The Appeal of Violent Imagery in Horror Film and Images of Death - Essay Example

Essay: the Appeal of Violent Imagery in Horror Film and Images of Death The modern the film criticism has been witnessing a stronger, greater, and more intensive interest in the film culture for the genre of horror films. The genre, though not new in origin, has undoubtedly acquired a greater interest in the movie-going public and there have been countless Hollywood hits of this genre all of which exemplify the improved interest in the horror movies. The classic horror movies such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, The Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and others, and their wide popularity point to the same fact. When we analyze the horror movies and their viewers in order to find the exact reason for the improved interest for this genre, we come to the finding that the appeal of the horror images, as opposed to the appeal of real death presentation, has increased tremendously, catching the attention of the movie viewers. People are more interested in the horror images than in the real-life death experience, injury or danger and these images provide the exact reason behind the popularity of horror movies. The same point is established in the article “Violence and the Psychophysiology in Horror Cinema” which quotes the note of Cantor and Oliver that “this genre, perhaps more than any other, provides abundant opportunity for viewers to experience fear in response to injury and danger, as one of the defining characteristics is the portrayal of victimization and death,” adding that “screen violence holds different appeals to different sets of viewers.” (Prince 246-247). Therefore, the appeal of violent imagery in horror movies is made subject of wide discussion on the genre of horror movies in film criticism and analysis. At the very outset of such a discussion on the great interest in violent imagery in horror films and the and their appeal along with the images of death, it is of primary consideration that over the ages there has been a steady but real decline in the number of death and the death representation in reality whereas there is a an increased interest or ascent of the death imagery. “By the 1950s in America and England, and to somewhat lesser degree in other Western countries, death had just about vanished from view.” (Goldberg 51). Appending to the view of Geoffrey Gorer who in his essay “The Pornography of Death” said, “While natural death became more and more smothered in prudery, violent death has played an ever-growing part in the fantasies offered to mass audiences…” Goldberg states that “it is not new, only larger and bolder. Images began to fill in, to substitute, to heighten the terror and often, at the same time, to calm the nerves by their sheer improbability, over a century before Gorer wrote.” (Goldberg 51). This interest in horror imagery, which had been present over a long period, is now more intensive and powerful, attracting large number of viewers of horror movies. All these factors enhance the significance of this analysis of the appeal of violent imagery in horror film and images of death. Now, to see a related view that supports the increasing interest in the violent images in horror movies, let us analyze the essay “When the Woman Looks” by Linda Williams. In this essay, the author clearly states how the image or icon of woman is viewed and enjoyed by the man-dominated society. The appeal of horror and violent imagery in movies is different on the people and the article in its very opening sentence illustrates this dissimilar appeal on the basis of gender difference. Accordingly, as the article demonstrates, “Whenever the movie screen holds a particularly effective image of terror, little boys and grown men make it a point of horror to look, while little girls and grown women cover their eyes or hide behind the shoulders of their dates.” (Williams 15). The diverse reasons for the varied appeal in the case of women (or “for this refusal of the woman to look” at the movie screen with horror images) include reasons such as “she is often asked to bear witness to her own powerlessness in the face of rape, mutilation, and murder. Another excellent reason… is the fact that women are given so little to identify with on the screen.” (Williams 15). This problem is seen and best defined by Laura Mulvey “in terms of a dominant male look at the women that leaves no place for the woman’s own pleasure in seeing: she exists only to be looked at.” (Williams 15). As Williams would make it clear through various examples throughout her article, this strange appeal of the violent imagery is evident not in the case of the woman audience or spectators alone but rather evidently in the case of female protagonists who often cannot return the gaze of the male who desires her. (Williams 15). That is the same reason why many “good girl” heroines in the movies are seen blind. The bizarre appeal of the violent images on the female protagonists, just as in the case of the female spectators, is apparent in an evaluation or assessment of some of our popular films. In the movies, many often the so termed “good girls” are either literally blind or frustrated and failed to have the vision of things as their male counterparts. The example of the failed vision is very cleverly taken by Williams from the 1911 movie Enoch Arden. Thus, the example of the movie best serves as a “paradigm for the frustration of the woman’s “look” in the silent melodrama.” (Williams 17). In an analysis of the issues concerning the horror images and their appeal on different sexes, it becomes very important to consider the victimization of women which is reflected in their gaze, as the article by Williams would suggest. “The women’s gaze is punished, in other words, by narrative process that transform curiosity and desire into masochistic fantasy. The horror film offers a particularly interesting example of the punishment in the woman’s terrified look at the horrible body of the monster.” (Williams 17). It is most notable that there are various ways in which women are treated badly for their gaze in the classic horror films as well as in “psychopathic” forms of the genre which are of more recent origin. This process of punishment as well as the surprising affinity between the monster and woman in horror films in which the look of the woman at the monster the comparable status enjoyed by the women in a patriarchal society is most cleverly established by Williams in her essay. The illustrations of classic movies such as F W Munroau’s Nosfferatu (1922), Rupert Julian’s The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Vampire (1931), Dracula (1931), Freaks (1932), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931, 1941), Beauty and Beast (1945), and various others very well maintains the position of the author. (Williams 17-20). All these discussions are directed towards an effect of the making of women in the frame of the patriarchal system. This pruning of women in a systematic way to suit the traditional approach has a great effect on the way the horror movies as well as the horror and violent images in the movies are viewed and comprehended by women. We have been engaged in a discussion on the appeal of horror images in films which has an effect on the female spectators based on the analysis of the shaping of female characters to suit the patriarchal system. It is now notable that very often these discussions are found true as the female approach to the violent images in the films are the results of a kind of patriarchal make up. The women who survive such attempts of the society are those who enjoy the horror films of the modern times just as their sexual counterparts enjoy. The significance of the studies and analysis by Williams is that a new outlook of the studies on the horror movies which may be termed a “body genre” has been created by her. “Within film studies, Linda Williams has termed the horror movie a “body genre” – like pornography or melodrama – because the viewer’s emotional responses mimic those of the characters.” (Prince 248). In this analysis on the effect of the violent imagery on different sects of people, it is also important to note that the realistic outlook and description of death has been on a steady decrease just as the number of deaths in the modern world decreases. The longer life and fading death concept has a significant effect on the outlook of the people on the horror imagery. There have been increased practice of the image-making of the various concepts especially, the concept of death which itself is “dying.” There is an increased interest in the icons and images for the symbolization of death and memory. Thus, we find the growth of icons and images even in the religious situation where the death of Christ and others are more embodied in icons and images. The history of the origin of imagery through real life situations, paintings, photography, and visual representation has a very opposing side represented by the fading of death. In the modern age, the death imagery has become very popular and more powerful than the realistic experience of death. In other words, the position of realistic means of death-representation which was the feature of an age when death rate was on a high has been taken over by the new modes of their symbolization and the death imagery has, thus, got the prime focus today. “As actual death was toned down by every means available, depicted death swaggered violently onto the stage, and new means and forms were found to keep it before the public eye.” (Goldberg 40) Therefore, it needs to be distinctively considered that the death imagery and the violent imagery, which had been in the frame over the ages, has now become greatly powerful, larger and bolder. This is one of the reasons for the improved appeal of violent imagery in horror film. In conclusion, let us remark that there has been an increased interest for the horror imagery in films. The appeal of this violent imagery in horror film and images of death on people are affected by different factors such as the sexual discrimination, the attitude of the different sects of people, the pruning of the culture, and the specific and varied concepts of the people. The analysis of such effective essays and articles as “Death Takes a Holiday, Sort Of,” “When the Woman Looks,” and “Violence and the Psychophysiology in Horror Cinema” can very well contribute to our comprehension of the matter. Bibliography Goldberg, Vicki. "Death Takes a Holiday, Sort Of." Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment. Ed. Jeffrey Goldstein. NewYork: Oxford UP, (1998): 40-51. Williams, Linda. "When the Woman Looks." The Drea of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film. Ed. Barry Grant. Austin: UTexasP, (1996): 15-20. Prince, Stephen. "Violence and the Psychophysiology in Horror Cinema." Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freuds Worst Nightmare. Ed. Steven Jay Schneider. New York: CambridgeUP, (2004): 246-248. Read More