I’ve been obsessed with news and reviews of the Lars von Trier movie that premiered at Cannes Film Festival – The House That Jack Built. Over 100 people walked out of it, with one reviewer tweeting that it was repulsive, shouldn’t have been made, and the actors are culpable. Here is another review that “is not a review,” according to the writer. I sympathize wholely with that writer about not wanting to see movies with all the blood and gore, where all the women are killed, where the director seems to delight it the most tortuous details.

I won’t see the film, although I have read the synopsis and seen pictures and part of the trailer. I don’t like slasher films, splatter films, torture-porn, or anything that seems to delight in torture or sadism. I don’t understand why people like them, but maybe it’s the same reason I’m drawn to understand what they are from afar, by reading synopses and reviews.

The most central question that draws me to this entire story is this: is there a line that films can cross into “shouldn’t have been made” territory? Where the actors and crew are actually bad people for having participated in the creation of a film? It’s a tough question because it brings in the question of taste, but also ethics.

I don’t think films should be blocked or mothballed just because I don’t like them… there are a lot of movies I think are boring or terrible that are probably just fine. Someone likes them, it seems.

But then I start to think about the limits of free speech. There are limits we have: exploitation of children, for example, in adult films is OFF LIMITS. What about violence, though? Is there a point where it is too much? I know it’s fake, but the representation can be real enough. I don’t have faith in the marketplace of ideas to “downvote” the truly terrible. I mean, look at our world: the crazy websites, the stories that pose as “news,” the entire current US administration? These are not shining examples of our community lifting up the greatest ideas. It seems like there will always be a contingency who is actually looking for the people who are pointing out how putrid a film is as a way to boost their own strength as moviegoers – they are extreme! The more outrage about a film, the more they want to see it! This reviewer aptly calls them “film-bros.” These dudes are the film-watching equivalent of people who celebrate Trump because he’s “just speaking his mind,” ignoring that the words being spoken are literally racist trash (e.g. “immigrants are animals”).

There always seems to be the snobby bros who insist that “this is art, you just don’t understand it.” Like there is deep artistic meaning to another misogynistic scene where a man berates, abuses, mutilates, and ends the life of a helpless woman. And it’s the fourth time it’s happened in the same movie. And the women don’t even get names in the credits, aside from “Lady 1.” You know, art. *mega-eyeroll*

I don’t know that there’s a way to enforce anything. I just feel sad at the continuance of this trend at the fringe of horror film community, if we could call it that. I don’t even know if it’s fringe. I’m glad there are people speaking up and writing reviews like the ones I’ve posted. These films might exist, but we should critique the hell out of them and make the issues taboo, maybe.

I don’t know. It’s a big question.