Struggling with Sin
Is it wrong to watch movies or listen to music with sinful elements in them?
A Nightmare On Elm St
Do we really need more horror movies?
Freddy Krueger’s back, and he’s still keen on carving up teens in their dreams. A pointless remake of one of the 1980s most successful horror films, the new version of A Nightmare On Elm St repeats the original’s storyline – and butchers any chance of terror or scary shocks, by slickly reheating “slasher” moves done a million times before.
Knife-fingered Freddy is one of the major reasons why our screens have been steadily littered with movies trying to find the nastiest, grossest or most creative ways of serial killing.
The umpteen sequels starring Freddy and other famous movie murderers, such as Halloween’s Michael Myers and Friday The 13th’s Jason, demonstrate a huge, troubling shift of attitude within modern horror films. “Slasher” films (those featuring a crazy serial killer fixated upon gruesome acts of murder) have always encouraged audiences – from the safety of their seat - to get “thrills” by being frightened of the lethal mayhem on-screen.
However, catching and punishing the killer was usually the film’s objective. No matter how obnoxious, repellent or stupid were those being stalked and picked off by the killer in question, they didn’t “ask for it” as much as the homicidal nut-job.
Increasingly, since the 1980s heyday of slasher flicks, these serial killers have been transformed into something akin to “heroes”, as their mean-spirited movies are only designed for one purpose – carnage.
From Saw to Hostel, Nightmare On Elm St to Friday The 13th, being enticed to cheer for the killer has become a disturbing undercurrent of horror films. The new Nightmare On Elm St even goes so far as to almost portray Freddy as an innocent victim, further muddying the murky moral waters of modern horror films.
I’m interested to hear what you think about all this.
Do you watch these kind of films?
What do they say about us and our world?
Why do audiences continue to want to watch films which promote such cruelty?
How do you respond to such acts of on-screen violence and horror?
Leave your comments below.
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