Torture Porn: Feeding the Beast Within
Shock Exploitation cinema enjoyed its original heyday in the seventies with titles like I Spit on Your Grave and The Last House on the Left. Though not the first examples, they may be the most well known. Generally characterized by extreme violence and explicit sexual situations, these films were often criticized by the public as having no redeeming values other than to make people feel uncomfortable. Stephen King once said that “good art should make you uncomfortable.” But there have long been debates as to whether this genre of film is art or merely cheap thrills for the sick-minded.
In recent years, films of this nature have had a resurgence, only with much bigger budgets and larger audiences. The term “torture porn” was originally coined by critic David Edelstein referring to Eli Roth’s Hostel. Since that time, this phrase has been applied to such titles as Saw and its many sequels (and we aren’t done yet), The Devil’s Rejects (where the killers are the good guys…sort of), Turistas, and Captivity to name a handful.
Critics across the board are largely panning these films for their over the top use of gore and lack of social commentary. Romero was the first to use the word Splatter when referring to his film Dawn of the Dead but his films are widely known to have something to say other than “give me money and I’ll show you someone’s insides.” Romero has stated that he doesn’t get torture porn because it “lack[s] metaphor.”
What exactly does the average fan glean from watching young people (mainly women) get sadistically tortured and killed? And what does this say about the hordes of fans that flock to see mutilation and mayhem served up as smörgåsbord? For one thing it says they will spend a lot of money to see it. Saw grossed over $100 million worldwide and Hostel brought in over $80 million.
But what is the draw? Consider this. One writer suggested that with reality TV giving us everything from televised surgery to hoodlums being beaten senseless by Cops, what is left for film except to reach for the extremes to shock us? Nah, I doubt these films are made to keep us in the theaters out of boredom over our Friday night lineup. I don’t think that is the answer. No, something else is going on here.
Let’s explore serial killers, the real ones. What is it about them that keep us glued to the news when a new one is discovered? What is the fascination that we have with such real-life atrocities? Perhaps there is a connection. Wait a minute…what about that? Why not?
I have had a life-long obsession with the history of serial killers. Some may say that it goes hand in hand with being a horror fan. I have found that to be quite untrue. They are completely separate interests. But what about them do I find so compelling? I have always been intrigued by the mind behind the violence more than the violence itself. When I hear of a new one, I want to know what created this monster…or more accurately, what unleashed it. I believe that serial killers are merely those that act on the most perverse things possible within the human mind. Something upstairs has shaken loose the ability to distinguish between what should be carried out and what should be kept to themselves. Basically, these are vicious acts that anyone could come up with, but only a few commit…thankfully.
Look at writers like Stephen King or even the Marquis de Sade. Both authors, known for their violent works, have made statements arguing that writing these things down quells the need to do them in life. Now we all know the history of de Sade, so his is a given. But don’t go spouting that I just called King a latent serial killer. I don’t think he wants to really hurt anyone more than I do. What I am saying is that we all feel the occasional need to do some hack/slash on the annoying neighbor or bitchy gas station attendant. But we know better. Every one of us, at one time or another, has had a dark thought cross our minds…usually to disappear as quickly as it arrived, with no one suffering the damage.
And then we come back to the splatter film, the torture porn, the gorno. Whatever you choose to call them, these movies allow us to envision every creepy idea we have ever kept harnessed and even some we would never think of. We need not fear what is in our minds. Why should I be concerned about the twisted things within my brain when Eli Roth is chopping people up with wild abandon and making mad cash for his efforts?
Let’s consider as well the possibility that this direction is what we are headed in as a response to the increasingly repressive society in which we live. With phrases like “politically correct” being hammered into our vocabulary at every turn, is it so unbelievable that it would garner a knee-jerk response such as this? When you are forced to watch what you say, what you do, what you wear, what you listen to…what better way to fight the establishment than to do exactly what they tell us not to? Why not pour money into the hands of those that go against the mainstream that keeps us so throttled?
Historically humans have been known to go the most nuts when forced to mind their actions. I can cite countless examples, but look to the Puritans and their vicious witch hunts for one. When cornered by religion and their society to adhere to strict doctrine, these pillars of the community embraced bloodlust with little prodding required. The difference today is that films allow us to retaliate against our oppressors without employing the use of a gallows.
Of course everyone is not a fan of these films. Some say they don’t like to see the horrors that humans are capable of inflicting upon one another. They are of the opinion that these things are bad enough in real life and there is no need to celebrate them on film. But I don’t see it necessarily as glorification. I think of them more as a nod to the knowing; a wink to the in-crowd. These movies say, “Yep. We already thought of that. What else ya got?” And we move on to the next round.
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