The midnight screenings at Sundance Film Festival encountered several problems, says Deadline. During the “V/H/S” screening which was held on Tuesday a moviegoer fainted because of the horror scenes at the beginning of the film. Similar incidents have taken place during other screenings of hardcore horror movies, so many people think the amount of violence in these productions should be reduced.
The guy said he found the initial sequences of “V/H/S” extremely violent, which is why he lost his senses. He was determined to stay and watch the movie until the end, but his girlfriend convinced him to leave. You may take this as a joke, but another viewer at the screening had similar problems. He began to feel nausea 20 minutes after the beginning of the movie.
Toronto viewers dealt with similar problems during the screening of the production “The Incident”. The horror film is about three struggling musicians who moonlight as cooks in a high security insane asylum, only to see the cells open during a storm. At a certain point in the movie, one of the cooks is tied to a stove top and burned alive. Apparently, the scene is so violent that a person who was present at the Toronto festival fainted.
“V/H/S” is a new horror production about a group of rebels who get hired by an unknown person to get into a desolate house and steal a rare VHS tape. As expected, the mission is not as simple as it looks for the characters discover something that terrifies them and even threatens their lives.
Film critics argue that this type of reaction is desirable from horror movies, so directors shouldn’t be forced to reduce the amount of violence in the films. As a matter of fact, they think this should become the Good Housekeeping Seal of hardcore horror productions in the future. After all, no guy wants to take his girlfriend to a scary movie unless he knows she will throw herself into his arms.
What do you think? Are moviegoers getting too soft or horror films unbearably violent?
More often than not there is an emphasis on one-upmanship in the horror genre that supersedes story, character and overall entertainment value. As gory as a film is, it’s no good if it doesn’t entertain. There are those who equate gore with entertainment and those people probably think each Saw film is a masterpiece. If violence and gore is in service to the story then it’s fair game but often times less is more. And don’t forget people fainted and vomited at screenings of Exorcist and Texas Chainsaw Massacre to name a couple and things got a lot worse than that over the years.