The cinematic style described as 'new brutalism' is noted for the feeling of discomfort it creates in its audience. Niall Kitson looks at the origins and notes the achievements of this genre- defying strain of cinema.

One of the ideas in Stephen Pinker's book The Language Instinct is that language travels in the same way as fashions and viruses, spiralling out from a central point to encompass as much space as possible. Perhaps this goes some way to explaining how severed body parts, sadomasochism and murder – once the stock and trade of gothic horror – have now found their way into a burgeoning filmic genre; a cinema of transgression and nihilism populated by anti-heroes and the most abject of victims, a genre not defined by narrative convention but by emotional impact. With roots in architecture, and branches in contemporary art, theatre and genre cinema, New Brutalism is now recognised as a movement with its own auteurs, obsessions and an anti-cathartic style that places it firmly within the boundaries of 'Extreme Cinema' while rejecting the surrealism so often associated wih the tag.

New Brutalism has attracted an eclectic following ranging from highbrow critics to rabid fanboys looking for the next big thrill. Whether you are a believer or not, the following introduction should help to demystify the appeal of regularly sitting through two hours of the most unrelenting terror and paying for the privilege. But then again these are only movies... right?

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 103.