Working in developmental psychology, I would credit maturing into adulthood for each of us increasingly thinking about children’s need for emotional security in a safe world.
Hence, horror stories will seem less and less relevant as we mature in our familiarity with the needs of the wider world and prosocial institutions like healthcare and childcare.
On the other hand, we do tend to rehearse what we see and hear, due to what are called “mirror neurons“.
Mirror neurons are how we learn to play a sport by watching it, or learn a song by hearing it.
That would argue for being more likely to act violently after watching violence, which is indeed a concern when letting children watch any violent movies.
I have gone back-and-forth with Noah Berlatsky about why horror movies are considered entertainment to begin with.
My suspicion is that violence and horror must be normalized to numb us to the colonial need to conquer and subjugate for economic benefit.
It is easier to pretend that our history is fictional, like a horror movie, than what it actually was, and in many countries still is.
I think they do. As a kid I didn't mind it at all, but, as an adult, learning about the fictional supernatural world, and the real-life medical and economic costs of on-screen behavior, it does start to get more scary...
I do like and respect Tarantino. But one of the takeaways from his work for many filmmakers has been the glib treatment of death. QT's movies feature characters dealing flippantly with death, but his love for fractured chronology ignored that he indeed felt like that sort of violence was not weightless or meaningless. I think people have missed that.
I remember when it was considered a taboo to have someone get shot in the head, point blank -- which, really, would be a terrible way to go. Now you have stuff like John Wick, where you have a dozen similar headshots, and no one ever considers the cost.
Tarantino was not the only one who was misunderstood in that regard, of course. But I push back against those who believe movies have gotten more violent. However, they have become less reverential about death, and if you can't be reverent towards death, then what is reverence?
I would love to see a John Wick movie where he ices a combatant, then spends the rest of the movie coping with the moral ramifications. Would that be a "good" movie? Maybe not. But it would be far more "irreverent" than action movies where faceless goons get completely blasted into the afterlife.
Very interesting! I was actually just reading up a little bit about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to see if a subject I'm interested in writing about has already been explored.
I def-ly think that Tarantino tends to make violence deliberately off-putting, though it can paradoxically be very funny. Mainstream action films, of course, can't do stuff like that, for violence = spectacle.
That aside, are there any violent or gory movies that you used to be able to watch that are now off-putting or unwatchable to you?
I'm not sure if there's anything I don't want to revisit. But when I was younger, I was definitely a gorehound, I wanted to see everything I could find. I think I reached a point somewhere where I said, you know what, I've had my fill. I doubt I'll ever want to try one of those Guinea Pig movies, for example. Gory movies are no longer exciting enough on their own to get my attention.
Working in developmental psychology, I would credit maturing into adulthood for each of us increasingly thinking about children’s need for emotional security in a safe world.
Hence, horror stories will seem less and less relevant as we mature in our familiarity with the needs of the wider world and prosocial institutions like healthcare and childcare.
On the other hand, we do tend to rehearse what we see and hear, due to what are called “mirror neurons“.
Mirror neurons are how we learn to play a sport by watching it, or learn a song by hearing it.
That would argue for being more likely to act violently after watching violence, which is indeed a concern when letting children watch any violent movies.
I have gone back-and-forth with Noah Berlatsky about why horror movies are considered entertainment to begin with.
My suspicion is that violence and horror must be normalized to numb us to the colonial need to conquer and subjugate for economic benefit.
It is easier to pretend that our history is fictional, like a horror movie, than what it actually was, and in many countries still is.
Thanks for this post!
Had to edit to correctly spell Berlatsky.
I think they do. As a kid I didn't mind it at all, but, as an adult, learning about the fictional supernatural world, and the real-life medical and economic costs of on-screen behavior, it does start to get more scary...
Yeah, I def-ly think seeing a lot of real-life atrocities via news has had an effect on my reaction to the fiction.
I do like and respect Tarantino. But one of the takeaways from his work for many filmmakers has been the glib treatment of death. QT's movies feature characters dealing flippantly with death, but his love for fractured chronology ignored that he indeed felt like that sort of violence was not weightless or meaningless. I think people have missed that.
I remember when it was considered a taboo to have someone get shot in the head, point blank -- which, really, would be a terrible way to go. Now you have stuff like John Wick, where you have a dozen similar headshots, and no one ever considers the cost.
Tarantino was not the only one who was misunderstood in that regard, of course. But I push back against those who believe movies have gotten more violent. However, they have become less reverential about death, and if you can't be reverent towards death, then what is reverence?
I would love to see a John Wick movie where he ices a combatant, then spends the rest of the movie coping with the moral ramifications. Would that be a "good" movie? Maybe not. But it would be far more "irreverent" than action movies where faceless goons get completely blasted into the afterlife.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
Very interesting! I was actually just reading up a little bit about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to see if a subject I'm interested in writing about has already been explored.
I def-ly think that Tarantino tends to make violence deliberately off-putting, though it can paradoxically be very funny. Mainstream action films, of course, can't do stuff like that, for violence = spectacle.
That aside, are there any violent or gory movies that you used to be able to watch that are now off-putting or unwatchable to you?
I'm not sure if there's anything I don't want to revisit. But when I was younger, I was definitely a gorehound, I wanted to see everything I could find. I think I reached a point somewhere where I said, you know what, I've had my fill. I doubt I'll ever want to try one of those Guinea Pig movies, for example. Gory movies are no longer exciting enough on their own to get my attention.