So outrageous were this new crop of films that their creators were dubbed the ‘splat pack’, and the films they made categorized as ‘torture-porn’. Between witnessing the greatest terror attack on American soil live on TV and millions losing their homes, jobs and life savings in the Great Recession, America saw a renaissance of the ultra-violence and extremely-transgressive horror film that crossed all lines previously established or thought to exist. This perfectly describes the cinematic atmosphere of the 2000s. Seemingly out of nowhere a new crop of young filmmakers rise out of the ground, shake up a tired industry, and grab the throats of uneasy audiences. Sometimes there is an inexplicable jump in the level of filmic debauchery. For this reason, each decade of horror films has usually far superseded the violence portrayed in the years that came before it. But a genre that relies so heavily on shock has the burden of having to constantly push forward and show more violence, sex, and depravity. Present since the silent film era, it’s clear that Americans have an insatiable appetite to see the thrilling and macabre on the silver screen. The horror film may be the best contemporary example of art we flock to for catharsis. If we are to follow this thread of logic, then the more intense the emotions the drama raises, the greater feeling of catharsis the audience is left with and the more stressed an audience is the more intense the art has to be to arouse emotion. In it, he asserts that the sole purpose of drama itself is to arouse emotions in the audience (specifically pity and fear), and purge these emotions, thus making the viewers emotionally stronger. Stemming from the Greek word katharsis, it means “purgation” or “cleansing.” This idea was expounded upon by Greek philosopher Aristotle in his great work on drama, Poetics. We are the only species that intentionally create drama as a method of release. “Horror films don’t create fear, they release it.”Ĭatharsis through entertainment is a uniquely human practice.

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