thaluikhain said:
Hey? Being all gore doesn't just require the existence of gore, it requires the non-existence of anything else.
People have successfully used gore in horror, because they didn't try building a movie solely around it. Annoying teenagers having a party doesn't count.
Let's look at a modern example that typifies the 'only gore' mentality.
Saw 3.
This is about as close to the 'torture porn' as you can get in that series, so let's analyse it in detail, shall we?
At first glance, it's this guy walks through some rooms, and watches some people die in greusome and disgusting manner. This is clearly not a movie about the sort of suspense where something could happen, who knows what. Yes, it would seem it's just about killing people mindlessly and brutally in convoluted traps.
But... is that REALLY what's going on? Is that what the movie is about?
The two main people being 'tested' in the movie, the protagonists, are Jeff, and Amanda.
Jeff is a man who watched his son die in a drunk driving accident. He's been, ever since, plotting a revenge trail against those who he feels have wronged him, the witness who did not testify, the judge who acquitted the killer, as well as the drunk driver himself. These are the people in the traps. It's not about the torture going on to the victims. Every scene is about Jeff. It's about HIM going watching someone do -exactly- the sorts of things he's wanted to do to these people... and him given the choice to try to stop them, often at personal and painful cost. It's all designed to teach Jeff about himself... that he has the capability to forgive. At the end of it, every little dilemma is brought to a head. There he is, with his wife who he's been neglecting being held hostage by the same man who put himself, and the others, through their agony.
Amanda is even more complex. She's an ex-junkie, who escaped one of Jigsaw's traps in the first movie, and has been working with him since. As John's been bedridden with cancer, she's been doing a lot of the heavy lifting for John, building traps for him. However... unlike John, who builds traps to teach life lessons, she builds traps that cannot be escaped from. The first trap in the movie shows a woman who successfully plays by the rules, burns herself with acid, grabs the key to unlock her from her torture... but the key does not work. False hope. Jigsaw realises this is going on, so he sets Amanda up to make a choice... let go of her murderous anger... or die.
The climax brings both the overt arc with Jeff, and the subtle arc with Amanda into play when Jeff arrives where his wife, a doctor, is trying to save John's life. Amanda's frustration leads her to shoot Jeff's wife causing him to kill Amanda in revenge... leading to Jeff's being trapped for eternity himself.
The movie is all about psychology, about personal dilemma. It's about harboring resentment and hatred, and being unwilling to let go even if it saves your life. It's a character study of two individuals who, in order to survive their trial, only need to forgive. Jeff needs to forgive those who wronged him, and Amanda needs to forgive the world she blames for her fall from grace.
This is drama, and this is a movie -about- something a lot deeper than, as an example, bitter angry virgins in hockey masks don't like sluts.
Do I also need to do an essay about how the Human Centipede is not about eating poo?
demalo said:
A good horror story needs drama. Without the drama we can't relate to the characters or the story and in turn have no attachment to the plot and can't be scared. Saw was a good horror movie because of the drama that drove the plot.
Some of the newer Saw movies have lost the connection to the drama and we're just not as concerned with the characters anymore.
This. The earlier ones were always about character study, and the personal dilemmas, which each trap merely being a microcosm of the greater internal conflict leading to that one choice... the one that leads to the 'Game Over.'
The gore, absent or present, has nothing to do with that central idea of the dramatic study of the characters. Exorcist wasn't good because 'demon posession's freaky'. It was good because it was, first and foremost, a drama. It was about characters, and what and who they were.
Same with Hellraiser 1 and 2. Those movies were about -people- in a horrific situation. Contrast with Hellraiser 3, which was about a horrific situation, and Terry Ferrell's tits. Needless to say, people watch Hellraiser 1 and 2, and only a few remember Jhadzia Dax's toplessness.
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