Somebody asked me why I like horror and I wrote the following essay. Now if only I could remember who asked and why! I stumbled across this and thought it relevant to Retro Slashers, so here goes! Enjoy!
I have wondered for many years now what it is that draws me to horror films, and what is it that makes me stay. I guess the easy answer is that I flat out like being scared. Not ‘for real’ scared, like if I was being mugged or something, but the kind of scared one gets when sitting in the comfort of a darkened theater or their home. There’s something really gratifying about the release of that terror. Maybe I am exercising the fear a woman has just dealing with day to day activities. After all, we are the gender that seems to be the target of most of the violence in this world. But that answer always sounded kind of pretentious to me. I think in the end it goes back to my first response, I just like being scared.
I’ve always liked the darker side of things, and a lot of that can be credited to my parents. Both of them worked in a mental institution and my father was an avid true crime reader, while my mom dove into mysteries. My siblings all ended up working in hospitals and prisons but my skin was never as thick as theirs. I think they could handle the dark much better than I could, and strangely, none of them are fans of horror movies… Maybe because they live in horror every day.
Being the rabid fan of 80s slashers that I am, I know part of the reason I really like those movies is pure nostalgia. Feathered hair, stone-wash jeans, lots of beer and some metal tunes always guaranteed a great time, and I still feel the same way. If any genre, other than the teen sex comedy, captured this little period of time, it was horror films.
And let’s face it, I’m not a very demanding filmgoer. Just give me some blood, some T&A and a scary madman, and you have my attention.
This brings me to the most common question that I get when I tell people how much I love horror movies. Do I find them misogynistic? Not in the least. In fact, I often wondered where that idea came from. Far before Carol Clover made it apparent in her awesome book “Men, Women and Chainsaws”, I always felt that for the most part, the women were really strong in horror films. I’m talking slasher films from the 70s and 80s in particular. In reality, the death ratio from men to woman isn’t that far off. For every movie like Maniac (one of my favorites), where it is women being killed exclusively, there’s a Friday the 13th, where both sexes are fair game. And as per usual for the genre, the term Final Girl obviously means that the female usually reigns supreme. It is the woman who survives the bad man and lives to tell the story. I’ve always liked that. And in the history of slashers, the Final Girls are usually quite likeable. Laurie Strode from Halloween was an everyman’s woman and we all loved Jamie Lee Curtis for it. Of note, I once saw an interview with Ms. Curtis where she mentioned that she didn’t have to do any nudity until she left horror and started making more mainstream films. Co-inky-dink?
So that brings me to the next question, do I mind all of the nudity? Hell, no! This is something else I never understood. They’re boobs! That’s all it is. Why someone, especially of the female kind, would get all bent out of shape because of a little bit of T&A I will never understand. Somehow sex and violence became the same thing in some people’s minds. But I don’t think horror films really sexualize violence. I think they are clearly two different things and each serves their purpose. I can’t imagine someone watching I Spit on Your Grave and think that anyone was condoning rape. OK, I Spit on Your Grave is an abhorrent movie, but still… I never thought there was some kind of sinister subliminal message underneath it. It’s exploitation cinema. It’s there to exploit, and it does it well! Another prime example of this is Ruggero Deodato’s House on the Edge of the Park. It’s almost a comedy about rape! I can’t believe that anyone would seriously watch that movie and think that it you’re supposed to come out of it thinking rape is good or something!
I’d like to think that the audience is smarter than that. Maybe I’m wrong, but most people who go into horror films know that these movies might be a reflection of the world around them, but they certainly don’t say “hey, have you raped someone today?” Silly film critics…
In the end, it’s all about the emotion a horror film brings out of you. A great film sticks with you and that feeling of dread takes days to go away.
Pingback: You Can’t Keep a Good Slasher Down