Horror Movie = Violence?

[DancerintheDark]

My local high school paper is run by religious weirdos and for the October issue they plan on doing, what else, a horror/religious issue.

One of the articles is written by this...well...religious fanatic (for lack of a better word) and it basically explains that horror movies should be banned for the simple fact that all violence is caused by celluloid violence.

I don't necessarily disagree COMPLETELY with that statement...but I have the chance to refute it - and I accepted...for two reasons :

1)I do love horror movies and I don't want them to be bashed...
2)I don't want the girl writing this to receive anymore glory over her writing

I have the confidence I can write a killer article...my problem is I don't have strong reasons for why horror movies DO NOT cause real life violence...

And my question to you all is : Why do you think that horror movies do NOT cause real life violence?

I need a lot of help on this...I want to kick the girl's ass :cool:

[Shockwave]

Why do you think that horror movies do NOT cause real life violence?

What if they do? Nothing can make u do the things u do but yourself, there is always a option B.

Movies CANNOT cause real life violence, its the people who act on these impulses that do, and if movies didnt exist they would find an excuse from somewhere else. Its just the nature of things and its very easy to put the blame elsewhere.

[countchocula]

I, too, want you to kick the girl's ass, so I'll try my best to help out. A person's volatile temperament is shaped by his/her upbringing. If you're raised with strong morals and your parents delineate to you the difference between right and wrong at a ripe age, you'll grow to shrug off cinematic violence as just that – cinematic violence. The difference between blood and karo syrup will be just as markedly clear as the difference between right and wrong. However, if your upbringing is wobbly at best, you will look for an excuse to harm others or yourself. And you'll find it, too. You'll find it anywhere and everywhere. You'll find it in a passage from The Bible, in a musical number from The Sound of Music, or even in a…horror film! A distorted perception of reality chooses its impetus at random. The unstable person will act on his/her impulses regardless of what triggers them.

Tell this girl to stop blaming pop culture for all of society's woes. Blame the people whom the unstable person spends the most time with at an early age – the legal guardian(s).

[Psychocandy]

Ok. I'm not about to suggest that it's impossible for a horror movie to have an undesirable effect on someone who is already capable of violent behaviour. That said...it's pretty much proven that almost anything can act as a trigger for certain individuals. The degree to which violent movies are responsible for our social ills though, is so insignificant when compared to dozens of other factors that it honestly enrages me that certain groups concentrate so much energy upon targeting violent imagery in movies as one of the main triggers for violent behaviour. Before we even think about expending any energy upon horror flicks as a supposed catalyst for violent behaviour shouldn't we first solve all the other more seriously catastrophic elements of society that undoubtably cause problems. How about tackling poverty for instance? What about gun control? How about the rampant bigotry that exists at almost every level of society? Shit...there are dozens of factors that have a more detrimental effect on the levels of violence in society. The people who target movies are just too fucking lazy to go after the big targets. Better to focus on something more manageable and media friendly. Over and above all of this it gives them a soft target to blame. It's less problematic to suggest that movies are responsible for the levels of violence in society than it is to tackle the real problems. It helps people to sleep easy if they have a "legitimate" scapegoat for the evils that you read about in the newspapers and see on CNN every fucking day. Anyway...that's enough of a rant from me. I could actually put some thought into this and put together a more coherent arguement with examples and facts. I just don't have the time and even if I did...the people it would be aimed at woudl just continue to lead a blinkered existence anyway.

[Dark_One79]

Glad to hear that horror will have a counterpoint voice. So... reasons that horror is not responsible for violence... let's see.

Well, one could make the argument that violence has existed long before the popularity of horror films. However, that still doesn't provide evidence that horror couldn't make one more likely to create violence.

What about examing the violence in many of the greatest works of fiction of all time. Perhaps you could "paraphrase" some of the more violent passages from some of Shakespeare's work (keeping out obvious details that would reveal the source), then cleverly reveal at the end that all of the descriptions of this horrific violence were really, in actuality, from the most well-respected playwright of all time and one of the most important artists/authors ever.

Then you could make the argument about the dangers of limiting artistic expression.

Just an idea.

[Reloaded]

The Ring and Darkness Falls have barely any violence. Mostly just violent images.

[Juice]

Originally posted by DancerintheDark
My local high school paper is run by religious weirdos and for the October issue they plan on doing, what else, a horror/religious issue.

One of the articles is written by this...well...religious fanatic (for lack of a better word) and it basically explains that horror movies should be banned for the simple fact that all violence is caused by celluloid violence.



ALL violence? Does this girl think there was tv in the middleages, when they burned witches? Does she think Jack the Ripper killed women because he saw it in a movie? DOES SHE THINK AT ALL??

Celluloid violence will only cause real life violence if:

-A child is constantly confronted with it, so it thinks it's normal.
-The person who sees it is insane.

Btw, she might wanna ban the Bible to... a guy killing his own brother... people getting eaten by lions... and getting nailed to a cross! Nasty!

[Jon Lyrik]

How many killers or violent people are nuts because they watched a movie? If you want to kill someone after watching a movie, you have real issues, that have been around long before you watched any movie.

[Five Years]

She is absolutely right....why, the crusades would never have happened if it hadn't been for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

It's such bullshit. Besides, there are some classic horror movies that have no real violence at all. The horror genre itself really isn't about violence and gore necessarily.

You know what actually causes real life violence a lot of the time? Religious fanatics! Suicide bombers, cults and just plain guys from Montana are going to continue to make life really interesting without even going to the movies.

Hell, look at Bowling for Columbine. I don't seem to remember horror movies or Marylin Manson really to blame for what happened. What was the accusatory finger pointed at? Well, the President bombed the hell out a country "whose name we couldn't pronounce" that very morning, and so on and so forth. By the way, I don't think Hitler saw many horror films. The idea to exterminate six million Jews, homosexuals and mentally retarded people came to him all by himself. There's no movie made before the '30s that shows a bunch of people going into a shower that isn't really a shower.

You know what needs to be banned from films? Romance. That causes problems. Why? Bill Maher explained it best. Its the same old story. There's a guy and a girl...and she hates him...but he's gonna get her....yeah, there's a word for that in real life it's called stalking .

The horror genre doesn't get respect because people like this girl always get it wrong. The best horror movies over the past four decades have had important social statements, and hidden meaning about human nature. No one really likes horror movies because the messages are either too sublte or too literal for their tastes, and as a result they are looked down upon.

Let's face it, in real life, human nature is pretty horriffic. It always has been, and violence will continue to get bloodier and more awful with or without horror movies. Damn, I wish I could yell at this dumb broad.

[DancerintheDark]

I really appreciate all of your answers...more than you can imagine.

I plan on writing the article, or at least drafting the main ideas, today...won't have time to work on it again until later this week but I will definitely post the article here before it is printed.

Hopefully, I'll be able to read her article so I can counter-attack each argument...the article will be good, and I'm not tooting my own horn.

Again, thanks so much for all the messages. These will definitely be taken into consideration and most of them will be used to benefit the horror movie cause.

Sometimes, I just can't stand religious fanatics...

[oldskooler79]

If you head over to Jet Li's official website, the guestbook has quite a few comments towards this subject. Some people think his movies are too violent, claiming kids think they can beat up anybody. The same with Van Damme...when Double Impact came out, I remember some kids getting out of hand with domestic violence and being interviewed on Oprah claiming that "Double Impact" made em do it.

The same when The Program came out. Those folks that laid in the middle of the highways.

I think that there is no particlar genre that makes a person do something out of the ordinary, but rather the scenes/moral of any film. People need to judge for themselves whether or not they can handle certain films, and use the best of their own 'right and wrong' knowledge. Ratings (pg-13, R) need to be enfored yes, but it's up to the individual to know what to expect and realize the consequences of recreating the fiction as seen on the screen.