Splatter Films and There Trueness

I love genre movies: kung fu, splatter, etc. They are the only movies that are still made for the right reasons.

I can still remember the first time I watched Dead Alive. At that point I had seen the entire Evil Dead trilogy and loved them. It started for me with Army of Darkness, which I loved - there is nothing better then camp - and then I started backwards to the original. I got on the Internet to find out everything about the creators. I do this for every movie I enjoy and find it a great practice. It leads to endless discoveries of great films and coincidentally I kick ass at six degrees of Kevin Bacon because of this. When I was searching for Sam Raimi, the soon to be legendary director if not already, I stumbled across information on Peter Jackson. The site, which I can not remember at this time, talked about Dead Alive, which it hailed as the goriest movie of all time. What more recommendations do you need? I rented the tape with another crooked character and wow. I was blown away.

From then on and I was infatuated with splatter movies. Now believe me I am not a weirdo and am actually sickened at the thought that videos like Faces of Death exist and outright refuse to watch them but for some reason I can not resist a splatter film. After watching numerous movies I discovered an even better genre - 1970's Italian horror. What's better then 70's cheese with extreme and unrelenting violence? Hold on I think I found it: kung fu splatter. Movies from Honk Kong and Japan with everything you love about Jackie Chan movies and everything you love about splatter combined.

Now a lot of my friends, particularly film friends are often perplexed by my love of these movies. When I tried to explain it I found it very hard. Besides the obvious I really had no solid reasons. Then one day over Sammo Hung's the Magnificent Butcher - a classic - I stumbled upon the reason. They are the only movies made for all the right reasons. I really for some reason doubt then when Peter Jackson directed Bad Taste he was thinking box office. Of course I understand that movies are made to make money but there are a lot more box office friendly topics then aliens interested in turning humans into delicious fast food fare. So why make it? Because they are great and they supply a need. When you watch a splatter film you get splatter, when you watch a kung fu film you get kung fu, and even skinamax gives you skin and that is all they are supposed to do. Go to the theatre these days to see a "comedy" and more often then not you get nothing more then seven dollars less and a bad attitude. If you go to the theatre to watch an action, drama, or thriller you very rarely get action, drama, or thrills but occasionally you can score some unintentional comedy. Double Jeopardy looks like ass but I am sure the inaccuracies to real life that are present in the trailer would provide some good humor and one word Superstar - the fuck.

Let me be the first to say that I am the last person to not see a movie because it is "commercial". I love big budget action blockbusters if they are good. I loved Armageddon and can not wait for End of Days and this talk of Die Hard 4 is great BUT with the good there are three bad. At the same time though, most "independent" films are silly, self-important, and pretentious. So what is a film fan to do. I am actually going to attempt to make films one day and I want to find the happy medium between the two. If you could take the great dialogue of movies like Big Night and then added some action so the audience could stay awake it would be great and that is what I want to do. Hollywood needs to figure this out as well. I know they want but I can hope. Maybe one day we can all go to the theatre and watch funny comedies all the time and thrilling thrillers and action packed dialogue spectaculars but until then I am sticking with Dario Argento.

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