Film
Wes Craven: Desensitization and Violence
Presenter(s): Melissa Cusano
Advisor(s): Dr. Kelli Fuery
It is long debated (Barker and Petley 1997): Why do we enjoy horror? Suggested in the 1994 Newson Report: Does cinematic violence cause real life violence? Voyeuristic film spectatorship has been associated with satisfaction (Mulvey 1975). In Sigmund Freud’s Three Essays on Sexuality, scopophilia is an unconscious agency of pleasure, one that is achieved through the objectification of another, removing all agency of selfhood with regard to desire in looking (Freud 1905). Filmmakers aren’t always conscientious in their capitalization of this human impulse. This study will highlight Wes Craven’s The Last House on The Left (1972) and Scream (1996). Craven is a pioneer for self-referential teen slasher films and Scream is aware of the conventions. Protagonist Sidney even jokes that all slasher films are the same. Noël Carroll suggests that to side with protagonists, the spectator must sympathize with them and those who punish impurity and eliminate them of disgust with impure characters: “...moral concern ripe for articulation by moviemakers is that of purity, and, especially, violations therefore” (Carroll 2010). Craven’s films often have immoral protagonists. They defy the rules; their death becomes permissible, in response to the effect that this strategy causes. Can viewing cinematic violence lead to desensitization? A study on emotional and physiological desensitization stated: “...habituation effects that may indicate physiological desensitization to televised violence” (Mrug 2014). Alison Young argues that violent films invite the spectator to see “illegitimate as legitimate” (Young 2009). I will compare Craven’s films and today's True Crime documentaries, notably I Am Killer (2018): Death row inmates tell their story. It may be tricky comparing fiction to documentaries, yet they present the killer similarly. The crime is introduced first, backstory next. Highlighting tactics used in Craven’s films and modern True Crime documentaries, the question is asked: Is media violence responsible for heightening desensitization to real-life violence?