gorno be gone

Music: Between Interval: Autumn Continent (2006)

The recent Variety devoted the front page to a "gory story" that forecast the demise of the torture subgenre of horror films. The surprise success of Eli Roth's Saw in 2004 (which I have still not seen) was largely responsible for the trend, however, now there is a glut and so executives are reportedly ordering no more gore productions (Saw IV is going to the be litmus; if the film tanks, no more torture flicks for a while).

One of the reasons that hardcore gorno films went into production is that they are cheap to make: without the production costs of monsters, low-budget schlock could be churned out fairly quickly, and the returns were pretty decent. This year's to-date proceeds are 265 million, compared to last year's 405 million, so horror is taking a supernatural turn back to vampires and ghosts.

I wonder, however, if it's just the glut? Everyone I go to films with squirms when we see the preview of this "I'm gonna pull out your fingernails, little lady" kind of movie. I recognize I should see one before I pass judgment, but, still: couldn't it be that fantasy projections are simply not as hateful as we've been led to believe? Could it be that audiences are simply sick of, well, getting sick at the movies?