JakeR
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2001
- Messages
- 116
Julie, I think I must have mis-typed the intent of my statement:
There seems to be no other reason for these kinds of flicks to exist other than to provoke a reaction to their visceral immunity to emotion and humanity.I was meaning to say that the films themselves had no particular root in emotion, not that the audience itself didn't.
I have no inherent problem with gore. Evil Dead 2 is, in fact, a favorite film of mine. I can appreciate the horror-movie-as-self parody message, as well as the homage to the Stooges and a general air of cheese. But I believe films like the Jason Vorhees series are exempt from that kind of response. They exist only to thrill those thrilled by gore with no subtext.
I'm reminded of numerous "reviews" dealt out by Roger Ebert in the 1980s, when this genre was at a zenith. He seemed generally shocked that the audience would cheer and yell support whenever someone got an ice pick in the eye. I fail to see how that earns its worth on any level other than pure shock value, and I'm wary to think those viewers were some Level 3 film lovers who got some joke I must have missed.
I'm certainly not suggesting these films be shelved or censored, but I do think greater attempts need to be made to restrict their views by an audience who fails to appreciate such work on the level that you or I might. Nor do I think such supervision is fully the responsibility of theater owners, although it certainly starts there: parents need to be made aware of what their children view. An endless stream of slasher flicks, no matter how innocuous they may seem, can't help but contribute to desensitization.