You know, I was thinking almost the same thing in regards to blood. I saw that Sweeney Todd had been nominated for an Oscar for Art Direction, and my mind immediately went back to how fake the blood looked and how much I disliked it.

I think blood and gore are as much of an aesthetic as any other form of mise en scene. They can make a film, like they did for you and Bone Sickness, and they can also ruin one, like for me with Sweeney Todd.

Is it that the realism of gore has been perfected over so many decades of horror films that now we critique it as an art form in itself? Or is it some primal attraction we have towards that which we quite literally take to heart? I think maybe it's a little bit of both.

"Is it that the realism of gore has been perfected over so many decades of horror films that now we critique it as an art form in itself? Or is it some primal attraction we have towards that which we quite literally take to heart? I think maybe it's a little bit of both. "

I think that's a pretty interesting quote actually. So if you take a look at the gore of yester-year it's pretty cheesy and not very realistic and then we hit the 70's with Dawn of the Dead and the Italian films and it's starting to get more realistic and more over the top until today, where the gore is super realistic and very much in your face. So in answer to your first question I think yes, it is because it has been profected that we critique it. I want my grue to be effect and turn my stomach, and perhaps that directly relates to my own level of desensitation (I know I screwed that up so hopefully you know what I am talking about).

I've spent most of my adult life looking for that next charge, the next thing that will turn my stomach. I think that is the answer to your second question. We have a natural curiosity (at least those of us who are confessed gore hounds) to search it out and see how much we can handle.

I remember An American Werewolf in London being the first film I had to turn my head away from, and still to this day I can't watch the basement scene with little girl in Night of the Living Dead, but they spurred me to find that next movie that would be cringe worthy. I found it in Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox (Make Them Die Slowly) and the rest as they say is history.

So I think your final statment there is the truth, it really is a little of both, perhaps more pronunced in those of us that seek out the extreme of the genre, but none the less prominent in all of us as human beings.

I have to say I've never seen either Cannibal movie, but as we seem to be of a like mind when it comes to the horror genre, I'll have to give them a try.

I think it's interesting that for almost every movie genre, the plot always supercedes the genre itself. No matter what you're watching, whether it be Science Fiction or Comedies or Westerns, if the plot is no good the movie is no good. Take the latest Star Wars movies--as marvels of special effects and technology they were pretty advanced, but that didn't stop the hordes of fans from dumping on them because the story, dialogue and acting was no good.

That's simply not the case with horror movies. We in fact revel in a horror movie's ridiculousness, and yet we cringe when the gore is not up to snuff. Why does a film with a title like Cannibal Holocaust sound so appealing to me, when I know that if it were related to any other genre I would laugh it off. I wonder what kind of film snobs that makes me....

Be advised the Cannibal movies aren't for the weak of heart, and actually Cannibal Holocaust is a very poignant film on our society of reality television today. It begs the question of how much is reality of what you are seeing and how much is the filmmaker creating to drive the narritive of the story they want to accomplish. Cannibal Ferox really doesn't have any redeeming qualities to it at all apart from it's shock value. While I'd like to say that both should be viewed by any person who considers themselves any type of scholar in the horror genre, I know that their appeal is rather limited to the few that can stomach such stuff. You can see a lot of these two films on the influences of todays filmmakers though especially with directors like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie, hell even Tarantino to an extent.

I also find it funny that we as horror fans can truly forgive a terrible plot and poor narritive if the film strikes us in the gut, like Cannibal Ferox. I just think it goes back to our discussions on whether it's instinct that drives us to watch the gore on the screen as some sort of curiosity or perhaps some needed catharsis for the hum drum of our everyday lives? I'm not sure which but more than likely it's both.

I can forgive a lot for a film that renders me speechless. Lately I've been consuming some of Jesus Franco's films, and while they aren't good really there is this heart in them that strikes me. Sometimes it's the lighting, sometimes it's the cinematograpy, but there is more times than not something there that is special or unique about the film. Not to mention Lena Romay! But I can forgive a lot of there is something redeeming about the film or I can feel it.

On the converse Rob Zombie's Halloween was empty through and through for me even though it had decent gore, some boobs and a cool color pallette, it just lacked heart.

I think what you just said boils it down nicely: a film's gotta have heart. In a sense, a silly movie that does good gore at the very least proves that the filmmakers were giving their all. Yes, they may not have had decent actors or a large production budget, but they maintained tight control over what they have.

I haven't seen Rob Zombie's Halloween, though it sounds from your description that his problem was not the cast or the budget or the t&a or whatever, it's just that he wasn't investing himself into it.

Maybe it's not just gore that hits us in the gut, as you say--though it's certainly a tried and true method of achieving that end--but an underlying sense that the filmmakers have a passion for what they're making, whether its cannibals brutally gnawing on people or a Shakespearian play.