A History of Violence – Gore Noir

I watched the A History of Violence last night, and I thought of the term “Gore Noir” when I was thinking about the movie this morning. It appears that other people have come up with the term before, but David Cronenberg’s film perfectly fits it. The scenes of violence and gore are classic Cronenberg, but the two sex scenes, especially the second one, are among the most erotically charged I’ve ever seen in a major movie. I had read the graphic novel before watching the movie, and I liked how the screenwriter streamlined the plot. If you read the graphic novel, there are some grand guignol qualities toward the end of the novel  that were well left out that would have put the movie over the top and taken away from the major themes of the movie.