Quote:
Originally Posted by ahimsa36
To Mictlantechutli:
This question has come up in discussing this with my girlfriend....."As far as horror movies as a bootcamp for the psyche, what do you think about desensitization? Can horror movies ever become too much for the psyche to bear and then begin to have a harmful effect?"
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It's a tricky subject and I'm sure my answer is an over-simplification of the subject but...No.
Sure I'm desensitized to (and actually quite titillated by) screen violence but that's where it ends. I saw a real dead body not too long ago - terrible car crash, lots of blood and a few easily identifiable body parts detached from their hosts - and I was truly upset.
I feel those who use this argument about the desensitization have either lived a coddled life, free of talk about death, intentionally turning a blind eye to the real horrors of the world; or they have a pre-existing mental imbalance which is the true root of the problem.
Art cannot hurt you, but it certainly can affect you.
And about the Saw movies - they're morality plays. Sure the morality is twisted, but they are simple stories with complex devices. Very good stuff in my book. The Killer in Saw wants people to step outside of themselves and address just how much they really want to live. I find the movies tremendously life affirming.
Hostel was just torture-porn. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I dig it for how it wallows in its sleaze and the very clear statement it makes about the "ugly American" and how the rest of the world thinks of us as a pestilence.