Selling the Splat Pack

Were brutal American horror movies like the Saw and Hostel films a reaction to the trauma of 9/11? Or was something else responsible for the rise of these violent and gory films during the first decade of the twenty-first century? This study reveals the history of how the emergence of the DVD market changed cultural and industrial attitudes about horror movies and film ratings. These changes made way for increasingly violent horror films, like those produced by the ‘Splat Pack’, a group of filmmakers who were heralded in the press as subversive outsiders. Taking a different tack, this study proposes that the films of the Splat Pack were products of, rather than reactions against, film industry policy. In doing so, the monograph blends film industry study with an analysis of the films themselves, revealing the films of the Splat Pack as commercial products rather than political manifestos.