It’s irrefutable that films like Saw or 30 Days of Night create gore scenes that would make the manliest-man fidget in his chair, but still it seems like something’s missing…a sense of realism. Yes, a genius could go crazy and create a medley of diabolical torture devices or, you know, an army of hell-spawns hold a town hostage for a month, feeding on the unlucky few’s flesh. Digital blood just doesn’t cut it; it may be easier for the editors to use CGI or create more situations in which a bloodbath could occur, but nothing beats good old school special effects.
In the 1930’s, the Hays Code was put into effect to regulate morals and images depicted in American films. According to the Katz’s Film Encyclopedia, “The code set forth general standards of ‘good taste,’ and specific do’s and don’t’s concerning what could and could not be show in American movies.” One part of this code was that blood shown in films had to be depicted in an unrealistic way, as in unrealistic hues of blood. Alfred Hitchock was known stating that chocolate syrup was used as blood in his motion picture blockbuster Psycho. This set of rules stayed in effect roughly until the mid 60’s where pressure from civil rights movements caused the rules set it place since the 30’s to bend and break. Eventually, the Hays Code was dropped and in 1968 the MPAA adapted the first version of the rating system we have today. It wasn’t until about 1990 until the G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17 rating logarithm was set, which is what movies are still rated as today.
Although previously taboo elements such as sex were dominated in motion pictures during the 50’s and 60’s, the element of gore didn’t really explode until the 1970’s. During this time, B-list movies began to explode into massive cult followings. The most recognizable B-list producer would have to be Roger Corman (Piranha, Watchers), who produced almost 400 movies in 54 years. Along with Corman came an influx of directors and producers that specialized in blood, guts, and gore such as George A. Romero (Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies), Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm St.), John Carpenter (Halloween), Charles Band (Puppet Master, Trolls), and countless others. This explosion of gore-flicks caused special effect artist to become ever more creative in their delivery. No longer could the “what you can’t see is the true element of fear” technique utilized by Vernon Walker in films like Cat People or The Ghost Ship satiate viewers. No, people wanted blood and brains to pour out of their screens and onto that snazzy new throw rug in the den. One man was able to do this and started a whole new era of glorious guts.
Tom Savini made his SFX debut in Bob Clark’s (Porkys, Black Christmas) Night of Dead. He created all those horrific scenes in both Creepshows, Maniac, Dawn and Day of the Dead, as well as a handful of others. Savini concocted realistic hues of blood and used real pig parts as guts and intestines in his films. He created that memorial scene of Jason’s face sliding down his own machete in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. The creations of Tom Savini were so grotesque, it made violence very unappealing, as violence should seem. It was too realistic and caused all of us to puke in our mouths. That’s not bad! It lets us know we’re human, right? Today, we see throats being ripped out and heads being crushed to a pulp yet it isn’t as unattractive as the old films made it. We now crave these scene, which seems pretty messed up. No more are the days of latex and tubes running “under the skin”, only to explode with a corn starch and dye mixture. Today, Adobe After Effects can be used to create “pseudo-effects”, bloods unrealistically dark and injuries that may make you queazy, yet characters act in a contradicting manner to that effect created in editing (do you really still you’d be able to escape a murder brothel like the supporting Asian actress does in Hostel?) It could be concluded that this trend of desensitizing violence could lead to bad things down the road, so people, help put the “sick to my stomach” feel back into violent movies. Do it for the children.