Two Ridiculous Horror Movies

The first one The Exorcism of Emily Rose is actually a religious propaganda disguised as a horror movie. If not for scares, you should see this film to get a good handle on the contemporary American culture. A culture which wastes so much of its time and resources of public discourse to debating non-debates like Evolutions vs. Intelligent Design. The film sees itself as making some provocative and eloquent statement against the tyranny of facts and the freedom to hold beliefs even against evidence in the name of "respect" and "tolerance" but comes across as merely dull, silly, insipid and thoroughly stupid. Do read this Slate review by David Edelstein. He makes a nice mincemeat of the film.

Emily Rose at least had some points to make about contemporary social and political context in which debates about religion and faith operate but the makers of other horror movie, Hostel, would have none of it. I have no clue why would someone like Quentin Tarantino associate his name with this kind of irredeemable crap. The film does go well beyond the generally accepted limit in depicting violence and torture but all of that was thoroughly pointless. I know the backers of the film will say, "that was the whole point"! To which I will say, good for you and enjoy your torture. I would rather hit my head against the wall for ninety minutes than subject myself to this crap. Sigh! This is why I always try to avoid watching films with friends and other people. David Edelstein has another article on this new found love of American cinema for torture and violence.