Vivian Fleischer | Contributing Writer
In the world of horror movies, characterized by axe-wielding psychopaths, evil spirits, and creepy blonde children who push people down flights of stairs, there is one genre vilified above all: torture porn. For those who are not yet familiar with the Saw or Hostel franchises, torture porn is simply a genre that places an emphasis on graphic scenes of mutilation and murder. Perfect for an easy Friday night viewing? Some would argue no. I argue yes.
there is one genre vilified above all: torture porn
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These movies force you to look away and cringe, or squirm and grasp your own arm as someone on screen gets their own ripped off. If you watch The Loved Ones and you don’t curl your toes and flex your feet while watching Xavier Samuel get his own feet nailed to the floor, there is something wrong with you. Why would anyone enjoy watching this happen? Why are these movies able to pump out sequel after sequel of viscera? It’s because they are so far removed from reality that they are almost impossible to relate to.
In the movie Vile, a group of strangers are drugged by a pretty blonde hitchhiker and forced to inflict mass amounts of pain on each other in order for a pharmaceutical company to harvest the chemical released when a body is in pain. It’s enough of a set up to “justify” the torture and the gore, but it is so absurd that you never find yourself worrying that it could happen to you. While horror films such as The Silence of the Lambs present scenarios that scare you and characters you truly believe could exist, torture porn presents you with gore and violence, but none of the situational fear. Would you have helped that injured man load a couch into his van? Maybe. But do you really fear being forced to play a sadistic puzzle game orchestrated by a man in a strange clown mask? No.
The violence can sometimes seem overboard and while it often is, the films that know what they’re doing include it for a reason. In The Loved Ones a teenage boy is kidnapped by the father of the girl he turned down for prom and forced to live out a hellish prom night that makes Carrie look like a child’s birthday party. Here, the pain inflicted is to show us, without a shadow of a doubt, who is the bad guy and who is the good guy. It’s not rocket science. Just look for the one holding the nail gun. However, some of the best horror movies are designed to make you empathise with “evil” and thereby question your own beliefs and values. By having the good and the evil laid out so distinctly, there is no sick feeling of understanding for the viewer.
It’s not rocket science. Just look for the one holding the nail gun
Torture porn is sweeping the horror genre. The movies are fast, dirty, and most importantly, bloody. And for this horror viewer, they are the purest form of entertainment. They don’t make you over think the scenarios. Your mind may wonder what you would do if you were kidnapped in Slovakia and tortured by rich clients who pay for the privilege, as happens in Hostel. However, it is unlikely that someone traveling through Slovakia as a tourist would have any fear of this happening to them. This is the true success of the genre. That is why people will sit down to watch a movie with a premise as sick as The Human Centipede– because in spite of the hyper realistic gore, there’s no reality.
