tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706937351903658758.post1536759082069237341..comments2024-01-09T06:37:41.791-05:00Comments on The Horror Digest: Death Scenes 1 & 2Andre Dumashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07170879111034420803noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706937351903658758.post-13632738257782513712011-06-01T12:25:54.781-04:002011-06-01T12:25:54.781-04:00While I've been watching horror movies for ove...While I've been watching horror movies for over 30 years (I remember watching The Omen when I was 8. No wonder I'm a bit demented), I totally dislike the Faces of Death/Death Scenes type movies.<br /><br />You (Andre) and most of the other folks on this comment string have the same thoughts regarding this. There is a fundamental difference between real people being hurt or killed and actors faking it. <br /><br />My feeling is that watching horror movies allows people to feel fear in an environment which is safe. That allows us to explore the sensation, really digging into where the fear is in our bodies, how it feels, and the best way to process that emotion. <br /><br />Horror movies don't involve true suffering, they merely have suffering as a theme. Nobody is being hurt. In fact, the intent with movies is to entertain. Entertainment and suffering are very divergent mind states, even to horror fans. Maybe especially to horror fans. We grok the difference.<br /><br />If there is someone in the world who cried and felt true grief from someones pain, that's not meant to be turned into a form of entertainment. That's sad.<br /><br />At the same time, I understand the nature of morbid curiousity. It is an emotional compulsion that some people feel, possibly even all people. If someone feels compelled to watch such things as an exploration of that aspect of themselves, I would not judge them for it. <br /><br />I'll stick with the fake stuff. Give me a realistic looking kill scene in a movie any time, I'll enjoy the hell out of it. I'll even watch those dreadful Hostel movies and enjoy them. What that says about me...I'd hesitate to guess. I'm comfortable with both my light and shadow aspects. <br /><br />Great post, Andre. Very thought provoking. Respect & Gratitude.<br /><br />Thanks also to everybody else for sharing your thoughts. <br /><br />Dream well.Patrickhttp://zombiefiles.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706937351903658758.post-22539867612056296152011-05-31T22:58:35.459-04:002011-05-31T22:58:35.459-04:00The Killing of America is the only actual document...The Killing of America is the only actual documentary I know on this subject. It's still hard to watch, but it's good.<br /><br />Africa Addio comes close, but it's horribly racist and I found the footage showing the mass slaughter of animals even harder to take than the real dead people.<br /><br />Give me special effects any day.Pearcehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04585713305682813718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706937351903658758.post-39675533898504934212011-05-30T17:17:54.708-04:002011-05-30T17:17:54.708-04:00I miiiight have to check these "documentaries...I miiiight have to check these "documentaries" out for curiosities sake, though I'll probably only make it a couple minutes through. The thing is, I love gorey movies, I love Tarantino, I love watched ridiculous deaths on screen and laughing about it. However. I love it BECAUSE ITS FAKE and it parodies death. Not because people are actually dying. Shit, I can't even watch the news most of the time because it makes me uncomfortable. Great post, I always love a good back and forth between a love and an abhorrence to violence.M. Hufstaderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08710221415534490058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706937351903658758.post-37707928899636127822011-05-30T11:11:24.313-04:002011-05-30T11:11:24.313-04:00Yeah, I don't really have the desire to watch ...Yeah, I don't really have the desire to watch this, as it is all clips. If I wanted to watch, say, a guy with a bullet hole in his head, I could find that. Sick, but yeah, it's the internet. Why would I need a whole movie of that though? <br />I love horror films because of the style that goes into eliciting the fear response. There really isn't any art in just being like "yeah, look, that guys bleeding to death!" if said guy actually is, in real life. Any idiot with a camera can film people getting hurt. It takes an artist to frame a shot, decide what to cut to from a gory shot, etc.Spooky Seanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07190905683753476684noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706937351903658758.post-29294542860299477212011-05-30T11:01:04.258-04:002011-05-30T11:01:04.258-04:00You and I have the same feelings about this subjec...You and I have the same feelings about this subject, it seems. I watch horror to escape, I think - and because I just like the hell out of it. But all the while, I'm profoundly aware that all the death scenes are FAKE. <br />People tend to chastise me, saying I enjoy watching people die. And so why would seeing a real crime scene/death be any different? <br />BECAUSE IN THE MOVIES, IT ISN'T REAL, ASSHOLE.<br /><br />I recently watched Faces of Death (1980) again to write about it for The Blood Sprayer (in which I echo a lot of your thoughts, truth be told) - and though FOD is largely fake, it still comes down to one thing: people want to see graphic death. <br />You hit the nail on the head using the words 'morbid curiosity'. While disturbing, people just can't let it lie, it has to be photographed, published, filmed, written about, splashed about on the news, and put onto video/dvd so it can be witnessed for all eternity. Over and over again.<br /><br />There was recently a film made (which will never be seen in Britain, I'm told) that shows Princess Diana's graphic death; the way she looked in the crashed car before the EMS could get her out. Now why do people feel the need to see that? But just as I mention it, you'll have some of your readers googling the hell out of the topic to see what they can see.<br /><br />Why can't people be satisfied with kittens, rainbows, and ice cream cones?Christine Haddenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16932508146588027867noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-706937351903658758.post-46875882358287871532011-05-29T20:55:40.021-04:002011-05-29T20:55:40.021-04:00The one thing that really irritates me about most ...The one thing that really irritates me about most of the cheaply-made "death docs" (the few that I've seen parts of) is that the pictures and footage are divorced from any interesting documentation or informative narration, which is often replaced with bad metal music. This apparently speaks to the videos' target audience, whom I won't characterize further. I found that DS2 (I haven't seen the first, and based on what I've heard about it never wanted to) did in fact contain narration that explained the carnage and placed it in context, which is why it's the one death doc I've seen that I'd recommend for the morbidly curious.<br /><br />As far as your thinking about the videos' popularity and despairing of the human race, I'm afraid you're right. I worked in an adult video store once, and it was quite a lesson in what the average person (the average man, certainly) really "likes." With the wide selection of porn videos for rental and purchase in our store, some of them good, the vast majority of them mediocre tending toward very bad, what was very, disturbingly popular on a consistent basis was "rough porn," the sort which portrays extremely gynecological, unerotic, violent and often seemingly nonconsensual acts.<br /><br />One simply couldn't write the consistent popularity of this stuff off as morbid curiosity. It was clear that a whole lot of people enjoyed it on a regular basis. I learned two things at least from that job: That the lowest common denominator is probably lower than you think, and that sensitive persons with half a brain shouldn't work selling porn.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com