The Horror

Sundial, Chilleurs-Aux-Bois, France

This article is inspired by the extra cable movies channels my Mom has purchased. My Mom is a retired senior with some health issues and spends a fair amount of the time watching television and being on the internet. Many of the movies are of good quality, but some of the horror/suspense/thriller films seem to lack basic quality in the story and are very disturbing.

As a child and teenager I remember staying up late and watching some classic horror/suspense/thriller movies with Vincent Price such as Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Raven (1963), The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), and Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972). I personally do not enjoy watching this kind of material often, and I do not necessarily recommend that these films be viewed, but I have to admit that although these movies contained some disturbing scenes they were basically well written stories with good acting. These films although dealing with some evil subject matter still appeared to have significant artistic merit. Many of the current horror/suspense/thriller movies to me lack basic quality of story, have very disturbing scenes, glorify evil, and promote fear. I do not have a problem with evil being artistically shown in films in either the context of our real world or a fantasy world such as in The Wizard of OZ (1939), The Harry Potter series (2001), The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001), or in the excellent new Spanish film I just viewed in the theatre, Pan's Labyrinth (2006). I do not see much artistic merit in films that appear to focus on promoting evil as something that should be glorified as entertainment and at the same time promote a fear of evil. Many modern horror/suspense/thriller films seem more concerned with establishing an atmosphere of terror rather than an atmosphere of artistically looking at the problem of evil. Below are portions of reviews from screenit.com of some of the movies I have had the misfortune of running into with my remote control. I debated on whether or not to include graphic material as in torture details but decided not to, however, that information can be found through the links provided.

Hostel (2005)

http://www.screenit.com/movies/2006/hostel.html

The following is a brief summary of the content found in this R-rated horror/suspense film. Profanity consists of at least 100 "f" words, while many other expletives and colorful phrases are also uttered. Sexually explicit dialogue is present, as are several sexual encounters (featuring nudity, movement and sounds) and various views of nonsexual nudity (many views of bare breasts, butts and some female full frontal).

Violence consists of many people being tortured, wounded and killed via sadistic means, most of which has extremely bloody and gory results (the film is definitely not for the squeamish), and those scenes and other moments of peril will likely be quite unsettling or suspenseful to viewers. The perpetrators of such acts, those who support them, and others have bad attitudes, while some of that and other behavior might be enticing for some disturbed kids to imitate.

Saw (2004)

http://www.screenit.com/movies/2004/saw.html

Here's a brief summary of the content found in this R-rated suspense/thriller. Profanity consists of at least 27 "f" words, while other expletives and colorful phrases are uttered. Some brief, but sexually explicit dialogue is present, a man calls off an affair in a motel room and a man's bare butt is very briefly seen in a nonsexual context.

Violence consists of lethal and bloody acts where people are killed by various means and in various fashions (shootings, a head repeatedly smashed, etc.), others are threatened and/or severely injured, and the results of earlier, unseen violence are visible (with extremely grisly and bloody results).

Those scenes and other moments (including some jump scenes) may be disturbing, suspenseful or downright scary to viewers, especially those with low tolerance levels for such material as well as younger kids if allowed to watch this. The killer who's responsible for the deaths and sick traps obviously has a bad attitude, while a married man is noted as having an affair (with some other related tense family material being present). A man smokes several times and a woman is noted as being a drug addict, but no use occurs.

The Devil’s Reject’s (2005)

http://www.screenit.com/movies/2005/the_devils_rejects.html

Here's a brief summary of the content found in this suspense film that's been rated R. Profanity consists of at least 203 "f" words, while plenty of other expletives and colorful phrases are also uttered. Various instances of sexually explicit (and sometimes crude) dialogue are present (including talk of bestiality and necrophilia) as is a sex scene with nudity, movement and related sounds, other sexual material, and various instances of full frontal and partial female nudity, while scantly clad women are also seen.

Violence consists of people being killed by various means (gunfire, stabbing and much more), while there are also scenes of sadistic torture. Much of that has extremely bloody and gory results, and those scenes and other moments of peril might be disturbing and/or suspenseful to viewers. All of the main characters have extreme cases of bad attitudes (including the cop after the killers).

Thanks for reading.

Russ:)