Page 203 - Student: dazed And Confused

The sights on the silver screen have become increasingly gruesome over the years. Some
more modern films (Hostel, Untraceable) leave little to the imagination and almost seek to

assault our eyeballs with the creative limits of the writers' imaginations for murder and

mutilation. There are a thousand theories surrounding this approach from a desensitised
audience to a simple desire to be extreme. Perhaps this is what the film watcher of today

wants. I realise, however, that the average horror viewer frequently rates Psycho (1960) as

one of their favourite horrors of all time (C4). Blood and violence is not used at all

gratuitously in this film. Rather, it is very economical.

Where some films try to put everything on show, Psycho appears to focus more on what we

do not see. This film seems to be concentrating on creating a sinister atmosphere where

people are expecting a shocking moment of horror to come at any time though those
instants are few and far between. It begins with a woman stealing a large sum of money

from her boss and this leads us to believe that the movie may develop into a fugitive or

police feature. The money is a ruse to lead us to the empty motel and an increasingly

creepy Norman Bates. From then on, the movie jumps a gear and shifts into the classic

horror we love. This is partly due to what we see and do not see. Moments of horror, as we
see them now, were used sparingly but the atmosphere is so dark that a viewer will always

think that they have seen much more than they have.

'My guess is, when that movie is mentioned (Psycho), everyone first thinks
of the shower scene... from first stab to last, it runs seventeen seconds.'
(Goldman, 1987, p121)

During this scene, only the effects of the attack are ever shown and that is more convincing
than having blood and guts thrust at you. The only blood shown is the swirls disappearing
down the drain.

'Just as a door half-opening on to a sinister room can be more alarming
than one which reveals fully the terror lurking within, so the unseen is
often more terrifying than the seen.'
(Butler, 1970, p12)

Stormed (2009) was written with this economy of visual spectacle in mind. I originally

wanted to create a horror movie that contained not one drop of blood, but considering how

the horror movie has progressed to show ever more gory scenes a decision was made to