Carnography

Carnography (also carno^[1]) refers to excessive or extended scenes of carnage, violence, and gore in media such as film, literature, and images.^[2][3] The term carnography—a portmanteau of the words carnage and pornography^[3]—was used as early as 1972 in Time magazine's review of David Morrell's book First Blood, upon which the Rambo film series is based.^[4] Rambo was later called "carnography" as well.^[5]

The term refers to an obsession with the human body that "suggests a connection between horror and pornography", often relating to hardcore horror films. Carnography is considered taboo and a disreputable genre.^[6] It has been described as "nastily impure work",^[7] "splatter-obsessed hard core horror",^[8] and "watching flesh fly".^[1][4] Carnographic horror films have a "superfluous plot" in which characters are "initiated, only to be discarded", and the gore seems to be the only reason the film exists.^[9] Pornography and carnography share the feature of close, intimate physical contact, whether it be to caress or to attack.^[10]

See also

• Splatter film
• Ero guro