That's a rather broad look at things. Everyone goes to the toilet but most movies ignore this detail as it doesn't enhance the film. Just because you can include something in your story doesn't mean you should.
Imagine if in every Harry Potter book we we've told every time harry went to the toilet in graphic detail. I the idea id funny but reading it wouldn't be.

I don't think he was saying stories should include everything, but rather be allowed to include everything that the creator feels is relevant. For some stories rape is very much relevant. Even you little joke example, depending on the story, the genre, and the author's intent the bathroom visits of the main character very well may be relevant.

Certain aspects shouldn't just be ejected from the medium just because someone thinks it adds nothing or because it makes people uncomfortable.

Oh, don't misunderstand, I wouldn't write about everything just because I can. I would when it makes sense. When it adds to the experience or I just feel like it. So I wouldn't say it's out of the question for some person to go to the toilet, or another to get raped if it needs to be put in there to understand or progress the plot. I'm not writing a report :).

PS: Yes, tammerwhisk, that's what I meant. :)

Did you even read my OP? I'm not talking about freedom of speech. I'm talking about whether it makes the work better. Artists have right to put all the rape they want to into their horror stories just as I have the right to say, This sucks and you're writing is more offensive than scary.
Actualy no. Horror isn't about horrorifing people, watch Halloween and tell me that it's even the tiniest bet horrifying. Horror is about scaring people. And rape isn't scary. So no. In my opinion it doesn't belong any more than rap music belongs on Classic FM.

Yes, I read your OP.

No, I completely disagree with your premise. It belongs and people have given perfect examples of why it belongs in this thread. And yes, horror movies are about horrifying them, just because some fail at the endeavour doesn't change the goal of the genre.

But we say we want aspects ejected all the time.
QTEs in a game series that never had them? We say go.
Platforming in FPS games? We say go.
A hard game being made easy? We say go.
A comic book movie being too dark and grtty? we say go.
A triple A game having too many/too few women/blacks/gays? We say go.
A big studio milking a game for DLC? WE say go to hell!
We as gamers are always asking for things we don't like to be removed and practises we hate to die. So why is rape something that must be protected from criticism?

I would think most of us do not just want things to "go" or be removed.
Its only the crazies that want every game tailored to themselves.
I like the fact there is variety, and even if a game is not my cup of tea, it might be someone else's.

The only one on the list I somewhat agree with is DLC, and that is in regard to deceptive practices involving incomplete games which can only be made whole through an additional DLC purchase.

Halloween
Psycho
Dracula
Frankenstein
Night of the Living Dead
Ring
Amnisa
Alien
Silent Hill
Resident Evil
The Shining
Jacob's Ladder

These are all classics or the horror genre None of them are about horrifying people. None of them have Rape (Ok Alien kinda does, it doesn't matter). These movies and games are about scaring people. To insist that Horror is just about horrifying if being horrifyingly literal.

And I think it is depressing that you are positing anything you find uncomfortable should be taboo for any medium of "art". I never suggested anything could substitute skilled writing or world building, only that one is a real viable threat and the other is... well, not. I would take a well told account of Gilles de Rais over a psychopathic talking doll any day. Or The Lottery over a bladed-glove-wielding demon. But I am not representative of the typical horror fan. In fact, I have no taste nor patience for the genre these days and haven't indulged in it for years. But yes, I do find the headlines infinitely more terrifying than any trailer that has come across the tv screen these days.

To answer your question, I have only played a few entries in the Silent Hill series. Their strength lies in the psychological themes and tense atmosphere, not in rotten nurses or skinless dogs. As I understand it from recommendations, Amnesia again is popular from tightly knit atmosphere. FNAF, well that can be chalked up to/dismissed as 12 year old PewDiePie viewers and jump scares (meh).

I notice you mentioned Southern Comfort, a guilty pleasure of mine. Damned National Guards should never steal a coonass's pirogue. ;P

And much like HiPhish, I am curious how being depicted in a horror movie trivializes rape.

No. If that wee the case people wouldn't complain about these things if they didn't want them gone. "I'm going to rant about how much I hate crappy save systems. But I'm fine with as many crappy save systems as people want to put in the game" Said no one ever

I get the feeling you are being intentionally obtuse at points. Those of us that respect the creators and the arts don't make tons of demands.


To insist that horror is just about "scaring" is being horrifyingly narrowminded. There is tons of variety in the horror genre. It honestly just sounds like you only appreciate a narrow sub-division of it.

If you say that "Those of us that respect the creators and the arts don't make tons of demands" I can sake the feeling that "us" is a very small group. Do you remember the Mass Effect three scandal? People complained so hard about that ending that the devs actually changed it to make better. I don't think that was a bad thing. People felt they had been promiced something and that the promise wasn't kept. In general all I is people saying, "I hate this! I wish we had less of this and more of this". If you think that that is a disrespectful attitude..... Well then I guess there's way more disrespect than respect out there

I actually try my best to try every kind of horror. Slasher, ghost stories, satanic, animal themed, vampire, Lovecraftian, old, new, gothic contemporary, western, eastern, everything from Victorian literature to creepy fanfiction. You name it, I've tried it. I like some stuff more than others but that's just being human. It would be more accurate to say that there is a narrow sub-division I can't appreciate. Things like A Serbian Film, Human Centipede, Martyrs, Salo, Philosophy of a Knife. Ones that don't deal in suspense or survival but just heap brutality on the viewer (often sexual brutality 'cus that's the most shocking). I don't like these movies at all because they are (to me atleast) artless and frightless. The existence of this stuff is bad enough but what gets to me is when a haunted house novel suddenly spends 30 pages on a rape scene.
If you want me to give an example that is sorta okay by me, Hell House did it right. Firstly it sets up a world where sexual degradation is part of the plot. Then when we get to the dirty deed it feels like pay off from earlier. The scene actually has bite to it because it not just "Ordinary man raping ordinary woman". And best of all the scene itself isn't shown allowing the reader to focus on the extraordinary aspect of it rather than being forced to focus on pain and suffering. Would the book be worse off without it? No, but it wouldn't be better off either. Atleast it ties into the themes of the book.

I'll confess I have a narrow definition of horror but It's but no mean the narrowest. I don't see why I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream is seen as horror as though horrifying it never tries to be suspenseful, or spooky or creepy, yadadadada. I'll confess I'm a little disappointed no ones brought it up yet because 1 it's a fantastic game 2 It has both rape and Auschwitz in it.
Want to try and convince me it is horror? Be my guest :)

If I may. You find Headlines terrifying I don't, just rather depressing. And for me Horror is a way out of things that are depression rather than in. You don't find anything supernatural scary. I'm not exaggerating or trying to insult you when I say that makes me feel sad for you. To have so much speculative fiction made worthless, sounds awful (again I'm not trying to insult you, I just can't find other ways to say it)
I can see your points about Silent Hill and Amnesia but at the same time if you removed the supernatural from them and just replaced them with guys in masks and normal dogs then the games would be infinitely less scary. If Silent Hill was just a normal town where locals we just really unfriendly it would loose it's nightmare-like charm.
Amnesia's Hide and seek game play gets trying quickly but it's world and feeling of total helplessness make it what it is. If Daniel was just avoiding other humans the game would lose it's feeling that evil is always watching.

t's been said that horror relies on uncertainty and when you are certain that nothing otherworldly can never happen the world is a lot less scary (and a lot less interesting). In the early day of horror the was an unwritten rule that you couldn't have supernatural elements in your work but the genre blow up in terms visabity and quatly once that was thrown out the window.
But these things are personal. I can no more dictate what you find frightening that you me. I hope that we can agree that one of us doesn't have supior tastes in fear than the other one, right?

To me, the question is not should, but how. In my experience, when a medium portrays rape, all it does is make the viewer angry. I've seen plenty of (local) movies which portray rape, and they made had no effect other than making me angry and triggered. I've also recently seen the movie The Hills Have Eyes 2 which I suppose can be called horror-ish but the rape scene again didn't add to the horror element at all.

If there is a way in which it can portray it and convey something scary, I'll be OK with it. But I don't see how that can easily be done, and I don't think many people put much thought into how to do better and more emotion invoking rape scenes because of the hysteria and censorship around the topic.

But with the rest of horror, I think it makes a piece of art less scary if it has rape because it gives the antagonist human vices which we ultimately identify, recognize as being more mortal and less of the unworldly horror and ultimately makes us want to attack the source of the horror rather than run scared from it.

So it shouldn't be barred from any artists' minds to portray, but there should be proper utilization of it rather than putting in a rape scene and calling it a ''message'' to ''discourage''' or any shit like that. So I'm for it as long as it somehow complements the story and narrative, but I'm against ruining the atmosphere with a needless booster for self righteousness and an even more needless portrayal that rape is horrible.

To each their own, but when I read reports of retirement homes with seniors being neglected to the point where there are maggots eating away at them, I find this terrifying, not depressing. The same goes with a couple keeping a woman inducted in a sex pact bound and stored in a box in their bedroom for years when "not in use". Or the Rotherham child sex scandal. That's off of the top of my head. I find the evil that men do sufficient that no, I do not need the supernatural. But to say that I dismiss speculative fiction is putting words in my mouth. I enjoy science fiction and fantasy and have consumed my fair share of media with monsters or what have you. I'm not asking anyone to remove them from media, I just don't find them scary. It's possible but not always feasible. The Lottery, The Wickerman, Assault on Precinct 13, etc proves it could be done. But again, I'm not making the argument to abolish otherworldly or outer-dimensional creatures from these games. Agreed. This hasn't been an argument for superiority, I've only been trying to demonstrate why one of the most horrific crimes man can commit has a place in this/any genre/medium. It is the writer and director's responsibility to implement it well. Besides, some of the films you named above are some that I have enjoyed before... especially Jacobs Ladder.