Gore
Related: Grand Guignol theatre - blood - cannibalism in fiction - "rock gore" - revenge plays (1500s-1600s) - horror
Gory gruesomeness in fiction is by no means solely a contemporary phenomenon; it goes back to revenge plays of the 16th and 17th centuries and Grand Guignol theatre of early 20th century Paris. And if we see the Roman circuses as entertainment fiction, gore dates back to Antiquity. [Apr 2006]
In film: Hammer horror films - slasher films - H.G. Lewis
Blood Feast (1963) - Herschell Gordon Lewis [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
poster for Grand Guignol play Jardin des Supplices - Octave Mirbeau
Definition
Blood, especially coagulated blood from a woundSplatter or gore film
A splatter film or gore film is a type of horror film that deliberately concentrates on portrayals of gore and violence. This emphasis on disgusting special effects and excessive blood and guts began in the 1960s with the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis, for example Blood Feast (1963).
The term "splatter film" is often confused with "slasher film". While there is often a great deal of overlap, a slasher like Halloween (1978) cannot be termed a splatter film, as it does not contain sufficient on-screen gore.
Sometimes the gore is so excessive it becomes a comedic device, e.g. Evil Dead II (1987). Splatstick is a phrase coined by Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell to describe those movies. It is defined as physical comedy (slapstick) that involves evisceration (making the sound "splat!"). Some further examples of splatstick would include Peter Jackson's Bad Taste (1987), Dead Alive (1992), and (at times) Michele Soavi's Cemetery Man (Dellamorte Dellamore, 1994). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatter_film [Aug 2005]
List of films by gory death scene
Le Sadisme au Cinéma/Sadism in the movies (1964) - George de Coulteray [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
This is a list of films in which special effects are used to have characters die violently and gorily.
1 Death from being eaten
2 Death by bisection or dismemberment (excluding decapitation)
3 Death by crushing
4 Death by blendering
5 Death from blinding
6 Death by chainsaw
7 Death from decapitation
8 Death due to contact with a caustic or otherwise deadly substance
9 Death from a fall into a molten substance
10 Death by fluid extraction
11 Death by gunfire
12 Death by impaling or crucifixion
13 Death due to an improper use of explosives
14 Death by violent organ removal
15 Death from slicing by such a sharp object, that it takes some moments for victim to fall apart
16 Death from decompression or over-pressure
17 Miscellaneous/Other
The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1960s and 1970s - Scott Aaron Stine
- The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1960s and 1970s - Scott Aaron Stine [Amazon.com]
For the uninitiated the author has obligingly supplied a definition for the slasher/splatter film: "Any motion picture which contains scenes of extreme violence in graphic and grisly detail...." For those film viewers who think this is a good thing and are more likely to select The Texas Chainsaw Massacre than The Remains of the Day, or for those who are not quite sure but are nevertheless drawn to the phantasmagoric, or for those horrified by gratuitous violence and blood for blood's sake but are researching this filmic phenomenon, this reference book provides all the gory details. From At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul Away to Zombie 2: The Dead Are Among Us, this book is an exhaustive study of the splatter films of the 1960s and 1970s. After a history of the development of the genre, the main meat of the book is a filmography. Each entry includes extensive credits, alternate names and foreign release titles; availability of the film on videocassette; availability of soundtracks and film novelization; and reviews. Extensive cross-referencing is also included. --Book Descriptionyour Amazon recommendations
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