Scary trend of desensitation - Over the years, horror films have become increasingly more gruesome

By Frank Visco
Collegian Editor
November 1, 2006

Horror films are, and always have been, made primarily with one goal in mind – to scare the bejesus out of people. Occasionally a great one comes along that transcends the genre (i.e. The Shining, The Silence of the Lambs and Hitchcock’s horror films), but for the most part, horror films are put together with one thing in mind – making money by means of freight.

This statement is certainly not a sleight. Most genres operate this way. For example, most comedies are only aiming to make people laugh and most action flicks only aim to energize people. With few exceptions, these films are usually unconcerned with smart plots, round characters and superior technical aspects. They stick to the formula, and ride it to box office riches.

However, as history has shown, the proven formula is a relative thing. While some films remain timeless, most films, especially those in these three genres, don’t hold up over time.

As a result of this, the “proven formula” of a genre is constantly evolving to provide the goods. Concerning horror films, the powers-that-be are constantly finding new ways to scare the average horror-loving Joe.

Initially, the genre relied on monster films, such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Although such films have provided many of the most beloved horror characters, their outdated makeup and fantastical bent eventually made them ineffective in terms of scare factor.

From there the horror genre has gone from one formula to the next, moving on each time a formula’s scare factor is dried up. Examples of these formulas are the devil-related pictures (i.e. Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist) of the ’60s and ’70s, the films containing iconic slasher-baddies that preyed on young teens (i.e. Friday the 13th and Halloween) from the late ’70s and ’80s, and the self-mocking realistic slasher-flicks of the ’90s (i.e. Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer). Obviously, there have been many other stock types in the horror genre, including zombie flicks and thriller-based horror films, such as Silence of the Lambs.

However, it seems that many of these genre-types are no longer shocking enough to elicit big scares. Sure, some examples of these still exist, but they’re evolving. For example, slasher flicks are getting sicker (i.e. the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre films), zombies are getting smarter and faster (i.e. Land of the Dead) and deaths are becoming more creative (i.e. the Final Destination series).

However, in addition to this apparent intensification, two new genre types have emerged as perennial favorites. The first is the supernatural horror film, which has been chiefly inspired by Asian remakes and tends to feature creepy little boys and girls (i.e. The Ring and The Grudge).

This genre-type seems acceptable; however, the more popular emerging trend is disconcerting. The most popular horror flicks nowadays seem to fall into a genre-type that I deem “snuff-like.” Such films, including Hostel and the Saw series, indicate that in order to keep scare factors up and reel in the big bucks, filmmakers are being forced to show excruciating torture scenes and extremely gruesome images.

The problem with this is that eventually horror fans will develop a tolerance to such things, and want a more potent scare. Seeing as these new films are pretty hardcore as is, I’m at a loss for what that would be.

As I’ve indicated, it used to be that a monster could scare you, but that faded into near oblivion. Not that long ago, it was a knife-wielding man in a mask, but that is currently fading as well. Now it’s elaborate torture scenes, and so, it seems that the scariest thing of all might be anticipating the inevitable next step in the evolution of horror films that will come about when the masses become desensitized to those as well.

The trend indicates that films will get even more gruesome, but how much worse can they get without becoming a little too snuff-like?

viscof1@lasalle.edu