Filmmaker Vishal Furia and Mimoh Chakraborty weigh in on whether excessive gore enhances horror or pushes the genre beyond acceptable limits

I’ve always been an avid lover of scary movies, however, with one strong exception: I’m strongly against gore. I find it unnecessary and mindlessly disturbing. A simple argument being, the central aim of a scary movie is to do exactly that—scare, and of course introduce us to some magically evil beings who, for that particular time period, take us away from reality. Of course, over the last few years, most paranormal activities seem to hover around 30-something females possessed in a 3 BHK, while I personally prefer the kind that have monsters and spirits which are a bit more imaginative.

Low budgets, lasting horror legacy

Obsession seems to have given the Hollywood horror genre a revving up, with the main talking point being the meagre budget on which it was made. Which takes us back to the cult horror movie series of all time—Evil Dead, the original ones that were made in the ’80s and ’90s, that is. Director Sam Raimi’s 1981 horror classic The Evil Dead was shot on a shoestring budget of just $375,000. Corn syrup was used for blood, and the shooting was primarily done in a cabin in Tennessee, along with the innovative ‘shaky-cam’ tracking shots. The result? A sleeper hit which grossed over $29 million globally, leading to one of the most enduring horror franchises. While it did have solid gory scenes, the humour instilled in the franchise made it enjoyable.

Bollywood horror avoids excessive bloodshed mostly