Mayhem and Gore

Mayhem and Gore | Broderick Suzanne Broderick Heartland Community College Suzanneb@gawain.hcc.cc.il.us Mayhem and Gore Isabel Cristina Pinedo. Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures ofHorror Film Viewing. State University of New York Press, 1997. (177 pages, $44.50) In previous decades, many film fans and scholars considered horror a misbegotten genre—less respectable than say, romantic comedies, or even gangster pictures. Thomas Shatz's 1982 Hollywood Genres does not even include this category. However, some contemporary studies are focusing on horror, and there is no denying that slasher films are popular. John Powers, critic for National Public Radio's Fresh Air and Vogue, identified Scream 2 as the box-office hit of the season, outselling Hollywood's bigger and more noble offerings such as Titanic (bigger) and Amistad (more noble). In light of such growing status, Professor Pinedo's Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures ofHorror Film Viewing explains—among other topics—the distaff attraction to this macabre genre. Her book discloses that some women derive pleasure, even sexual gratification, from viewing the murder, molestation, mutilation, and mayhem that are rampant in today's horror photoplays. Pinedo begins with die basics and explains the differences between classical and postmodern horror films. Classical titles such as Frankenstein (1931), The WolfMan (1941), and The Thing (1951) take place in exotic locations. In diese earlier works, the "monster" is easily recognizable; no one would mistake these ghouls for humans, and when the picture ends, die monster is destroyed, and die future appears safe. Not so in postmodern titles such as the Halloween (1978) or the Nightmare on Elm Street(1984) series in which Michael Meyers and Freddie Kruger rein terror on the once most peaceful and American of streets. Postmodern monsters assume human shapes, and diese murderers are difficult, ifnot impossible, to kill; they continue returning for sequels; There is never any closure. Pinedo identifies additional characteristics ofpostmodern horror: it presents a disruption of the everyday world violating boundaries and rationality. Another variant between is the camera's attention to the gore, blood, guts, and dismembered corpses—the "ruined bodies." The classic film camera spared the audience these grisly sights; however, the postmodern lens lingers on the ravaged remains of the "wet death." After stating these differences, Pinedo's discussion becomes psychoanalytical as she ventures to explain (or justify ?) why women attend horror films only to keep their eyes tightly shut. She devotes a chapter to The Pleasure ofSeeing /Not-Seeing the Spectacle ofthe Wet Death. Apparently, some women's choice not to see (closing or covering their eyes) can result in just as much pleasure as actually watching does for other audience members. These proposed explanations —along with some others—are ones that perhaps only Freudians and horror/slasher zealots can readily embrace. Pinedo also points out that the role ofwomen in horror film has evolved. Women in early horror films acted only as victims; however, in today's horror, feminists intelligently and violently defend themselves, and it is "the surviving female" who lives to tell the bloody story: women of postmodern horror have been empowered! Ms. Pinedo deals with such feminist issues as the relationships between horror , the snuff film, and pornography. She even examines "Republican" family values from a feminist point-of-view in The Stepfather (1987), or as The Village Voice called the film, Ward Wields the Clever. Pinedo also explains the connection between cultural politics and the horror film. It is her belief that during the 60's, Americans nightly watched the horror of the Vietnam war on television, and Hollywood took its cue from this reallife blood and "ruined bodies." Besides the mayhem and gore, Pinedo notes that some comedy is found in nearly all horror movies. Even the titles of some slasher films set the tone for parody—Chopping Mall (1986), and IDismemberMama (1974). The comedy has its own special term—"splatstick." Evidently horror insiders, those fans who see all titles more than once, are so familiar with the genre's conventions that they often ignore the carnage and concentrate on spotting the insider humor in the screenplay. Apparently for veteran horror fans, viewing a film can be a communal activity involving audience...