The nature of Exploitation films.

[lordofdance]

The primary purpose of most exploitation films is to appeal to the darker, primitive side of human nature. People watch them to see sex and violence taken to a further extreme than generally condoned in mainstream cinema. Is it wrong to enjoy such films? What is the point in watching a film about torture or sexual brutality? There are mainstream movies that deal with sex and violence, and many of them do have exploitive elements. Is it more acceptable to watch a mainstream gore film like Hannibal, where a man eats his own brain, over a less mainstream gore movie like Cannibal Holocaust? Why? Just because Ridley Scott directed Hannibal doesn't make the graphic blood and guts any less exploitive.

What is the limit? What are the reasons people should or shouldn't watch exploitation films?

[criterionmaster]

Like I said in the Cannibal Holocaust thread, I really don't know why I watch the films. I guess I get "joy" out of seeing some of this crazy shit. But the point you bring up about mainstream films with the same content is true. There is nothing different between the films but people have more respect just because it is Hollywood, or mainstream, and view the non-mainstream stuff as trash. It is stupid. They are both equally as trashy.

People should watch the films because it is new experiences. I mean just see how far you can go, what you can withstand. It is hard for me to say I enjoy these films, but I guess I do in a sense.

[lordofdance]

The only real explanation I can give for liking films with questionable content is that I have a nihilistic streak. I do not have a completely functioning sense of decency, because pert of me believes that everything is bullshit anyway. Bad things happen, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. The other part does have a sense of decency, though I'm not sure how much of one. When I watch something horrible in an exploitation film, or any film, and it effects me somehow, I feel like I understand myself better.

Maybe people who enjoy exploitation haven't seen enough horror in the real world to make them lose their taste for it. If I lived in a country where there was constant bombing and carnage, maybe I'd have a different perspective. Or maybe if I grew up in neighborhood with crack dealers on every street corner. It's a possibility.

But, yeah. Exploitation exists in every type of entertainment. Some is just more obvious about it.

[kiddo]

I love the thought of this "no-boundaries-type-of-deal", but it depends on how it is deliviered. I don't like films that uses violence only because of it; I want a film to use the violence to convey something, wheter it's a thought, a vision or a simple idea. I may take an example. Thriller - en grym film, while not anything near the vulgarity of some other films, I guess, use the violence to give the audience a much more powerful and lasting impact than what would be the case if not showing all the craziness in it's disgusting form. I do like my films to show the violence, all the garbage in the human psyche, and so on. But I want it to say something more than "this is cool - aren't we tough that dare to show this?".

[lordofdance]

Some people need to have a higher meaning to be comfortable with these types of films. Sometimes, though, there is no higher meaning to the horrible things that happen in life. Do you think that every horrible act has some sort of meaning behind it? It's just not true. People need to think that everything has meaning in order to makes sense of thier lives, but sometimes evil and death just happens. There is no great message to be learned.

[kiddo]

Obviously. But when it comes to the films I watch, I usually ask of something meaningful - and sometimes something more profound than life itself.

[criterionmaster]

I normally just don't expect to get a message out of these kinds of films, so that if I do get one it is that much better.

[kiddo]

I'm not talking about a message, more do I want an idea or thought put into the violence. Not just tortur scenes because one wants to shock.