Bits and pieces of several subcultures, most of them familiar to typical American school kids, fed their hardhearted nihilism. Most puzzling to adults is the glee with which many young people approach depictions of violence. The movie feels like a video game on celluloid, featuring a nerdy computer hacker suddenly blessed with the power to choose any weapon he desires, to dodge bullets, to kill with impunity. Taking their cue from the claustrophobic verse of Baudelaire and Poe, Goths are united by a fascination with death and a love for the morbid, introspective music of such groups as Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy, and Death in June, whose songs of tortured love and self-loathing waver between sinister and romantic. Its nihilism is purgative.
People are in it to feel a release from tension and anxiety.
But Goths say that violence plays no part in their culture. In reality, he says, the overwhelming majority of Goths are quiet and introspective, much preferring a good horror novel to a bare-knuckle fight. Indeed, most children and teenagers who temporarily become obsessed with violence, whether it be in pulp novels, films, or video games, do not act on violent fantasies. It could just as well be that they listen to the music as a result of feeling isolated and spiritually lonely. They're open to anything that speaks to their alienation and despair.