"Family" & Some Generally Horrific Guilt

"Film reflects the anxieties of society.  Why is horror booming now?  Because times are fucked now and we need a release."

-John Landis, director of "Family" 

"Family" is the first of the Masters of Horror episodes that I've seen.  As the website says about the series, "Thirteen famous horror movie directors direct a one hour short horror film for the Showtime television network." 

It's about a seemingly normal man named Harold (George Wendt) with a strange hobby and a twisted definition of the word "family."  The actors playing the couple across the street whom Harold befriends are less than stellar and the twist at the end is pretty predictable but getting there is quite fun.  The scenes with Harold and his "family" made me wish it weren't just an hour long.

I'd forgotten and find it very hard to believe (which is probably why I've forgotten) that the same man, John Landis, directed this, An American Werewolf in Paris, The Blues Brothers, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Animal House and Jackson's "Black and White" video amongst other things.  What a crazy mishmash of genres.   

After watching "Family" (which is from the second season), I'm definitely going to look for other episodes.  I've watched the trailer for the entire second season and none of the others seem to have the black comedy slant this one had but they look perfectly creepy and, especially according to the final scene in the trailer, absolutely gory.  The downfall is that they package them as if there were actually horror movies - one episode per disc.  I'm less likely to waste a spot in my Netflix queue for a one hour show - if only they'd at least put two episodes on each dvd.

Horror movies are something I've really developed an interest in over the past year or so and I've decided it's a subject I'd actively like to learn more about.  But I've recently felt a little guilt about my new hobby.  I read the Monsterfest Blog  which is great for expert horror fans as well as someone like me who hasn't seen many horror movies but wants to learn more.  The four guys that write for the blog (which is put out by AMC) are funny, amazingly well versed and they post like crazy - there's almost always a new post when I check my gmail reader (which is several times a day because I bore easily).  I've added several horror movies to my queue thanks to them.

This post made me add the Japanese torture horror film Audition which is supposed to end with an absolutely stunning, shocking torture scene.  Well, stunning if you like those sorts of things, that is.  And here's where the guilt comes in.  As we were scraping paint on Jake's patio last week I mentioned that I had added the movie to my queue and told him a little bit about it - mainly that it's known for it's torture scene - and he stated that I could watch that one without him. 

He doesn't like, basically, horror movies that could be true.  Vampires and zombies are great - serial killers and torturers?  No thanks. 

I'd never really thought about it that way.  Is there just a little something wrong with me for liking these kinds of movies?  I watched Hostel (which has it's own category on the Monsterfest Blog, by the way) fairly recently and I'd like to see the second one (partially because I really like Welcome to the Dollhouse's Heather Matarazzo).  I think Saw is one of the greatest recent horror movies and I sat through both Two (awful) and Three (a little better) - and I'm sure I'll sit through Four as well -  even though they weren't that good.  Saw has me hooked.   Granted, I think there was a bit of intelligence and mystery to the first one but really...it's also just sick and twisted.  It's "how many ways can we portray torture on film?"   

Hell, if you want to quibble, there was even a bit of realism to "Family." I'm sure there's someone out there who is quite like Harold (who is quite like Norman Bates and I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't a few real life versions of him as well)....

Or is it okay because I know it's just a movie (well, a movie that could be true)?  Why should I take responsibility for everyone else?  I mean, I'm one of those that thinks a parent should decided what their children watch - some group of strangers shouldn't decide for them therefore deciding for all of us (although I've also always thought that maybe I wouldn't feel that way if I had kids of my own).  I know that it's all fake - put out there for my own twisted enjoyment.  And I do enjoy it.  Bring on the torturers and serial killers.  Bring on the buckets of gore and the scenes I have to watch through my fingers (not that other horror movies don't do that, too).  After all, I'm the girl who wrote a love poem to Hannibal Lector my junior year (I think he ate me in the end of the poem - and, if your mind is in the gutter, that's not what I meant at all...I meant it literally)...come to think of it, I wrote a poem about the serial killer clown in It that year, too. 

Anyway, I do feel a little guilty about liking this kind of gore but I think it's really just a little guilt.  I'll comfort myself with the thought that I know it's not real and that it's for entertainment value only.

Ahem, and we'll just gloss over the fact that I had to call a friend after I watched Saw - at home, alone - for the first time so that I could be reminded that it was, indeed, just a movie....

Edit 6/26: Oddly enough, today there was a post regarding an article about nearly the same subject.  From it I took this quote which perhaps sums it all up...

"If you’re going to show horrible events, let them be horrible.” - Rob Zombie