I can get worked up about our government using torture, and about people endorsing it. I can't get worked up about what an evil puppeteer does in a horror movie. People like different things in horror. Some only like supernatural stories, some like more realistic. Some want to see the most graphic gore they can find, some want it all left to the imagination. Some prefer Freddy, some Jason, some both or neither. To most of us though the important thing is for the movie to be effective. I think Wolf Creek is effective -- you get to know the characters; they feel real, and so it's upsetting when bad things happen to them. That's why I liked it and why Ebert didn't. If the movie didn't work he would've given it one star. Because it did he gave it zero.

But horror is like Jason Voorhees. No matter how many times you chop it up and sink it to the bottom of the lake there's always gonna be some electrical accident that will shock it back to life. In just over ten years horror has gone from non-existent to the teen slasher whodunits inspired by Scream to Blair Witch Project to the PG-13 ghost movies inspired by The Ring and to the hard-R murder and torture movies like Saw that are a reaction to the PG-13 ghost movies.

Sooner or later the Saw cycle will fade away and some other one will grow in its place. Nothing that you write in your column or complain about on a message board will change this. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is still with us because it's a great movie. Others don't fair as well, because they're not as good. So don't worry about it.

Remember 2 Live Crew? They were banned, censored, prosecuted, protested. Every step the parents groups and overreaching law enforcers took only made them more popular and kept them in the spotlight longer. The only thing that could kill them was the suckiness of their music. The second people got tired of being outraged there was nothing left. Their moronic, mumbled rhymes collapsed and were crushed to death by the thunderous bass thumps of those cheesy Miami drum machines.

What I'm saying is just forget about it. If, like you say, these movies are nothing but torture porn, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about. In that case the shock value will soon suffer from inflation and the movies will fade away. It's only if you're wrong - if you don't know what you're talking about and the movies have merit - that they will last. Like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, like The Exorcist, like the Beatles haircuts, the King's pelvic thrusts, electric guitars and hip hop. Either way, what's the point of getting hysterical? You're not helping anybody. You're just making a Shales of yourself.

*************
Vern is the author of the new book SEAGALOGY available here.

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us