Everybody has read articles or seen news reports in which an American youth has committed some abominable crime, which is in turn blamed on violence in the media and followed by a statement concerning the population’s correlating nonchalance regarding the horrific event. Two recent films brought the issue of desensitization to mind, surprising because they were not traditional horror movies.

Frankly, I hate horror movies. They give me nightmares and make me so paranoid I end up looking in the closet of my dorm room before I go to bed. During the break, however, I excitedly joined my sister at a matinee of ‘Sweeney Todd,’ and in my first days back at school I watched ’28 Days Later’ (yes, I know I’m a little late with that one).

You might call ‘Sweeney Todd’ a gentleman’s horror movie. The original Broadway play was likely more artsy about the serious bloodshed; I can see long red scarves erupting from the slit throat of one of Todd’s unfortunate patrons. In contrast, Tim Burton’s film never lets up after the grisly murder of Sacha Baron Cohen’s character, but I still thought it was awesome.

Still, I’m forced to ask the question: Why doesn’t watching a psychotic barber kill people and bake them into pies that he sells to the public bother me? Perhaps the characters constantly bursting into song (albeit twisted, frightening songs) takes away from the overall horror of the movie.

Or maybe it’s the fact that it seems highly unlikely anyone could get away with killing most of their customer base without getting caught while retaining a steady flow of business.

If these were the only reasons the violence in ‘Sweeney Todd’ didn’t eclipse the mastery of the film there would be no reason for me to watch ’28 Days Later’ at least two more times since I saw it last week. Whatever the critics say, I dispute its ‘horror’ classification. It’s more like a ‘What if?’ movie, which is, in some ways, even scarier. There’s a quality featured in the movie that I think also applies to its audience: that humans are fascinated by violence. I believe that’s one of the reasons I keep watching the movie, not simply in entertainment but morbid absorption with the fact that the once-innocent hero Jim could brutally kill fellow humans with the same vehemence as so-called zombies. Incidentally, acceptance of his enthrallment with violence is what gives Jim the guts to act so terrifyingly.

None of this, not ‘Sweeny Todd,’ ’28 Days Later’ or any other film, has ever made me want to go out and hurt someone. Are we desensitized to everyday tragedy because of the fictional violence to which we are exposed? Probably. It seems to me, though, that violence in entertainment is not necessarily destroying our humanity, but saving it. If history has shown us anything, surely it demonstrates that humans have violent instincts normally repressed by civilized society. I propose that the industries condemned for bringing these desires to the surface actually provide an outlet for them.

Clearly, movie producers agree with me since they have, in essence, ‘tricked’ horror movie absentees into indulging in grotesque violence with music and realistic plots. Or perhaps they have simply provided a more socially acceptable outlet for the more refined movie-goer.