by Barbara Stanley

Created on: June 10, 2009   Last Updated: May 17, 2011

Gory movies that realistically show the maiming and/or murdering of people is often too much for me, even though I realize I am watching actors in a film. However, the scenes depicted are often taken from real life situations. Many horror films are so out there that no one could imagine that anything remotely like the movie would ever happen in real life. The most realistic horror movies are the ones that scare me the most. I may cover my eyes when a gory scene is played, but I still know what is happening and the film has the same affect on me whether I see the hacking, bludgeoning, knifing and beating or not. Still, gore has its place. Even young children are savvy enough to expect blood when a person is shot or stabbed.

Some gory movies are actually more of a comedy than a movie meant to keep someone up at night. Night of the Living Dead comes to mind as one of the movies so ridiculous it made people laugh. Gore has its place in telling a good story. The movie does not have to be a horror film to have a need to depict gore. A train wreck might show how some of the victims would look when everything came to rest. An explosion scene, a category 5 hurricane, or large tornado could wreak such havoc that victims would be lying everywhere. The more realistic the injuries look, the more believable the movie will be. Who would watch a movie billed as a thriller if no one was hurt, frightened, or killed?

Why do people want to be frightened? Why do they pay money to watch as innocent people are slaughtered, stalked, stabbed, or slashed? We want to know how we would react if we faced similar circumstances, God forbid. We have a propensity for gathering information that could be used in emergencies with million-to-one odds against it ever happening to us. Just in case, we want to see the absurd way people walk right in on situations that an idiot could tell was tempting fate. By watching their foolish mistakes, we learn valuable lessons on how to avoid flesh-eating zombies, alien body thieves, and mad prison escapees. You don't know, it could happen.

There is a place for gore. It isn't for everyone, but scenes of freak accidents with life-threatening results require realistic props and sets. As a society, we are too sophisticated for a squirt of ketchup here and there and bullet-riddled bodies without holes and massive blood loss. Even older children not prone to nightmares should be allowed to watch action films depicting a little

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