The Violent Sexism of Horror Movies and Pornography

Debbie Does Dallas Meets Freddie: Splatter Flicks and Porno Are Movies that Hate Women

By D.R.Scott, published May 11, 2006
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The new movie, Silent Hill , has just been released. 

I won’t be seeing it. 

I never subjected myself to Cabin Fever, The Hills Have Eyes, Hostel, Saw, High Tension or The Devil’s Rejects either. I won’t go to a movie theater to see any type of splatter flick, or rent one from Netflix. Sometimes I’ll accidentally watch part of a horror movie when I’m at a friend’s house and I can’t get a ride home. If he doesn’t change it, I won’t be happy.

I'll confess: I'm an obsessive, unrepentant, doomed-beyond-any-twelve-step-program Film Junkie. How bad is it? I know the difference between "letterboxed" and "pan-and-scan" and why it's important. I'm addicted to TCM, IFC, and Sundance. And when the movie is over, I'm usually the only person still in my seat after the lights go on and the audience is walking out because I want to read the credits. 

When it comes to cinema, I try to be open-minded. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Dances With Wolves,2001: A Space Odyssey, Singing In The Rain, Yojimbo, and Bananas. And I don’t usually care how the Blockbuster Videos down the street chooses to file these films on their shelves. Genres are meaningless to me. Either I like it or I don’t. 

However, except for films by the brilliant and subversive David Cronenberg (The Fly, Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch), I despise the horror movie genre. Yes, intellectually, I know I’m prejudiced. As with Cronenberg, there are exceptions. Se7en, for one, comes to mind. I’ll admit it’s unique, luminous and powerful. Still, after I saw David Fincher’s brooding, gore-splattered thriller, I knew I never wanted to see it again. 

 
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Showing Comments 1 - 12 of 12
 
 
thank you for all

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Posted on 04/10/2008 at 11:04:48 AM

 
just wanted to make a change i realize now your not a dr. but your inititials are d.r. my mistake but everything else in my previous comment stands

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Posted on 01/24/2008 at 10:01:46 PM

 
iv been a horror fan for many years and i have to once again make the point made at first by andre smith...in horror movies women are victimized the least, in fact its the men that always die and the women com out as heros, just watch all the jason movies, all the freddie movies, halloween, hostel...everything...women are made to be the heros that bring down the violent psycho male in the movie, so your view that horror movies are sexist is completely ignorant and has no basis what so ever, there is alot of sex in horror movies but thats about the only thing you got right. stop protesting them and actually watch more then 5 minutes of a splatter flick and youll come to your freakin senses. for someone whos a dr. you sure as hell dont know how to do research!!!!

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Posted on 01/24/2008 at 10:01:41 PM

 
I'm sorry, but I found your argument to be ignorant, lazy and shallow. How can you condemn a whole genre whilst refusing to watch a great deal of the movies themselves? I won't argue that there is a great deal of stuff to back up your argument, but, really - what harm do horror movies actually *do*? (incidentally, Fred West preferred Disney films) Is anyone forcing you to watch them? Is anyone forcing women to appear in them? And what of George Romero's 'Living Dead' quadrilogy? '28 Days Later'? Intelligent and socially relevant horror movies. 'Re-animator' and 'Braindead' (both gorefests) concentrate a good deal of their gore and violence on male characters, whilst Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead' trilogy imparticular is noteable for the repeated brutalization of one MAN (the great Bruce Campbell). The 'Alien' and 'Terminator' films both establish strong female leads - one of whom managed to kick Arnie's butt, I might add. Even the crappy 'Saw' saga couldn't be described

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Posted on 06/28/2007 at 6:06:00 PM

 
Most horror films the WOMEN are the only one's that SURVIVE. It's the men and the blacks that always seem to never make it past the introduction credits. Sexist my ass...

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Posted on 05/10/2007 at 8:05:00 PM

 
Pornography is not misogynistic it is a business. No one kidnaps women and makes them do porn last time I checked it's called a job. And it is one of the few industries were the women make more than the men consistently and yet people complain about women making less than a man in the workforce, yet because it is poor it is somehow lower and a degrading job. I would rather have porn actors than 2/3 of the folks that work for corporations that do far worse things than showing orgasms and fluids on vhs and dvd.

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Posted on 05/10/2007 at 8:05:00 PM

 
You haven't seen the end of High Tension, have you?

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Posted on 03/30/2007 at 4:03:00 PM

 
You give no indication that you have any undertanding of horror movies at all, other than the half-basked point about the simple brutality of slasher flicks.

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Posted on 10/29/2006 at 1:10:00 PM

 
SHUT THE FUCK UP

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Posted on 07/21/2006 at 3:07:00 AM

 
I can't stand horror flicks either--they make me almost physically ill...even *Psycho* disturbs me, though it is funny--and, I might add, has a male vivtim to go along with Janet Leigh..."Hostel", too, has mostly male victims, I think--I just saw the trailer and read the reviews...but your point remains valid. Most of this stuff is sick, is misogynist, and generally reduces us to our basest levels... But I would argue that everyone has some sort of pornography. Not that that makes it "good"--but mine is expensive real-estate ads, which reduce me to a fantasy figure of snobbery and envy whom I hardly recognize. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" is hardly less pornographic than "Debbie Does Dallas"...and someday, as sure as we're born, our puritans are going to start comparing cookbooks and cooking shows to pornography. But there's a matter of degree in everything, and the slasher flicks are the worst of the lot, by far...

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Posted on 05/17/2006 at 11:05:00 AM

 
As a screenwriter with an MFA in film and a feminist film buff, thank you D.R. Scott for your wonderful, tell-it-like-it-is insights into the world of horror (let's kill women) films. The horror genre is so indictive of the all-boys club of the horrid hollywood film world. And oh yes, it can and does get worse if you ever care to venture to study the world of violent porn. You won't stay long, believe me, but you will get a horrifying education into the dark recessess of the subconscious mind of the sick wannabe violent male mind that exists in La La Land. In reality, these movies should be rated nothing less than NC17 for the blatant slice 'n dicing of women in a very sick dominated male world in Hollywood. Enuf said. Thank you for speaking out D.R.

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Posted on 05/15/2006 at 9:05:00 AM

 
Rage. I can dig that.

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Posted on 05/11/2006 at 10:05:00 PM

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