If I see any of these words used in the description of movies I take it as a personal challenge. I grew up watching violent action movies, Kung Fu, and especially Horror. The horror love is basically genetic. My Grandmother used to pay a nickel to see double features of Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and the Wolfman. The 1930's-40's versions with Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney. My mother grew up watching the Hammer versions with movies starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and even got to see the original Night of the Living Dead when it came to the Drive-In. One of my earliest memories is watching John Carpenter's The Thing in my footie pajamas just barely in kindergarten.
The funny thing is that even as a little kid I wasn't too freaked out by the gore. As a matter of fact I loved it. By the time I eleven I used to get Fangoria and Gorezone magazines to read about the horror movies and I put up poster in my room with all the best gore pics, and horror icons. Melting faces, dripping blood, the gorier the better. As the years pass I find myself looking for gorier and more extreme cinema. Since American cinema has largely gone with CGI, a method that in my opinion doesn't capture the organic feeling necessary to truly convey the beauty that is gore, I've turned to watching a lot of foreign films. I still love practical effects!
There are two types of extreme when it comes to my viewing taste. There is extreme gore, like Tokyo Gore Police or Riki-Oh. Then there is just plain DIS-TUR-BING, like Antichrist or what I hear about Irreversible and Serbian Film; which is light on gore but usually the content matter is enough to make one squirm. See there? The fact that something can make me squirm is proof that I am not totally desensitized. I wrote about the 25 weirdest movies I've watched before.
The most important thing is that I know that movies are NOT reality, which is why I can watch the melting man from Robocop get hit by a car over and over and laugh my head off, but have to cover my eyes when exposed to skateboarding ownage videos (Youtube videos of people getting massively injured while attempting skateboarding tricks). Ghost, possession, and anything to do with demons in movies kind of freaks me out too, but I'll still watch!
I decided to add a great scene from Riki-Oh. Enjoy!
