I agree 100%. But you can (although it may be difficult to) recover from being shaken and being mentally [s]damaged[/s] scarred; You cannot however recover from death. But it's a moot argument, i feel no need to keep going on this discussion.


I also don't enjoy watching horror movies or playing horror games myself. It's mostly... unnerving... Forcing emotions out that are reserved for fight-or-flight reflexes instead as a thrill. Much like rollercoasters, simulating falling and being in a turbulent storm you cannot control... Honestly i think i dislike rollercoasters more because they bruised me than any other reason, throwing me from side to side against steel framed seats designed to keep you in place...

Oh well...

man why you ask such things.. :( rape has to do with sex right? with pleasure maybe? but if you mix it with horror it's like mixing pizza with icecream, mkay? i did play some horror games in the past like silent hill 3,4 or darkness within: in pursuit of loath nolder or call of chulthu: dark corners of the earth. but maybe i've grown up because lately i don't get scared anymore by such games

isn't that the idea? That is exactly why I watch them. :P

Maybe... Except they help force the emotions via creepy music, if you mute it it isn't half as scary. I don't mind tension when it's relevant and proper, but from what little experience i do have, it's usually forced and overused.

Ah watching the wrong horror movies. Try the more subtle asian horror movies. They tend to rely on atmosphere and have very little music. Saying that, I can say that for most non American horror films. Yanks have forgotten how to make a good horror movie these days.

Much like most AAA companies have forgotten how to make good games.

Exactly!

Incidentally, Evil is what some silly translator decided to name the German version of the novel The Girl Next Door. Not the German word for "evil", mind you. So they didn't actually translate it but just choose an English word which, while still appropriate, seems kind of weird to me.

This is VERY common in France.

"Wish you were here" -> "Too much"
"Phone Booth" -> "Phone Game"

and, well, all that too.

Women are evil so tbh not too bad a translation.

Well, my point was that they used an English word to "translate" the title of an originally English novel which I find silly. Other than that, touché.

Yeah I know about the films about Unit 731, they suck. Well I don't know about the first one but Mean Behind the Sun is mindless gore porn and Philosophy of a Knife despite being truly disgusting is also one of the most boring films I've ever watched. Not great endorsements of torture porn being superior to real horror.

As for the rest of your statement. I think it pretty depressing that you are saying that just throwing whatever nastiness you can read about is a substitute for things like creativity, suspense, strong characters, imaginative locations, good writing and all the other things that make a good horror story good. With that attitude we might as well scrap horror movie/games/books and just read newspapers instead. A good horror story is a work art. But from what you're saying art can be substituted by any wiki page on any true crime story. Here is a quest though. I you think so little of supernatural horror then tell me why the most popular horror game are things like Amnesia, Silent Hill and FNAF while games like Chiller are mostly forgotten?
I don't s either supernatural of non-supernatural horror as superior. Just whichever one is better written/filmed/designed on a case by case basis.

Stories that take you anywhere, should be able to go anywhere. A flawless portrait of life keeps all the flaws of life.

Hmmm Deliverance is one of those movies that some people see as horror and some people don't. It's not clear cut. IMDB defines it as Adventure, Drama, Thriller. I'd also say that's not a horror movie but that's just my opinion. Instead let's just answer the question "Would it have been as iconic as it was, without the rape scene?". Well, I saw Deliverance when I was too young to understand what was happening but I enjoyed the film anyway. But I maybe it's not supposed to be enjoyed and got a very different experience for not getting the rape scene. Either way It would still be a very good movie. If I remember right The Rape is very sort and mostly off camera, so it's more about the idea of it than just beating you over the head with brutality

I guess I'm not sure. Southern Comfort is a very similar film minus any rape scenes and is mostly forgotten about (Personally I like SC more but that's just me). So maybe Deliverance's lasting fame is down to it's rape scene. I hope though the fact that it's good movie has something to do with it.

I never brought up censorship, you did. Do not go putting words into my mouth and then attack the straw man you put up. I'll be honest, this is a stupid topic.

The answer to the OP is very very simple. Yes! If that is the vision of the artist. Period.

Its strange that people can be mutilated in a meat grinder, have appendages chopped off, have blood spray across the room, chopped up with a chainsaw, yet rape is the sacred cow that doesn't belong in the genre?

Horror movies are specifically intended to produce said horror in its viewers. It's certainly natural that rape would be included. In fact, its totally correct that it is.

Now if you wanted to talk about the exaggeration of rape in media culture which seems to portray stranger rapists waiting around every corner for a victim and how this is not the norm. How the media shouldn't be promoting this fear-mongering, but that is a different topic. The truth is rape occurs far less often than the media portrays it based on exaggerated and abused statistics. Most rapes are not committed by strangers (the same way almost all child abductions are a relative), yet the media presentation makes it appear there are millions of deranged people out in the world waiting to commit atrocities. So its no surprise that rape has gotten the stigma that it is somehow so much worse than death and dismemberment.