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The Daily OrangeShock and ahh!
Abstract:
Blood, guts and whatever rusty instruments you can find in a toolbox are the staples to the recent crop of grisly - and pathetically plotted - horror films. Affectionately dubbed "torture porn" or "gorno," these movies showcase lingering torture scenes of suffering (and often salacious) co-ed victims....
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Miranda
posted 4/04/08 @ 12:20 PM EST
Lumping together movies such as 'The Hills Have Eyes 2' and 'The Devil's Rejects' which are more shock-factor and gore-centric with genre-redefining works such as 'Saw' and 'Hostel' is, in my opinion, misleading. If you seriously feel that in 'Saw,' as quoted, "plot exists on the backburner," then I would like to see your definition of a well-plotted horror movie. Just because most people remember only the gore and not the articulate motivations of Jigsaw says something about society's lack of depth, not the film's. Also, 'The Ruins' is based on a critically-acclaimed book. Perhaps mentioning an actual base text, even if the movie deviates from it, would add some intellectual merit to this critique, if it can be called such.
Co-eds are mentioned as the staple victims of the genre in this article, but 'Saw' in both the first movie and it's sequels barely focus on the usual college-age victim.
Generalizing films together like this, especially as "gorno," is something I find offensive; I am a fan of multiple movies mentioned within this article for multiple reasons.
I don't read the Daily Orange regularly, and if something I enjoy such as horror movies are treated in such a fashion, I find myself lacking the motivation to become a dutiful reader.
Using widespread generalizations and not going beyond face-value - sure, Brazil took offense to Turistas, but the movie can also be read as a social commentary on American greed from a world perspective - are not viable or critical techniques.
There's more to the majority of these films than the blood and guts. Saying they are "pathetically plotted" and focusing only on the direct viewing of the film, not intellectual or societal commentaries (even the 'Hills Have Eyes 2' can be seen as pointing out military inadequacy) is misleading and incorrect.