[Doc Faustus]

There is more than plenty. In some ways it grew off of earlier, quieter horror films like the Lodger and more shocking visceral vintage horror like films with Lon Chaney. Look at the sadism and grue shown in the Unknown, the edginess of Freaks. Shocking portraits of twisted humanity. The real change is confronting the audience with direct violence, which reflects a society that can confront people with violence. Yes, the Victorians had police museums, but they didn't have war footage streaming into their living rooms. The things we could look at and are able to see virtually everywhere changed during Vietnam. it was the first war to really be in people's living rooms and one that taught us some gruesome things about ourselves. Romero's cannibal ghouls in Night of the Living Dead and ex hippie Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre reveal the instinctual feeling that love and peace couldn't be omnipotent in America no matter how many people joined hands and sang, dropped acid and rolled in the mud since now we knew that our government didn't care about our protests and that they still couldn't save children from being blown up by landmines and our youth from dying in a godforsaken jungle.