I was thinking about the difficulties i've had in finding slasher films of, friday the thirteenth series quality.

not the happy, campy horror that's i find easy to come across appeals to me, and are often times creative in their use of gore...those are just fun. But the dreadful, you know it's not going to be happy scene; that brutal violation of life...what is is that makes that aspect of horror appealing?

This goes beyond film, into literature...the more morbid, the more brutal the villian; the better the sales. What is it about our nature that drives us to crave imaginative uses of aggression; is it a desire by the more passive to see what expressing anger could achieve, an ability to associate with the villian, the hero or the victims...is it just to watch the splatters of blood and body; an action few could really follow through with.

why is it some people fail to keep the fantasy from the reality, taking their admiration for that, presentation of power that they actively go out to recreate it, does it offer an excuse for violent behavior?

A lot of infamous murderers seem to have had an inspiration for it, somewhere...

why is it our society thrives on the taboo fantasies of our culture, on some levels exalting the villian, hinting at our more animal natures that goes beyond popular media...

why are there an equally as many eager to quelch it, to forbid it to those who find it fascinating; no matter how much we try to deny it, it affects everyone on some level?

what makes it such an aspect of humanity?

We all long to relase the inner animal, we like to revel in the depiction or actions of indivudals pursueing that inner beast because the more "civilized" we become the more that aspect of ourselves gets suppressed. Typically suppression in our society causes the imagination to stretch a depiction of the behavior to the extreme. The more suppressed an aspect of the culture is the more extreme the vilonce or sex becomes in the fantasy

Actually, I agree with both of you and I disagree.

First off, not many really truly take that leap into the extreme...not even in fantasy. The worst of the worst films isn't any "gore/murderer" film...it's films that truly dehumanize. As is one of my personal filming genres, the exploitative films, sadistic horror films, rape/revenge flicks, grindhouse, Euro-shock, Asian Extreme, sick flicks of the U.S. of fuckin' A.! And in literature, in terms of horror, as you well know (*wink, wink*) it doesn't get any worse than splatterpunk. But, that's niether here nor there...

As Mr. Bush was suggesting, we all long to release the inner animal. And to spout off more Nietzschian nonsense, we've caged that animal long ago when we introduced morality. And that's all it really is... We, as humans, being the moral individuals we think we are and should be, can't accept the fact that in truth, morality doesn't exist! It's a concept, a construct, a way to free ourselves from what we truly are! AND THEN BAM! There's Mr. Pogo the Clown! A man who is not a man! A man who is his self. We are interested in these people and most of us don't know why. I personally think it's because we fail to recognize or trully understand that he was a man who is more human than any of us could ever strive for. He is a man who lived his fantasy. But in a way that contradicts morality. Sure, Mr. Brad Pitt lives his fantasy, but how unique is that? How animalistic is that? Like Mr. Bush said: "we like to revel in the depiction or actions of individuals pursuing that inner beast because the more civilized we become, the more that aspect of our selves gets suppressed."

We as humans realize that there really is a sense of immorality, of evil, and most of us want to shun away from it because we think we should or we're told we should or we feel we should. And then there are those who don't. Why? How? Are we not understanding something? Who knows...let's make a movie about it and watch the ticket sales!

the extreme aspect is interesting. if we measure our fantasy, which is portrayed by books and moving pictures, it would seem that the boundries of what is considered to be extreme continuely gets pushed.

Orginaly Vampires and Werewolfs were quite grotisque and scary now there childrens ceral and stuffed animals. So that which you measure as extreme, now will be reality prime time tv some day, maybe.

As a society our depravity knows no depths but, from our animal point of view, there may be a point at which society is repulsed. Interesting it could be that which begin as a stave off of the darkness becomes the darkenss against which we must defend.

I think if horror is genuine horror, something that apalls (not just with gore) but with a sense that what is happening is just "wrong" then people want it because it's authentic, it gets them going. I'm a fan of the Faces of Death DVD series. If you're not familiar with it, it has tons of footage of mainly accidental deaths, executions, weird sex stuff, etc.. I enjoy it, it's different. But everytime I see someone (actually) get their head cut off, or a bum rip into the stomach of another bum, my stomach gets a really ill feeling. I never get it with gore or horror films, but I do with these. I guess the jist of this is i get sick (and enjoy it more) because it goes beyond what I've grown up around. "Oh hey a new movie... serial killer.. chases bitch... kills boyfriend.. Ok, saw the same thing on TNT and HBO last night." I think if it goes beyond what you're used to, the experience is better. Reasons for why whoever is doing what to whom plays a role too, I think. Like you would be less shocked that a guy gets butchered by his ex for cheating on her than you would for some random mountain guy killing kids for their skin to make candy dishes. (sorry if that's a lame example)

Faces of Death isn't real. They're made to look real, but they're very much so fake. Sorry...

Now, if you watch Cannibal Holocaust or Cannibal Ferox which features real living animals being mutilated...now, that's another story.

Damn.. that's a dissapointment. But! I do have execution videos not associated with them, so i don't feel so bad.

Thanks though. I feel like an ass.

It's all good...most people think they're authentic.

But I can normally weed that shit out.... man. I guess that's what I get for downloading it instead of paying for it. (and now i'm glad I didn't) but thanks for the animal slaught vids, I'll check them out.