I'm having an amazing argument with somebody on YouTube. A few days ago I happened across a posting of the movie "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" (henceforth TCM2). Have you seen the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre?" I once saw it in a theater a long time ago; my retinas haven't been the same since. It is a disgusting piece of pseudo-sadism in which the audience is entertained by scene after scene of mutilation, torture, and murder. I posted a note on TCM2 complaining that despite all the really fine movies made, a piece of garbage like TCM2 gets posted for viewing.
Somebody really got angry with me, and has been posting increasingly angry notes. Basically, I should shut-up and let people enjoy whatever they want to enjoy. I pointed out that normal people do not enjoy watching other people getting disemboweled or having their limbs cutoff or being hoisted by a meat hook in the back--even if merely its movie fakery. Sadists like this sort of thing, I said. Do you really want to defend sadism as a form of entertainment, I asked.
My antagonist replied: Yes! I was floored. I think that this person is being truthfully. He or she really thinks that movies depicting the most brutal murders and mutilations--provided that these movies are called "horror"--are OK and an acceptable form of entertainment. Abnormal psychology now becomes normality as long as its on film.
Which of course misses the point! The point is not merely that the movies are sadistic; it is that the audience is assumed to be a pack of sadists who get their jollies watching other people--even if they're only actors--get ripped apart with saws, axes, drills, and sledge hammers. And judging from the continued market for these loathsome movies, that assumption seems to be true.
If that fact isn't more frightening than any "horror" movie, what is?
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