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Art Weingartner Profile
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Burbsmaster

Registered: 06-2007
Posts: 3735
Karma: 17 (+17/-0)
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Video Nasties....modern day horror...


*deep breath* I'm no expert on pop-culture but, I was there in the 1980s - when for the first time ever, the VCR (video cassette recorder) allowed people to watch movies in their own home; whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Up until The Video Recordings Act 1983, the State had a pretty firm control on what people saw, to an extent, by classifying cinema films, what went out on TV, having specially licensed premises for certain types of films...etc...
There was an inevitable 'moral panic' in this country at that time, due to the emergence of the new horror "video nasties" - I think led by decency campaigner Mary Whitehouse. I was 15 at the time and remember watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Zombies Flesh Eaters, Zombies Lake and a few others JUST prior to them being made illegal under the 1983 Act. I was envied by most at my school for having seen them. Cool.
By the way. Interesting note. When you watch the old VHS video of the UK version of The 'burbs, the 1983 Act is why Ray's horror fest is cut. And that's also why the modern UK DVD release says UNCUT.
Anyway, it's interesting, because that law has long since gone. God alone knows what they would have made out of SAW and HOSTEL back then. But anyway, I bought "BOX OF THE BANNED" which contains Last House On The Left, I Spit On Your Grave, Driller Killer, Evil Dead, Nightmares In A Damaged Brain and some more - all uncut and with added deleted scenes deemed unwatchable back then.
I look at them now and think....tame. And yet, back then, as they were the innovators, the first of their kind to be available, they still carry a certain amount of credo.
For me the newies are often good, sometimes very good, sometimes utter cr@p, but I can't help but feel the way modern horror is going is only towards how more and more can we push the limits of taste? Ichi The Killer. The Men Behind The Sun. I have absolutely no desire to watch these movies as they look sick. But they're legal. So rather than a good story, well directed and acted, as with, oh I dunno, the original Psycho, we seem to be accepting just a stretching of the parameters of bad taste. Basically, we've become so de-sensitized it seems we will watch anything. Don't get me wrong. There are some cool modern horror movies. And I guess always will be. One thought that has occurred to me is this: Are the really bad taste movies these days just the same (shocking, disturbing, sick) as they were back in the 1980s - just relative to the context of time/culture? I mean, back then we had a whole Parliamentary ACT. I'm thinking maybe back then was worse. It was a huge deal. Films like Straw Dogs and Clockwork Orange were banned (got 'em both) and even (straying a bit) Bruce Lee's Nunchaka scenes had to be cut for UK videos or face a ban!
I suppose it's like shocking moments of Rock. The Sex Pistols swore on TV in 1977. It was a massive thing. Headlines in newspapers. Moral outcry. Nowadays it's commonplace. Just look at Gordon Ramsey. I digress...
I think we are just so used to horror trying its best each time to shock us, or make us turn away in disgust - but i feel what's often missing is a damned good storyline. Superb acting and scripts. Something original. Something exceptional. I just look at the supermarkets DVDs and think 'more of the same'.
So. What's everyone's views on the status quo of horror? Looking back at original horror and also the new? The fact that Wicker Man, Hills Have Eyes, Psycho, etc etc etc have been remade, goes to show that we may have run out of fresh ideas.

---
"...we should sue them..."
3/24/2008, 7:16 pm Link to this post Send Email to Art Weingartner   Send PM to Art Weingartner MSN Blog
 
TheManiacNextDoor Profile
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Garbie

Registered: 11-2007
Posts: 389
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Re: Video Nasties....modern day horror...


I've always said there's a huge difference between 'horror' movies and 'slasher' or 'gore' movies, whatever you want to call them. Obviously fake, over the top, unrealistic hollywood gore effects don't 'horrify' me in the least. Give me a good, psychological story based in some realm of believability any day. Yes, it is natural for people to become more and more desensitized to anything they're exposed to on a regular basis. That's the problem when you start turning your head to what common sense should deem unacceptable; it just opens the door for things to get worse and worse. Maybe the Acts of 1983 had some good ideas afterall....

---
I'm gonna staple his @ss shut!
3/24/2008, 7:48 pm Link to this post Send Email to TheManiacNextDoor   Send PM to TheManiacNextDoor
 
RayPeterson Profile
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Burbsmaster

Registered: 06-2007
Location: Good ol' Germany
Posts: 4582
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Re: Video Nasties....modern day horror...


I'm rapidly losing interest in today's slaughter movies. On the one hand it's always exciting to test your own limits concerning which images you are able to stand (as long as it just a movie and doesn't include sick killings of animals like in those italian cannibal movies of the 80's).

Nonetheless, I'm not interested in testing these limits anymore. One day I had to make the frightening discovery that over the years I became blunted to all the violence. In 2003 when I became aware of the new wave of gore movies which were published then (Haute tension, Wrong Turn, Texas Chainsaw Masacre) the violence was actually able to shock me. 5 years later it takes more to shock me and that's a dangerous progression. So I ended with searching for movies like "Guinea Pig: Flowers of Flesh and Blood", "August Underground" or "Cutting Moments".

Imaging that one day I might not even be shocked by those movies anymore I decided to stop watching this violent crap. It's not just a self-imposed stop but mainly caused by growing lack of interest.

The funny thing is, I recently bought 12 cinema yearbooks via ebay (1980 -1991) and in one of the early 80's yearbooks (82 or 83) the author already complains about the degeneration in "modern" movie culture and society itself and how the growing number of horror movies (like Friday 13th) reflects the sick society.

I wonder what this guy would write with regard to the movies of the recent years.

---
Walter, I have your dog.
3/25/2008, 2:23 pm Link to this post Send Email to RayPeterson   Send PM to RayPeterson
 
Art Weingartner Profile
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Burbsmaster

Registered: 06-2007
Posts: 3735
Karma: 17 (+17/-0)
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Re: Video Nasties....modern day horror...


(as long as it just a movie and doesn't include sick killings of animals like in those italian cannibal movies of the 80's).

Cannibal Ferox? Yeah they killed a turtle and that poor thing tethered to a post that was whacked by a python. Sick f***s

Last edited by Art Weingartner, 3/25/2008, 3:39 pm


---
"...we should sue them..."
3/25/2008, 3:38 pm Link to this post Send Email to Art Weingartner   Send PM to Art Weingartner MSN Blog
 
Mayfield669 Profile
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Lieutenant

Registered: 06-2007
Posts: 1081
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Re: Video Nasties....modern day horror...


Geez, No I am not into the gore thing. An intelligent plot, like the others or the sixth sense, with a unique twist is more to my liking. Art, here you go, in Army of Darkness they make fun of the gore genre when the first guy gets thrown into the pit and an inordinate amount of gore comes shooting out. It was hilarious because there was no way that much blood could have gushed up. (Sounds gross but it isn't)
3/29/2008, 8:44 pm Link to this post Send Email to Mayfield669   Send PM to Mayfield669
 
Art Weingartner Profile
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Burbsmaster

Registered: 06-2007
Posts: 3735
Karma: 17 (+17/-0)
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Re: Video Nasties....modern day horror...


I see so its like a pi$$ take as its WELL over the top exaggeration?

Cool...Like in Scary Movie when the guy sh@gs that girl and...well....LOL LOL

---
"...we should sue them..."
3/30/2008, 6:12 am Link to this post Send Email to Art Weingartner   Send PM to Art Weingartner MSN Blog
 
Mayfield669 Profile
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Lieutenant

Registered: 06-2007
Posts: 1081
Karma: 3 (+4/-1)
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Re: Video Nasties....modern day horror...


Exactly.

Is it Scary Movie 2 where the skeleton chases the two girls through the basement and then they turn around and mess with him? I almost choked I was laughing so hard.
3/30/2008, 9:33 am Link to this post Send Email to Mayfield669   Send PM to Mayfield669
 


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