"It rubs the lotion on the skin, or else it gets the hose again"

Since I was young, the images of horror films have haunted and disturbed me to the point that I refuse to value them as cinema. For the sake of this class, I gave "Hostile" the best shot i could, but left the film feeling just as disgusted at society as the acts depicted in the film itself. In the modern age of cinema, many film makers seem to use sensationalism which relays on gore to sell movies, and the market eats it up. Every year, film makers up the ante that much more with the use of blood and gore, and as the special effects industry seems only happy to oblige as technology improves, so do profits. The question i pose, are the film makers using these films as a source of political or social commentary on us as a society today or are these films designed purely as a money making scheme which aren't worth discussion?

In David Edelstein's article in New York Magazine, I was intrigued by the reference to Picaso's "Guernica" which in abstract, depicts an event so gory that special effects couldn't do justice. The artist and the painting are praised as a masterpiece of political commentary despite its abstract images of both man and animal being massacred by German bombs. When similar images are presented in a strait forward visual way in a horror film such as "Hostile", they are often cririzied and deemed inappropriate. Others still view these films as art, and praise the directors daringness to explore sensitive issues such as rape and torture. What reading should one take from these films? Are they art or are they nothing more then shocking and inappropriate? 

Personally, I cannot accept these films as art. As a film maker, I can respect the technical challenges which an effects heavy film must pose, but I don't feel that horrific depictions deserve artistic merit when they are only used for the purpose of titilating What worries me is that as a society, teens and adults will spend millions on opening weekends to see people hacked to bits and torn limb from limb when the stories have no social merit. In the brutal D-Day landing scene in "Saving Private Ryan" the viewer is reminded of the sacrifice made to regain Europe from Hitler's tyranny, but can we say the same about a movie like "Saw"? What does that say about the west when debates about torture and involvement in foreign wars dominate press coverage and political rhetoric? Why must teens fetishize this type of indiscriminate violence yet march against involvement in say the violence in Iran? Horror films open more questions then answers for me as a student but there is one aspect as a blue blooded capitalist that I can respect... Horror films make huge money off stupid people, and if a film maker can play on societies need to see horrific things to make a good buck, hats off to them.