Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Creepy Kitch Discussion Time! - Is Less More?

And its mainly discussion time because I STILL haven't had a chance to sit down and watch the two movies I need to review this week (Evil Things and Grace). But the blog looked lonely sitting all quiet like so I figured I'd keep it company.

So here's my question for the masses:
What is more scary to you; lots and lots of graphic gore or something that only suggests lots and lots of graphic gore? Now I'm not asking what is cooler and more entertaining to watch but what is more frightening.

As I've stated WAY too many times on the blog, I am a less is more type of gal. I really like it when a movie lets me imagine the horrible things rather than spoon feeding it to me. I have one Hell of an overactive imagination (which really does explain my acute sense of paranoia) and sometimes all I need is a hint, a word, a slight description, and I am off the deep end. Before I even saw it, the suggestion of what the movie Se7en was about gave me nightmares for days...then the movie gave me nightmares after I watched it simply because you never saw the kill scenes, just the aftermath.
And I will admit, just the poster for Funny Games freaks me the hell out. I haven't seen it yet and I"m not sure I could get through it. But the small blood stains on the white gloves gives me the willies BIG time.
Suggestions of gore always scare me most.

HAVING SAID THAT...
I can also say that certain moments of total gore can really freak me out as well. But it has to be something that I consider pretty realistic or "serious" for it to get to me. Campy over the top clown gore doesn't scare me. Is it cool? Oh Hells yes. But does it scare me? Nah, not really. But scenes that are wither realistic or full of complete object terror for the victim will get to me. For example the eye scene in Zombie II, the barbed wire room in Suspiria (wow, the Italians are fucked up), and ESPECIALLY a scene of the cop falling from the stair well in [REC] are all pretty gory, surprising, and terrifying to me. So gore, in a realistic manner can be pretty scary if portrayed in a specific way.

So, What are your thoughts? I'm always curious as to people's Point of View when it comes to what they find scary. Is less more in your book?

7 comments:

Nojh said...

Something that suggests lots and lots of graphic gore.

I'm not sure gore scares me. Even if there is a suggestion of gore. Too many movies and video games have showed me gore that the visuals of it don't scare me. The suggestion of gore. I guess what would scare me is less the suggestion that there is gore around the corner and the suggestion that I might /become/ gore. That is far scarier. You show me gore and mentally I go 'Well thats not me, its just gross'. The suggestion of gore means that there is something there that /makes/ gore, which I have a chance of becoming, and that is scary.

Nojh said...

Also completely off topic but I thought I'd share this with you two.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z92AL2bESWc&feature=player_embedded

Bevin said...

Gore in and of itself doesn't scare me. It might make me squeamish or annoyed or even bored, depending on how it's being used, but I don't think I've ever been scared by it. The moments leading up to potential gore have scared me, but I have to say, the things that freak me out the most are images of things that should not be where they are. Someone standing at a door or window when they shouldn't be, someone turning their head too slowly to look at another person, a too-intense look, just really simple things that are not right when you look at them. David Lynch is a master at it, and that scene in The Host where you first see the monster breaks all the scary monster rules in movies, but somehow manages to freak me out a little because my brain is going 'that should not be there' the whole time.

Gore? Meh, the tension's gone then. It's the anticipation and dread that get me.

Bevin said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B5pE1DEHyk&feature=related Like this is a perfect example. This still heebs me out, even though it's not a jump scare or a quick-cut or anything meant to startle you. It's a building of slow dread.

Cins said...

Nojh>>Well gore is entertaining to me to be honest. But I agree, the build up or what could BECOME gorey is more scary to me than blood and guts. Unexpected gore also frightens me. For example, one of the most frightening gore moments I've seen wasn't even from a horror film. in "The Talented Mr Ripley" Matt Damon hits Jude Law in the head with an oar. Theres a moment of stunned silence then Jude's head just splits open and blood pours out and he goes down. That moment really frightened me!

Bevin>>I'm in the same boat as you. Subtle unusual things are more scary to me, which is why movies like Paranormal Activity scare me more than movies like Hostel.


I'll check out the videos you guys posted when I'm home from work!

Nojh said...

Cins>> See I think we have slightly different definition of gore. What you described from the Talented Mr. Ripley I would have called simple violence. Gore to me is blood and carnage that is actually the focus on the scene, usually from something dead.

Like a bloody corpse hanging from the ceiling is gore.

Someone who just got shot looking down at his wound with blood on their hands, not so much.

I know this isn't the /actual/ definition, which I think is dried blood. But I mean from a horror movie context.

A Cinematic Slice of Cheese said...

I never found gore scary. It's more of a gross out factor and a "Oh my God did that just happen?" factor (and in some cases, if something looks painful then I react but not in fear but in recoil and disgust). To me tension is what scares me. The unknown. "The Ring" (which I saw before Ringu) scared me to the point where I coiled up into a ball in my seat in a theater not because of gore, but when that fucking Samara crawl out of the TV and did that fast forward effect I fucking lost my god damn mind and screamed like a bitch. Tension and moments like that, which were filled to the brim in "The Descent", is what scares me more.