As Bloodybones mentioned torture porn in the last entry, I thought I should give my thoughts.

Those two words are the most overused words in the history of the genre.

According to m-w.com, torture is anguish or pain intended to punish, coerce, or obtain sadistic pleasure, OR an action that produces such an effect.  Pornography on the other hand, outside of the obvious sexual definitions, is "the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction".

Sometimes it's justified.  You want to know what torture porn is?  Find a review of a Hong Kong Category III movie.  I'd say watch it, but I've heard some of the nutso stuff that goes on in one of those babies and I am NOT describing them here for fear of warping a young mind.    A review I once saw said that one Cat III horror film "BREATHES exploitation" (yes, exploitation, the term used before torture porn that everyone seems to have forgotten).  Or, from what I've heard, try Frontieres.  I havent heard a single aspect of a plot in the film, all i've heard of is a relentless torture shot after torture shot type movie.  I could be wrong on that, so if you have seen it and can tell me the movie is more than that, by all means set me straight.

But Saw is not.  Hostel is not.  Let me explain:  Saw is cerebral.  Sure there's gruesome traps with grisly consequences.  But the point is, you're supposed to think about why the person is in the trap.  You're supposed to think (particularly in the second through 4th) about what made Jigsaw do this.  Each one is different.  The second lets you into jigsaw's head, the third takes you on a moral journey through the main character while also letting you into both Jigsaw and Amanda's head, and the fourth shows you precisely what lead to jigsaw doing what he does and asks you, through Riggs, to try to see the people in the traps the way he does.  These aren't just KILL KILL KILL.  There's thought and psychology in how the traps work, why they work, why people were in them, why they are made.  That's not just random violence to disturb.  If you've got a problem with the violence of the traps, thats fine, don't watch the movie, that's your call.  But don't act like I'm some twisted individual because I can very easily get something to think about out of the film that goes beyond the violence.

Hostel's tougher to defend but it works like this.  Hostel is far far more violent for little reason than Saw.  If it wasn't for one scene, I'd say call it torture porn.  But the scene in the locker room kills that idea.  Why?  Because its the most unsettling, creepy, genuinely scary scene in the movie.  When you see into the businessman's mind and find out how he feels about the company, it petrifies you because you now can see what goes on in his mind.  You thus get a conneciton with him that you don't want.  Its not sensational though, that scene.  Is half the rest of the movie? Sure.  But when the best, most unsettling, creepiest scene in a movie filled with torture is completely bloodless, you can't call the whole movie torture porn.

My biggest problem though is that "Torture porn" has become an umbrella for a "dark film".  It works like this.  Horror movie like House of Wax remake comes out.  As its YEARS later, it's more violent than the original and has a grittier, darker feel to it.  Someone inevitably calls it torture porn because of the finger scene or the chair in the basement thing.  Black Christmas's remake has been called that.  Because its more violent.  No other reason.  Just that it's bloodier.

Just because something is violent or contains a scene of percieved torture does not make torture porn.  Just because something is dark does not make torture porn.  You know what other horror/thriller movie was dark and featured someone in a torture-like scenario WAY before these? The Silence of the Lambs.  And that won an Oscar.  (Well what do YOU call leaving someone at the bottom of a pit with no way out?)  I'm not saying Saw and Hostel are Oscar caliber, I'm saying that people shouldnt dismiss them out of hand like movies that have no point outside of the violence.

And just to be clear, I want to say again.  I have no problem with someone who sees a film like Saw or Hostel and doesn't like it.  That's your prerogative and opinion and you are more than welcome to it.  I am also not saying that there aren't movies out there that are just torture and nothing more.  There are.  I'd discuss them (Turistas, Frontieres, Captivity all come to mind) but I've never seen them.  And if they each were just torture torture torture for no reason, then I'd call them the torture porn they are.  I wouldn't dislike them necessarily because of it either.  I mean, a good movie is a good movie.  I'm just giving my own opinion in general is all.

Oh and while I'm here, on an unrelated note, is there a rule about obscenity in the songs on our profiles?  Reason I ask is there's some other songs from Poultrygeist or Evil Dead:  The Musical I was gonna add to mine that have some language issues that I just wanna make sure are ok.  Mostly curse words.  The ones up now don't have any problem with that though.  Thanks.