Horror director rebuffs censors

Halloween is widely considered the first of the 'slasher' genre

Director John Carpenter, maker of the "slasher" Halloween films, has said the horror genre does not cause violence or need to be regulated.

Carpenter told a panel at the Tribeca Film Festival that horror films only reflected real life events.

"The reason for a lot of these movies is the culture that we live in," he told the New York event.

But a report this week from the top US media watchdog suggested violent images can cause aggression in children.

The Federal Communications Commission's report included a suggestion that Congress could develop a definition of excessively violent programming in order to regulate its use.

But, according to Carpenter, censorship is a waste of time.

"Censorship never works, you cannot destroy an idea. You can hide, you can try to cover it up, but you can't destroy it, it will be there and it will bubble up again," he said.

'Worry about children'

Fellow panel member Peter Block, executive producer of the Saw horror series, agreed with Carpenter.

"I worry so much more about my kids wandering into the room when the news is being blurbed on television and they're watching," he said.

"It's never happy shiny people stories, it's the war or murder or something that happened and I can't protect them from that and they know that's reality."

Jim Steyer, chief executive officer of Common Sense Media, a group aimed at improving media and entertainment for children, was a fellow panellist.

He said: "I do believe media impacts on people's behaviour. The average kid today spends about 50 hours a week consuming media and they now get it on every kind of platform imaginable".

"We have a violent society and we as a broader society need to address that, but I don't think limiting... creative freedom has anything to with addressing that," he said.