Snuff-tastic

[andrewducker]

It was a tad disturbing that the trailers before 28 weeks later were largely for movies where a bunch of people wander into somewhere they shouldn't and then get tortured to death. They were Paradise Lost,Vacancy and Captivity. While I'm not going to join the Daily Mail's "Ban This Sick Filth" campaign, franky the last thing I need in my life is fake snuff movies.

Comments

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Avoid Hostel 2 while you're at it. At least the first one was borderline amusing. The second is apparently sexual violence against a group of female leads. Not my cup of tea.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

You know, I've chatted to quite a few people who've seen Hostel... and aside from you just now.. none of them used the phrase "borderline amusing". Most (they were not gore film fans admittedly) suggested it was fairly unpleasant and several were of the opinion that the makers had some kind of mental problems

A good few of the films in this genre do seem to involve violence against attractive, slim blonde women. I guess either said women attract monsters/psychopaths or else that's what the target audience likes to watch. That said, plenty of blokes with amusing hair get tortured too, so I guess it evens out. In this sort of film (the few I've seen), the fact that the violence isn't explicitly sexual violence really makes no difference. It often might as well be.

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Hostel was very excessive, or tried to be, but never convinced at all. The characters were unlikable, stupid and wafer-thin. Even the situation was dull as hell. So what you have is a few people covered in rubbery make-up trying to get a reaction out of you. It was laughable.

I'm not a 'gore film fan' at all actually. I loathe those cheap Italian horrors of the 70s/80s. I much prefer horror of the shock variety (Imprint etc etc) or something like the first two Saw films where the situation and plotting interests me.

I know what you're getting at, but there's a definite line between suggestion and actual sexual assault.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

That genre does appear to be popular about now. I don't have any interest in it. The gimmicky ones are just.. well.. crap and gimmicky, from what I've seen. The non gimmicky ones are just nasty. Never really went through the whole "video nasty" thing. If the modern-day equivalents are getting big cinema releases, you even lose the "OMG this is so naughty!" factor.

That sort of film seems popular though, and with people I know too. Takes all sorts.

[andrewducker]

The only one I've been tempted by was the first Saw, which people said was quite clever and psychologically interesting. Everything else has just seemed to be torture for the hell of it. Baffles and disturbs me, it really does.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have described Saw as clever and psychologically interesting. I'd have described it as stupid and hokey to an extreme, with torture for the hell of it (though not quite as much as some other films). Some people really enjoyed it though and agreed with what you've heard.

Also, it's "stress positions" and "intense interrogation", not torture. Torture's not allowed, don't you know? :-p

[sterlingspider.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have described Saw as clever and psychologically interesting. I'd have described it as stupid and hokey to an extreme, with torture for the hell of it (though not quite as much as some other films).

Agreed.
Saw is the first movie I have ever seen that actively angered me for wasting that portion of my life.

I'm normally an extremely immersive movie watcher, I'm a horror director's dream. I jump at the jumpy parts and I have nightmares about the nightmarey parts, but the most I can say about Saw is that it grossed me out viscerally a few times and generally it struck me as a sad and desperate attempt to remake Se7en without any of the good actors or writers or originality.

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

It's a disgrace. Fancy going to see a film about murderous, rampaging, infected humans killing people on a huge scale and having to put up with previews for torture movies. What were they thinking?

:)

this time with emoticon!

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Films where people get captured then raped and tortured seem to be en vogue in Hollywood at the moment. There have always been such films, but most were always straight to video affairs, with only the occasional one ever appearing in the cinemas. At the moment, however, it seems to be the only kind of horror film Hollywood is interested in producing. We've had Hostel, the Hills Have Eyes remake and sequel and various others, which have absolutely no artistic merit or plot beyond people getting tortured in nasty ways.

Horror is probably my favourite genre of film, but I really don't see the appeal of these sort of films. They are not horror films IMHO, just an easy way to make a shocking film full of very graphic violence.

[andrewducker]

You do get the occasional other type of movie. 28 weeks later, for instance :->

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

Oh yes they are still making other kinds of horror movies, but there seems to be a plethora of torture films at the moment, which are being marketed at and seen by a mainstream audience instead of a relatively small number of gore fans.

And 28 Weeks Later is great, even if some of the camerawork got on my nerves during the action sequences.

[in-thy-bounty.livejournal.com]

When I came out the cinema the other night, I noticed that every single poster along the wall was for a twisted horror movies.

It's a golden age! ;)

[kelly-lesbo.livejournal.com]

All this while the real horrors go on virtually ignored - Darfur etc

[andrewducker]

Well, absolutely. I came out of Blood Diamond (harrowing African civil war, genocide, torture, child soldiers, etc.) and into Last King of Scotland (harrowing African murder, torture and politics) and in-between there was a trailer for Hannibal, wherein a lone man tortures a few other people to death. And my main feeling was "And? I've just seen a film about how this happens for real. Why would I want to see a fictional version?"