I don’t watch horror slasher/spatter films because it’s never really interested me, but I found the Weapons trailer intriguing. The way all those kids ran away from their homes in the middle of the night. There was some pretty great cinematography and choreography in this film. I was there mainly the mystery solving and fantastical elements.
Unfortunately, the supernatural element wasn’t explained. It borrowed from familiar witchcraft tropes, but didn’t go anywhere. So many questions. Then it became… gruesome. Exceedingly so. (And yes, I know it was more mild than other films.)
Anyway. I’m just lost. What draws people to these kinds of gruesome films? If it’s something you love, what excites you about it? I feel as though great stories can be told really well without being this explicit. But perhaps great storytelling isn’t what people are looking for in horror films?
Perhaps it is the fear and suspense it brings out of you? Or maybe the squeamishness of not being able to look at the screen at times? Maybe some people look forward to the gore, which adds value the more gruesome it is? 😬
I feel like I am not getting something. I love fantasy. I love stories. I feel like there was a lot of great potential in this film for storytelling, but it never came to fruition and was kind of ruined by focusing on the wrong things. And that’s probably because I don’t understand what makes a good horror film good in the first place?
Thoughts?
Update: Some comments helped me refine what it was that bothers me. I had to look it up and the Wikipedia article helped a lot by breaking horror down into subgenres. It’s “slashers” that I don’t understand, but particularly “splatter” films. When I look at lists, it turns out that I enjoy a lot of “horror” without realizing it’s classified as horror. But gorey, body mutilation… that is the form of horror that I struggle to understand the appeal of.
Weapons employs mutilation at the end and I was wondering why I needed to see this. The filmmakers added it because they wanted me to experience it. They thought it added to their film, but my experience was the opposite. I thought the story was doing great on its own and then… ugh… wtf… who wants to see this? 😅
So this is what I was really asking: For those that enjoy and seek out gorey mutilation, what is it that attracts you to that?
It’s books too, going back further than movies, sci-fi and horror was where “other” voices had a better chance of breaking jn. Mary Shelley and Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus. There are stories about women being outside the mainstream, witches and vampires, as code for lesbians and women who simply didn’t want to live the married life giving birth and subject to husband’s financial controls. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is fresh on mind because I watched it a month ago or so. And The Gilda Tales, a book with lots to say about slavery and feminism and vampires.
Some of the most terrible body horror is about giving birth or about having your physical appearance constantly judged by society. The Substance with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley.
To other modern, commercial stuff like Get Out by Jordan Peele.
Jennifer’s Body was poorly advertised by the studio, but about a raped/abused women using the horrors inflicted on her, possessing her and using it to get back at her rapists. Even now the IMBD description talks about how her friend has to save her from possession when really her friend gets “possessed” too, aka radicalized and no longer takes shit from abusive men.
The term “the male gaze” was coined by a black, queer filmmaker, she made a short movie called The Mark of Lilith way back in the day. Not the easiest to find but it’s inspired a lot of work that came after her.
To parody works like Slumber Party Massacre flipping misogynist tropes on their heads.
Thank you for this.
One thing I’ve been reminded of in this thread is how diverse horror is and how I was unintentionally limiting it. I was effectively equating horror to slashers and splatter films, which I’ll never understand the appeal of. But the reality is that I have partaken in quite a bit of horror without ever really thinking of it as horror first. Genres tend to bleed into each other.