Wadders said:
I dont watch horror films/ play horror games. Call me pussy, but I dont enjoy getting scared by films and games. That's just me though
Hehe, okay, I hear you. We can't all have similar tastes after all. But still, I thought that perhaps the analogy of watching horror films/playing horror games might be a bit easier to relate to, since watching such movies and playing those kinds of games is kind of "mainstream", after all.
(you know, aside from the REEEALLLY twisted films like the one that this thread is about, among other examples)
Wadders said:
I still manage to feel for characters in less graphic films. I still cry at Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, films like Eastern Promises and Raging Bull have fantastic characters to get to grips with and effect me profoundly. I too watch a lot of films but that doesnt make me dead to anything but the most brutal sexual violence.
Ok. Now it's not that im emotionally dead inside or anything like that (although I believe that I can be a bit more of a coldhearted bastard than most people), but Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers doesn't make me "feel" much at all, and they could never really cause me to cry.
Though they are certainly among the better titles coming out of hollywood in my book, I mostly watch them due to the well written plot, action and for historical references and such.
An actor has to be really, over-the-top good to actually fool me into believing his interpretation of the role (something that rarely happens), so I've sort of gotten used to the fact that im not going to get very emotionally invested in most actors acting. I tend to settle for acting that I find to be at least "decent" enough as to ease my suspension of disbelief enough to enjoy the story.
Wadders said:
As far as distancing oneself from a person who watches films like these, I can see your point. Just beacuse someone likes these films for whatever reason, dont neccessarily mean theyre some kinda messed up sadist. However films such as this are entirely non-standard for my circle of friends. If I suddenly came out of the blue and told them I watched a film where a guy (real or not, if it looks real enough then it should feel real, as you pretty much said yourself) got skullfucked to death through their eye socket, I'd probably get some very weird glances to say the least.
I can get that it would be "non-standard" as you say, because I can't really think of any social group where movies like this one could be considered "standard" at all.
However, it is a little depressing to think that your friends might actually turn you into a pariah simply for watching a work of fiction.
I mean, if you came out that you enjoyed torturing defenseless little animals to death, or that you once raped a girl and got away with it or something like that, then I could certainly understand why you might lose your friends as a consequence. I mean, I can't imagine being friends with a rapist (heck, I've even broken off contact with a long-time childhood friend because I found out about the physical abuse that he had put his girlfriend through when they were still together). But no one is hurt for real by fiction, thus I find it a little unfounded to basically flip someone off just because he/she indulge in fiction of the more disturbing kind.
As I've already said, we can't all have similar tastes. Thus I find it to be a pretty basic premise for a true friendship to accept eachothers differing tastes. At least when it concerns something as harmless as fiction.
Also, not that I'd try to recommend you to actually do anything about it if you don't want to. But speaking for myself, I'd seriously question my relationship with people I call "friends" if I actually thought I might risk losing this friendship just because I openly tell them about a sick movie I've seen.
To me it seems like such a relationship is rather flimsy already, so how long would it hold up if some fucked-up and REAL situation occured?
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the matter.
Wadders said:
But whatever, go ahead watch the film and get what you want out of it, I just dont think I've got the kind of mind that will let me watch one of these movies all the way through.
I understand. Though I can tell you that you tend to feel a little "enriched" once you've watched through movies like this in it's entirety.
I mean, Irreversible and it's infamous rape-scene left a serious impact on me, and I cringed pretty much throughout that entire scene. But once the credits rolled at the end, I didn't really "regret" having seen the movie.
So I guess, these movies can be one of those things that feels better having watched through, than how it feels in the meantime as you watch them. If that makes sense? :S