Have you ever seen somebody die? Most of you will say no, but this could be
considered to be largely untrue. Think about every film or TV series you have
ever watched, how many have you seen die whilst watching something like that?
Countless I'm sure. Now most of you will write this off as ridiculous, and that
it's fake so obviously it doesn't count. Looking at the scientific facts then
this is true, people in film aren't really dying, but their deaths are
certainly, usually, more gruesome than anything we'll ever see in real life. Is
that normal? Because I don't think it is. Why do we enjoy watching people get
ripped apart in horror films so much?
Granted I understand that films, horror films in particular, are designed
to cause an adrenalin rush in their audience and that people being massacred in
them is simply part of that, completely understandable. But have we gone too
far? Is it normal to enjoy watching a film where people die? To laugh at their
demises', to mock their stupidity, is that even sane? Surely it would be more
conventional for us to react with empathy instead of mockery, but over time we
have become so used to the violence that it is merely funny instead of
shocking. Hence the desperation of filmmakers to do something even more
shocking for their next attempt, but there is only so far they can go, surely?
I enjoy a good ‘slasher’ film as much as the next person, but there are
still factors of the violence that really bother me (like broken bones, don't
even get me started on people breaking bones), but the traditional gut tearing
and stabbings in films never phase me. And I know others who are completely
immune to any type of violence in films, and, like me, often find it funny.
Granted a lot of horror films are designed to be comic as well as making you
jump, and even those designed to scare tend to ridicule the horror genre. We
are a generation that has become almost entirely desensitised to violence, is
this really a problem?
If we go back thirty years and think about when horror films first came
into being with such films as Driller Killer and The Evil Dead hitting the
shelves with some serious impact, then we can start to see the differences in
our perception of horror. When classic horrors like The Evil Dead came into
being they were intensely shocking, and provoked many organisations to rise up
and try and ban them, just what every modern horror film would kill for nowadays.
Every horror film director is searching for that shock and awe factor that will
earn them a place in the hall of fame, and back in the day it was far easier to
shock when the audience had never seen someone torn apart by zombies before.
These classics were branded the 'video nasties', and they earnt their place in
cult history and are still adored by many of us film geeks today. But, I can
guarantee you that the majority of us don't find them scary; we just either
admire their cinematic genius or laugh at the ridiculousness of the special
effects. With the growth of special effects spiralling upwards the need to
shock is becoming more and more apparent, and it is struggling to keep up with
our expectations.
Which is surely all part of the growing problem with our desensitisation to
violence; because as the want for horror films grow so do our expectations. If
a film comes out with poor special effects today it is ridiculed and torn apart
by reviewers, if we can see the edge of a mask or we think the fake blood isn't
real enough then it just isn't good enough. Our appetites are insatiable, films
are being spurned out endlessly and every year something new has to be thought
of, something scarier, something bigger, always something better.
So are we ever going to be scared of blood again? Unless you have a weak
stomach I think most of us aren't fussed by the idea of a little blood in a
film or in real life, because we have always seen worse, there is always going
to be something scarier on that elusive silver screen. Should we be wary? I
think so.
I'm never going to agree with those who blame serial killers actions on
films, particularly when my favourite film was accused of inspiring a murderer
(Natural Born Killers). But, I do think that if our expectations to continue to
grow as they are we are going to hit a ceiling very quickly. How real can we
actually get until we get to the real thing? I believe it could seriously
impact the way the horror industry works, for if they can't create the effects
that meet the requirements of the hungry fans what else are they going to but
collapse. If we always expect more when will we be happy?
Moreover, as much as I don't think that a film could ever cause someone to
commit a murder or beat up someone up, no matter how much they try and convince
the judge that was the case, it could have a serious effect on how we
emotionally react to things. I have found that very little bothers me in terms
of violence, and this has transitioned to real life when I've seen friends
seriously injure themselves, it just doesn't scare me. Although this may be
useful for staying calm in a potentially threatening situation it does concern
me when I think more about it, are we just too saturated with all the gore? Do
we need to limit our intake of violent films? Not necessarily, but I think it
is important to be aware of how little reaction we have when faced with gore in
films.
However, I do think that the biggest impact of our desensitisation will be
on the film industry itself, as it struggles to keep up with our expectations
and desires. For every time it succeeds in shocking us we instantly want
something more, our needs are never fully met as we always want something
bigger and better, which could surely have a negative impact on how successful
the horror film industry will be. So maybe we all need to sit back and smell
the blood we’ve already got on our screens, it’s pretty good, so cut them some
slack.
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