# Modern Media's Obsession with the Grotesque



## Krelf (Jul 3, 2012)

The current tendency to exploit the most grotesque subjects in both movies and TV is starting to annoy me. Movie theatres are filled to capacity with loud and vicious monster movies, and finding a decent thought-provoking movie is becoming a real chore.

I don’t like seeing TV commercials featuring chainsaw toting zombies or mummies whose fingers are dropping off with something akin to leprosy. Why is there such a large spotlight on the macabre and the supernatural today? I know it has always had a following, but why to such a great extent?


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

I have a pet theory that, since the mid-70's, when youth began acquiring part-time work (i.e., a job you go to while in school, not summer jobs) in the service sector in much greater numbers than they ever had before, the economy shifted its gaze from "grown-ups" to youth, simply because there were a lot of them and they suddenly had a lot more disposable income than a great many generations before them. Very quickly, what mattered to young adults mattered to the economy, and was deemed important because so much money could be made from it. Heck, if no one between the ages of 15 and 23 had a spare nickel to spend tomorrow on media, personal telecommunications, entertainment, fashion, fast food, or cosmetics, the economy would collapse. 

It was then that we saw a big upswing in media directed at youth. Not that there was _never_ any attention paid to young people prior to then, but I know that attention to youth culture before then was a handful of mags on the newsstands, a couple of hours a day for youth music in most regions, and the very notion of a 24hr station catering to young people was science fiction. Depiction of youth in television and film had them dressed not discernibly differently from adults. Not because the grown-ups dressed like kids, but because the kids tried their darndest to look like grown-ups.

Why do I mention this (as I squint like Clint Eastwood or Jeff Dunham's old guy dummy)? It's because when the focus of western economies shifted towards youth, what was important for young people became important in society more generally, and one of the single biggest foci of young people is being conscious of their emotions and learning how to both manage them in themselves, and manage them in others.

On Wednesday, I visited Coney Island in Brooklyn. It's closed now for the season, but all the equipment normally used is still visible through the fence, and it is still the place you bring a date or go to with your friends. And it is ALL about emotions. In fact, a map on the fence lists all the rides in terms of a "thrill" rating system (partly so you know which ones are suitable for young children or grandparents, but also so you know which ones will be more extreme), and the food is generally about wretched excess rather than anything else. To be young is to want to feel things, and feel success in what you feel or make others feel.

And, like it or not, the biggest-paying clientele at the cinema is likely young people, and they want something that makes them *feel*, not something that makes them *think*, because that's what's important to them. It's not the supernatural or macabre; it's the emotion eliciting. That is why films like those of Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, or anyone who includes lots of fast edits, explosions, car crashes, and VERY loud noises, despite not being macabre or supernatural, attract the same crowd.


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

The end is nigh.


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## Intrepid (Oct 9, 2008)

Shark said:


> The end is nigh.


Oh nigh. I thought you said the end was "High". I wish I could take my "like" back now.:sFun_dancing:


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

Intrepid said:


> Oh nigh. I thought you said the end was "High". I wish I could take my "like" back now.:sFun_dancing:


Here, for you.


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## Intrepid (Oct 9, 2008)

Shark said:


> Here, for you.


Ahh, thanks I guess.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

the reason you cannot find good movies to watch is because you probably avoid subtitles. otherwise, you would know there is alot of GREAT cinema out there. it's just not hollywood or canadian. granted they are tough to find in canada on the big screen. you'll have to watch most of it on dvd.

want to see awesome movies? go rent any or all of the following.

3-iron
the hidden blade
yeolliji 
i'm a cyborg but that's ok
the bird people of china
2ldk
hard boiled 
janghwa, hongryeon (a tale of 2 sisters)

if you cant handle subtitles you just have to take what hollywierd gives you. except for 3-iron, which has almost no dialog in it at all.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Krelf, that is a very astute observation. Young people don't really recognize many of the changes in entertainment today because they have been brought up with the bizarre and have come to accept it as "normal". Although Shark was "poking" fun, he is not far off the mark. We shouldn't expect anything different considering who the ruler of the world is. It's becoming more like him all the time.


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## deadear (Nov 24, 2011)

Have not gone to a Movie in Twenty years because they all sucked and were getting expensive back then. I am a realist not interested in watching something someone dreamed up. Don't believe in fairy tales.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

I would say its about the same as it's always been. 

Are you more aware of the zombie gruesome stuff, perhaps? Maybe it's become a larger part of your consciousness. 

Wasn't the height of horror the time of Freddy, Friday the 13th, Halloween, hell raiser, jaws, Psycho? Admittedly, it looks much worse due to the advancements in technology and make-up, but I don't feel subjected to more. 

I think that our interest in other peoples' lives is the increasing trend in media/tv. Whether it's famous peoples' lives or the guys from duck dynasty. Ice truckers, shark catchers, idol, dancing with stars, idol, bachelor. 

On the other side of the coin, there's 1000 ways to die (fake after season 1), all the csi shows, dexter, walking dead. 



Please note: I may be out of touch with what's actually happening.


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## Diablo (Dec 20, 2007)

I disagree with the above. The zombie fad is big right now in movies, books, the web, commercials etc.
heck even the CDC has a web page devoted to surviving a zombie apocalypse only in a slightly tongue in cheek kind of way.
but I don't mind it.

zombies are a "safe"enemy in the sense that they generally don't offend anyone, unlike hollywoods previous tendency to demonize in movies which ever race/country/ethnicity that had fallen out of favour with the US, in movies that were little more than thinly veiled American propaganda.

so, sorry if zombies hit a nerve with you OP. I much prefer them to be the collective enemy than Russians, Arabs, asians etc ie anyone that the administration of the day doesn't like. Sometimes I wonder if all those ppl that think Canadians are so uber nice and polite just haven't been around us long enough to see our curmudgeonly side.


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## Guest (Oct 13, 2013)

mhammer said:


> as I squint like Clint Eastwood or Jeff Dunham's old guy dummy





Diablo said:


> Sometimes I wonder if all those ppl that think Canadians are so uber nice and polite just haven't been around us long enough to see our curmudgeonly side.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

I read.....books. If I watch a movie it's usually an old one. Right now, ""From Russia With Love". Never heard of 'Breaking Bad' until 2 weeks after the series was over....for that matter I don't watch that much t.v. and in the last 9 years we've seen 3 'new' movies. One was 'Wild Hogs' and I don't recall the other two. Lets see, best horror films? Directed by Roger Corman and starring Vincent Price and anything by Hitchcock. And chezzy's right. Some of the films out of Japan and Sweden in the late 60's/early 70's with sub-titles are kinda entertaining. 
But, for the most part, things havn't changed. Back in the day we paid the almighty $ and set the tone for what we watched....now, the kids have the $s and basically we watch, or don't watch, what they like.
Please note....I probably am out of touch with todays ''entertainment''. But then I find the little I've seen of son's of anarchy.....about an hr.....bad comedy.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Lots of good points above this post.

Keep in mind that the main purpose of most media is not to provide entertainment and/or information, it's to sell advertizing.
Certainly TV, Radio, magazines, & newspapers do this.

But even movies will sell product placement--some blatantly.
(For example, consider the Will Smith movie-I, Robot)
[video=youtube;3HpIZrOH4zc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HpIZrOH4zc[/video]


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

there is another cool reason to watch foreign films. you wont recognize the product placement when you see it.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

Krelf said:


> The current tendency to exploit the most grotesque subjects in both movies and TV is starting to annoy me. Movie theatres are filled to capacity with loud and vicious monster movies, and finding a decent thought-provoking movie is becoming a real chore.


At the risk of sounding like a Troll, with the exception of "Game of Thrones" and perhaps "Breaking Bad" I really don't know what you're on about.

2013 Oscar Best Picture Nominees

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

2013 Emmy Awards Best Dramatic Series Nominees

“Breaking Bad” (AMC)
“Downton Abbey” (PBS)
“Game of Thrones” (HBO)
“Homeland” (Showtime)
“House of Cards” (Netflix)
“Mad Men” (AMC)


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## Krelf (Jul 3, 2012)

You wouldn't expect the academy to nominate an ear-splitting movie about a monster coming out of a volcano, or gruesome aliens from space for an academy award, would you? The problem is that when one wants to view a decent drama or thought provoking movie, the only selections available seems to be from either this gendre, an inane comedy or a full length cartoon!

We attend about one movie a year. We would go more often if there were some half decent selections. The last one we saw was "42" which was entertaining, historical and it had a message to it.


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

I'm with the guys about foreign movies, though I tend to go for comedies. I haven't kept up with Hollywood or TV since 1990. In fact, I've gone for years at a time without watching any TV at all. And a couple of years at a stretch without watching a single movie. None of this truly addresses the main point of the topic, though. 

In any case, here are some modern movies and TV shows I have found entertaining without being ridiculously violent or whatever:

*Movies*

The History Of Future Folk

_"The best alien folk duo sci-fi action romance comedy movie ever made."_

Still Mine

_"The heartfelt tale of Craig Morrison, who comes up against the system when he sets out to build a more suitable house for his ailing wife Irene. Although Morrison uses the same methods his father, an accomplished shipbuilder, taught him, times have changed. He quickly gets blindsided by local building codes and bureaucratic officials. As Irene becomes increasingly ill – and amidst a series of stop-work orders – Craig races to finish the house. Hauled into court and facing jail, Craig takes a final stance against all odds."_

The Angels' Share

_"For distillers, the angels’ share is the whiskey lost to evaporation each year, and that little fact makes a rare cask of whiskey the perfect target for a heist. A hilarious story about second chances."_

The Guard

_"A comedic, fish out of water tale of murder, blackmail, drug trafficking and rural police corruption, and the two cops who must join forces to take on an international drug-smuggling gang, an unorthodox Irish policeman and a straitlaced FBI agent."_

Boy
_
"An 11-year-old kid and devout Michael Jackson fan gets a chance to know his father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago."_

*TV*

Red Dwarf X - Watch the earlier seasons first, if you haven't already.

The IT Crowd - Like The Big Bang Theory, but funny. 

Friday Night Dinner - Subtle British sitcom.

I'm Spazticus - Awesomely politically incorrect.


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## hardasmum (Apr 23, 2008)

Krelf said:


> You wouldn't expect the academy to nominate an ear-splitting movie about a monster coming out of a volcano, or gruesome aliens from space for an academy award, would you? The problem is that when one wants to view a decent drama or thought provoking movie, the only selections available seems to be from either this gendre, an inane comedy or a full length cartoon!


This is exactly my point. 

You say it's hard to find a good film that isn't about monsters, volcanos etcetera so I have provided a list of at least nine movies from last year that don't feature those elements. I could list dozens more if you'd like?

I think the media is more obsessed with celebrities and car fires in Toledo, Ohio. I find this trend far more disturbing.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

If you are interested in movies with drama and a real story line, my wife and I have found the local library to be a good source for many of the old classic movies. They are also free as long as you get them back within the time allowed, which is usually one week.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Monster from a volcano.....sounds like Godzilla to me. Gruesome alien movies up for Academy Awards? That's already happened. @Shark......thumbs up on Red Dwarf. Just sit back, laugh and enjoy. It's one of the bonding points I have with my son. 
@Steadfastly.....our library has done away with it's vhs movies and what they have for dvd's are kinda limited to newer stuff.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

wow vhs? if you're 2 tech generations behind the rest of the world you can hardly expect any content at all. you're best bet is kijiji, freecycle, garage sales, dollar and thrift stores. soon they'll be showing up in antique stores, so you better hurry.
enjoy watching such block busters as "revenge of the nerds" and "blue lagoon". not even the grocery stores have vhs anymore.


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Electraglide said:


> @Steadfastly.....our library has done away with it's vhs movies and what they have for dvd's are kinda limited to newer stuff.


That's too bad. When we used to live in Burlington and they started to get in DVD's, they replaced a lot of the old classics on VHS with DVD's as many of them are available on that format. If you ask for them, they may order at least a few.


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## Krelf (Jul 3, 2012)

Steadfastly said:


> If you are interested in movies with drama and a real story line, my wife and I have found the local library to be a good source for many of the old classic movies. They are also free as long as you get them back within the time allowed, which is usually one week.


The local library is often a great place to go for classic movies. We've taken advantage of the excellent library facilities in our city over the past 35 years. But loading a movie into a DVD player doesn't really constitute an evening out...even if we heat up a bag of microwave popcorn! And since we have been patronizing their movie selections all this time, we've seen most of the decent stuff.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

If you're lucky, there's still a drive-in movie close to where you are. Around here that's Edmonton or the Hat, or Enderby B.C.. Night out hell, make it a week-end. Doesn't matter what the movie is.....it's a drive-in and it's dark.


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## WCGill (Mar 27, 2009)

No more drive-in in Medicine Hell either.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

I guess it's Enderby then. Around here, on occasion, they'll set up a screen in a parking lot but it's just not the same. Kinda hard to have a ''meaningful conversation about a thought provoking movie'' in the back seat of a car when your in the parking lot of a mall. 
Krelf, loading a movie into a dvd player or vcr etc. could be part of a nice evening ''out''. The wife and I on occasion will go out for dinner, maybe dancing or a casino, then back for drinks....coke and pepsi....and a movie.


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## Cartcanuck (Oct 30, 2012)

I actually still enjoy going to movies, but with 2 little kids, we are very selective.

But the whole zombie thing now is just a fad. Just like 5 years ago it was vampires. It all follow whatever gains some interest. I half expect there to be a rash of shark movies in the next year or so after Sharknado LOL

As for the gruesome content in tv's and movies. It has gotten out of hand especially on TV. We stopped watching any CSI shows because they just seemed to have to show more and more gruesome images and talk in more and more detail. They had to push the shock factor. The same goes for some of the police dramas. Each week had to have bigger and more intense crimes and crime scenes. It's to the point now that wifey records her dramas that usually included numerous young doctors, lawyers, or firefighters sleeping with other doctors, lawyers, or firefighters and we record a few sitcoms. Of course, my wife being a singer, records every version of a talent competition that exists (which is a little gruesome sometimes!), and we do enjoy things like Amazing Race and Survivor. But almost anything involving crime stories (unless lack of talent is a crime) is off the TV now and usually not something we see in the movies. 

I think many viewers are becoming de-sensitized to to a lot of the gruesome things because it's on the TV now, whereas in the past it was only in the movies in the form of horror/slasher/B-movies. Now they see it 2 or 3 times a night on TV, so the networks and movie studios always have to outdo the last thing done just so they look like they are innovative and to try and get that wow or shock factor with the viewer. They don't try to do things smarter because that would mean extra effort, time, and likely cost. So they default to the lowest common denominator (gore and cheap shock value) to try to get noticed. Anyone who has become an adult in the past 8 years or so has grown up with the CSI, Bones, Law and Order, Criminal Minds TV saturation and movies like the SAW series in the movies. When I was a kid (late 70s early 80s) we only saw this stuff in movies that we had to go out of our way to see (Friday the 13th, etc). TV was Happy Days and and The Dukes of Hazard. But in the same sense news is just as bad as entertainment. I was very young but conscious of the last year of two of the war in Vietnam. I don't remember seeing any dead bodies or burning corpses on the news (which I always watched with my dad, right up through high school). Of course there were some images that included this, but it was the exception not the norm. I really noticed a change in new during the first Gulf War where they showed more dead bodies and carnage. Then after 9/11 during the second Gulf War and up through to current time news has been as much or more about shock value than actual news. Today, seeing dead and decomposed corpses is part of every day TV during prime time programing or on the news. How do you shock or surprise this generation? Me, I would suggest making them think about what they are watching, THAT would be a shock. But that's too much of a stretch for the braintrust in Hollywood. "Smart" doesn't sell Converse shoes or Snickers bars.


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Nearly a decade back, I took our younger son to see the _Spongebob Squarepants _movie at a local cineplex. After the lights dimmed, there seemed to be an odd selection of trailers being shown, all of them pertaining to suspenseful films, and some horror flicks, though none were explicit or gory trailers. Just ill-suited. Then the feature began, and within seconds, as the credits rolled, we realized the projectionist had accidentally mounted the film _Saw _on the projector for our theatre. One of the other parents immediately stood up and declared in his loudest and sternest voice "Turn the lights *on*....NOW!!". The movie was killed immediately, and the ushers came in and apologized. We waited 15 minutes for them to correct the error, and were still a little apprehensive that the movie we had paid for would actually come on.

That theatre missed out on litigation by a room full of parents and impressionable youngsters by mere inches.


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## cheezyridr (Jun 8, 2009)

my son was not yet 2 and he sat on my lap for nitemare on elm st 3. we used to take him to the movies all the time. he was unusual in that he would sit on my lap and watch the movie. we saw everything. horror, action, romance, drama, mystery. 
he was never one to make noise there. but anyhow i mention it because he's 28. he's normal, not a serial killer or deranged lunatic. i never had to explain to him that there was no monster in the closet, no alligators under the bed.


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

RUSH by Ron Howard is an extremely well done movie...highly recommended

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKAr42gxjhM


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

cheezyridr said:


> my son was not yet 2 and he sat on my lap for nitemare on elm st 3. we used to take him to the movies all the time. he was unusual in that he would sit on my lap and watch the movie. we saw everything. horror, action, romance, drama, mystery. he was never one to make noise there. but anyhow i mention it because he's 28. he's normal, not a serial killer or deranged lunatic. i never had to explain to him that there was no monster in the closet, no alligators under the bed.


Respect. I always say it's how they are raised - not what they watch or play.


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