I think that really speaks to my point here hahaha. I watched that one with my dad at age 10 or so, and I remembered the twist, and the loaded cast, and it being a generally good movie, but I didn't recall anything that I considered violent. And a few of the people my age who advocated for it had a similar impression of the movie. It was the Dawn of the Dead's and the like that really traumatized me as a kid.

I'm starting to think that there's a kind of interesting duality to the idea of desensitization that might be fun to dig into a little more. On one hand, I do think I'm desensitized to really grating level of violence in a way that my parents aren't. Gore really isn't a problem for me, although, I wouldn't say I'd actually prefer violence be gratuitous. But on the other hand, you raise a really great point about how if I were desensitized in the literal sense of the word, then I wouldn't be able to enjoy this type of content at all. And that couldn't be further from the truth.

Maybe tolerance would be a more useful way of thinking about it, but even that quite doesn't explain my relationship with horror movies, because I'm certainly still able to be terrified and freaked out.

Maybe if I do this piece I'll take a more comedic/memoir approach and not try to really drive home much of a thesis.

Thanks for sending the links! Really thankful to have you as a resource.