Is torture porn horror? The term ‘torture porn’ is disturbing to be sure. It was coined to describe a trend in horror movies of late that seem to relish in the graphic detail of violence and gore to which the victims of their tales are subjected. In the same way pornography shows us explicit sexuality for the sole purpose of arousing our own sexual impulses, some people believe the obsession in depicting the detail of such graphic violence against victims in horror movies arouses a similar desire of some people to see such violence.
But in watching several movies during this year’s Horrorfest that could fall under the subgenre of torture porn, I was struck by how this graphic depiction of violence removed much of the horror of the experience and replaced it with elements from other film genres.
Torture as Character Study.
One of the seminal torture porn films was the ultra-low budget indie hit “Saw”. The original “Saw” was scary in the way it laid out a completely unpredictable plot for two victims in a situation that it seemed unlikely to draw out into a feature-length film. Two people wake up chained in a grimy room. There is a dead body between them. Some tools and weapons are within reach for each of them, and there are clues left on a tape recorder as to why they are there and what they must do to escape. The frightening thing about the story comes in the realization of what they must do either to each other or themselves in order to survive their situation.
But what made “Saw” possible as a feature length story was the fact that there were also police detectives on the outside trying to find these people and their captor. In these details “Saw” resembled a police thriller as much as it did a horror movie. In concentrating a large part of its focus on the police procedural, “Saw” dragged the personality of the “killer”, known as Jigsaw, into the story. The character of Jigsaw was what enabled the filmmakers to continue the series through four sequels and, his influence for the most part eventually overshadows any horror the series has to offer.
I saw the original “Saw” back when it was released, and did not catch up on the rest of the series until this year, however I did miss out on the theatrical run of the latest installment “Saw V”. But it is obvious from “Saw II”, “Saw III”, and “Saw VI” that the methods of death—while still graphically detailed on screen—become an embellishment to the series. While “Saw II” falters by placing a bunch of uninvested characters into Jigsaw’s traps, the third and fourth installments do a great job of tying even the series’ missteps together while deepening its labyrinthine plots. By making Jigsaw’s motives the focal point in the sequels, the filmmakers are excused to continue depicting some of the most torturous and gruesome deaths ever seen on screen.
Torture as Thriller.
The horror premise behind Eli Roth’s popular torture porn series “Hostel” is that there is this hostel in an Eastern European block country that acts as a staging area for victims to be purchased by the rich elite to torture and kill. The bidding process is like the ultimate form of Ebay. American victims fetch the highest bids, because—as we all know—everyone hates Americans, even other Americans.
Interestingly enough, the story feels more like a spy thriller than a horror flick—kind of a poor man’s Jason Bourne series. Beyond the gruesome torture scenes, each of the two films presents us with a hero who must solve the mystery of just what is going on. Why are my companions disappearing? Why does the desk clerk look at me that way? And in the final act they must escape the evil clutches of those rich bastards.
The premise works in the first film where Jay Hernandez stars as the hero, and the audience must figure everything out right along with him. In “Hostel, part II” Roth tries a little too hard to give this simple premise a twist. First, he tries to give a female perspective by having women as the main characters. That’s fine, but in an effort to provide female empowerment—a common theme in horror—his heroine (Lauren German) looses her effectiveness as a victim by being rich herself and possessing as savage a nature as the men who partake in the hostel’s elite services.
Roth also gives too much away about how the hostel’s bidding and torture game works. By seeing the inner workings of this dastardly service, we loose the mysteriousness behind it. It has much the same effect as when James Bond’s arch nemesis in the early Bond films Ernst Stavro Blofeld went from being just a faceless man in a chair who asked for Bond’s head on a platter while calmly petting his cat to being the active villain in the movies. All his power as a character was lost. Too much of horror is dependent on the helplessness of not knowing exactly what is going on to give away all your killer’s secrets.
Torture as Homage.
The makers of the movie “Chaos” have weathered a great deal of controversy over their 2005 very low budget indie. Most famous is their debate with Roger Ebert over the irresponsibility of the evil they depict in their movie, which they claim to have made as a “cautionary tale.” The movie depicts the abduction and severely brutal murders of two teenage girls and the subsequent fates one of the victim’s parents face when the killers come to their house to hide from the authorities.
Like Ebert, I’m not really sure what they are cautioning people about beyond the fact that the evil people in the world will kill you. I found most of the movie to be rather good, if fairly difficult to stomach, until the final act when writer/director David DeFalco loses all sense of direction and turns the film into a glorification of the killer. This is truly irresponsible.
But perhaps the greatest crime of the movie is the fact that DeFalco claims it as an original idea, when never has a case of plagiarism been so clearly evidenced by the movie’s lack of credit given to completely ripping off both Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring” and Wes Craven’s “Last House on the Left”. These three movies are so similar, there is no way DeFalco could have been ignorant of the other two’s existence. Craven is quite willing to give Bergman’s film credit for the inspiration of his film, both of which not only depict the murder of a child, but her parents’ blood lust turn against the perpetrators. DeFalco gets the cautionary part of the tale all wrong. Not only does pure evil exist, but also we are all capable of it given the motivation.
But in watching several movies during this year’s Horrorfest that could fall under the subgenre of torture porn, I was struck by how this graphic depiction of violence removed much of the horror of the experience and replaced it with elements from other film genres.
Torture as Character Study.
One of the seminal torture porn films was the ultra-low budget indie hit “Saw”. The original “Saw” was scary in the way it laid out a completely unpredictable plot for two victims in a situation that it seemed unlikely to draw out into a feature-length film. Two people wake up chained in a grimy room. There is a dead body between them. Some tools and weapons are within reach for each of them, and there are clues left on a tape recorder as to why they are there and what they must do to escape. The frightening thing about the story comes in the realization of what they must do either to each other or themselves in order to survive their situation.
But what made “Saw” possible as a feature length story was the fact that there were also police detectives on the outside trying to find these people and their captor. In these details “Saw” resembled a police thriller as much as it did a horror movie. In concentrating a large part of its focus on the police procedural, “Saw” dragged the personality of the “killer”, known as Jigsaw, into the story. The character of Jigsaw was what enabled the filmmakers to continue the series through four sequels and, his influence for the most part eventually overshadows any horror the series has to offer.
I saw the original “Saw” back when it was released, and did not catch up on the rest of the series until this year, however I did miss out on the theatrical run of the latest installment “Saw V”. But it is obvious from “Saw II”, “Saw III”, and “Saw VI” that the methods of death—while still graphically detailed on screen—become an embellishment to the series. While “Saw II” falters by placing a bunch of uninvested characters into Jigsaw’s traps, the third and fourth installments do a great job of tying even the series’ missteps together while deepening its labyrinthine plots. By making Jigsaw’s motives the focal point in the sequels, the filmmakers are excused to continue depicting some of the most torturous and gruesome deaths ever seen on screen.
Torture as Thriller.
The horror premise behind Eli Roth’s popular torture porn series “Hostel” is that there is this hostel in an Eastern European block country that acts as a staging area for victims to be purchased by the rich elite to torture and kill. The bidding process is like the ultimate form of Ebay. American victims fetch the highest bids, because—as we all know—everyone hates Americans, even other Americans.
Interestingly enough, the story feels more like a spy thriller than a horror flick—kind of a poor man’s Jason Bourne series. Beyond the gruesome torture scenes, each of the two films presents us with a hero who must solve the mystery of just what is going on. Why are my companions disappearing? Why does the desk clerk look at me that way? And in the final act they must escape the evil clutches of those rich bastards.
The premise works in the first film where Jay Hernandez stars as the hero, and the audience must figure everything out right along with him. In “Hostel, part II” Roth tries a little too hard to give this simple premise a twist. First, he tries to give a female perspective by having women as the main characters. That’s fine, but in an effort to provide female empowerment—a common theme in horror—his heroine (Lauren German) looses her effectiveness as a victim by being rich herself and possessing as savage a nature as the men who partake in the hostel’s elite services.
Roth also gives too much away about how the hostel’s bidding and torture game works. By seeing the inner workings of this dastardly service, we loose the mysteriousness behind it. It has much the same effect as when James Bond’s arch nemesis in the early Bond films Ernst Stavro Blofeld went from being just a faceless man in a chair who asked for Bond’s head on a platter while calmly petting his cat to being the active villain in the movies. All his power as a character was lost. Too much of horror is dependent on the helplessness of not knowing exactly what is going on to give away all your killer’s secrets.
Torture as Homage.
The makers of the movie “Chaos” have weathered a great deal of controversy over their 2005 very low budget indie. Most famous is their debate with Roger Ebert over the irresponsibility of the evil they depict in their movie, which they claim to have made as a “cautionary tale.” The movie depicts the abduction and severely brutal murders of two teenage girls and the subsequent fates one of the victim’s parents face when the killers come to their house to hide from the authorities.
Like Ebert, I’m not really sure what they are cautioning people about beyond the fact that the evil people in the world will kill you. I found most of the movie to be rather good, if fairly difficult to stomach, until the final act when writer/director David DeFalco loses all sense of direction and turns the film into a glorification of the killer. This is truly irresponsible.
But perhaps the greatest crime of the movie is the fact that DeFalco claims it as an original idea, when never has a case of plagiarism been so clearly evidenced by the movie’s lack of credit given to completely ripping off both Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring” and Wes Craven’s “Last House on the Left”. These three movies are so similar, there is no way DeFalco could have been ignorant of the other two’s existence. Craven is quite willing to give Bergman’s film credit for the inspiration of his film, both of which not only depict the murder of a child, but her parents’ blood lust turn against the perpetrators. DeFalco gets the cautionary part of the tale all wrong. Not only does pure evil exist, but also we are all capable of it given the motivation.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment