I hate horror/slasher films. There, I said it. I know. How could I? They’re so amazing, right? Yeeeeeah, no they’re really not. There hasn’t been a remotely borderline original horror film in at least twenty years. And now before moving on, I’m not so anti horror film as much as I am anti-slasher film. And I have such hatred of them for more or less the same reasons that most others who hate them do. It’s because they devalue human life. The creators of these unoriginal, low budget, low quality mishmashes of cinematic feces, choking us to death in the burning hot summer sun go to great lengths, for purely financial reasons, to show as many people dying in as graphic of ways as possible. There is no mode of graphic violence that these select filmmakers won’t go to anymore and the next filmmaker is only looking for ways to top the brutality of what was created before. We’ll crush people with 1,000 pound rocks, we’ll gouge people to death with a wall cluttered with sharp blades, we’ll saw someone until they look like a crushed tomato, we’ll rush them through wood chippers, we’ll show them decapitated, castrated, mutilated and shattered to the point of near non-existence like a chunk of wood charred by fire and left as nothing more than black soot and ashes when all is said and done. It’s astounding to me that people find entertainment in this venue of filmmaking. Again, I can at least understand the intrigue of the more suspenseful horror style films in that their intention is to keep you on your seats and to leave you boggled as to what will happen next. At least there is so creativity lodged in there somewhere, but these slasher films have no story, and why should they? The story doesn’t matter. It’s the shock value that matters.
Now I don’t critique the way these films make little significance out of human existence because I’m some bleeding heart, nor do I attribute myself to some social standing wherein I think these graphically violent films will lead people to go out and do exactly what they see on the screen. It takes an already demented mind to take action like that, and even then, the violence they see serves as nothing more than a potential catalyst for their actions. I’m not about all of that, I don’t have some ulterior motive or biased perspective. I simply despise these films because they shit on humanity and that is total bullshit! That’s more or less it. But still, every film class I take, there’s some 25 to 30 students in there and the first day of class we go around introducing ourselves and telling the class what our favorite movie is or at least our favorite style of movie. And every class, no matter the focus, 20 of those people say not only do they love horror/slasher films the most, but those are the only movies they really like. And it astounds me. I think of all the great films throughout history, and even today there are a good deal of really good crime films, and comedies and dramas and even some musicals and animation films wherein even the most mediocre of the batch are greater than the best of all horror films. While I acknowledge this is all just my opinion, I find it hard to believe anyone with a remote intellect would watch a horror film and say that they are better than anything else out there. That truly astounds me, it’s just how I feel. In the music world, such is the opinion I have of rap music. It’s horrible, it’s all the same bullshit over and over again and I don’t understand why people still listen to it when it has no real musical quality to it; maybe one in every ten rap songs actually uses real instruments and isn’t just some deadbeat sitting at the soundboard spitting out annoying beating sounds along with the same tired rhythm over and over and over again. I guess you can say, as a young man in his twenties, I just don’t fit in all that way with people of my generation. Even some of my friends see what music I listen to or what film I watched last night and because it’s either something they haven’t seen or heard of I’m the weirdo for watching it. Yeah, good job being open to new things and respecting others for their perspectives. Hehe, having said that I guess I just drew myself into a hypocritical position seeing as I have just been slamming on the intellect that drives one to appreciate slasher films and rap music, but whatever the case, my point here isn’t to just ramble on about my hatred for horror/slasher films forever, but rather to show my gratitude towards them.
Gratitude? Yes! Without these pieces of rotting animal carcasses being in existence I probably wouldn’t maintain the beliefs that I have as far as the types of films that I try and make. When I take on a real serious project, especially something in the dramatic vein, I often deal with story lines and characters that have suffered real and honest pain. I go in contravention to the direction that slashers films go. I suppose you could say I’m trying to go to war with these films that will gladly kill of 30 people without a care. And why should the viewers care, you don’t know any of these people, right? Yeah, great statement on humanity there. If I don’t know them then why should I care what happens in their lives. Fine, hold onto that perspective of the world. Then, when a horror story really happens in your life and your running down a country highway looking for a car to flag down after some psycho abducted you and almost killed you and is still hunting you down, and no car stops for you, don’t start complaining. After all, you believed it yourself, if the people in those passing cars don’t know you then why should they stop and help you? It’s an extreme example to make a valid point. And that’s what frustrates me. Just because we don’t know someone doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about them, and yet that’s an excuse we use all the time. That is until a horrible tragedy like 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina happens and then suddenly everyone is everyone else’s best friend, and we band together as a nation and prattle on about how we all love each other and that we’re all one!!! ................for a couple months. Then it’s back to our own selfish universe until the next big tragedy occurs. What a sad way to exist. I see these people leap to the defense of their asshole friends after they get into a scuffle with a stranger that their friend started. But we have to defend our friend right? After all, they’re our friend and we don’t even know this other person. Wrong! For all you know, that stranger you don’t know might be a better friend to you than this other jackass ever was. Remember, every friend we have were strangers to us at some time. I didn’t meet my best friend, who has been my best friend for over thirteen years, until I was fourteen years old. And he’s my oldest closest friend. The rest of my closest friends I have known for even less time, but we stumbles across each other in the midst of this crazy life and befriended one another. Just because you know someone and not the other is no excuse for siding with the one you know, especially if you know full damn well that they were the screw up under certain circumstances.
But who cares? Our lives are busy enough as it is, we don’t need the problems of others cluttering our lives. Sure. I think it’s funny how the people who complain the most about being busy or tired are often the people who work the least (cause they spend so much time complaining) and have the most opportunities to get rest and sleep. And I’m no saint. I was an only child and let me tell you, when I was a kid I was about as selfish of a bastard as I could be at times. It’s a wonder so many of my friend’s stopped hanging out with me. But fortunately I figured that out and in the prevailing years I have spent a lot of time looking at humanity and while many people who have engaged in this pursuit have found themselves disillusioned and lost as to what qualifies mankind as civilized I have found a much more positive perspective on things because I feel like I understand the behavior of people so well. So I can look at the crazy things we do and often see it for what it is without it just going over my head. In all my years of observing others and taking everything in it really bothers me that so few have a capacity for being open and concerned for others, even though we all preach that we do. Everyone on this planet, including me, has had that one moment, possibly multiple times, where we stand up and start bitching mercilessly about how we do everything for other people and nobody ever does anything for us. It’s a good test of ourselves to determine if we have any grasp on reality when we examine those times when we behave like this. For if you look at the times you’ve said that and laugh it off and see it as a moment of embarrassment for yourself more than anything else such is a moment that allows you to grow. On the other hand, if you look back on the times you spoke in such hyperbole and you still think that’s an accurate portrayal of your life, it’s time for some serious introspection.... or maybe it’s time to see a shrink. Whatever works for you. So of course, being as delusional and careless as we are, it makes perfect sense to a degree that so many of us love these slashers movies and take it in as real entertainment when we see people being mutilated beyond compare.
I look at this however and see it as an opportunity to present the counter to these films, which in no way represent the true pain of death, a horror much stronger than anything that could be set in a horror film. I love how so many of these slasher films integrate the case with these slovenly characters who are often so easy to dismiss that it almost feels like a positive when we watch them get bludgeoned to death. The guys are always douches with little to no appeal and the women are often slutty to some degree or another because after all, what would the response be if we saw a mother and child being brutally murdered? Or an elderly person? Or a baby? Certainly the circumstances would be different and the world of shitty film knows that. They know that any given character is going to be more or less appealing than another. It’s like Quintin Tarantino’s last two films. We have “Inglorious Basterds”, wherein we see many people die, but they’re all Nazi’s and Nazi sympathizers for the most part so we’re okay with the violence. Then he makes “Django Unchained” and again we see lots of murder, but for the most part they’re redneck, racist slave owners, so again it’s okay. This is much the style that these horror films take on, bringing on victims that we don’t mind if they die. But even a bad person is still a person. An asshole may be someone that pisses us off that we wish would get the hell out of our life, but they’re still a person. I’ve had people out there piss me off as much as the next person, but I’ve never wished brutal violence or death towards them. We all feel pain and thus we should know and understand, especially if we experienced or witnessed one’s close to us go through brutal violence in some form or another. But of course, there’s always the people that will say, “Hey! It’s just a movie, it’s not the same as the real thing.” Sure it’s not, but you know what? For lack of putting it more delicately, I don’t give a shit! You act like an idiot and spit on the art of film, or any other art form for that matter, I’m going to call it for the useless trash that it is. The last thing we need in our world today is example after example of how insignificant human life is. And if you personally think human life is insignificant then go climb under a rock and whither away leaving the rest of us alone.
I choose to do film that often deals with violence in some form or another, or even ones that revolve around death. I’m currently finishing up a 45 minute short film about a young man and the plight he faces after his fiance dies in a mall shooting. Instead of killing someone off and leaving it at that I delve into the pain that permeates the lives of those closest to those who have lost loved ones to tragedy. It hurts. It hurts fucking bad and it stays there for a long time, sometimes forever. It’s no laughing matter and it sure as hell doesn’t make for good entertainment. Instead of making light of violence, pain and death I try and provide reminders of what such horrendous things create. I try and present the reality of what death creates because no, it’s not some little insignificant event where someone is important until they die and thus are left forgotten. I believe a week or so back I posted on here about the not-famous-enough cold case of “The Boy in the Box” involving a little boy, approximately 5-years old who was discovered dead, wrapped in a blanket, stuffed in a box and left alongside a rural road on the edge of Philadelphia. It’s heart-wrenching to think this poor child was simply abandoned with no one to claim him as their own. I saw the photographs from his funeral and it was conducted and attended only by the Philadelphia officers who worked his case. Thank God at least they were there to make sure this child wasn’t put to eternal rest all alone. But it follows a realistic look at what many of these bullshit slasher films convey; once your character is gone its significance is gone. They’re just abandoned and forgotten. But in reality such is just not true. The death of everyone no matter who they are effects someone in this world. The death of every person who lives on this planet steals tears from somebody else out there who cares deeply. So you could say thinking in that fashion I hope to achieve a certain level of catharsis in the films I make, tears that don’t come willy nilly or completely misguided but through a personal identification with the reality of what tragedy creates. Say what you want, I just can’t stand a film, or really a piece of artwork in any form that celebrates brutality and death, and I know there’s people out there that do. What can I say? I can’t force them to change and I’m not going to waste my time. It’s just sad though. Not everyone needs to be happy, perky and bouncy every second of everyday, but at the same time there are few pastimes in this world that are a greater waste than to burn away your life dwelling on pain, misery and death, especially to the point that it becomes something positive in your mind. That’s no way to live and, believe it or not, with all the crap in the world we have to deal with, it’s still positive to see the bright side in things, and it’s to be revered instead of demeaned the power and fortitude that it takes to take a tragedy in stride and to continue on living these lives we’ve been given.
Goodnight everyone!
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