Introduction: graphic violence in the cinema - origins, aesthetic design, and social effects, Stephen Prince. Part 1 The historical context of ultraviolence: the thin red line, Joseph Morgenstern; movies to kill people by, Bosley Crowther; another smash at violence, Bosley Crowther; Crowther's "Bonnie"-Brook - rap at violence stirs Brouhaha, Ronald Gold; statement by Jack Valenti, MPAA president, before the National Commission on the causes and prevention of violence. Part 2 The aesthetics of ultraviolence: bang bang bang bang - ad nauseam, John Bailey, ASC; death and its details, David Thomson; violence - the strong and the weak, Devin McKinney; the violent dance - a personal memoir of death in the movies, Vivian C. Sobchack; her body, himself - gender in the Slasher film, Carol J. Clover; the aesthetic of slow-motion violence in the films of Sam Pekinpah, Stephen Prince. Part 3 The effects of ultraviolence: some effects of thoughts on anti-and pro-social influences of media events - a cognitive-neo-association analysis, Leonard Berkowitz; mass media effects on violent behaviour, Richard B. Felson.