When Coffin Creaks were Rated R
It's an autumn Friday night, and a new vampire movie is playing in the new digital movie theater. You get your popcorn to share with your friends and put on the dorky glasses too big for your face, and for the next two hours you endure 3D globs of blood thrown at your face as the vampire on the screen devours his latest victim with graphic detail. In the beginning of Dracula's rise to fame, even the description of this kind of scene would be such a terrible thought that it just wouldn't sell. In less than a century, as society continually discovered the true horrors in life, it grew to become desensitized to the gory scenes, and therefore it became actually popular for a movie to have so much blood.
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In 1931, including a scene such as this already labelled a movie as Rated R if applied to today's rating standards. In fact, part of the reason why the director chose so many cut outs in this scene and the scene where Dracula leaves his own coffin (1931) is due to the fact that it was just "too scary" for the average viewer of that time to see a vampire leave their coffin (Peacher 123). This film also omits the images of Dracula baring his fangs, blood, recognizable bite marks, and moderately violent exchanges. For some time, Dracula movies remained moderately conservative in terms of frightful images.
As time progressed, society and viewers of Dracula became desensitized to such images and needed worse images to create fear. Fear became a potent drug in society, creating the "high" of danger without the viewer actually being in any danger (Peacher 97). |
"People, by nature, love the high feeling of thrill. When watching a scary movie, they get that thrill, all while sitting in the comfort of their home." (Peacher 97)
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So, what does this mean for Dracula?
Stock Vampire Makeup
Around the 1960s-70s, when most modern societies were reaching a point of expression and exploration, having been already established and successful, people in societies began to experiment with different experiences, including drugs and alcohol, sexual acts, and expressive behaviors (Peacher 71). This is the time in which the modern idea "If it feels good, do it!" was first developed. During this time, people began to seek thrill in all they did, and what bigger thrill could one get other than the feeling of being in danger while in the comfort of one's own home? People became so accustomed to the images already embedded in Dracula, directors had to recreate the images associated with Dracula in order to attract audiences back to them again and again.
Dracula's evolution shows not only people's desire for thrill, but also its move towards a more nostalgic society. With people of today seeing more and more blood, guts, and gore in movies and on T.V., who is to say that they won't have the same de-sensitive reaction in a situation with real blood, guts, and gore? In the 1920s and 30s, the sight of blood made even men squirm, but after almost a century of terrible war images, grotesque hate crimes, and other real-world images, a vampire on a screen is nothing compared to the "vampires" in society.
Dracula's evolution shows not only people's desire for thrill, but also its move towards a more nostalgic society. With people of today seeing more and more blood, guts, and gore in movies and on T.V., who is to say that they won't have the same de-sensitive reaction in a situation with real blood, guts, and gore? In the 1920s and 30s, the sight of blood made even men squirm, but after almost a century of terrible war images, grotesque hate crimes, and other real-world images, a vampire on a screen is nothing compared to the "vampires" in society.