Halloween Horror II: The Foreign Horrors

Xenophilic foray into the horror sublime...stuck with that which was not uprooted and regurgitated from the American film collection, but wanted to sprout out, into the horror sublimities of foreign lands, foreign ideals and culture, what does the horror aesthetic mean in these different perspectives? these differing cultures? are there Bakhtinian carnivals in us all? universals to be shied away from, there are the viscerals of horror, the fear, is fear universal? are typical American fears the same as Japanese or Congolese fears? What is to be scared of in the Philippines? Do they find what is gross to be analogous to our own vomitings? Unfortunately i cannot peruse them all for now, since as far as my minuscule research has shown, there are sadly no Congolese horror films that i am aware of (Congo does not count, bad, bad American movie with animatronic apes"Ugly, woman...") but is interesting a thought nevertheless, what fears are universal? if at all? death? murder? open-faced surgery? monsters? demons? ghosts? what do our fears tell us about others and ourselves? across cultures? what does the term, horror, mean in these other lands, with other topography, religions and foodways? an interesting discussion to be sure, here's what i found...

1. Man Bites Dog (1992) cult film classic, serial killer genre, shot in the cinema verite style, follows a murderous rampage by Benoit by a happenstance film crew, whose goal here is to showcase ...? is it obvious? evil? murder? etc? based on this thesis, this narrative of a murderer's life, down to the balmy sundries of his trivial life/lives, are the viewers implicit? being entertained by this monster? we ae charmed by his wit and humor, his charisma splashes across the screen, do we root him on?only the most sadistic of us,

the "darker times" of the latter half of the film, after the film crew have ensconced themselves within the patronage of Ben, after they ran out of funding for "film", cannot pursue the project without the film, they have become interdependent, co-dependent even, in their relationship, one fueling the other, it does indeed seem that his escapades seem to heighten with every frame shot, yet we cannot be sure of this given no account of his actions before filming, yet it does seem to call into question the act with audience relationship, the seeming want of the audience for him to outdo himself every time, the voyeurism turned to bloodlust, can he top himself with every slash and cut? are those who watch with vigilance, implicit in the murders? as are the film crew, who only turn to become his lackeys by the end, in need of patronage, they become guilty, yet were they not from the outset? from the first frame shot upon a victim dying their last breath?

Ben as artist, proved as such with his colors of aesthetic philosophy, music, and poetry, is seen in a certain light: an artist. and so with every artist, there is a need for an audience, and as we perceive his "work" we perceive moral and ethical ambiguity resound, a kind of performance art as it were, only if it were real, would not be judged the same, it is comedic and distant enough for us to, in the abstract, philosophize the problem of Benoit and cinema verite in general...

Are we not participants in this moral outrage? are we not murderers as well? swooned by delight and intelligence, charisma? we have effectively said yes to Manson and Jones, cult-effective proper, yet should this all be taken so seriously? or should it? tends to blur the line between participant and observer, as in Bakhtin's carnival, in fact, it has some other similarities with his functions of carnival: crown/decrown, curses and billingsgate (could the actor here murdering be an example of this parade? this ceremony?) the mesalliances that happen: ie the serial killer with his mother, and grandparents (where is the father btw? no mention hmmm...) having jovial times, the pairings could be seen here? perhaps? is this what makes the proverbial serial killer who hides by day in his white collar existence a method example of carnival? a mixing of distinct realities in an "everyday"moral world where distinction is king, to a realm of undivided awareness and insanity a collection of haphazards...

Man Bites Dog as carnival!