Who among you watched Spartacus: House of Ashur?
I doubt you even knew it existed. The spinoff debuted on December 5. The season is still ongoing. If you recall Ashur from the original Spartacus, and you keep scratching your head because you remember him dying a gruesome death, the spinoff resurrects the character.
Think of House of Ashur as the Hollywood version of an Isekai. The gods have given Ashur another chance at life, a second opportunity to avoid his violent fate. I’m bringing this show to your attention because Steven S. DeKnight, the showrunner, did an interview before the spinoff premiered in which he promised to exceed every boundary where the violence was concerned.
In fact, he praised his employers for giving him the freedom to do whatever he wanted. The reaction to his comments was generally positive, which surprised me because I encounter that sentiment all the time.
Do you remember when rumours began circulating that Marvel wanted to give Blade a PG-13 rating? Audiences lost their minds. Why? Because the notion of limiting the violence in a live-action Blade adaptation was unappealing to them. How does that even make sense?
What difference does blood and violence make to the quality of a film? On the other hand, did you see the hundreds of YouTube comments that praised the latest Mortal Kombat trailer specifically because of the gory kills it showed?
I understand that people have different preferences. I can’t expect everyone to laugh, cry, cheer, and boo the same things I laugh, cry, cheer, and boo. However, the obsession with wanton violence perplexes me.
The concept confuses me. I know people who love the FinalDestination films specifically because watching the human body explode in creative ways scratches some kind of itch for them.
I have seen YouTube reactions in which people squeal and giggle in excitement at the Saw films. Something about a spoon scooping an eyeball out of its socket tickles them. BoneTomahawk is probably the most violent film I have ever seen, primarily because it does not exaggerate the violence.
People lose limbs the same way you would in real life: no showers of blood, no melodramatic flailing, little to no screaming. The Western features a scene in which a man is held upside down and split down the middle.
Thinking about that moment makes me shiver. I watched it through my fingers, and even then, I kept looking away. And yet, someone somewhere was cackling with delight at that scene, and I’m severely confused by that reaction.
I don’t think those people are psychopaths. I came across a Mount Sinai study in which researchers divided participants according to whether they had aggressive traits (such as a history of physical assault) or not.
Then they exposed these individuals to violent content. The aggressive group recorded less brain activity in the area associated with emotion- related decisions and self-control (Orbitofrontal cortex).
In other words, the violent content produced less agitation and anxiety in them. The non-aggressive group was the opposite. Does that mean everyone who enjoys excessive violence on screen has aggressive tendencies? I doubt it.
The same individuals who laugh at the gore in a Saw film will lose their minds if they witness a death in real life. I think humans are sophisticated enough to differentiate between real and fictional violence.
Something in our minds allows us to remain detached from the heart-rending bloodshed we routinely encounter in entertainment. In fact, that is probably the primary appeal: the idea that we can consume all that violence within a safe and comfortable space. We know the evils on the screen cannot hurt us, and that allows us to squeeze a modicum of enjoyment out of the fictional carnage.
katmic200@gmail.com.
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