I've never been a big fan of scary movies. They're unnerving, especially at night, and even with my logical adult brain, I still get nervous about strange shadows in the corner.
I even wrote an opinion article about how YouTube needs to stop playing nighttime horror ads, or at least give people the ability to opt out. Which I still stand by, by the way. And yet, I've recently dived into one subgenre of horror without much issue: slashers and gore.
For whatever reason, I've become mostly desensitized to gore, but psychological and supernatural horror still tend to freak me out. So I can watch "Scream," "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," and "Saw," but "Insidious," "The Grudge," and "The Ring" still thoroughly unnerve me.
"The Grudge" and "The Ring" might just be childhood trauma since I watched those a little too early in my life, but the point still stands. Slashers and gore have become a safe subgenre of horror movies thus far, so here's a list of the ones I've watched most recently.
Scream
After seeing Jenna Ortega in "Wednesday" and hearing that she was in the most recent installments of the "Scream" franchise, I decided to get caught up on the series so I'd have an idea of what was going on when I watched the movies featuring her.
Despite all the stabbing, I felt like the first several movies didn't feature too much gore, and it was interesting to dive into the lore of the franchise.
Likewise, it was nice seeing actors and actresses who I've enjoyed in other movies and shows, namely Courtney Cox, Rose McGowan, Carrie Fisher, Jamie Kennedy, Liev Schreiber, Laurie Metcalf, Hayden Panettiere, and Jack Quaid.
It also brought a new appreciation for actors and actresses I wasn't previously aware of, namely Neve Campbell, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Melissa Barrera.
Also, the series was fascinatingly meta, not only in terms of its movie-within-a-movie theme with the fictional "Stab" movies, but also in terms of how the third "Scream" movie is eerily reminiscent of what was going on with its real-life executive producer Harvey Weinstein.
In relation to that theme, my biggest criticism of the franchise is the victim-blaming and slut-shaming of Maureen Prescott (Lynn McRee).
I think the third movie gives Sydney (Neve Campbell) more sympathy for Maureen, but she and other characters initially dogpiled on the idea that the murders probably wouldn't have happened if Maureen hadn't cheated on her husband, or if she would've been motherly toward Roman (Scott Foley).
I think the winds have changed on that topic in more recent installments, but it hasn't really been acknowledged since, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.
All in all, it's an interesting franchise that I've come to appreciate even with its shortcomings.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
I've played as Leatherface a couple times in "Mortal Kombat X" and I've watched a few people play the new "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" video game, so with my newfound tolerance of slashers and gore, I decided to watch the original movie.
Maybe it's just the '70s style acting or the fact that we've all been desensitized to older horror content due to the newer horror twists increasing our tolerance for violence, but I actually didn't find the movie scary.
There's just enough gore to unnerve some people, but the blood was kept fairly minimal compared to what was expected, so it wasn't the most difficult horror movie to watch. If it was at all disturbing, I think that's more due to the sheer weirdness of the antagonist characters and the plot.
Everyone in Leatherface's family is psychologically messed up, including him. I haven't watched the rest of the franchise, but I can definitely see where the fodder for the storytelling is coming from.
Saw
The most recent set of gory films I watched was the "Saw" franchise. I've heard about it a million times, particularly references to the puppet, and Hulu was really pushing the series in preparation for "Saw X," so I decided to watch some of the films.
I binged the first four movies, and honestly, I was more fascinated with figuring out the puzzles than anything else. The gore isn't too bad in the first movie, but the sequels tend to get more and more gory in some respects, so watch with caution.
The series isn't scary so much as it is cringe inducing when you experience sympathy pain for whoever gets caught in a trap. I think the worst of those is one scene where someone ends up with a needle in their eye (can't remember which of the four films it's in) and the needle pit scene in "Saw II."
One thing I liked about the franchise was the puzzle solving, particularly in the first movie, and the reveal of who Jigsaw really is, as shown in the video above. The puzzles reminded me of "Resident Evil 7" and the Jigsaw reveal was epic.
I also enjoyed seeing actors from other movies and shows I've watched, namely Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Donnie Wahlberg, and Scott Patterson.
I'll probably finish the series when I get some free time, but I don't feel a particular rush to do it.
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