The kind of people that might be inclined to copy one of these movies are the kind of people that would be out there doing sick things regardless. Serial killers existed long before mainstream torture porm.

It's a case of art imitating life, or is it life imitating art? I honestly don't think these kind of movies contribute in any way, shape or form to real life.



Great movie. Didn't realise it was called that in the US - I always just called it High Tension.

Saw is not torture porm. Hence the name, torture porm. I don't think you've ever seen actual torture porm if that's your definition.

I got that definition from hearsay.

Figured it just meant particularly detailed films. A general term.

Well, consensus among film critics is that "torture porm" refers to films that are gratuitously violent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splatter_film#Torture_porm

Agreed. Saw isn't really torture porm. August Underground, A Serbian Movie, Snuff101, and more recently, Human Centipede 2 (not the relatively tame first one) are torture porm. I.e. it gets screen time because it knows that's what the audience wants to see, and there is a (not always direct, and not always aimed at the viewer) sixual element to it.

"Torture porm" is a standard term I've seen in movie reviews/editorials, to refer to the subgenre of horror movies that includes Saw, Hostel, Human Centipede, etc. As far as I was aware, it's a generally accepted term.

I think you're mixing up Torture porm and porm about torture. Torture porm is just a horror movie that depicts violence in a really graphic way.

I didn't use it in literal meaning, more like unnecessary violence. Saw is like that, audience watch torture like it is a porm movie. "Wait, is there a story?" Kinda like Transformers being a CGI porm.

For a second I read that as Smurf101 and thought it was some kind of terrifying Smurf-themed horror movie.

Saw is vastly different from Hostel and the Human Centipede. I would consider Saw a gory psychological thriller, Hostel almost torture porm (the second one is definately torture porm), and HC borderline torture porm, but moreso just a straighforward horror. HC2 is straight up torture porm however.

But that's the thing that everyone's getting at; Saw does not have gratuitous violence. Everything is either done off screen, or limited to the aftermath ala Se7en. The majority of the film is two guys chained to where they are trying to make sense of their situation while trying to get out of it.

The sequels are quite gratuitous. The twisty rack thing from Saw 3 is six minutes of pain I'm amazed got included in a mainstream movie. That one shot of the guys femur literally exploding into splinters? Holy crap.

OK, first one is let off the hook. But not the sequels.

Yeah I first heard the phrase "torture porm" years ago being used to refer to stuff like Saw and Hostel, well before A Serbian Film and Human Centipede existed. I think the idea is that the approach to violence and gore in those films is anologous to the approach to six in actual pormography.

No one's ever been able to prove that violent movies cause violent behaviour, nor that so called "copycat" killers wouldn't have been messed up without the movies they watched. Serial killers, school shooters, violent inner city gangs - these people are much more likely to have been fans (even acolytes) of classic gangster movies and mainstream action films than of particularly violent films. When you see videos of the Columbine shooters, they're posing like Rambo, not tearing their victims apart...

Well okay, I never really believed the movies caused the behavior. I'm more worried about copycat in the sense of, well, copycat. Doing what's done in the movies. Giving ideas, really.

I guess it's a stupid thing to worry about but it, on top of everything else, bothers the [censored] out of me. Even if I try to rationalize it away.

Out of context, but can you elaborate on the origin of your sig quote?

Oh. It used to be a false quote about Exorince, and you commented on it once, I think. I think you said something along the lines of "I'll just call you Exp and him Ex. Easy." or something like that. That was my response. Want me to remove it?

Did I seriously forget to include The Devils Rejects and House of 1000 Corpses?

Also, gracious violence is hardly ever there because the creator/viewer enjoys watching people suffer. In a film like A Clockwork Orange, you're supposed to feel uncomfortable. In a movie like Kill Bill or Sin City, its a purely stylistic choice that builds up on the tone of the movie. In the case of the above Rob Zombie movies, its there to communicate just how sick the anit-protagonists are (they're far too extreme to be considered anti-heroes in my book).

As for copycat killing, somebody disturbed enough to do that is going to be doing it without the influence of movies. Its almost as ridiculous as saying that violent videogames turn people into murderous psychopaths. Can it spur them into action? Of course. But that would've happened eventually anyways, and no amount of therapy helps a sociopath.

EDIT: I've also never seen Saw. There is a very definitive line between grind-house horror (see: gore so unrealistic that it becomes comical), Slasher flics, (tales of serial killers in most cases) and torture porm. In the former, the violence is the story, and in the other, the violence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1sZ0ek7LLk the story.

Ah, I remember that! No, don't remove it, I just honestly couldn't remember what it related to!

I remember it now - he's Exo and you're Ex.

it may have been "ultraviolent" when it came out, but ive been in school plays that were just as violent as a Clock Work Orange, (of which said violence really only occurred in the first 30 minutes, the rest of the movie was about the main character's rehabilitation.)

more than any thing i think it was the shock value of the sixual explicitness that made the violence seem more so than it really was back then.

Oh I'm aware. Its just that I couldn't pass up on the OP title.

Hah! true. Quoting CWO to people who've never seen it before is something that amuses me, i was more or less ejaculating my thoughts.

A Clockwork Orange
The Descent
Death Race(2008)
RoboCop

I guess you're assuming that I reported the thread. Or at least that I was hoping it would get locked. Much to the contrary. I was merely curious as to why some mods close such threads, or delete such comments as those which contain movies such as these, whereas apparently, others don't. It just appeared to be a bit silly, in my opinion.

The mods would've deleted this thread if it was deemed improper by now. But hey, there's always that silly thread.