Horror films Are they're hidden messages?

my favorite vampire movie is Blade and i alway's thought while watching those how easily you could imagine those vampires as aliens.

they were a well organized group that were concealed from public knowledge , in cahoot's with certain goverment dept's and preyed on human's to survive. they also had a new hybrid version that had a mouth like preditor and they were fighting amongst themselves wich seems very similar to some alien story's i have read about.

i guess Blade could be considered a sci- fi horror flick.

[edit on 3-7-2008 by easynow]

Hehehe I like the never statements.

Got one to add

Never poke a stick at some goo that you cannot identify.

check it out! Your conscious brain thinks it knows a lot. It really doesn't know anything. Your unconscious mind retains all information. When you watch a ''horror'' flick or any other movie with violence, your unconscious doesn't know if its fake or real.

So I wouldn't go so far as to say that there is a conspiracy behind horror movies , but Im willing to bet serious money that many a tidbit of propaganda( war/consumerism/mind control et c) is embedded into every 'program' and every movie with a major name behind it.
A lot of people know what propaganda is but fail to see how it is applied to the human brain. A lot of people have no idea how the brain truly works! If they knew they wouldn't watch much tv!

I hope that all of you who have not learned how the mind truly works, study the mind sciences and the history of its applications over the generations.

sorry for the sloppiness...thats what happens when you have a sinus infection and take a lot of benadryl!

check it out! Your conscious brain thinks it knows a lot. It really doesn't know anything. Your unconscious mind retains all information. When you watch a ''horror'' flick or any other movie with violence, your unconscious doesn't know if its fake or real.

So I wouldn't go so far as to say that there is a conspiracy behind horror movies , but Im willing to bet serious money that many a tidbit of propaganda( war/consumerism/mind control et c) is embedded into every 'program' and every movie with a major name behind it.
A lot of people know what propaganda is but fail to see how it is applied to the human brain. A lot of people have no idea how the brain truly works! If they knew they wouldn't watch much tv!

I hope that all of you who have not learned how the mind truly works, study the mind sciences and the history of its applications over the generations.

sorry for the sloppiness...thats what happens when you have a sinus infection and take a lot of benadryl!

check it out! Your conscious brain thinks it knows a lot. It really doesn't know anything. Your unconscious mind retains all information. When you watch a ''horror'' flick or any other movie with violence, your unconscious doesn't know if its fake or real.

So I wouldn't go so far as to say that there is a conspiracy behind horror movies , but Im willing to bet serious money that many a tidbit of propaganda( war/consumerism/mind control et c) is embedded into every 'program' and every movie with a major name behind it.
A lot of people know what propaganda is but fail to see how it is applied to the human brain. A lot of people have no idea how the brain truly works! If they knew they wouldn't watch much tv!

I hope that all of you who have not learned how the mind truly works, study the mind sciences and the history of its applications over the generations.

sorry for the sloppiness...thats what happens when you have a sinus infection and take a lot of benadryl!

check it out! Your conscious brain thinks it knows a lot. It really doesn't know anything. Your unconscious mind retains all information. When you watch a ''horror'' flick or any other movie with violence, your unconscious doesn't know if its fake or real.

So I wouldn't go so far as to say that there is a conspiracy behind horror movies , but Im willing to bet serious money that many a tidbit of propaganda( war/consumerism/mind control et c) is embedded into every 'program' and every movie with a major name behind it.
A lot of people know what propaganda is but fail to see how it is applied to the human brain. A lot of people have no idea how the brain truly works! If they knew they wouldn't watch much tv!

I hope that all of you who have not learned how the mind truly works, study the mind sciences and the history of its applications over the generations.

sorry for the sloppiness...thats what happens when you have a sinus infection and take a lot of benadryl!

As a horror film expert/die hard fan and a film major in college, I can tell you mainly horror films today are remakes and are made for nothing but profit. That's what Hollywood is about. There is no debating as that's the real meaning behind Today's horror films that are released, especially the pg13 ones.

Also, a lot of horror films are inspired by reality itself, such as true events. Example: We all know Texas Chainsaw Massacre was inspired by Ed Gein to a certain degree. The film Psycho is the same thing, totally inspired by Ed Gein. Silence of the Lambs where Buffalo Bill is sewing and wearing skin, inspired by Ed Gein.

Also, horror films can be inspired by political events at the time. But mainly those days are over. Now it's $$$$ and that's the sad awful truth of it all.

However, some horror films such as Hostel and House of 1000 Corpses were INSPIRED by OLD SCHOOL 70's or 80's horror masterpieces.

Hostel was in tradition of extreme Japanese cinema while Hostel 2 was in tradition of extreme Italian cinema.

So yeah, get it? Got it? Good.

reply to post by GorehoundLarry


So true about Gein. Oddly, I rented a movie about Ed Gein and of course was expecting some really freaky stuff, but instead they left so much stuff out the movie was actually boring. It really takes some effort to make a boring film about that guy.

Though I didn't know Hostel was inspired by Japanese horror flicks, someone recently told me I should discover them, maybe I will.

While sadistic killers are always fun, the movies that really scare me are the ghost stories. What Lies Beneath was pretty good, and the old movie with George C Scott called the Changling was very creepy.

Most of today's attempts for horror/slasher movies in my view are just getting corny, hilarious even.
Anyone here also been watching NBC's tv series Fear Itself? Very funny I thought.

reply to post by GorehoundLarry


Hey Larry,
Seen much of the recent European fare lately?
"Also, horror films can be inspired by political events at the time."= Frontier(s)

Some of the best 'pure' horror in the last 15 years has come out of Europe:
Haute Tension
Inside
Funny Games (original)
[Rec]
Man Bites Dog (my favorite recent horror besides Frontier(s))

I agree almost all of recent Hollywood horror has been a cash-grab with little effort towards originality (more gory does not equal more original, Hollywood if your listening...Hostel, Turista...).

The Japanese horror of the mid/late 90's was very original (Ringu, Uzumaki (Spirals), Versus...), even if it did not always succeed at being 'scary', they at least made the effort to be different (before all the sequels and rip-offs). Even the Guinea Pig series (which I hated and have been unable to sit fully through - a series EXACTLY like the OP discusses) is now being copied in the States (ie. the Requiem series) in vileness for the sake of vileness.

Shoot me a list of your top 5, I'm always looking for (quality) new horror, and you seem to know your stuff. If you have not seen 'Behind the Mask: The Rise of Vernon Fidler' yet, you should. Similar in sensibility to Scream but independent and shot cinema verte style - low gore but still fun-scary.

p.s. I'd give you a star but I don't know how

Originally posted by Johnius
reply to post by GorehoundLarry

 

Hey Larry,
Seen much of the recent European fare lately?
"Also, horror films can be inspired by political events at the time."= Frontier(s)

Some of the best 'pure' horror in the last 15 years has come out of Europe:
Haute Tension
Inside
Funny Games (original)
[Rec]
Man Bites Dog (my favorite recent horror besides Frontier(s))

I agree almost all of recent Hollywood horror has been a cash-grab with little effort towards originality (more gory does not equal more original, Hollywood if your listening...Hostel, Turista...).

The Japanese horror of the mid/late 90's was very original (Ringu, Uzumaki (Spirals), Versus...), even if it did not always succeed at being 'scary', they at least made the effort to be different (before all the sequels and rip-offs). Even the Guinea Pig series (which I hated and have been unable to sit fully through - a series EXACTLY like the OP discusses) is now being copied in the States (ie. the Requiem series) in vileness for the sake of vileness.

Shoot me a list of your top 5, I'm always looking for (quality) new horror, and you seem to know your stuff. If you have not seen 'Behind the Mask: The Rise of Vernon Fidler' yet, you should. Similar in sensibility to Scream but independent and shot cinema verte style - low gore but still fun-scary.

p.s. I'd give you a star but I don't know how

Man Bites Dog is simply a classic, as the others are as well but I've yet to see Funny Games, nor have I seen the remake with Tim Roth.

Films coming out of Hollywood today are just simply trash, nothing else. Euro horror is where it's at. My top 5 for youamerican, euro, etc)

Zombi 2
Nekromantik
Aftermath
any of the Guinea Pig films
Cannibal Holocaust

I got so many more which I love dearly, I just love horror/exploitation flicks.

What's your top 5?

reply to post by Sonya610


Ah yes, check the Hostel films out.

The first one features a short cameo appearance by Japanese shock director Takashi Miike

The second Hostel film features a cameo by Ruggero Deodato, the director of Cannibal Holocaust.

Check'em out!

You hit the nail on the undead head. Problem is your asking what people think, and about 1/2 the world is insane from being subjected to all of the violence that is glorified and called nothing but entertainment. I bet it was fun watching all the people get torn to pieces in romes colliseum and the people who were there said oh it's nothing but Christians and captured slaves and theyr'e not even Roman citizens so lets all go back to your place and stuff our fat bodies with more food then lets have an orgy and have some more fun and then get drunk and high and then sleep and get up and do it all over on the morrow.

Problem was the republic was not much longer for the world because they had fallen so far into depravity that was accepted as the norm. Read your history people, we are just about at their level and I think proly not much longer before we too shall fall whether it be at the hands of a God who is sick of all the filth being called entertainment, and the depths mankind has fallen to, or from another country who shall stop all of the evil in its tracks because they believe we are the great satan and proly they are not far from the truth.

Horror films, for me, have always held hidden messages.

Always.

That said, i have yet to see a horror film that overtly establishes dominance over a person's mind (other than the obvious ones, like SAW, the Grudge, etc, which follow a fairly linear plot line and have fairly bland characters), but the meanings are still important.

Sci-fi horrors, especially.

When watching the thing i was struck by the remote location, and it occurred to me that the original creator may have been trying to get at something.

I think, maybe, that he was trying to get at how we, as individuals, don't know whether we're a threat to other humans or not, and that much of our individual personalities depend on our individual awareness of this fact.

Of course, i don't know this for sure, i'm not psychic (i hope).

Also, there was a ufo they found under the ice and whatnot (i get a nasty feeling the x-files movie pilfered this idea), but you'd expect to see that sort of thing in a sci-fi horror.

The same idea can be picked up on in the original Alien film, what with the synthetic android eventually turning on the crew - not because it wanted to, but because they were interfering with protocol.

Human interaction in these films is often more interesting to me than the actual fantastical enemies they face, and it's the mark of a good film, i reckon.

I have always been in the mindset that violence in entertainment does not lead to literal crimes, but being desensitized to violence and blood and gore is a serious matter.

Granted, it is in the mind of the unstable that it can manifest into something real, but this seems related to people who fight in wars and get desensitized. Perhaps it makes some forget just how horrible the real violence and human destruction are, rather than it being shocking (which could spark more care and action towards these kinds of things in real life). Just a thought.

Have you folks seen the Japanese movie "Suicide Club"? That one was crazy.

Or the original, Japanese version of "Ju-on" is pretty frightening.

As someone hinted to prior, it's human curiosity to want to see those things sometimes and horror films can be a sort of release for that. But they aren't all bad. They serve purposes just like other movies do, whether it's to make you think about a puzzling situation or gives you something to feel grateful about and be glad you're not in their shoes. Maybe even prepare you to get out of a bad situation and teach you not to mess with truckers and give yourself a name like "Candycane." Overall, I think they are an art and just as good as any other category of motion picture.

reply to post by GorehoundLarry


Right now it would be:
Man Bites Dog - like you said ' classic', plus I'm a sucker for cinema verte
Frontier(s) - smart, violent and barely a wasted frame plus social commentary
Dawn of the Dead (remake) - the first 5 minutes alone make the movie
Behind the Mask: The Rise of Vernon Fidler - Independent, low-gore, cinema verte and a return to the basics yet still fun - set in an 'alternate earth' where Freddy, Jason and Michael M are 'real' and being a serial killer is just another 'job'
Pretty Woman - hey ladies, become a prostitute and maybe you can meet your Prince Charming, now THAT movie scares the hell out of me.

I'm surprised by your choice of Guinea Pig. There's really no 'redeeming' or 'entertainment' value (at least for me).

I understand why 'Cannibal Holocaust' (although, again, not a fan) being the beginning of the Italian exploitation horror wave to try to challenge viewers sensibilities. First on the scene, it deserves props, but not for content. Ruggero Deodato was pretty much ruined after that movie/charges(acquittal).

I personally love horror movies always have and always will, i feel that people who say that they commit crimes because they saw it in a movie only use that as an attempt of an excuse thye most likly would have commited the crime with or without view a horrror film

reply to post by GorehoundLarry


Whoa...
I almost forgot Battle Royale. It's a blistering comment of the Japanese education system and the expectations on students when they turn 15.

Battle Royale II was ok (I'd classify that as more action), but I found it VERY heavy-handed with it's message about American foreign policy.