What can be said about the new genre of slash-horror movies that is not but just a visual feast of challenges that inadvertently puncture the senses: those that directly act on the aesthetic of the human body. Mutalitalion comes in practice as the overwhelming antagonist. It becomes more than a craft, style, or medium of affliction; it shamelessly usurps the source of terror. Mutilation evolves from being a tool to becoming its own mind and hand. The notion of horror lies not on the maniacal being executing the crime, but on the fashion, on the execution itself.
Slash horror films depend severely on its presentation. Since the antagonist is a staged execution, the audience needs to see it happen in order to be sensationally disturbed; let's remember that what we see appeals first to our senses than to our emotions.
Emotions are perceived by what cannot be seen or physically conjured. After the body finishes to sense a pinch, the brain scans it and identifies it as a feeling: pleasurable, painful, ticklish, bothersome, etc. As soon as the feeling presents itself, then a series of flashes right down the memory bank of our brain will project an unconscious association that yields an emotion. Emotions are the responses of a projection that takes place inside the mind. Take it as the reaction of an audience at a movie theater watching a film. Emotions are the result of that connection established between the feelings and the memories; Hence an emotion is born from what's not present, but what it used to be. On the other hand, Slash horror plays with the senses. It relies on the feelings of discomfort, pain, suffocation, and agony. It's a kind of horror that's more related to the flesh than any other.
Let's not talk about the birth of the slash horror genre, but maybe the main references created by the horror film fest of the 70-80s. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and many others helped tremendously in the embodiment of the slash genre. All of the films mentioned above, they harvest a field that was only seeded before by films like THE EXORCIST, SALEM'S LOT, and THE OMEN to simply mention a few prominent ones: the exploitation of the occult. Even with today's technical advances, the 70s-80s continue to reign supreme as the most macabre and horrific golden age in horror cinema. But why did they triumph and remain? Looking back at the style and mythology, it's due to the violation of something that presented to be more valuable than the body: the rape of virtue.
Everything about true horror boils down to Religion. The stigma achieved during the 1970-80s horror cinema, it's of a violation of the sacred; innocence, purity, virginity, goodness, faith, family, and love are the members mutilated. The price is damnation to the trespaser: a virulent agent that will spread the disease of death until hell opens up to swallow it or heaven provides redemption. Good versus evil at war from a metaphysical plane where the flesh is the subject of punishment. It's from here that the original horror springs; the idea of losing the ultimate sanctuary.
Imagine being taken by surprise by a storm, we run under the rain not taken care that the body is exposed to the harsh weather because the idea of knowing that a shelter is waiting provides us with certain relief. Incorporate the notion that there would be no haven or sanctuary that relieves us of any suffering. Translated to religion, it becomes the idea of no after life, no heaven, no paradise, no punishment for the wicked nor reward for the martyr. The violation of the sanctum, of what is considered upwholly, embarks us into an increasing fear of desolation.
But what about films like NOSFERATU, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARY, FREAKS, and even the avant-garde THE HOUSE OF USHER from the silent era? These films in their own right introduced early cinema audiences to the sheer meaning of the macabre. They also pioneered the feeling of desolation as a means of fear. They form part of the conception that help the 70-80s violation of virtue theme. They'r a great reference to explore and analyze independently, since the silent horror cinema has a more focussed attention on topics of tabooism, and the well exploited enigma of mortality.
By mortality, I imply the psychological abhorrence that humans have toward the grotesque and death itself. Early cinema masterfully captures the emerging phobia of 1800-1900s afflictions of the body; where simple diseases presented bigger risks, incomprehensible heart conditions that killed w/o fully having a scope of the cause, the recently discovered paranoia of being buried alive, the deformities caused by unknown physical malignities, etc. All of the above were outrageously even dreaded more after the long and arduous battle during the 1700s to control the European chaos known as the Smallpox Pestilence. The horror of the silent cinema is more emphasized on the philosophy and romance, just like the early German epic DESTINY portrays it, of the biggest affliction ever: the fear of our own mortality. Either a divine punishment or a satanic curse, the silent films tackle the matter with a reverent philosophical nature that's unavoidable, fearsome, and again enigmatic. In the other hand, the 70-80s see death with curiosity. The matter is mysterious, but with less reverence; the directors boldly abuse death, as the means to achieve the fear factor. People are no longer afraid of death, since it happens too frequently, too casually, and too shallow. In the 80s and even contemporary horror cinema, people are more afraid of the style/medium in which they meet death. In some paradoxical instances, death becomes the escape and salvation from the tormented flesh; physical pain turns into the source of fear.
Going back to the idea of sanctuary, death becomes the only shelter possible that provides release; in some cases, the terror hunts its victims even while asleep. NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET mitigates the body by violating the realm of dreams. Even at sleep, there's no rest possible for the characters. The desolation is highlighted by invading the sanctuary of the bedroom. The menace is so intimate and close that the horror transforms the simple act of falling asleep into a relentless prosecutor; the idea of closing our eyes without knowing what dwells inside that darkness became the nightmare itself that haunted many viewers during the 80s and even 90s.
For THE EXORCIST, the mutilation and aggravation of virtue is accentuated on several principles: innocence, faith, and the sanctity of family. It's this last one that true terror uses to cross the screen and perpetuate a timeless fear on the viewer. The trespaser invades the nucleus of the family and betrays it by assaulting in any form (soul, mind, body, and virtue) the member most innocent of all. In my case, it isn't the green vomiting nor the spider-crawl walk down the stairs that gives me the greatest shock; but scenes like the bed shaking and the back and forth throw on the bed that successfully hunts my memories. I find a connection in those childhood memories where I spent hours sick at home. There's no denying that those scenes have a close rapport to the defenseless of a child during illness: where loneliness, hallucinations, and nightmares torment the mind, while the body fights the ardor of a fever.
To have horror is to find that alarming state of mind where all hope is lost. It's the act of drowning in our fears. For me, the horror caused by the slash horror flicks is of a different indolence: of a lesser nature compared to the horror classics. There's something about the slash horror genre that doesn't perpetuate. It simply plays with nerves by causing a visual discomfort. Just like a paper cut, we r not terrified of them cause they happen casually and often, but if we see it happening on others it triggers physical discomfort. As soon as the sense of discomfort leaves, there's no fear or substantial feeling that lingers. For me, true horror is that one that alters our reality and shifts our beliefs by breaking in into anything that we sanctify: that one that dismembers our most valuable virtues. Here's my notion of horror.
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