Torture Porn

Torture porn is a recently developed horror sub-genre in which a central villain murders his victims in gruesome and horrifying ways. They depict nudity, extreme levels of gore, mutilation and extensive sadism.

The movie which sparked the sub-genre, Saw, has spawned a number of sequels. Lionsgate, who produced Saw, have also launched other franchises into the torture porn sub-genre, such as the Hostel series.

Their interest is not just creative, movies in the torture porn sub-genre are significant commercial successes, often earning tens of millions of US Dollars in gross, on budgets of only a few million dollars. Their low budgets allow them to be produced quickly, ensuring studios like Lionsgate always have a cash cow in theatres.

Despite their commercial success, releases in the torture porn sub-genre have drawn wide criticism from movie reviewers and directors of more traditional horror films. Noted director of the Dead series, George A. Romero, dislikes them, saying they "lack metaphor".

This reflects the wider criticism of torture porn, that the genre is shallow and lacking in complexity, appealing purely to basic human instincts. It is from this criticism that the half-derisive term for the sub-genre ("Torture Porn") was derived - the sub-genre is likened to porn, which serves only to serve basic human sexual desire.

We do not fully agree with this criticism and will be incorporating certain aspects of the torture porn sub-genre into our production coursework. We feel that the problem lies mainly in previous releases and their lacking interest in plot - likely the result of their low budgets and short production times.

Our coursework will use elements of the sub-genre, such as use of extreme gore to provoke fear in the audience, but we intend to provide greater context and story, even in the opening scene we are producing. We will do this by having greater than normal character development, particularly with regards to the villain, who often goes through the entirety of the movie without having his motivation explained.