BellaOnline Forums TV and Movies Horror Movies Do splatter/gore movies go too far?

Splatter movies (not slasher) are becoming more and more common in mainstream horror, with their depictions of torture, mutilation and sadism, do they have a rightful place in the genre, or are they going too far? A typical one would be the originally banned 'Last House on the Left' which has been re-made and is being re-released later this year sometime. What's your opinion on them?
I find most of them just gore for gore's sake, some very uncomfortable to watch - such as 'Left House' and I think they're a let down to the genre.
Other's such as 'Saw' call for the gore to tell the story and move the plot. There is a terrible habit of killing of the main characters lately though, with evil triumphing over good.

My husband and I have been discussing this over the past few years.

It seems like America is the only country that is terrible intent on the "good guy" always winning. In foreign movies, and books - it is not uncommon at all for the hero to die, quite often saving someone else.

But I have always been the fan for the more psychological horror and thrillers such as "6th Sense" and the original "Alien", even "The Ring". There is not the need for so much gore because the atmosphere of terror is there to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Now producers and directors seem to be taking the shortcut by going for the shock value of gore scenes to horrify us. I love M. Night Shymalan, but he admitted with his last film ("The Happening") that he was going to do things his viewers had never seen before and shock them. And it did! But I don't think the shock added to the horror of the movie, just the sadness of it.

I think Hollywood has also pounced on the killing of the hero's in the last five years for sure. Such as in the movie's 'Funny Games' and 'The Strangers' - it's just so depressing to watch characters fight to survive throughout a film, just to watch them die.
It's more shocking to have a protagonist live these days. It's not so much gore that I'm against, but I don't like torture films where someone is being bullied etc such as 'Texas chainsaw' re-make (which was very good) or 'Captivity' - some scenes just take it too far and make you feel like your watching a snuff movie. Anyone seen the movie 'my little eye'? A British, Big Brother style movie - that was really unsettling.

The Pit and the Pendulum always gave me the creeps. The music and camera angles they used in the pit scene when Vincent Price's character goes mad. He sure was a brilliant horror actor.

I would agree with the previous posters- the genre is overplayed so it is loosing its' shock value.

I think torture pr0n is pretty much a turn-off for me, I find it too upsetting and icky, but I love silly over the top gore, with heads getting ripped off and eviscerations left right and centre.

For example, I thought Zombie Strippers was a pretty lame movie, but it's got the spirit of films that I enjoy, unrealistic gore with a comedy plot.

Any british horror fans might like to check out Dead Set also, I just wrote an article on it. It's set in the Big Brother house and it's got loadsa zombies and Davina McCall.

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LOL - I was going to do a write up on dead set - but I couldn't watch the whole thing, I couldn't get into it. Although, seeing Davina McCall as a zombie was very funny.

I do think some movies take the gore too far and it just becomes torture porn - like the first Saw movie was good, but the ones after were just about "how creative can I get with ways to torture and kill people?" without any real plot or character development. I like movies to be suspenseful and scary, not just gross.

I also like comedy horror (Zombie Strippers cracked me up), and the just foolish, over-the-top horror/gore in movies like the Evil Dead series.

The problem is when movies that are trying to be dramatic go too far with the gore and it becomes inadvertently funny. I found myself stifling snickers through some of the battle sequences in Braveheart because the gushing blood and flying limbs reminded me too much of Monty Python.

What you see in horror movies are special effects so it is not real which means that it cannot go too far.

A lot of people just loves to be offended over everything except what they should be offended over. In real life there are rape, murder, torture, bullying and many other kinds of real crimes that are happening every seconds to innocent people everywhere on Earth. Movies or anything else are not to blame for any of that, the criminals doing that are.

The more gore there are in the movies I watch the more I love it and I am not immoral and I am not a psychopath. I have never hurt anyone in my life and never will either (unless of course in self defense). And my depression was not caused by watching horror movies either (my life started sucking at birth and there was no horror movie playing when i was born).