History as horror

Perhaps on Saturday night youngsters were urged: “Finish your fries and shakes. If we don’t hurry home we’ll miss the old woman being tortured to death.” From 9.30pm Gunpowder began its menu of disembowelling and peine forte

et dure. England once had public executions, to be sure, but a reason they were stopped is that crowds turned them into public spectacles, like something from Bartholomew Fair. Now we witness at home a medley of violent scenes, from Game of Thrones to the world of Guy Fawkes. They are realistic but unreal. Gunpowder turns history into a horror genre, like the Saw film franchise. It’s nothing new: scarcely did a sailing ship appear in black-andwhite films before a sailor tasted a dose of the cat o’ nine tails. Today, talk of empathy is common; trivial television violence is no way to acquire it.