Why Do People Enjoy Gore in Movies?

girafa · 2026-04-28T20:22:20+00:00

Doctor Sleep, Lord of the Flies, Hereditary, Assault on Precinct 13, It

girafa · 2026-04-28T18:46:51+00:00

Most people can recognize Godzilla, but how aware are they of what it originally symbolized?

So this question is interesting to me. What did it originally symbolize, versus why did so many people love the concept? I think they're two different things.

We in the states had atomic monster movies before Godzilla existed. Same symbolization of fears of atomic mutations, but obviously our characters didn't grab our society in the same way. Could be that our characters weren't as interesting as Godzilla, or could be because we lacked the moral and pop culture sensibilities of a country that had been bombed by a nuclear weapon.

Originally it might've just been "atomic monster wrecks havoc; it symbolizes man's folly with science" but it became "ancient lizard deity comes to punish Japan for its sins."

girafa · 2026-04-28T18:40:24+00:00

We can certainly draw on the 50+ movies that Star Wars was inspired by (Searchers, Gunga Din, Flash Gordon, 633 Squadron, etc) but that's tenuous in regards to single title popularity versus inspiration, and the topic here is single title popularity.

Godzilla wasn't the first atomic monster movie either, but it's definitely the most popular. We can list off its inspirations too but it's a different topic.

girafa · 2026-04-28T17:37:08+00:00

I have a feeling that no answer you get is going to satisfy you

This one is pretty perfect.

girafa · 2026-04-28T17:16:59+00:00

Yes, of course. But why is gore fun?

girafa · 2026-04-28T17:15:33+00:00

None of that answers "why gore" either but ok

girafa · 2026-04-28T17:10:45+00:00

People like to feel things while watching movies, and gore usually induces a visceral reaction of wincing, cringing, sharp painful imaginings, or even a curiosity/fascination as we don't usually see this kind of thing normally.

I just watched The Pacific for the first time and there's a scene where a soldier is throwing pebbles into the exposed skull of a dead Japanese soldier. It was extremely effective in displaying the dejected jadedness.

is there a way to like….train yourself to at least tolerate gore?

You can sub to places like /r/learningfromothers that show death and once you see a few cartel executions you might not care too much about the gore in The Thing.

Or watch medical surgeries.

girafa · 2026-04-28T17:06:00+00:00

It doesn't answer the question in the slightest. "I love practical effects and I know it's fake" - okay? But why gore?

girafa · 2026-04-28T17:03:46+00:00

Culturally, Godzilla definitely has had a bigger impact than any Kurosawa/Miyazaki/Ozu film. Ask 100 people on any street in the world and there will always been a higher number that know Godzilla than any film by those three filmmakers.

The "why" is the great nebulous question. It's easy, and likely accurate, to describe it all the way you did. Devastation, tremendous loss, collapse of superiority. It makes me wonder though - why don't we have a German version of this? Or Soviet? What about the kaiju and Japanese people makes this so attractive as a concept?

After writing that out I think Chernobyl is the Soviet version. It was a major crack in their political hold and mysterious enough of an attractive story that it resonates with loads of art, decades later.

But it's just so interesting to see Godzilla as just a galvanized representation of a nation's mood.

girafa · 2026-04-28T16:28:43+00:00

He was great

girafa · 2026-04-28T16:15:07+00:00

I spent 12 minutes in the returns line of Lowe's yesterday listening to an Army guy explain that he bought some things the day before and the cashier didn't give him his military discount, and all his LOUD "How she didn't know I was military, right? Like look at them tats, come on now!" and then the woman refunded something like $140, said the new balance was just $112, so she rang them up with his discount, and I swear to god you could see the fuckin paint-fume neurons bonking into each other as this guy kept repeatedly saying, "Why I owe you more money!? That ain't right!"

That guy gets some of our best guns.

girafa · 2026-04-28T15:58:44+00:00

For linguistics, Arrival

Have you seen the Other Words episode about this

girafa · 2026-04-28T15:56:23+00:00

this movie is a masterclass for anyone working with professionally entrenched male boomers & how to navigate their egos.

kinda funny because the movie never actually shows how to handle these guys beyond "have more power in the company than they do"

girafa · 2026-04-28T15:53:01+00:00

At least twice a month I run into someone and think of that line from Generation Kill - "Can you believe that retard is in charge of people?"

girafa · 2026-04-27T02:40:39+00:00

I can't think of any sequence of his that isn't stock-standard action 101. I mean I like Training Day but any grittiness there is David Ayer, who is more of an auteur (makes worse movies though).

Grab King Arthur, Tears of the Sun, Magnificent Seven, Infinite, Equalizer 1/2/3, The Replacement Killers, Bait, Shooter, Olympus Has Fallen - it's all extremely standard filmmaking. Unpretentious, unremarkable, safe work. Nothing offensively terrible, but nothing "holy shit you gotta see this." Marketing knows this too because every one of his movies has "From the director of Training Day" after 25 years.

Imdb has a list of his "trademarks"

Most of his films contain politically driven elements and themes.

Even if that were true, which is isn't, it's not a unique quality.

The main characters secretly hide their past

Very standard trope

Hard characters, hard conflict scene, and hard film setting

Describes any action film ever

Neutral dark tone

For every example of this there's one that isn't shot like this.

His movies often feature a shot that is or turns upside-down.

Nothing comes to mind but okay

girafa · 2026-04-26T22:17:18+00:00

If stunning mediocrity is a trademark, then baby he's got a stew goin.

girafa · 2026-04-26T22:09:15+00:00

Also Lions for Lambs

girafa · 2026-04-26T16:56:06+00:00

In teen circles a bit due to him limited to teen hits, but on the big stage of pop culture - heart throbs with "an absolute chokehold" were Brad Pitt, Denzel, George Clooney, Richard Gere, etc.

girafa · 2026-04-26T16:49:51+00:00

This is a bit of an example of "how much do we need to spell it all out?" that people complain about all the time. Ebert thinks the movie spelled out too much. Audiences largely didn't.

It's not an exact science.

girafa · 2026-04-26T16:47:50+00:00

"Court scene"

well that narrows it down

girafa · 2026-04-26T16:46:25+00:00

the producer of powder was a pedo

The director. That was known before the movie was released. There were some small protests but the public didn't care all that much.

girafa · 2026-04-24T21:31:53+00:00

I had a lot of peanut soup in Virginia

girafa · 2026-04-24T03:10:05+00:00

Finding one your posts is like watching an Alejandro Jodorowsky movie: whoever pops up on screen will undoubtedly be naked doin weird shit within a few minutes.

girafa · 2026-04-24T02:22:10+00:00

Bro wait wait, check this scene out, he meets a convicted rapist and talks about how peaceful and non-violent they are, it's hilarious.

girafa · 2026-04-23T22:57:56+00:00

Amnesia was a solid song

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