Comments on: NY Comic-Con, Day 2: Friday the 13th. Spoiler Alert: Way Too Violent.

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Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:15:41 +0000

[...] then, on Friday the 13th, 1307, there was a massive operation by the King of France to pretty much round up all the French ones, [...]

By: Carsten

Carsten — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:44:10 +0000

My sentiments echo the audience member who asked the question: I have an admittedly high-brow philosophy when it comes to judging films, and from this standpoint this torture-porn fetish the horror film genre has begun to espouse feels more and more like a cheap attempt to “push the envelope,” to put it banally.

I mean, I still consider film to be an art, and granted, these types of movies are intended to be brain-numbing, rat-in-a-cage lever pulls. But still. Like the question asks: Why is this needed? What does this film do any differently than something like Saw or Hostel or the Halloween reboot? What does it say that makes it stand apart. If the answer is a flat, toneless “nothing, but Jason Voorhees is cool,” then I don’t see a reason for something like this to be made.

By: lee

lee — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 23:45:29 +0000

Gab: yes, part of it is the medium. Violence in video games is still abstract enough to pass as fantasy in my mind. When I see a live-action bear claw digging through a live-action guy’s flesh, exposing muscle and bone, that gets too real for me.

There’s obvious a spectrum of visual depictions of physical violence. On one end is something like Looney Toons. In the middle is something like a standard first person shooter or Arnold/Stallone action movie. At the other end is something like Saw or this remake of Friday the 13th. People have different upper limits that fall at different places along that spectrum. Mine happens to be somewhere in between the middle and the end point.

By: Gab

Gab — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:56:10 +0000

I try watching horror movies because… well… I’m not sure. I just, uh, do. If it’s on, I’ll watch. Or if my dad and I want something to do together, if it isn’t play Resident Evil, it’s watch a horror movie we select randomly at the video store. So I guess I’d see it if it was on cable, but I wouldn’t spend the $$ to see it in the theaters. I *am* interested in seeing “The Unborn,” even though it has some bad reviews, but only because it has Gary Oldman in it and I absolutely love him.

But Lee, is it the blood? For lo, you like zombie games. Not to call you a hypocrite. Is it the difference in media?