Torture Porn

 The sub-genre, torture porn, has moved generated a new type of horror film and has even indulged into social and political context. According to Evangelos Tzialla, “torture porn refers to a loose association of feature fiction films featuring scenes of extreme violence and torture.” Common characteristics of torture porn are portrayed through graphic depictions of extreme violence, nudity, torture, mutilation and sadism (Edelstein, 2006). Through the use of surveillance, the “Saw” series provides clear examples of torture porn throughout all seven movies. The success of “Saw” could be in part with our cultures obsession with surveillance. This is all done by the loss of privacy brought upon institutional, corporate, and government surveillances. Examples in our culture include schools monitoring Internet use, work places monitoring social networking, and government watching for traffic violations. Tziallas also attributes, the rise of surveillance in torture porn through “our appropriation of surveillance as a form of entertainment” (Tziallas, 2009). In today’s culture, people are fascinated with watching others.

        In the movies Hostel and Hostel: Part II, director Eli Roth wrote these films through the lens of the America’s recent September 11^th attacks and the war on terror. Director Eli Roth commented about his films, “Right now we're at war… I have this feeling that civilization could collapse, and that if you go overseas, you could get killed…This film is also about the dark side of human nature” (Riegler, 2010). Not only do these films feature extreme close-up violence of torture and gore, but these two graphic films reflect America’s culture of fear. In Hostelthe film provides examples of how dangerous the world is and how civilization could crumble. The basis of the film revolves around young Americans traveling around Europe looking for a good time. They are promised alcohol, sex, and free living to stay at a Bratislava youth hostel, but eventually they are abducted and are the subjects to sadistic treatments. The people behind the scenes are rich American business men who pay a large fee to murder them with various torture tools. Hostel and Hostel: Part II provide clear examples of the social culture of America coming off the attacks on September 11^th, the political aspect of fighting a war on terror overseas, and the economy of large business ruling and controlling what they want.

Edelstein, D. (2006, January 28). Torture Porn: The Sadistic Movie Trend  -- New York Magazine. New York Magazine -- NYC Guide to Restaurants, Fashion, Nightlife, Shopping, Politics, Movies. Retrieved February 28, 2012, from http://nymag.com/movies/features/15622/

Riegler, T. (2010). We're All Dirty Harry Now: Violent Movies for Violent Times. At The Interface / Probing The Boundaries, 7017-41.

Tziallas, E. (n.d.). Torture porn and surveillance culture by Evangelos Tziallas. JCsplash. Retrieved February 28, 2012, from http://www.ejumpcut.org/currentissue/evangelosTorturePorn/index.html