In class it was brought up not showing the hearts cut out by the Gentleman not being shown somehow makes it scarier. A lot of people argue what you can't see in horror movies makes them scarier. Many people have this retro-attitude towards scary movies, if we don't see it makes it scarier. Now I can't argue what people find to be scary but in my mind this notion is ridiculous. Some may argue that our society is desensitized to a point that some physical actions, seeing them ruins it somehow. Due to my desensitization I want some gore and disturbing plots if I actually want to be scared, not return to the age when they couldn't show blood, guts, gore, etc.
I think if WB would have let Joss Whedon show the college kids heart being cut out, he would have. This would also require Buffy to be aimed towards a mature audience. I doubt it was left out to make things be "scarier". One reason I could assert this off the use of the henchmen's movement and the appearance of the Gentlemen. These things will stick with me long past the prospect of a college student getting their heart cut out. If things are creepier if you can't seem them, then would the ultimate bad guy be one you'd never see? I don't think so.
If they had shown it, it may not have been creepy though. Probably only due to a lack of imagination in the kill or too much see C.G.I. (more red corn syrup please). This brings to mind Freddy Krueger. The visuals of the character Freddy, the scenery and the kills are still something I recall. Freddy Krueger came into mind when we watched this episode because of the initial nursery rhyme at the beginning of the episode. I don't know if this was a rip-off, coincidence or homage, but instantly I started thinking about the series. I grew up watching the movies due to an older brother who bullied me into watch them, telling me the monster at the bottom of the stairs would eat me if I went up stairs and other such fabrications older siblings love to do. Now we have a tradition of watching scary movies when we get together, trying to find something that will scare us. (By the way last winner for those of you who like scary movies and have Netflix was called Funny Games.)
So feeling all sentimental and fuzzy I searched through Youtube to find a decent Freddy Krouger montage. To my dismay I found a lot of clips backed by crappy music and/or narcissistic and somewhat creepy commentary.
The ones posted below have decent commentary behind them so I chose them. You need a Youtube account to view the site because you have to click that you are 18.
5 comments:
I always associated this episode with a nightmare on elm street movie! So glad someone else made that connection! I left class thursday humming "one, two, freddys comin' for you" and could not get it out of my head all day!
Like Holly, I grew up on horror movies--the gory kind, too. Seriously, I was watching slasher films before I was 10. And look, I turned out so normal!
I like a lot of what Holly has to say here, especially that she's making us think about the cliche that what is unseen is always scarier than what is seen. Now I still believe that is true a lot of the time, but again, this post makes us really think about that.
There have been movies/stories about unseen killers that are truly terrifying. Think of Poe's "Masque of the Red Death" (that sort of works) or even the absolutely horrific scene in the first Nightmare on Elm Street where Tina is murdered in front of her friends' eyes by an unseen killer. (Granted, there was lots of blood in that scene--and that blood adds to the terror, but you get my point.)
Can you think of other examples of "unseen" horror?
I just gotta say, I vehemently disagree with the idea that the "kill scene" isn't shown because of a lack of imagination--or censorship. There *are* scenes of stabbing and killing on Buffy. There just aren't a lot. Joss and Company didn't show the gore in that particular scene because that kind of gore isn't central to the show's aesthetic.
I can't believe I didn't think of Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" since it works so well with The Gentlemen (except Poe's villain is a solo act).
Also, regarding horror movies, there are people who are afraid to watch them precisely because of gore. On the other hand, seasoned horror movie viewers admittedly become a bit desensitized. Our brains adjust to explicit gore (for whatever reason) but I think our minds have an even harder time adjusting to the unseen and unknowable. I know people who are in either camp!
I prefer "unseen" horror from build-up, I don't care if what comes next, a serial killer, or some slasher, I enjoy the scariness of the build up. I actually find myself able to relax and open my eyes once the killing has actually commenced.
What about like Blair Witch Project? That really scared me in middle school, because all these creepy things were happening to these people and because you couldn't see, you felt helpless to stop it.
It's like scary foreplay, you totally can't get off with just gore.
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