I Want (Need) Your Love (Violence) ~Tamber

Chapter 1: Men, Women, and Chain Saws

The room is dark save for the light from the TV, and Tara covers her eyes and the disgusting squelching and sawing sounds only get louder. "Jesus fucking Christ," she says, burying her face in a pillow.

Amber spares her a quick glance, small smile on her face before turning back to the TV, watching as Art the Clown saws a naked woman in half, right from the folds of her vagina until he gets stuck on her skull, laughing all the way. The practical effects are a marvel of the genre, especially for a low-budget film like this one; they must have saved up for this. This is their showstopper, the big hit, the one that will earn them that Hollywood-money sequel a few years down the line, inevitably. "Don't be a pussy," Amber says. "It's cool. Like, how the fuck does it look so real?"

Tara scoffs. "Of course I don't want to be a pussy after what just happened to hers! Jesus, the guy who made this much be such a fucking creep."

Amber furrows her brows, turning to Tara incredulously once the scene is over. "What? What are you talking about?"

Tara meets Amber's gaze, unimpressed. "No non-misogynistic person looks at a woman and thinks about cutting her in half vagina-downward—or, upward, I guess? Whatever—after he already wrote her to act like the stereotypical bimbo slut through the rest of the movie. It's, like, textbook indie-horror sexism."

"Well, Art the Clown is supposed to be evil incarnate, or whatever, so it's not like they're portraying misogyny as a good thing. He's evil, therefore misogyny is evil."

"Yes, because I really needed to learn that misogyny is evil by watching him carve 'slut' into a woman's arm and then cut another woman's pussy open. Thank you for that lesson, Mr... What's his name?"

"Damien Leone." Somewhere in the background, Art seems to be getting comforted now, sucking his thumb like an infant: Is there kindness in you? Somewhere in your heart? Have you ever felt a mother's touch? Can you show no mercy? The Freud-complex-bullshit seems to get on Tara's nerves even more.

"Yeah. Thanks for that lesson, Mr. Damien Leone." Tara says, sarcastic, before her expression melts into something half-confused, half-concerned. She looks so upset, and over what? A movie pick? It shouldn't be this big of a deal, Amber thinks. "Why did you pick this movie? I know you like slashers, but I don't know. I feel like it's too much even for you."

Amber shrugs, feeling a bit put on the spot. "Well, I mean, I know it's gross, but it's like.. A masterclass in practical effects: the blood, the guts, even the sound effects! It's gruesome, and everyone on the Stab subreddit thinks that Art is going to go down in history as a modern horror icon."

Tara sighs. "That's exactly what I meant when I told you that Reddit is full of gross, sexist old men. They just miss seeing women objectified and cut up the whole time and try to pretend they're not misogynistic by making, like, final girl tier lists, while completely ignoring the fact that final girls are almost always written by men to be androgynous characters that are basically as un-feminine as possible to appeal to the male audience! Virgins with boxy clothes who just don't fit in with their other female friends. All the while, they're acting like it's not misogyny that the almost offensively feminine best friend is always the half-naked one being chopped to pieces! Like, they're not fooling anyone!"

"Damn," Amber grumbles. "Tell me how you really feel."

Tara deflates a bit at Amber's response, disheartened and still more than a little confused. "I don't mean to insult your pick, Amber, but you just- you never used to pick movies like this. I'm not the biggest slasher fan, sure, but you used to pick cool ones, like..." She pauses a moment, thinking. "The first couple Stabs, or Fear Street. I guess I just don't want you to lose your own taste because of those shitheads online."