(no subject)
Now it's no secret that I love horror movies and literature. With a deep and abiding passion. I've been spending the last few months on a glorious Clive Barker bender. I remember the grown-up feeling and glee I felt when I was finally allowed to watch scary movies with Dad, and when Mom gave me H. P. Lovecraft and Poe to read when I'd gone through the kids' section of my school library. I've felt a keen interest in the use of horror not only as a means of generating compelling little shivers, but as a means of making greater points. Carrie and Ginger Snaps both are amazing body horror pieces about puberty and a misogynist society's way of fucking with young women. The Yellow Wallpaper is grade-A nightmare fuel, and a protest against the fact that this treatment actually was widely used. And hey, how about the whole original Twilight Zone series and its way of showing surprisingly progressive material (and occasionally, Shatner vs. a rubber suit)? Or the original Romero Dead series? Horror reflects the society that inspired it. Its fear of the Other, of science, of the unknown. And, of course, the politics behind such fears.
That said, I'm pretty depressed with the current state of horror. When undead, murderous stalkers and pedophile werewolves are relegated to the romance section, and the most popular scary movies are just vicious, repetitive torture porn, there can safely be said to be something very Wrong.
I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised, given the state of regressive backlash, that a new horror movie coming out seems to be some fucked-up mixture of the Saw franchise and every fundie Hell House that pops up like a flyblown mushroom around Halloween. The Life Zone (synopsis at link) is certainly saying a lot, but perhaps not necessarily what the Senate candidate behind it wants to say. It should be apparent, but some people still haven't figured it out: Anti-choicers want women to be punished for fucking. By death if they don't accept the "consequences". (I love how they think kids are a punishment, and we're supposed to be the ones who hate them.) I don't ever want to hear some asshole tell me that anti-choicers just looove them some babies. Horseshit. Otherwise they wouldn't be trying to outlaw, limit access to, and otherwise prevent contraception and other sexual health in the US. This is a horror film, but not the way the maker likely intended. It's just more proof that these assholes think The Handmaid's Tale was a how-to manual.
That said, I'm pretty depressed with the current state of horror. When undead, murderous stalkers and pedophile werewolves are relegated to the romance section, and the most popular scary movies are just vicious, repetitive torture porn, there can safely be said to be something very Wrong.
I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised, given the state of regressive backlash, that a new horror movie coming out seems to be some fucked-up mixture of the Saw franchise and every fundie Hell House that pops up like a flyblown mushroom around Halloween. The Life Zone (synopsis at link) is certainly saying a lot, but perhaps not necessarily what the Senate candidate behind it wants to say. It should be apparent, but some people still haven't figured it out: Anti-choicers want women to be punished for fucking. By death if they don't accept the "consequences". (I love how they think kids are a punishment, and we're supposed to be the ones who hate them.) I don't ever want to hear some asshole tell me that anti-choicers just looove them some babies. Horseshit. Otherwise they wouldn't be trying to outlaw, limit access to, and otherwise prevent contraception and other sexual health in the US. This is a horror film, but not the way the maker likely intended. It's just more proof that these assholes think The Handmaid's Tale was a how-to manual.