The Context of Conflict: Media representations of war
- "Brian DePalma's "Redacted" (2007) shows a brutal insight into out-of-control infantrymen who rape a young Iraqi woman and kill her and her family, high on their own sense of power." This is an example of some of the conventions of torture porn horror as it shows extreme sexualised violence towards women.
- War films to tend to show quite extreme violence and are therefore seen as a common convention to have extreme violence which is why this film didn't have as much controversy as films such as human centipede. However, war films don't usually show the negative side of war heroes or show extreme sexual scenes, the fact that it is portraying war heroes in a negative light may be something that would cause a bigger outrage than the sexual scenes. Especially would outrage the patriotic american and veteran army infantrymen.
Horror Mockumentary
- Horror Mockumentary gives the illusion of authenticity and realism by the use of things such as hand held cameras and raw footage which makes it seem like User Generated Content (UGC)
- This article looks at "What's at stake when 12A Hollywood blockbusters and popular peak-time BBC Drama series show explicit scenes of torture and violent interrogation such as water torture methods which is psychologically damaging to anyone who undergoes such extreme torture. For the pre-watershed audience this could create a "copy cat"/Bobo-doll like theory in which the kids remake scenes which they view and this water torture can damage a child's mentality and cause serious bodily harm to them
Media Magazine Issue 12, April 2005
and example of Horror Mocumentary is cannibal holocaust shows immensely graphic and extreme violence and rape scenes. Realism may give audiences a sense of easy to "copy cat" which of course may increase crime rates and mentally affect audiences
The acceptable face of torture?
- "Photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused became top news" This article talks about the order they appear in and how it had to be edited to give audiences time to prepare for certain images e.g. most the images were violence related and the more violent they were, the further back they were. Another image was a sex act between two males, this was originally in the order of being 2nd but had to switch to 3rd just so that it wasn't shown straight away and shock and affect too many people
- Picture editors often see things that audiences are spared when gruesome images are shown, their jobs are to alter the images so it's more appropriate for TV and its audiences
- It's posible the pictures editors may become desensitised
- Counselling is available but is not often requested. Most editors tend to try and "Switch off" from upsetting images
The BBFC had to "tighten its policy" due to the rise of torture porn horror such as human centipede film. The PM, David Cameron, is trying to make ISPs to block explicit content such as porn which would end up blocking torture porn horror films such as the human centipede. This is possibly because of the fact that the internet provides quick and easy access to global content of any genre including porn and torture porn horror
In the Guardian, there was an article about torture porn horror and the representation of women within the new subgenre of horror. One popular diirector of torture porn horror, Eli Roth, stated at a press Junket "Any time people see women in a horror film, 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." http://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/may/01/gender.world this poster therefore symbolises and represents the main conventions of torture porn horror being the objectifying of women in a sexual way and torturing them as if they're just a piece of meat.
The article also talks about horror films in general "Horror films have, of course, always been full of nasty, misanthropic imagery. In many other films, extreme, sexualised violence against women has frequently been a theme (Clockwork Orange, Boxing Helena and many others spring to mind). But recently the levels of horrific violence on show at the multiplexes - and the sheer cynicism of the films involved - have gone through the roof." A lot of violence is seen as aimed specifically at women including clockwork orange which showed pointless violence aimed at women. This creates moral panic, high amounts of sexualised violence is aimed towards women and therefore shows a disturbing side to society. If someone was able to come up with such things like the human centipede then there must be some audiences who are disturbed or childishly curious and therefore end up performing a 'copy cat'. There is a possible minority that will be affected by such horror films mentally.
"Zero Dark Thirty has already run into a heap of trouble over its depiction of the CIA's use of torture. Some critics have argued that it "glorifies torture" or even constitutes "torture porn". http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/jan/25/zero-dark-thirty-reel-history Some films such as the human centipede and zero dark thirty are criticised as they seem to show entertainment from torture, they glorify torture porn which makes it so controversial, it makes it seem as if torture is common or needed in society which therefore creates moral panic and affected vulnerable minds such as children as they may mimic the actions portrayed on screen which can put themselves and others at danger.
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