I watched “The Devil’s Rejects” this weekend and something dawned on me about American horror movies, they are full of assholes. In most of the movies, there is no point to the carnage beyond people who want to be extreme assholes to their victims before killing them.
In the Japanese horror movies(or those movies based on them) I’ve seen, there is an underlying reasong for the pain and death. In “The Grudge”, the ghosts kill people because they themselves were murdered and the rage remains. In “The Ring”, the girl was pissed off about mom and dad so she was going after everyone who saw the tape. Contrast this to “The Devil’s Rejects” or “Chainsaw Massacre” where the killings are simply motivated by a desire to be pricks.
I am the first to admit that this is but a small sampling and I am in no way a movie expect so I’m probably missing all sorts of examples of American horror movies chock full of legitimate reasons for murder. Please restore my faith in American horror. Have we lost our way and can’t think of any other reason to kill people beyond our own assholishness?
[spoilers]Mom was controlling and presumably abusive, and didn’t want poor Norman to get too close to any other member of the opposite sex. Hence, when Janet Leigh shows up and starts showering, out come the knives.[/spoilers]
Anyways, it’s kind of an interesting observation. Not sure exactly how well it would hold up though; I don’t watch all that many horror movies, but the last one I saw (Saw II) had a motive, however warped. The killers in Scream had a motive as well.
But I know the kind of movie you’re talking about where there is no motive. And although it’s been done to death and has lost some of its power, I think the reason it’s done so often is because it can be scarier that way. Someone with a motive can theoretically be reasoned with – assuaged, cajoled into not killing you. Someone who kills just for the fun of it is a lot scarier.
First of all, “horror” is an extremely broad genre, and films like “The Devil’s Rejects” or “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” represent only a small part of the spectrum. Indeed, all things considered, I’d say most “horror” movies showing at mainstream movie theaters today are a good deal LESS gruesome than the ones I used to see as a kid in the Seventies and early Eighties.
My feeling is, most “horror” today aims squarely for a PG-13 rating, trying to be just scary enough to attract (but not totally gross out and alienate) the adolescent girls who are the most desired movie audience. Such girls made “The Ring” a smash hit, but they’d never go to see “The Devil’s Rejects” or anything comparable.
Well “Saw” sorta kinda had a motive but since it was almost a given that no one was going to get out alive, he seemed more assholish than having a reason. Didn’t see “Saw II” though.
Another odd difference I’ve noticed with Japanese horror is that the killers/monsters are hardly ever adult males. They’re almost always either women (The Ringu series, Tomie, Seven’s Face, Otogiriso, Yawarakai Hada, Shikoku), children (Juon, Dark Water) or ‘forces’ (Pulse, Versus, Uzumaki, Another Heaven). In the few cases where the killer is a man, he’s usually portayed as a sympathetic figure who’s justified in what he’s doing (Porno Star, Bullet Ballet, Mark’s Mountain).
Being a fan of this genre, I can think of many American horror movies in which the murderer had some kind of motive (maybe not legitimate) to murder:
“Interview with a Vampire”: Vampires trying to overcome a lifetime of loneliness; seeking moral reason for feeding on humans.
Any zombie movie: “Send more brains!”
“Nightmare on Elm Street”: Freddie’s revenge.
“Friday the 13th”: Jason’s revenge.
“Halloween”: Michael’s motivation was more ambiguous. Maybe he was jealous of his sister?
“King Kong”: I think there’s some sexual motivation there, but hey, I could be wrong.
Any 80’s horror movie: “You treated me like shit in high school you deserve a good screwing through the eyeball.”
Any 50’s horror movie: You’re thinking about sex so you deserve to die.
Chucky movies: He kills because he is pissed that he is a doll. Would Freud call that a Pinocchio complex?
“Texas Chainsaw Massacre”: To re-stock the sausage supply.
How’s that for legitimate motivation for murder? Actually, I did see “Devil’s Rejects,” and thought it was the first good Rob Zombie movie.
A lot of the American horror films that came out of the seventies–especially Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper–were very much a product of the post-flowerchild, Manson Family/Viet Nam era; there was a lot of rage, a pretty pervasive feeling of societal cruelty. This manifested in those movies as random acts of violence.
Romero’s were more complex, and not as angry; more political than personal.
When I say I hate horror movies, what I really hate is the “asshole” subgenre the OP mentioned. I have no interest in ever seeing House of 1000 Corpses or Devil’s Rejects, because I would not derive any entertainment from seeing innocent people brutally terrorized, tortured, mutilated, and killed in innovative and disgusting ways. I have heard the recent French film High Tension and the Australian film Wolf Creek are like this too. I can deal with some gore, but I hate the sadism and meanness that seems to currently be popular in horror movies.
I did see Japanese director Takashi Miike’s film Ichi the Killer, which while not a “horror” movie per se (more of a gangster film really), was incredibly violent, bloody, and gory, with unsettling scenes of rape, torture, and mutilation. That turned my stomach, made me pissed at Miike for making it and myself for sitting through it. He has a huge following now in the U.S., at least among “gorehounds” and horror buffs, but to me, his movies are no fun – just more shock value derived from people being horrendous assholes to each other.
