More on why the movie "Hostel" should not exist

I found this in the paper the other day, and I couldn't believe what some of the people were saying.

Lions Gate President Tom Ortenberg says this particular kind of horror movie is alluring because ''it's got touches of realism that audiences today can relate to."
Do we really want to relate to scenes of torture, no matter how realistic? Who can actually relate to torture?

Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, believes this kind of graphic fare is making a comeback because ''when people want to be scared, they really want to be scared.'' ''With video games and all the entertainment options, it really takes a lot to impress audiences today,'' Dergarabedian said. ''The level of violence and gore cannot be too intense for a lot of people. Horror fans in particular are very keen on seeing the most intense, violent images they can.''

''Some might say it's a reflection on society, how desensitized we've become to violence,'' he added. ''I still believe people know the difference. It's a vicarious thrill. I look at it more as entertainment: You can have that fear but in a safe environment.''
Okay, I understand the fear in a safe place, as being seperate from reality. But don't you think we should be worried that people want more intense scenes of violence and gore? We are desensitized to violence, we see it every day on the news: a shooting here, a beating there, accidents, death in Iraq, etc. But seeing more of it, treated in such an offhand manner, takes away the tragedy at the loss of humanity. Why are we allowing our entertainment to do the same? Just because it's a fake death, with fake blood, etc., does not mean the feelings it evokes should be fake as well.

Asked about the renaissance of grisly horror, he said: ''Everything goes in cycles.''

''After about 15 years, there's a whole new group of people who haven't seen this kind of material. In the world we live in, we like to push the envelope, so today's gory horror movies are gorier than the last generation's gory horror movies. There is a limit to what you can do to horror, and, frankly, I thought we reached it in the mid-'80s, but apparently not.''
And no one is concerned about the exponential increase in goriness? What will happen in the next cycle? Will snuff movies become the norm?

''Everyone has a fascination with death,'' said Roth. ''Violence is cinematic. It looks great on film. It's a great release watching the bad guy get it — seeing someone get brutally maimed in a movie, your worst nightmare, you see it and scream about it and it feels great.''
I don't think I have a fascination with death. I am somewhat curious about it, yes, and somewhat scared; but that doesn't mean I want to see it played out in the most brutal way possible. As for seeing the bad guy meet his end...there is a difference between justice and revenge. Thank goodness in reality society offers a different punishment for wrongdoers than to treat them as they treated their victims.

Do people actually feel "a release" watching scary movies? I remember when I watched Final Destination in high school. I thought the plot idea was kind of cool. But I saw so much gore in that movie I couldn't sleep that night, because every time I closed my eyes I saw those horrible images. It was not a release, it was not great, it was a profound fear and sense of loss that so many lives could be lost for something so meaningless. But perhaps that is a bad example; after all, fate is not a "bad guy" that you can punish.


Just finished reading: Legends II, a collection of fantasy stories in the series that made the authors famous. The fact that I hadn't read several of the series didn't detract from reading the book very much, if at all. In fact, I think I enjoyed several of the stories from unfamiliar authors more than some of the ones I knew. For example, I was a bit disappointed by Anne McCaffrey's Pern story...it didn't really say much, or anything new. Unless Moreta's fate was a big mystery. But it's been a while since I read the series anyway. And Neil Gaiman's story just made me want to go out and buy American Gods to read again. Thanks, Becky, for a wonderful book!