Thrillers, fantasy, and horror genres offer its audience a glimpse into the dark unknown where monster and violence thrive. Why do audiences love to be scared? Can those monsters be stand ins for other real life monsters that we seek to fight against? Two movies which use monsters and violence to capture their audience and spread awareness of Spain’s historical past in connection to these topics are Tesis by Alejandro Amenábar and Pan’s Labyrinth by Gullermo del Toro. Tesis appears on the surface to be a film about discovering who is responsible for killing and filming the murders of innocent young women but a closer analysis reveals the director’s critique of historical censorship practices. Pan’s Labyrinth a fantasy film is divided between
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The violence in Tesis according to (Christina Buckley) is used purposely to demonstrate societies fascination with watching violent acts and the audience’s passive consumption of it. This argument is held up by the limited amount of violence that is seen in the film. Instead of witnessing the violence that is promised in many of the scenes only the screaming of victims can be heard in its place. By withholding the visual of watching the death of Bosco and Dr. Castro’s victims the audience is left to wonder why they themselves are so intent on seeing the gruesome acts. Pan’s Labyrinth, on the other hand, does not hold back when it comes to displaying violence. From the murder of innocent men to the deaths of Ofelia and El Capitan violence is used to demonstrate the violence of war. Part of the plot of the film is of the last efforts of rogue Republicans who do not want to surrender to the now in charge Nationalist regime. Particularly the violence is directed at the hand the Nationalist party through the character of El Capitan who does not give a second thought to murdering anyone who he believes gets in his way. Thus, it appears that Guillermo del Toro uses violence to criticize the Nationalist party which once ruled
The violence in Tesis according to (Christina Buckley) is used purposely to demonstrate societies fascination with watching violent acts and the audience’s passive consumption of it. This argument is held up by the limited amount of violence that is seen in the film. Instead of witnessing the violence that is promised in many of the scenes only the screaming of victims can be heard in its place. By withholding the visual of watching the death of Bosco and Dr. Castro’s victims the audience is left to wonder why they themselves are so intent on seeing the gruesome acts. Pan’s Labyrinth, on the other hand, does not hold back when it comes to displaying violence. From the murder of innocent men to the deaths of Ofelia and El Capitan violence is used to demonstrate the violence of war. Part of the plot of the film is of the last efforts of rogue Republicans who do not want to surrender to the now in charge Nationalist regime. Particularly the violence is directed at the hand the Nationalist party through the character of El Capitan who does not give a second thought to murdering anyone who he believes gets in his way. Thus, it appears that Guillermo del Toro uses violence to criticize the Nationalist party which once ruled