"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."
- Mel Brooks
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| Fisting in New Zealand! Dead Alive (1992) |
I'm courting disaster by attempting to define a subgenre, but I struggled with devising post topics for the
Gore-A-Thon because I wasn't really sure what I felt defined a gore movie. The term always makes me think first of movies that use graphic, over-the-top violence to comedic effect - movies like
Re-Animator (1985),
Evil Dead II (1987), or
Dead Alive (1992). So why is that?
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| How are those eyebrows not funny? Blood Feast (1963) |
Well, maybe it's because
Herschell Gordon Lewis is the undisputed
Godfather of Gore, and I can't help but giggle every time I watch one of his movies. Granted, he was initially just fishing around for a marketable hook when the popularity of the nudies he was producing began to wane, but I find it nearly impossible to watch his seminal
Blood Feast (1963) and imagine that the absurdly exaggerated violence on display was seriously intended. The campy, po-faced presentation of all that luridly colorful gore is precisely why his movies have endured. You're either in on the gag, or you're not. If you're not, then you're probably offended.
To me, the key distinguishing characteristic of a gore movie is that it's more concerned with the aftermath than the action. A gore movie isn't as concerned with the violent act as it is with the bloody red remains of said act. A gore movie is determined to let the camera linger lovingly on the
mess. A gore movie is the cinematic equivalent of your buddy blowing his nose, then spreading the tissue wide and saying, "Hey! Look at this!"
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| Doesn't like fart jokes. Cannibal Holocaust (1980) |
You
know it will be gross, but you can't
not look. It's a testament to your own constitution if you can look and just laugh it off - juvenile, but also comedic. Comedic gore is a fart in a crowded elevator, intended to either make you snicker like a ten year old or to turn away in disgust because your sensibilities are too fine. I like a good fart joke. Funny is funny. If you laugh, it was funny - no further analysis necessary. If you've got too big a stick up your ass to enjoy a good fart joke, you're probably not going to like gore movies, either.
So what's your definition of a gore movie? Is it movies like
Saw (2004) or
Hostel (2005) that plumb the depths of photorealistic carnage? Or maybe it's the elegant beauty of
Dario Argento's stylized ultra-violence? How about tacky cannibal gut-munchers like
Cannibal Holocaust (1980) or perhaps the graphic extremities of nearly unclassifiable genre fare like
Excision or
American Mary (2012)? If it's the indisputably comedic gore of Japanese genre movies like
Machine Girl (2008) or
RoboGeisha (2009), maybe you're seeing the same dark humor I am.
A valid argument can be made for any of these movies epitomizing the gore genre. I suspect my compatriots in the
Gore-A-Thon will address many of these titles with their own posts over the next two weeks. I look forward to reading them as much as I hope you do. Shower me in blood, folks! Help me up from the floor if I slip in the puddled gore!
. . . but
only after you've enjoyed a good laugh at the expense of my personal tragedy, of course.
By the way, who farted?
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A head giving head - the funniest visual pun in any movie ever! Plus, it gives me an excuse to show Barbara Crampton nude! Re-Animator (1985) Click the title for an extended clip.
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Posted by Brandon Early
