'For Your entertainment' by Kira Cochrane
Mainstream movies are getting darker and more violent. And as Quentin Tarantino's latest project, Grindhouse, demonstrates, the worst of the violence is often directed at women. Kira Cochrane on the rise of 'torture porn'
[extract]Talking about his upcoming film Hostel II at a press junket recently, the young director Eli Roth couldn't contain his enthusiasm for the poster devised by the film's marketing team - a close-up of some sinewy, gleaming boar meat. "Any time people see women in a horror film," he noted, "they say, 'Oh, these girls are just pieces of meat.' And, literally, in Hostel Part II, that's exactly what they are. They are the bait, they are the meat, they are the grist for the mill. So I thought it was actually a really smart poster ... and really, really disgusting! I love it."[extract] (READ FULL ARTICLE)
I quite enjoyed Hostel , despite having to shut my eyes a couple of times - It's well made , suspenseful and shocking , and one can reassure oneself that 'it's only a movie' however I agree entirely that marketing movies as ' the sickest , nastiest , most disturbing yet ' is genuinely disturbing in iteslf -
Obviously there are young males who find such films enticing because sitting through them makes them feel Macho .
If that's a growing trend it's cause for concern , obviously . Should graphic scenes of torture be banned in case a tiny fraction of viewers become motivated to try to act them out in reality ? - If females are the victims in such films is that more worrying than if males are ? - I do'nt know .