{"id":9370,"date":"2013-01-05T19:09:20","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T03:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=9370"},"modified":"2019-12-23T15:54:26","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T23:54:26","slug":"blurry-boundaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2013\/01\/05\/blurry-boundaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Blurry Boundaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:2944,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/plus.google.com\\\/app\\\/basic\\\/stream\\\/z12rirdjfpvnups3h23dddz5szaasv4yo04?cbp=1f93n7txastfl&amp;spath=\\\/app\\\/basic\\\/stream&amp;sparm=force%3D1%26partnerid%3Dt1%26source%3Dapppromo&amp;force=1&amp;partnerid=t1&amp;sview=2&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/workspaceupdates.googleblog.com\\\/2023\\\/04\\\/new-community-features-for-google-chat-and-an-update-currents%20.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2945,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/twitter.com\\\/djwudi\\\/status\\\/287720064361312258&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/djwudi\\\/status\\\/287720064361312258&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:2946,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Dexter_(season_4)&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260306081728\\\/https:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Dexter_(season_4)&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Dexter_(season_4)&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 03:51:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-26 03:51:56&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Yesterday, I posted <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/app\/basic\/stream\/z12rirdjfpvnups3h23dddz5szaasv4yo04?cbp=1f93n7txastfl&amp;spath=\/app\/basic\/stream&amp;sparm=force%3D1%26partnerid%3Dt1%26source%3Dapppromo&amp;force=1&amp;partnerid=t1&amp;sview=2\" title=\"Google+: Michael Hanscom: Just watched the red band trailer\u2026.\">this<\/a> to my Google+ account:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Just watched the red band trailer for the new Evil Dead remake\/reboot. That is <em>so<\/em> not for me. I like the original with and because of its crazy low-budget camp, and love that they just ran with that for the rest of the series and went completely goofy. This new, ultra-realistic, ultra-violent, ultra-bloody take, even if it&#8217;s more in line with what they originally wanted to do, doesn&#8217;t appeal to me in the least.<\/p>\n<p>  I like my horror creepy and\/or with a good dose of humor mixed in. Today&#8217;s trend towards ultra-violent torture porn just makes me feel ill.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Then, earlier today, I tweeted <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/djwudi\/status\/287720064361312258\" title=\"Twitter: djwudi: Watched The Cabin in the Woods today\u2026.\">this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n  Watched The Cabin in the Woods today. Crazy, and really good. Glad I hadn&#8217;t read any spoilers beforehand. http:\/\/t.co\/rIngl2A3 #IMDb\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Then just a few minutes ago, Prairie and I finished watching the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dexter_(season_4)\" title=\"Wikipedia: Dexter (Season 4)\">fourth season of Dexter<\/a>, and while the ending cliffhanger was upsetting, it was upsetting in the way a good TV cliffhanger should be, and we&#8217;ll definitely continue watching the series.<\/p>\n<p>There seems to be some possible irony in all of that.<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, I&#8217;m not entirely sure just where the boundary between &#8220;acceptable&#8221; and &#8220;unacceptable&#8221; violence lies for me. There were definite moments in <em>The Cabin in the Woods<\/em> that were more violent than I was really comfortable with, and Dexter occasionally pushes <em>right<\/em> up to the edge, but in both cases, I think there are three things that make the difference and keep me watching:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The stories are good. Even in the moments where the violence pushes further than I might like it to, I&#8217;m already invested enough in the characters and the plot that I&#8217;m willing to deal with the occasional cringe and &#8220;was that <em>really<\/em> necessary?&#8221; thought in order to continue with the story.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>They don&#8217;t dwell on the violence. The acts, while necessary to the story, aren&#8217;t the <em>point<\/em> of the story, and as such, even when they&#8217;re shown on screen, it&#8217;s generally not a huge, long, drawn-out scene. It happens, there&#8217;s that moment of shock, and then they move on.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>The violence is a part, but isn&#8217;t the point. I&#8217;ve seen other films (the first <em>Saw<\/em> film, for instance, which was two hours of my life whose only useful purpose was to convince me that I have no need to ever waste time on any of the rest of the series) that are truly deserving of the &#8220;torture porn&#8221; designation. The violence is the point of the film, and any bare minimum of plot is there only to move from one violent act to the next. Even films that aren&#8217;t part of the modern &#8220;torture porn&#8221; style of horror can fall victim to this kind of approach: For instance, part of why I didn&#8217;t think much of Tim Burton&#8217;s take on <em>Sweeny Todd<\/em> (which I&#8217;ve enjoyed on stage) was his insistence on showing every slit throat in loving closeup. Once would have been quite forgivable in order to get the point across, but I found the repeated shots of gaping bloody throats to be quite unnecessary.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Of course, there&#8217;s a lot of grey area in all of this, and the boundary between what works for me and what doesn&#8217;t is definitely very, very blurry. Sometimes it just boils down to the old clich\u00e9 about the difference between erotic art and pornography: I know it when I see it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Honestly, I&#8217;m not entirely sure just where the boundary between &#8216;acceptable&#8217; and &#8216;unacceptable&#8217; violence lies for me. I like my horror creepy and\/or with a good dose of humor mixed in. Today&#8217;s trend towards ultra-violent torture porn just makes me feel ill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2037],"tags":[33,34,23,8,36],"class_list":["post-9370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tv-and-films","tag-dexter","tag-evil-dead","tag-film","tag-television","tag-the-cabin-in-the-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}