I think "Inside" is the most taboo horror film I've seen. Someone attacking a pregnant woman with the intention of stealing her baby is pretty disturbing and the shots showing the baby reacting to various blows made it even more intense.

Inside was hard to watch and I loved it for that... My husband won't even watch it; the synopsis bothers him too much!

yep, ok- let the onslaught begin!
I DONT SUPPORT ALL THE POLICIES, i DO EAT MEAT. i DO BELIEVE IN TESTING DRUGS (BUT NOT COSMETICS) ON ANIMALS; I AM A NURSE AFTER ALL AND BELIEVE IN STEM CELL RESEARCH ETC. BUT DO THINK IT SHOULD BE DONE WITH HUMANITY AND WHERE POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES LOOKED INTO-IE- THE ASSISI TESTS ETC. Sorry i mentioned it, lets not go the religious fanatical tree hugging route :o

Why would you be a member of PETA if you eat meat?

Not giving you shit or anything it just strikes me as weird.

Because i believe in other parts of their philosopy! ie-against fur and unnecessary use of animals. Also their campaigns against whaling and ultimately the idea that animals should be treated ethically when used for research. I am not some radical. I think I am more of a realist. But i do believe in the use of animals if it will ever help us to find a cure for the human death which is Alzheimer's disease (worked as an elderly nurse for 12 years and it used to break my heart to nurse people who served for our freedom in WWII and also one gentleman from WWI.
To see a B52 pilot who can no longer remember his wife of 50 yrs' name! Or fee himself.
This is why i am not a radical, but think we could be kinder to our fellow creatues if we are going to use them.