What Is The Goriest AMERICAN Film Of All Time?

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 12:11pm

It's easy enough to identify the goriest film of all time (Peter Jackson's DEAD ALIVE) or the goriest films of other countries.

But I got into a conversation today about what the goriest and bloodiest AMERICAN film ever made?

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 12:15pm

I'd say it is pretty much a dead heat between Crossroads and Glitter.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 12:19pm

**AH BOOM CHICK**

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 12:38pm

Damn, that made me laugh.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 12:53pm

Many, I assume, would probably say THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. I'd highly disagree with that.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 1:25pm

I would say The Evil Dead or maybe Kill Bill

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 1:31pm

Evil Dead, I am not up on all of the most recent horror films, however...I am slipping!

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 1:38pm

I'm sure the goriest American film was probably a grindhouse film made in the '70s.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 1:38pm

Something by Herschell Gordon Lewis, I imagine.

[tazber]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 2:09pm

Is Cannibal Holocaust American?

Also, to be truly gory a movie shouldn't be too over the top. Evil Dead and Dead Alive are almost cartoony in their violence, so, to me at least, their not that bad.
True gore requires a "look away" factor. This new group of directors known as the "splat pack" are pretty intense.(Roth, Aja, etc.)
Saw 3 pushed some boundaries IMO, and the eyeball scene is Hostel.
And of course the famous eye slash by Brunuel.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 2:26pm

Saw 3 pushed some boundaries IMO, and the eyeball scene is Hostel.

Those aren't films. They're utter trash.

[Liverpool]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 2:41pm

My guess is it will be the snuff film that finally puts an end to these threads.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 2:47pm

The goriest American movie I've seen is Hostel. I love gorey movies and I will actively seek them out. But Hostel crossed a line, as someone mentioned, with the eyeball scene. Also with the drilling.

[Craww]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 3:53pm

The recent crop of torture porn movies pretty much solidify my preference for foreign horror films. Dead Alive was one of my favorite movies for years, and this conversation is making me want to watch the Dellamorte Dellamore DVD I just bought.

I think I prefer my ridiculously gory films with a sense of humor. It's one thing to make a thriller, and it's another thing to make a gore film, but when you notch up thriller and gore to their highest level and then very seriously combine them together? I get a little turned off.

[lildogs]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 4:31pm

I would agree that the SAW/HOSTEL/TURISTAS chop-em-up films are the worst. I think these films fill some odd Freudian revenge fantasy for 9/11. So many people feel powerless but they can thrill to a serial killer attempting to teach his victims about life's value or some other such baloney. I think most Americans feel so detached from the threat of violence we face here in NYC every day that living it through a film is somehow cathartic.

I used to feel the same way about gay films. When I was single and hopeless in Texas during college, I HATED to watch gay movies because they reminded me of everything I didn't have.

In a weird way, I think these gory movies serve a similar purpose.

Does that make any sense or have I been smoking Steve Bartelstein's sweat?

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 4:56pm

Revenge fantasy/fetishism is a big part of horror, sure. Hence so many attractive females being massacred while their unusually impotent heroic boyfriend gets massacred next to them.

I love gore if it's stylish -- Dario Argento films spring to mind -- but when it's so blatant and literal, where's the art in that? It's the lazy out that realism is more frightening than fantasy. I prefer the creators who are up to the challenge of creating frightening fantasies.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:07pm

There is something inherently beautiful about gore and blood that I think a lot of people recognize but are not aware of. We all share it. All of our organs are the same. If I were to cut out JohnPopa's heart, what would differentiate it from that of lildogs?

Nothing.

I think that the beautiul nature of gore and the like is what contributes to the enduring popularity of splatter, horror, serial killer, and Grand Guignol films.
Updated On: 3/14/07 at 05:07 PM

[lildogs]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:14pm

"If I were to cut out JohnPopa's heart, what would differentiate it from that of lildogs? "

You have to find mine first.

I think there's beauty in the GROTESQUE, I don't know about the blood and gore--maybe you've been watching that scene in ED WOOD too much: "The blood, the blood "

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:15pm

I think gory images are some of the most beautiful.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:17pm

I've never thought of it like that. I've always just avoided going to scary/gory movies.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:19pm

"the exorsist: the begining" was pretty gory when they showed some guy slice his own throat open... i'm not one for gory movies. i like horror movies about ghosts and hauntings and possesion more than slice-and-dice horror movies. i love japaneese horror. the only japaneese horror film turned american i didn't like too much was "the grudge".
i can't wait for "the ring 3"

[lildogs]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:28pm

I'm all about creaky doors and old ladies grabbing you while you're hiding in the armoire.

That didn't sound so good.

[Liverpool]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:30pm

"I think gory images are some of the most beautiful."


Oh yeah, that doesn't make you sound like a whacko freak.

[Raviolisun]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:36pm

I'm all about creaky doors and old ladies grabbing you while you're hiding in the armoire.

Didn't that happen in "Harriet the Spy"?

[Liverpool]

Posted: 3/14/07 at 5:36pm

Thats a quality film raviol