Splatter film
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A splatter film is a subgenre of
The term was popularized by John McCarty's 1981 book Splatter Movies, subtitled: Breaking The Last Taboo: A Critical Survey of the Wildly Demented Sub Genre of the Horror Film that Is Changing the Face of Film Realism Forever.
During the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the use of graphic violence in cinema has been labeled "torture porn" or "gorno" (a
Characteristics
Splatter films, according to film critic Michael Arnzen, "self-consciously revel in the special effects of gore as an artform."[5] Where typical horror films deal with such fears as that of the unknown, the supernatural and the dark, the impetus for fear in a splatter film comes from physical destruction of the body and the pain accompanying it. There is also an emphasis on visuals, style and technique, including hyperactive camerawork. Where most horror films have a tendency to re-establish the social and moral order with good triumphing over evil, splatter films thrive on a lack of order. Arnzen argues that "the spectacle of violence replaces any pretensions to narrative structure, because gore is the only part of the film that is reliably consistent."[5] These films also often feature fragmented narratives and direction, including "manic montages full of subject camera movement ... cross-cuttings from hunted to hunter, and ominous juxtapositions and contrasts."[5]
Origins
The splatter film has its aesthetic roots in French
The first appearance of gore—the realistic mutilation of the human body—in cinema can be traced to D. W. Griffith's Intolerance (1916), which features numerous Guignol-esque touches, including two onscreen decapitations, and a scene in which a spear is slowly driven through a soldier's naked abdomen as blood wells from the wound. Several of Griffith's subsequent films, and those of his contemporary Cecil B. DeMille, featured similarly realistic carnage.
Modern era
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the public was reintroduced to splatter themes and motifs by groundbreaking films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) and the output of Hammer Film Productions (an artistic outgrowth of the English Grand Guignol style) such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Horror of Dracula (1958). Perhaps the most explicitly violent film of this era was Nobuo Nakagawa's Jigoku (1960), which included numerous scenes of flaying and dismemberment in its depiction of the Buddhist underworld Naraka.
Splatter came into its own as a distinct subgenre of horror in the early 1960s with the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis in the United States. Eager to maintain a profitable niche, Lewis turned to something that mainstream cinema still rarely featured: scenes of visceral, explicit gore. In 1963, he directed Blood Feast, widely considered the first splatter film.[6] In the 15 years following its release, Blood Feast took in an estimated $7 million. It was made for an estimated $24,500.[7] Blood Feast was followed by two more gore films by Herschell Gordon Lewis, Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964) and Color Me Blood Red (1965).
The popularity of the splatter film in the 1970s was met with strong reactions in the US and the U.K. Roger Ebert in the U.S., and Member of Parliament Graham Bright in the U.K., led the charge to censor splatter films on home video with the film critic going after I Spit on Your Grave while the politician sponsored the Video Recordings Act, a system of censorship and certification for home video in the U.K.[8] This resulted in the outright banning of many splatter films, which were deemed "video nasties" in the British press.
Some splatter directors have gone on to produce mainstream hits.
Splatter films have pioneered techniques used in other genres. For example, the popular 1999 film The Blair Witch Project is similar to the 1980 film Cannibal Holocaust.[9] The story in Cannibal Holocaust is told through footage from a group of people making a documentary about a portion of the Amazon which is said to be populated by cannibals. Although the Blair Witch directors had not seen Cannibal Holocaust at the time of filming, this "mockumentary" format was later used in their film.
One of the more recent examples of a splatter film is Terrifier (2016) and its sequel Terrifier 2 (2022). Both films are infamous for their gore, two main examples being Dawn's hacksaw kill in Terrifier, where Art the Clown saws Dawn in half, and Allie's bedroom kill in Terrifier 2, where Art theatrically mutilates Allie to death. Terrifier 2 was said to be so gory and so violent that audience members have reported to be vomiting and fainting.[10][11]
Resurgence and "torture porn" label
In the 2000s—particularly 2003–2009—a body of films was produced that combined elements of the splatter and
Filmmaker
The torture porn subgenre has proven to be very profitable: Saw, made for $1.2 million, grossed over $100 million worldwide, while Hostel, which cost less than $5 million to produce, grossed over $80 million.
The success of torture porn, and its boom during the mid to late 2000s, led to a crossover into genres other than horror. This became evident with the release of many crime thrillers, particularly the 2007 film I Know Who Killed Me starring Lindsay Lohan, and the 2008 film Untraceable, starring Diane Lane and Billy Burke.[28] The British film WΔZ, starring Stellan Skarsgård and Selma Blair,[29] and its US counterpart Scar, starring Angela Bettis and Ben Cotton, continued to facilitate this hybrid form of torture porn, which was also, to a lesser degree, evident in films such as Rendition (2007) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Law Abiding Citizen (2009), and Unthinkable (2010) starring Samuel L. Jackson.[30]
In the mid-2000s, the splatter film was given a major boost within the horror industry by a new wave of
By 2009, the box office draw of torture porn films had mostly been replaced in the U.S. by the profitable trend of remaking or rebooting earlier horror films from decades past, with the modernization of films such as
At the close of the decade,
Subsequently, torture porn has increasingly become a DVD-oriented subgenre. For example,
The genre elements were also used in episodes of many popular American television shows, including Fox's .
Some scholars have published analyses of torture porn films. For example, a book chronicling the torture porn phenomenon and the surrounding controversy—Steve Jones' Torture Porn: Popular Horror after Saw[12]—was published in 2013.
References
- ^ a b c McCarty, John (1984). Splatter Movies: Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen. New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press.
- ^ "John McCarty".
- ^ "John McCarty's Splatter Movie Gore-Nucopia – Movie List".
- ^ Boucher, Geoff (3 June 2007). "A queasy-does-it guy". latimes.com. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
- ^ .
- ^ Bankard, Bob. "Making 'Blood Feast'". Philly Burbs.
- ^ Briggs, Joe Bob (28 June 2003). Profoundly Disturbing: Shocking Movies That Changed History. Universe Publishing.
- ^ Newman, Kim (2011). Nightmare Movies. London: Bloomsbury Publishing., p.276
- ^ Deodato, Ruggero. Interview with Sage Stallone; Bob Murawski. "Cult-Con 2000", Cannibal Holocaust DVD commentary, Tarrytown, New York. 12 November 2000.
- ^ Pauline Villegas (October 15, 2022). "'Terrifier 2' director reacts to reports of viewers vomiting, fainting". Insider. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
- USA TODAY. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
- ^ a b c d e Jones, Steve (2013). Torture Porn: Popular Horror after Saw. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.
- ^ a b Edelstein, David (February 6, 2006). "Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn Archived 2007-10-11 at the Wayback Machine". New York Magazine. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
- ^ Jones, Steve (2013) "The Lexicon of Offense: The Meanings of Torture, Porn and 'Torture Porn'", in Feona Attwood et al. (eds.) Controversial Images: Media Representations on the Edge (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan).
- ^ Warner, Kara. "Saw IV Press Conference Archived 2011-06-16 at the Wayback Machine". UGO.com.
- ^ a b Skenazy, Lenore (May 28, 2007). "It's Torture! It's Porn! What's Not to Like? Plenty, Actually". Advertising Age.
- ^ May 3, 2007. "Is there a link between 'torture porn' and real sexual violence? Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine". The Guardian. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
- ^ a b c Murray, Steve (June 7, 2007). "'Horror porn' a bloody success Archived 2007-10-01 at the Wayback Machine". Associated Press. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
- ^ La Monica, Paul R. (June 8, 2007). "'Torture porn' helps Lionsgate roar Archived 2007-10-05 at the Wayback Machine". Retrieved on June 14, 2007.
- ^ Kinsella, Warren (June 7, 2007). "Torture porn's dark waters Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine". National Post. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
- ^ Lariam Peter (October 24, 2008) "'Saw' May Become Best Horror Franchise Ever Archived 2009-02-01 at the Wayback Machine". New York Post. Retrieved on June 4, 2009.
- ^ The Problem with Torture Porn Archived October 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ May 1, 2007. "For your entertainment". The Guardian. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
- ^ June 3, 2007. "Capone and Eli Roth discuss horror movies, gore, Stephen King, the phrase "Torture Porn" and much more!!! Archived 2007-10-05 at the Wayback Machine". Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
- ^ Horowitz, Josh (March 28, 2007) "'Hostel' Helmer Eli Roth Says Horror Should Have No Limits: 'It's All Fake' Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine". MTV. Retrieved on June 11, 2007.
- ^ Olsen, Marc. "Stephen King on the artistic merits of torture porn Archived 2015-08-26 at Wikiwix". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on July 14, 2007.
- ^ Onstad, Katrina (February 10, 2008). "Horror Auteur Is Unfinished With the Undead Archived 2017-01-29 at the Wayback Machine". The New York Times. Retrieved on February 15, 2008.
- ^ Corliss, Richard (January 25, 2008). "Hiding from Untraceable Archived 2008-02-28 at the Wayback Machine". Time. Retrieved on February 15, 2008.
- Evening Herald. Retrieved on September 12, 2008.
- ^ French, Philip. "Scar 3D Cert 18" Archived 2017-01-28 at the Wayback Machine (review), The Observer, 9 November 2008. Retrieved 22 November 2008
- Rue 89. Retrieved on September 12, 2008.
- ^ Gonzalez, Ed (May 8, 2008). "Frontier(s) Archived 2011-03-01 at the Wayback Machine". Slant Magazine. Retrieved on April 21, 2010.
- ^ Ogden, Brianne (February 18, 2008). "Torture porn says something about society Archived 2013-02-01 at archive.today". The Roanoke Times. Retrieved on February 18, 2008.
- ^ Graham, Mark (April 30, 2009). "Eminem Resurrects Torture Porn for '3 A.M.' Video Archived 2009-05-31 at the Wayback Machine". New York Magazine. Retrieved on June 4, 2009.
- ^ Singh, Anita (May 18, 2009). "Cannes Film Festival 2009 : Lars Von Trier's 'torture porn' film Antichrist shocks Archived 2009-05-21 at the Wayback Machine". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved on June 4, 2009.
- ^ Ordoña, Michael (August 1, 2009). "The Collector Archived 2009-08-04 at the Wayback Machine". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on August 1, 2009.
- ^ Bowles, Scott (February 13, 2009), "Classic horror films come back to life, profitably Archived 2009-09-17 at the Wayback Machine". USA Today. Retrieved on June 4, 2009.
- ^ Fletcher, Phoebe (2009) 'Apocalyptic Machines: Terror and Anti-Production in the Post-9/11 Splatter Film', in Leanne Franklin and Ravenel Richardson (eds) The Many Forms of Fear, Horror and Terror (Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press).
- ^ Schneller, Johanna (2008) 'The Torture Merchants' Not-so-Funny Game', The Globe and Mail, March 22.
- ^ Hulse, Ed (2007) 'Directing New Brands of Horror', Video Business, March 12.
- ^ Puig, Claudia (2009) '"Last House" is Condemnable', USA Today, March 13.
- ^ Phelan, Laurence 'New Films', The Independent, January 22.
- ^ "Home". Archived from the original on 2013-10-14. Retrieved 2013-09-28. Retrieved on September 28, 2013.
- ^ Sobolewski, Helene (2011) "Depraved Horror Movie Banned" The Advertiser (Australia) December 2.
- ^ Kermode, Mark (2010) "A Confederacy Of Dunces: Jonah Hex's Mix Of The Civil War And Comic Book Is Plain Confusing", The Observer (England), December 26.
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- ^ "GROTESQUE | British Board of Film Classification". Archived from the original on 2014-10-25. Retrieved 2013-09-28.. Retrieved on September 28, 2013.
- ^ "THE BUNNY GAME | British Board of Film Classification". Archived from the original on 2014-07-07. Retrieved 2013-09-28. Retrieved on September 28, 2013.
- ^ Barnes, Brookes (2009) 'Audiences Laughed to Forget Troubles', The New York Times, December 30.