The rise of 'torture porn'.

I've seen a recent backlash against films such as Hostel, Saw and all of the films in the genre now dubbed 'torture porn'. I'm assuming that the name has come from detractors of the genre, but it wouldn't surprise me if it came from the fans.

I don't have the same objections to these films as those who think they are morally wrong, demean women/men, or are just plain sick. I don't think they're corrupting our youth, I don't think they're disgusting either.

No, my main gripe with the films is that they're not entertaining. These writers and directors have become so obsessed with pushing the boundaries that they're forgotten what makes people like films. People like films that are fun, that have characters they can empathise with, and tons of others elements not related to how many limbs are severed, or how much blood is spilt. I haven't actually enjoyed any of the torture porn films since the first Saw. It was reasonably clever, it had characters which weren't too abrasive, and it didn't go crazy with gore. It was pretty good.

The funny thing is, these films aren't even pushing the boundaries. There's the Guinea Pig films which are reasonably well known which did all these things before. There's Cannibal Holocaust. There's probably loads more films which haven't reached my eyes, because they aren't great films. They've been marginalised because they suck. No-one wants to watch them.

Another thing which gets to me is that I don't think their depiction of torture is at all realistic. If I was going to torture someone, I wouldn't need any huge spinning blades. I wouldn't dismember anybody because there are better ways to inflict pain. I could make someone scream in pain without drawing a drop of blood. Submissions moves are something that me and my friends have been using on each other for years while messing around, but that doesn't mean I can't see a much more sinister application. If I wanted someone to give me some information, I could simply put pressure on one of their fingers with my thumb, and they would be in unbearable pain and would have to tell me it. If a submission move can work on a huge fighter, I propose it would work on the average person. And in the recent spate of torture films, the characters probably wouldn't even qualify as average.

There's the other torture. The torturing for your own gratification, which I can't really wrap my head around. Since you're not working towards an end goal, I'm sure you would want to drag it out. Submission moves again, would be a good starting place. The threat of disfiguring cuts if your quarry is anywhere near as attractive as in the recent films wouldn't go far wrong either. I say the threat of a disfiguring cut, because once you've made that cut, you've lost your power. And that's what I assume all this springs from. Sadism might be the reason, but to inflict anything other than physical pain you would still need power over them and you don't get that from taking everything from them, you get that from their fear that you will take everything from them.

I can figure all that out and I don't have an interest in torturing anyone, or making a film with torturing in it.

I also object to how hostages react. If I woke up in a locked room I didn't recognise, I would figure out a structural weak point and I would exploit it. Even a brick wall isn't impenetrable. It's not like you couldn't break off a chair leg and use it to tear down a wall. Wooden or metal, it's better than nothing. I haven't tested this, but I'm sure I could take down a brick wall within hours. The bonus to having a chair leg capable of taking down a wall is that your kidnapper isn't likely to enter the room to fuck with you, since one bash with a chair leg on the bonce and all of a sudden the roles have been reversed, and you can make damn sure they won't have the luxury of a chair leg.

The logistics of the torture chambers in these films always amaze me. You would think a builder would question why exactly they're making a cage (for lack of a better term) big enough for a human. A gas chamber might raise a few eyebrows too. Sound proofing is probably rare enough that whoever was constructing would find it peculiar. I certainly don't think Jigsaw, the terminal cancer patient would be capable of erecting a building which would hold someone indefinitely.

If I was investigating a load of disappearances done by a serial kidnapper/torturer/killer, I would go to all the builders in the area and ask them straight up "Have you built any torture chambers recently?", it wouldn't take long to solve the mystery.

The next thing about this films is that torturers seem to be able to figure out the most profound of things relating to their victims. I don't think anyone could say anything that affecting to me that it would break me. In fact, I don't think anything is profound. I don't think everyone has these huge insecurities behind their every action. When I hear these statements in films which mean so much to the characters, it actually puts me straight off a film. It puts me in mind of MSN comments. Sure, people can put something that looks and sounds clever in there, but it isn't ever really all that deep, because people aren't that deep. It's not just torture films that do this though, films like American Beauty are guilty of it. I don't know what category of film American Beauty fits in, but that category, and the torture porn category are both very guilty of thinking they're a shitload more clever than they are. I was actually planning to write a rant just on that topic, but there's not much to say beyond : NOTHING IS PROFOUND. Don't forget it. Don't get overwhelmed by the shitty messages in these masturbatory projects by directors and writers who think they're creative geniuses (although I'm sure they're the sort of people who would snort at reading that and correct me that it's genii, not geniuses).

The only positive thing that comes out of these films is that they almost annoy me enough to make me write a film to counter their crappiness. Almost enough.