Meme invitation: what's in your Room 101?

Here's a meme: I invite bloggers reading this entry to compile their own Room 101 entries.
Room 101, as you all know, is the room in George Orwell's 1984 in which Winston is confronted with his worst fears.
But rest assured, I will not be relating my irrational fear of shop window mannequins, but rather following the lead of the BBC show called "Room 101", in which (local) celebrities may explain their worst dislikes and can hope to have them included in the Room 101 vault.
To start off, here's a pet hate of mine:

Vigilante movies, that is, any movie in which truly disgusting crimes (rape, torture, serial killings) are swiftly dealt with by a no less disgusting crimefighter. The Death Wish series ranks lowest in this category because the films are not only truly revolting in their brutal morality, but also filmed so poorly that they make the average porn movie look like Citizen Kane (not that I would know, of course... I never watched Citizen Kane).
It's bad enough that these types of movies suggest that the best way to fight violence is with more violence (that philosophy is working like a charm right now in the streets of Baghdad). But what revolts me most is the invitation to the viewer to cheer at the bloody justice being done. I'm not denying that violence can be beautiful and poetic, but in this type of movie it's only banal and depressing.

Posted by cronopio at 01:19 PM, May 17, 2005