A reflection

Blood is prevalent in so many types of films that it would take years to fully digest how it is used as an effect and why. Even the Meyer's "Thicker than Water" could only discuss blood symbols in the ancient world with a limited amount of success.

Human blood on the screen is one thing that can make us as viewers immediately relate to a character and have a rush of emotion invested in the movie. Even when we see teenagers in slasher movies make mistakes time and time again and think to ourselves how stupid they must be, we still jolt when their blood splatters. The grotesquery of seeing a cannibal tear apart a man's body affects us, even if the man being torn apart is a despicable figure. Gore is a seminal way that can cause a really visceral connection between an audience and an actor -- no dialog or emotional storytelling needed.

Why do we enjoy these feelings caused by bloody scenes then? Is it our own pent up violence waiting to be released? Is it a simple adrenaline rush? Or is it some deep-down hatred of our fellow man? Is it some psychosexual thing that we get off on seeing the objects of our sexual affection destroyed? Or is it a cultural phenomenon, that we are indulging in something uniquely taboo with other people?

Slasher films

We all know what slasher films are, so I will not linger too long on the subject. In the genre, we see many examples of mass chaos caused by a psychotic killer on a rampage against, by and large, very fertile young men and women. Blood as fertility is seen time and time again here, as is bloodshed simply for the sake of shock and horror.


Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

The mother of all slasher films with an amazing amount of bright red blood and catastrophic body splatters. Somehow, the awkwardness of the attacks makes the fear more palpable and the realism of the blood is overshadowed by the constant production of new splatters. An exercise in excess rather than restraint, setting the tone for the entire genre.


Friday the 13th (1980 and on)

This clip shows every death scene in all of the Friday films back to back. One can get a sense of the overwhelming amount of stage blood they must have used! And the screaming!


Scream (1996)

A meta-slasher series! The trailer above lays out, ironically, the "rules" so many slasher flicks followed (like I said, some big-breasted, sexually active, seemingly stupid girl gets mauled first!).

Why do "we" like watching these kinds of films so much and seeing this particular demographic get stabbed to death? Is it that we find it somehow gratifying to see youth destroyed? Or is murder of sexy people even sexier? Does the simple relentless violence in slasher (or for that matter, extreme gore like Hostel or Saw) films get our rocks off somehow?

The American Nightmare

I stumbled upon this great horror documentary! The beginning hints very strongly at an opinion that horror films are an expression and release of the fears of every day life: a reflection of violence rather than a creation of itself.


Here's part 1 of "The American Nightmare"

Cannibalism: probably NSFW

Another angle on consumption of flesh and blood is portrayed through cannibalism. It's portrayed in media as something only savages, or the very deranged, do. When compared to the vampire genre, cannibal films rely more heavily on shock value, gore, and the actual sight of blood.


Cannibal Holocaust (1980)

This film seems to be the gem of the genre, and incidentally has a similar trick to suggest realism by using shaky "camcorder" style footage. Prior to this in the film, the white "invaders" raped and killed a girl and burned down the natives' village, seemingly "earning" their fate here. The use of blood here is surprisingly subdued for the gory reaction of disgust I immediately experienced. It seems the flashing of flesh with shocks of red is enough to suggest the horrifying gore here. To top it off, horror of all horrors, Cannibal Holocaust here highlights genital mutilation and consumption, which is an entirely different topic. Compared to slasher films of the 90s or modern cg blood fests, this blood is neither splattering nor in your face, but its presence here is necessary.


Cannibal Girls (1973)

Ha! This film brings the sex appeal back to cannibalism, as "very sexy" women seduce men in order to consume them. I'm having a difficult time finding bloody scenes online, but the trailer suggests it's "especially gruesome." I bet.


Delicatessen (1991)

Delicatessen is a surreal film which I cannot recap in a few sentences here, but suffice it to say that cannibalism is a main thread here. In this alternate world, food is very scarce and this small town butcher feeds its people by ensnaring young men to do work for them... and then killing him and slicing up his meat for sale. Not gory by any means, but it's a highly complex film which uses cannibalism in an almost casual manner.



Cannibal films, like many other "blood" films I've written about here (or, one could say, most films in any genre) seem to attempt to portray sexuality and blood side by side. Nude natives consume a man's penis before the rest of his flesh and rape a woman before eating her. Lady cannibals use their sexual wiles to seduce men into becoming dinner. The role of blood effects here is secondary, but the role of blood symbolism and tradition is certainly present.

Christian iconography

Very much connected to the ideas of vampirism and "sucking blood" is Christian imagery. Crucifixes, holy water, and sacred ground protects you from a soulless vampire's teeth.

Blood imagery is prevalent in Christian art, poetry, and hymns, "emphasizing the physicality of Christ's body" and his humanity. The concepts of stigmata, self-flagellation, and the Holy Communion (representing the body and blood shed from Christ) have been accepted in Catholic churches for hundreds of years. Not surprisingly, symbols of blood in this context have made their way from the church to the cinema.


The Eucharist

"This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." (Luke 22:20).

Otherwise referred to as "Holy Communion," the Eucharist is a rite performed by most Christian churches. Surprisingly, wikipedia has a very illuminating article highlighting different congregation's beliefs surrounding the Eucharist. In short, participants eat bread and drink wine as symbles of God's grace, "Sacred Mystery," but most prevalently the Body and Blood of Christ. The consumption of His Blood is, most often, considered to be a tool for atonement of one's sins. Here, the concept of consuming blood is seen as a spiritual act rather than the view of vampirism, cannibalism, or the idea of "blood libel" as a violent and evil act.


Stigmata
From Wikipedia:

Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus... The majority of reported stigmatics are female.

Stigmata is a particularly interesting phenomenon relating to Christian blood iconography--in this case, Roman Catholic iconography. Why are "stigmatics" mostly female? Perhaps it is a reflection of the idea of female suffering and weakness. Who knows. Obviously the most explicit film that uses this concept in the ultimate aim of horror and excitement is Stigmata.


Stigmata (1999)

The cinematography is vomitously 90s: high contrast, flashing lights, shaky cam, the whole nine yards, which in my opinion detracts from any real fear you can build up. The images of blood are obscured and crucifixion images are cut in again and again, leaving no mystery to any scene, and never lingering long enough on the blood to be gory. The seeming lack of gore makes the movie feel far too serious for its own good. I can't enjoy the shock or disgust when I am being hit over the head with religious metaphor...

Brief survey of vampires in film

Vampires are probably one of the more obvious vehicles for art about blood. As elements of superstition and folklore, vampires are difficult to define 100% clearly, but in general they are considered human undead who survive by feeding on the blood of living humans. Sometimes they wear capes, sometimes they fly, sometimes they are deterred by garlic... and so forth.

Anyway, vampires are highly attractive for filmmakers -- they're mysterious, sexy, and evil, all in one.


Nosferatu (1922)

Quite eerie - unfortunately to me, the title cards take away from the real spook factor.


the "same" scene from
Dracula (1931)

Delightful! That hungry look!


El Vampiro (1957)

High cheese factor, it's got everything: the fangs, the cape, the automatic coffin opener...


Blacula (1972)

And it just gets campier. Here we see a unique angle on the very Eurocentric vampire film genre.


Blood For Dracula/Andy Warhol's Dracula (1974)

This Dracula requires blood of virgins, not any old horror film hussy. This looks to be an excellent camp film and I intend on indulging in it sometime soon.


Rabid (1976)

Not really about the classic vampire, but about blood-suckingas a transmitted virus. Much like Cronenberg's other films it has elements of disease, transformation of the flesh, mutated genitalia...


Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)

A philosophical vampire. Here, Nosferatu is back to his hideous self -- he's not charmingly suave, and is somehow more animalistic than other iterations of the Dracula story, while having a more clear-cut "emotional" meaning... Here, his bloodlust is palpably painful as he quivers near the end of this clip.


Cronos (1993)

Cronos is in the same camp as Cronenberg's "Rabid" -- rather than one "master" vampire, we have a device which contains a vampire parasite in the end goal of immortality. Again, this is interesting. In many other movies, immortality is just an effect of becoming a vampire, and not truly a goal. We see, also, vampiristic bloodlust being satisfied by dead flesh, which significantly detracts from any "sensual" mood other movies have.


John Carpenter's Vampires (1998)

Here, rather than the simply "seductive" bite on the neck, Carpenter's vision of a vampire is outright erotic. The thing most illuminating here is trying to determine where horror and pain ends and pleasure begins (or vice versa).


Frostbiten (2006)

This video shows a collection of visual effects in the first (!) Swedish vampire movie. Very illuminating on just how much visual effects work is done in a movie like this. The content here is an interesting combination of the classic "master vampire" blood-sucking and the Cronenberg-esqe "disease" view if vampirism, as this mass of infections start after teenagers accidentally consume infected blood capsules.




There are countless other vampire films, television shows, and various portrayals of vampires. The folklore of vampires have been interpreted in many ways: the sensual and romantic view of the connection between a vampire and his/her "prey", the eroticism of bloodsucking [I didn't even delve here into the massive amount of porn films about vampires], the concept of bloodlust as a virus, the aspect of immortality... Through all this, blood represents a powerful substance of vitality that no other symbol has.


More information on vampires in modern culture can be seen in "Blood Read: The Vampire as a Metaphor in Contemporary Culture", which speaks often about their role in film today.

Women's blood/Men's blood

While women's blood suggests some representation fertility, Meyer suggests that men's is tied to the hunt. Women's blood "of life" and men's "of death" are in constant tension with one another, often seen in religious sacrificial rites to goddesses, and often toward the end goal of fertility.

Here, I could discuss years of war/cowboy/hero films, watching men spill their blood for a cause vs. the amazing amount of gore/pulp/exploitation films dedicated to fair maidens being shred apart a masked man. I've been struggling with how to fairly analyze the film world's portrayal of "blood sexism," but have found it highly difficult without a background in feminist analysis. Suffice it to say that film isn't the only place there is a strange imbalance of bloodshed.