Like “Terrifier 2”, released in our theaters on January 11 after causing a sensation in the United States, these horror film sequels have marked the spirits by being much more gory than the previous episodes. Sensitive souls refrain.
“I hope you have a good heart, because it’s a real butchery inside” : this replica of The City of Fear, before Gérard Darmon discovers a real shop by opening the door, could very well serve as a warning for spectators wishing to discover Terrifier 2 in dark rooms.
Released in France on January 11, Damien Leone’s feature film caused a sensation in American cinemas around last Halloween, building its legend on the fact that some spectators had vomited in front of the new abuses of Art the Clown.
A marketing process which, if it can be open to discussion as it is based on various data, has nevertheless enabled it to garner 10 million dollars across the Atlantic, for a budget of 250,000 greenbacks.
It must be said that the film does not skimp on the gore for a little less than 2h20. And to say that the director (also responsible for the bloody effects) had fun is an understatement.
But perhaps he was the first surprised to be able to follow up on his 2016 slasher, unreleased in American and French theaters, and recently visible on Amazon Prime Video in France.
Some will talk about complacency, about the length or a particularly long and excruciating murder sequence, and the film should not fail to debate on this level.
But he becomes the new leader of these more gory horror sequels than the previous episodes (while the first Terrifier contained a hell of a piece of violence), alongside these opuses.
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
Splendor Movies
Groovy? Or gory? Sam Raimi chose the two for the sequel to the film which revealed him to the general public. Like Damien Leone with Terrifier 2, the future director of Spider-Man benefited from a substantial budget, since that of Evil Dead 2 was ten times greater than that of 1 (3.5 million dollars against 350,000). And he did not fail to have fun.
Not so much on the script side, because the feature film looks like a less broke remake of the first opus. But on gore (and cartoon). Already very bloody, the original is quickly surpassed thanks to the hectoliters of fake blood spilled on the screen. Largely thanks to Ash (Bruce Campbell) and the chainsaw that replaces that hand he had to fight with in one of the film’s most memorable scenes.
The gore that will remain the watchword of the suites, on the small and big screen. So much so that the challenge imposed on the writers, directors and props of the Ash vs. Evil Dead series, seems to have been that the actors do not stay clean for more than two minutes. A desire to squirt blood with generosity that we also find in the feature film released in 2013, first presented as a reboot before a cameo by Bruce Campbell, after the end credits, does too a suite.
Much more violent and less funny, Fede Alvarez’s film had been described by Sam Raimi as what Evil Dead would have been, if the budget had been large enough for them not to have to compensate for the lack of means by l ‘humor. Released in 2013, it would also have had its place in this selection.
Saw III (2006)
Metropolitan FilmExport
With more traps (and therefore more victims), Saw II had already set the bar higher than the original film in terms of cracra potential, and it is enough to (re) see the razor blades scenes or the syringes scene to s to convince. But it was only an appetizer of what Darren Lynn Bousman, who very quickly succeeded James Wan behind the camera, had in store for us in the next opus.
Where Saw II remained in the footsteps of the previous one, with its twist that made the story re-examine differently, the III plunges head first into the register of torture porn of which the saga was the most emblematic representative. So much so that it remains the only episode, to date, to have been banned for those under 18 in French cinemas. And the biggest success of the horror franchise in France, with 771,902 spectators who enjoyed it in 2006.
Has the classification had an impact on this success, by titillating the curiosity of a public in search of strong sensations? Or is it rather the aura of previous opuses, very popular on video, which played before the quality of the saga declined severely? Maybe a bit of both. But it is clear that Saw III marks a real turning point. From now on, it is no longer a question of mystery and life lessons, but of seeing people die on screen, as badly as possible. Simply.
On this level, the mission is accomplished, with in particular an uprooting of the rib cage or a pig offal bath. But this is also where Saw slides towards more gratuitousness and artificial stories, while this third installment was to mark the end of the story of Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). This is seen a little in the following episodes, where he is only present in flashbacks.
Hostel II (2007)
Sony Pictures Releasing France
In the family of torture porn, here is the little cousin: Hostel. Not necessarily more respectable or less gore than Saw, Eli Roth’s baby mixes the blood in a hefty dose of social satire. Each of the films tells the story of students kidnapped in Eastern Europe to be tortured there under the eyes of an elite who pay dearly to attend this live performance (at least initially, because few are surviving victims).
If the bets are going well between the privileged spectators (or not) of this butchery, there is less suspense for the public in the room, who unfortunately knows how each horrific sequence will end. Without necessarily suspecting the degree of violence. Which is much more pronounced in the second than in the first opus (where an Achilles tendon was however sharply severed). If two actors from Desperate Housewives (Richard Burgi and Roger Bart) are in the cast, the atmosphere is more suited to the horror stars (the actress Edwige Fenech or Ruggero Deodato, director of Cannibal Holocaust) who make an appearance.
Between a shower of blood in homage to Countess Bathory and genitals cut off with secateurs, Hostel II seeks to push back the limits of sustainability, not without reversing the roles in the last act, just to avoid being accused of complacency. The director of the future Green Inferno nevertheless let go, to the point that one of his friends came out of one of the first screenings running, looking for a vomit bag. We hope then that he has not seen the third opus (released directly on video in 2011), which went much further still. In violence and geography, since the action took place this time in Las Vegas. But without Eli Roth.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
netflix
The original is almost unanimously recognized as one of the greatest horror films of all time. And this while we do not see the slightest drop of blood, surprising thing from a feature film called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. An absence that the latest opus to date, released on Netflix in February 2022, was responsible for compensating in large widths. Until the last minute, and while the viewer thinks the nightmare is over, Leatherface’s weapon of choice hums and cuts as it should in front of David Blue Garcia’s camera.
Presented as THE true sequel to the opus with which it all began, the one that erases all the others (like David Gordon Green’s Halloween compared to John Carpenter’s), this new Texas Chainsaw Massacre no longer heals the wounds of an America still traumatized by the quagmire of Vietnam, but creates trauma on the bodies of influencers who have come to transform the city of Harlow, Texas, into a trendy place where you can have brunch in peace.
A charge against gentrification and the growing gap between social inequalities, in which one of the few survivors of the original carnage returns, and culminates in a bus party when Leatherface comes face to face with his future victims. . In a cramped place with few possibilities of escaping. No need to draw you a picture, but know that the dominant color of the sequence is purple, a mix between the blue of the lights and the red of the blood which very quickly spatters the walls.
This time around, the content is very true to the title. Even if some have criticized, given the treatment of the character of Leatherface, sometimes as agile as a ninja, that the real massacre is towards the original film by Tobe Hopper. But that’s another debate.