With the release of Saw V attracting controversy over its blood and gore. Katy Kennedy delves into the current ultra-violence fad.

As the fifth installment of the Saw series hits the big screens just in time for Halloween, we have to wonder how the Splatter film came so far. James Wan’s horror series has achieved success in four films despite a fairly repetitive story line, instead relying on an ability to disgust the audience with violence yet attract them with sex. But the series doesn’t stand alone in the new sub genre that critics have labeled “torture porn”. Films like Hostel and Wolf Creek manage to top the box office with stomach-turning stories combining sex and violence. So how did this happen to the horror film? When did the power of suggestion and a fear of the unknown stop being important?

Horror films are most terrifying when we don’t know what we are scared of, when there’s more tension than action. That’s why Jeepers Creepers only stops being good when you see the massive fish/bird creature, or why the original version of The Haunting is scary and The Woman in Black is among the most terrifying films ever made. So why did the horror film turn away from tension and towards violence? In 1960, Paramount almost refused to accept Hitchcock’s proposal to make his masterpiece of subtle tension Psycho, describing it as repulsive (what would they say to James Wan?). But Psycho was made, and is said to be the main influence on Splatter films. If this is true, we have to wonder what got lost in translation.

In 1971, Kubrick brought “ultra violence” to the cinema in A Clockwork Orange. The film was criticized for conveying violence in a whimsical way, but this helps us to deal with the film´s violence. Seeing a rape scene sped up and set to the William Tell Overture is easier to watch than seeing it done so realistically in films like Baise Moi. So we can’t really call this the beginning of the ultra violence and splatter film craze either.

The 1978 film Halloween is an obvious beginning of the Splatter film genre. It has it all; sex, teenagers, blood, and seemingly endless sequels. In the 90s Scream, the horror film about horror films, satirised the genre. But it was taken too seriously by some and seemed to restart a trend for teen horror films full of beautiful people and empty of dramatic tension. See I Know What You Did Last Summer for details.

The popularity of the 90s teen horrors probably sparked a new thirst for cinematic violence. Used correctly it can add to a film. Tarrantino uses violence in such an extreme way that it becomes comic, but torture porn directors don’t seem want the same effect. Hostel director Eli Roth once said in an interview that women are just “pieces of meat” in Hostel Part II. Not only is he making a graphically violent film, but is openly misogynistic. It’s great that we’re hailing these people as geniuses and making them rich.

There has always been controversy surrounding violence in films, but has the latest generation of horror directors taken things too far? They don’t appear to be making any political or social comment, there tends to be little plot and there’s no evidence of clever cinematic techniques to distract us from the violence. The films are a bloodthirsty equivalent to pornography in which the audience can “enjoy” the violence without having to think about anything else. The horror film is not what it used to be. Its shocks us, but doesn’t scare us. We’d all hate to be one of Jigsaw´s victims, but that´s obvious. Being disgusted by the sight of blood just isn’t the same as being made tense by the inaction in classic films like Psycho. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that my script for “Not much happens but it’s tense” would sell next to Roth’s latest, “There’s loads of blood in it”. Maybe it’s a lack of imagination in the modern audience, or maybe we’re just sicker as a society. Either way, is anyone going to make a good horror film soon?