Devin Gordon, in an April 2006 Newsweek article, writes that “it’s practically cliché that you can tease out a generation’s subconscious fears just by watching its horror movies”, and a film like Hostel certainly seemed to strike a nerve when it arrived at the local multiplex just as we were inundated with reports of sadistic prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. That abuse was made all the more horrific because it wasn’t enacted by some covert team of government interrogators trying to extrapolate plots of mass destruction from would-be terrorists but rather by the cherub-faced everyday young men and women we sent off to fight a war, the same ones for whom we tied yellow ribbons around trees in gestures of support. There was an air of incomprehensibility to the news, one that unsettled and discomfited and reminded us all that good people do really bad things. Roth reflected that in his film with the story of American youth abducted, tortured, and killed at the hands of everyday businessmen who just so happened to have the inclination and money to buy victims.
The killers in Hostel and its sequel are just like the suit-and-tie stockbrokers and real estate brokers and company executives driving in the Lexus next to us on the freeway. And it is this convincing facade of normalcy juxtaposed against the heinous inner workings of these killers that shakes audiences to the core. Whereas we rarely asked the “what if?” question when Jason Voorhees survived an axe to the head or Michael Myers walked out of a burning hospital unscathed, we view these images and ask very real questions. What if there are organ harvesters waiting to snatch me from the beaches of Cancun? What if there are underground societies where our college-aged sons and daughters are abducted from European youth hostels to be sold to the highest bidder with the most depraved mind? The answers frighten us as much as the graphic on-screen images, thus, when we leave the theaters, we take a piece of them back home with us. And after a Jason, Michael, or Freddy movie-going experience? We took a sigh of relief after the requisite final shock, chuckled at the lunacy of what we had just seen, and then argued over whether it would be mozzarella sticks or chicken wings at Applebee’s or TGI Friday’s.
Torture cinema, while reverent to the classic slasher roots in which it’s steeped, has simultaneously promulgated the genre while turning the slasher formula on its head. The set-ups are still there: youthful, party-going victims in isolated locations who run afoul of a demented madman or two. But whereas Jason or Michael or Freddy cut to the chase and lopped off a head or sliced through a jugular before moving on to the next victim in need of systematic dispatch, the madmen in torture cinema tease and tantalize the terror from their victims, savoring the anguish. For audiences used to quickly covering their eyes just before the big kill, it’s as if filmmakers have now stuck toothpicks under our eyes, forcing us to endure the same sadistic torture as their onscreen victims. Indeed, it’s grueling to sit and suffer along with the victims, whose painful screams linger longer onscreen and in our ears than those of their cinematic brethren of slashers past. It’s as if we’re the ones being tortured.
Article comments
1 - duane
Interesting coincidence. The featured headline on my Yahoo home page says "Most violent game ever?" referring to the new Gears of War video game in which, evidently, one can chainsaw an opponent in half from the crotch up, and then use one half of the corpse as a "meat shield" to absorb enemy fire.
Well, Iloc, I read the entire article, and I came away feeling like only the surface had been scratched. I'm not a movie egghead like you and the LOTT D. I have no deep thoughts to offer, I certainly couldn't find anything with which to disagree. Chords were struck by the Purcell article concerning the topic of separating fantasy and reality. A nice clashing of the two appears in Pan's Labyrinth, in which torture figures a bit too prominently. Who wouldn't agree that the horrors of the real world far exceed anything a fictional movie can bring? Maybe that's one reason I prefer my horror movies to feature supernatural phenomena --- ghosties. Give me a good haunted house story any time and keep the silly Jasons and Michaels and Freddies.
I'm reminded of the Hellraiser series, which depicts torture by demons from Hell, who inflict torture because ... well ... that's their job. There was a definite shock response there, but I could "accept" it, because, after all, that's what Hell is all about, right?
I found Saw, Hostel, and Irreversible to be rather dismal exercises. As disturbing as the rape scene was, I was just as grossed out by the head bludgeoning sequence (with a fire extinguisher?). They aren't "scary." I'm too old, I guess, to get a thrill out of gratuitous violence. Oddly enough, I enjoyed Wolf Creek, maybe just because I find Australia to be fascinating.
The Audition also features unnecessary torture. I'm pretty sure that seeing needles stuck into the face of a bound man and having his feet cut off didn't add a lot to the story.
Zombie movies ... I wouldn't classify them as torture porn. That's just the undead doing their undead thing. And the Rob Zombie movies are so far over the top that their impact is minor, along the lines of the mass dismemberment fight sequence in Kill Bill, Vol. 1. It's all in fun, in other words.
The bathtub scene in Scarface where Pacino's partner in crime gets his arm chain sawed off is far more disturbing than anything I've seen in a horror movie.
All in all, I would have to agree with a few of the contributors that the envelope-pushing gutfest sequences are given more and more attention by the producers in order to cover up the fact that the stories aren't really very compelling. And strangely enough, people will pay to see it. I know I have. But that'll do it for me.
What do YOU have to say about it?
And what did you think of The Blair Witch Project?
2 - ILoz Zoc
The bathtub scene in Scarface is gut-wrenching because it touches reality. It gave me nightmares afterwards. I'll say that I find torture porn that comes too close to actuality very disturbing. The more fantastic, or ludicrous the depiction, the less it bothers me mentally. But the "real" or more plausible depictions are not to my tastes or nerves.
What also bothers me is the commercialism of it. Saw has become an annual event, and audience pandering keeps increasing the sadistic bloodletting to meet expectations.
But it is so damn effective for a horror film, isn't it? I mean, it churns our stomachs while delivering a WTF "I'm glad that's not me" feeling. Like that roller coaster ride that keeps adding more and more visceral twists and turns to overcome our sensory-saturation by upping the shocks.
Tough call here, but I certainly don't want the horror genre get mired in it just for commercial reasons. I'll take a good old scarefest like The Uninvited over Hostel any day. But will the audience?
3 - Eric Enck
being a writer of torture porn with " Snuff." I find it is the most disturbing of the genre, because it can really happen. I sometimes wonder if people who look down on it are really scared by it.
4 - Brad Schader
I wrote thisin an article here a while ago, but it applies and is exactly what I was going to say.
I understand this move towards showing gore in movies today and it actually has everything to do with the war in Iraq, to be honest. If one looks at the history of horror movies one cannot help but notice that it always reflects the political atmosphere. The '50s gave us stories of people being controlled by evil aliens at the same time we were afraid of people secretly being communists and invasions from outer space while we feared another global war. Movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Blob played perfectly on those fears.
The '60s saw a rise in the gore and torture films such as Bloodfeast just as Vietnam was getting more and more unpopular. In fact, the gore and torture only increased as the decade wore on. The '70s saw us no longer having faith in our government so naturally the Devil became a major villain with religion no longer being able to protect us in such classics as The Exorcist and The Omen and the '80s saw the birth of the personable killer because the '80s were all about style over substance.
It really is no surprise to me that in the days of Abu Ghraib we are seeing a return to the torture/gore movies. I just wish they would do original stories like Hostel and Saw and leave our classics alone " no matter how non-classic they may be.
5 - ILoz Zoc
Hey Eric,
I can say that watching torture porn too close to reality scares me quite a bit. Being helpless as anything can be done to you is about as terrifying as you can get.
6 - Nick Cato
As silly a film as 1970's THE WIZARD OF GORE is, the antagonist, Montag the Magnificent, rants on and on about participants coming forward to his on-stage nightmares for the sake of satisfying their fellow humans' lust for blood. Despite the horrendous acting, the message was clear: director HG Lewis was continuing to make these films because there was a DESIRE to see them. Of course, I'm sure he didn't think his first effort, 1963's BLOOD FEAST, would snowball to the point it has today, but suffice it to say there will always be fans of "extreme" horror who simply want to SEE this kind of material, regardless of plot or film quality. Surely people aren't sitting through pointless filmfare such as the mainstream Hostel films, to the underground 'guinea pig' series for their artistic value.
While I personally don't care for horror this graphic (unless it enhances the story, such as with Jack Ketchum's 'The Girl Next Door' or is done slapstick-style as in 'Dead Alive'), perhaps the demand for these things speaks of our inherited-depraved nature . . . or just our obscure curiosity.
7 - ILoz Zoc
Nick, I think it's our inherited depraved nature. When torture porn becomes absurdist, it loses its terrifying effect and moves into disgusto territory. Disgusto sells, too. Bottom line; if there's a payin' audience, it will be done.
8 - Dr Dreadful
Back in the 80s I remember watching a few examples of the semi-illicit genre known as the 'video nasty'.
Looking back, the gory 'delights' on view then seem positively tame compared to some of the stuff that's now on offer in your friendly neighborhood movie theater.
9 - Nick Ozment
Fascinating discussion. I found especially insightful the distinctions of fear, specifically "aversive fear" as the main driver for these films. I just reviewed _The Strangers_ for Down in the Cellar, and though it did not have the gorey excesses of some of its recent ilk, I gave it a low rating because of the protagonists. They were blank ciphers who seemed to be there just to be terrorized. The film's approach was naturalistic, yet the leads were as one-dimensional as any teen fodder at Camp Crystal Lake.
I was more impressed by _Vacancy_, which featured protagonists who reacted with the fight rather than flight response, and showed themselves to be resourceful and self-reliant in harrowing circumstances. This made me identify with, and consequently root for, them more.
10 - ss
hi
the horrors this time ur sited responsed her any timed
thank