Breaking The Waves

You know, I have never see the Saw movies. Or Hostel. Or any number of the popular "torture porn" variety that's hip with the kids these days. Mostly because the whole idea of a horror movie that's nothing but gratuitous physical torture seems oddly dull to me. Yet I could probably watch a woman get her tongue torn out over and over with little to no effect, but something like, say, a Lars von Trier movie I can only watch once, because that kind of torturing of a woman gets far deeper under my skin. Not that von Trier makes horror movies.

But when did horror get to be all about shock value? And shock value can be a lot of fun sometimes. But is it always horror? These days, hardly at all.

I guess I'm just having a harder time than I thought trying to convince some of the kids that I've talked to that Let The Right One In was one of the most effective horror movies that I have seen in a long time, even though most of the violence takes place off screen. Things go on in that movie at a deeper and more disturbing level than any throat cutting or blood-letting that you could show, which has all been seen before.

Maybe people like knowing what to expect in a horror movie. Just like in all genres out there. What a depressing thought.