“Sometimes people who are mentally
challenged and have a history of sexual abuse… mutilate their own organs”[1]
Is the media becoming increasingly violent, especially with the rise of
the torture porn horror subgenre in films such as 'Saw' and the 'The Human
Centipede'? Why is this and what impact does it have on audiences?
This investigation will explore if
the media has become more violent through the years and possibly why and how it
may affect audiences. A hypothesis could be that the media is becoming more
violent even though there are some regulations preventing some levels of
violence. As a society we may be desensitised which leads to an easing of
regulations and less of a moral panic until another controversial film tries to
push the boundaries.
Torture porn horror (also known as
‘Gorno’) is defined as extreme sexualised violence especially to women.
According to Director of 'Hostel', Eli Roth, during a FOX News interview,
stated that extreme violence and horror is around and growing because "in
times of terror people want to be terrified but in a safe environment"[2]
Eli Roth gives examples of hurricane Katrina and the war in Iraq, people are
scared and want to scream and let out all their fear and emotion but in a safe
environment where the fear is short lived. Audiences want to feel escapism from
reality and be entertained, according to Blumler and Katz uses and
gratifications theory, which is what horror films provide. However, there is
the possibility that certain audiences feel desensitised from current horror
films. Tom Six, Director of 'The Human Centipede', told newspapers and
interviewers: "Spanish audiences often found the film funny, and laughed
throughout screenings."[3]
Which possibly links to what Eli Roth said about society being scared of wars,
but we as a society have seen two world wars, have seen documentaries about
torture, and have even survived through several natural disasters. Therefore
it's possible we need films to push the boundaries to entertain us and that is
what created torture porn. According to Steve Neale majority of genres are
“predictable”[4]
for example “in the past the sitter would be a nameless girl”[5]
but now it’s a predictable “American”[6]
victim being tortured being. So this predictability also justifies the creation
of torture porn as its story patterns aren’t predictable, for example Saw tends
to have several twists across its franchise, they push the boundaries and shock
those who were desensitised, providing entertainment for them and in some sense
has rejuvenated a possible dying genre. Tom Six has a similar belief to Steve
Neale as he tweeted ‘"Attention all script writers: a villain wearing a
mask on a killing spree is fucking unoriginal and stupid. Kisses on all your
pink parts."’[7]
Tom Six believes that to entertain audiences we need to be original and unique
filmmakers as some films such as Saw V was seen as being “boring”[8]
by many critics and fans, these fans are desensitised and think that these
narratives are too typical.
Within torture porn the typical
representation is sexualisation of women. Stereotypically the protagonist, such
as the females in 'The Human Centipede' or victims such as the many women
throughout the 'Saw' franchise e.g. the infamous Amanda (who escaped Jigsaw
trap and became an accomplice) or Dina (the first victim in 'Saw3D') The women,
stereotypically, in torture porn films are young 'girly girls' with make-up or
girly clothing e.g. Dina wore a pink crop top and bra and wore mascara (like
the victims in The Human Centipede) and had her hair tied up in a stereotypical
schoolgirl pigtails, this particular female was also an Asian female which
links to the stereotypical and perverted idea of Asian schoolgirls being the
sexual fantasy of many males, this is possibly the deliberate representation of
the female to ensure it draws in a male audience. Horror films also tend to use
a stereotypical “dumb blonde”[9]
possible due to what Perkins believes, some elements of truth may be in the
blondes being dumb stereotype which links to Medhurst’s theory of stereotypes
being a possible short hand to allow quick identification for the audience who
can then either relate and escapism with the character or be entertained by the
stereotypical portrayal of the character. The Asian schoolgirl representation
would usually be seen as potential porn and cause a moral panic. However, in
todays society, porn is part of culture and is widely accepted by many in a
positive way as seen in parts of the programme ‘Porn on the brain’ where
journalist and ex-editor of men’s magazine ‘Loaded’, Martin Daubney, spoke to
his father and they both agreed on how Martin “turned out just fine”[10]
when stumbling across porn magazines at a young age which stereotypically
sexualised women and to go against porn is likely going to label you as “anti-sex”[11].
On the other hand, males in many torture porn horror films commonly are
tortured less or in a more dominant position than female characters. E.g. in
‘the human centipede’ the head of the centipede (the more ‘preferred’ position
of the centipede) was a male, who still had the ability to talk and eat human
food and had dominant control of where to move the whole centipede while the
other two parts of the centipede were females who lost their ability to speak,
to move freely and were surviving through the digestion of the males excrement
of his food. The male also had his body parts covered while the females had
their torso exposed. Which again leads to a sexualised representation of
females, they are generally seen as being a “piece of meat”[12],
this reinforces modern day stereotypes which some feminist say reminds them
“how this world value[s] women”[13].
Torture porn horror had “rejuvenated”[14]
the horror genre and has in the last decade started to reel back in some of the
desensitised audiences as it provides a new sense of entertainment according to
Blumler and Katz. However, Angie Barry did state that ‘Saw torture porn’[15]
rejuvenated the genre last decade. This decade is more about going back to the
“basics”[16]
of horror. This therefore suggests that the genre of torture porn is already a
trend that has passed, it suggests that we’re already desensitised by torture
porn and need something more to rejuvenate the horror genre, possibly the rise
of a new subgenre more horrific than torture porn.
Torture porn horror tends to have
very unique narratives and gruesome death scenes to provide entertainment for
some of the “sick, twisted torture fanatics”[17]
and through the narrative audiences tend to be scared at the same time and
escape into the film and feel sutured into scenes where they feel as if they
are in as bad of a position as the victims of the film and therefore end up
screaming and looking away. Some examples of this can be seen in the film
'Grotesque' the scene where a male and female are both strapped to a table
while a man chainsaws through their fingers is shown more during the females
torture than the males and is done more slowly to the female. The sexualisation of women and making the
films seem more pornographic than typical horror films is usually because the
main target audiences are males over the age of 18. Therefore the pornographic
materials sole purpose is to “stimulate the viewer’s particular desires.”[18]
There are many negative effects on
audiences especially of unstable minds or of young age who could end up
mimicking the actions portrayed on screen and end up performing some of the
violence to their friends, family or even members of the public to feel a sense
of entertainment. Therefore leading to the copycat theory being a possible effect
on audiences. An experiment, which is known as the Bobo doll experiment, shows
the effect of onscreen violence on young children. Children exposed to the
violence showed similar “aggressive responses”[19]
that were shown in the video. This could also link to Gerbner’s theory, which
states that there is a cause-effect relationship between the violence we see
onscreen and real-life violence. Some feminist sociologists such as Dworkin and
Morgan suggest “there is a strong relationship between the consumption of pornography
and sexual crimes.”[20]
Some scenes within films such as ‘The Human Centipede’ where women are stripped
down to nothing and linked together in a human centipede to satisfy the fetish
of the “very sick mind”[21]
of the villain. Even though the genre isn’t aimed at young audiences (audiences
below the age of 18) there are still ways for children to get a hold of this
content through poor parenting or easy access to the internet. The Internet is
difficult to control and has billions of explicit content freely available to
anyone which links to Newson. Newson believes that explicit images are too easy
to find and “encouraged viewers to identify with violent perpetrators rather
than victims.”[22] This
may lead to rises in crimes. The hypodermic needle suggests that young minds,
impressionable minds and unstable minds that may view this explicit content may
end up finding it socially acceptable to do what the media portrays, which
relates heavily to the works of McCabe and Martin who believe that in some
social situations audiences may end up replacing normal rules with violence
they view, for example instead of negotiating and debating they’ll act
violently. There was an incident where a 12-year-old boy had raped his 7-year-old
sister after watching “hardcore pornography on the internet”[23]
through the use of an Xbox. Due to new and digital technology the child had
performed sexual acts on his sister as the Xbox had exposed the child to
explicit material.
Other possible effects on audiences
may actually be positive instead of negative. Similar to what director Eli Roth
of Hostel said, Fesbach and Sanger believed that screen violence allows the
audience to “release aggressive energy into safe outlets”[24]
and against Newson, Dworkin and Morgan is Young’s theory which argues that the
effects of violence being portrayed on screen can allow the audiences and
potential criminals to feel sympathy for the victims and their families and
therefore lead to sensitisation of certain crimes due to violent torture porn
films making people more aware and responsible for their actions and evidently
lead to a reduction in crime.
Even though Young’s theory is
possible, In 2012 a report was produced stating a rise in prosecutions and
convictions for violence against women. This figure has “risen by 15,000 over
four years.”[25]
Which suggests that it’s possible that with the recent rise in torture porn
horror such as ‘The human centipede’, ‘Hostel’ and Saw’ there is a possible
correlation. The more popular the genre has become the more crimes against
women have risen. Therefore it’s possible that torture porn horror is creating
a much more violent and sadistic society who are becoming more desensitised and
committing sexual crimes. However, we live in a society where there is always
real life horror, there is always violence being committed across the world,
including terrorist attacks, violence on women, serial killers etc. Violence
surrounds us daily on the news with murders, potential bombings and attacks. In
horror films there has always been violence, “violence in horror films isn’t
new to society, it already exists within society.”[26]
Therefore torture porn horror may not be the reason to increases of violence
against women. “Violence depicted in films is done to shock us. It would be
hard to believe that the viewers would want to commit acts like that
themselves.”[27]
Before torture porn existed there was
a sub-genre known as “ultra violence”[28]
which was created due to the film ‘A Clockwork Orange’ which at the time
contained sadistic violence that wasn’t common to the horror genre, similar to
what’s happening to the human centipede. There are several scenes, which
contain sadistic violence and sexualisation of women forming a “gender
hierarchy”[29].
One scene in specific that was when the main character, Alex, and his gang
perform a home invasion and destroy the house, beat the male and tie him up and
then fondle his wife; cutting and ripping her clothes while singing. Alex
forces the tied up male to watch as he performs a sex act on his wife. Even
though the audiences are unable to see Alex raping the woman they are disturbed
by “the amount of sadistic glee Alex gets from it.”[30]
He is enjoying the rape of a woman and sings while he degrades her. Another
historical and controversial film was psycho, which has been re-rated several
times over the years from PG, to PG13 and 15.
It was seen as being quite revealing with the shower scene even though
the camera shots gave the illusion of the character being naked when she never
really was during filming. This scene led to Janet Leigh receiving “grotesque”[31]
sexual letters. Some audience members were also scared of the shower scene, one
father wrote to Hitchcock stating that his daughter “refused to shower after
seeing this film.”[32]
It seems that more rules and regulations are being put in place as films become
more violent, leading to changes in ratings of films prior to those now. Many
years ago it was considered that children and women were “vulnerable to
psychological damage and moral decay”[33]
which therefore led to many films being targeted mainly at men while “women and
kids were protected”[34].
Recently The BBFC had to “tighten its
policy”[35]
recently due to 'The Human Centipede', cuts are also now needed for certain
films to be allowed to be shown to an audience e.g. the Human Centipede 2 had
to have “32 cuts”[36]
to it before it was unbanned from the U.K. The BBFC are created “in order to
protect children from unsuitable and harmful content in films and videos.”[37]
And state “this independent scrutiny prior to release ensures the highest
possible level of protection and empowerment.”[38]
David Cameron is attempting to keep the TV 9pm watershed “clean”[39]
but he is “fighting a losing battle”[40]
due to popular reality tv shows and talent shows such as x-factor and big brother
promoting “sexualised routines”[41]
alongside this David Cameron is also promoting an idea to Internet service
providers (ISPs) to ban explicit content online, which is “welcomed by women’s
groups and academics who had campaigned to have ‘rape porn banned.’”[42]
To conclude, “Horror is not about
cheap scares, creaking doors, horror is about a pervasive, life- denying,
sickening atmosphere, horror is pure misanthropy, an utter negativity that is
alien to petty, human existence.”[43]
The media has become more violent with the rise of torture porn, it has become
a mainstream horror sub-genre and therefore has affected a large majority of
the audiences however it’s impossible to state that a rise in sexual crime is
due to the torture porn sub-genre because it portrays the same conventions of
horror and violence which has been around for years. We as a society have lived
through pain and horror as Eli Roth states and eventually become desensitised
by horror, which possibly creates the need for more violent films which in turn
creates more strict policies that lead to the re-rating of previous films in
history and affect new explicit films. But with the internet even ISP policies
cannot prevent torture porn being seen, piracy, hacks and protest against these
can occur. Also due to the Internet, we are unable to control the billions of
data being uploaded daily, which prevents things such as the 9pm watershed from
working as “the watershed only applies to television.”[44]
It’s therefore possible to assume that the watershed no longer exists due to
the rise of the Internet, catch up TV and UGC. There have been some attempts on
creating a watershed for the Internet by David Cameron but many people
including Mic Wright believes “people this stupid should not be making our
laws.”[45]
We cannot control everything on the Internet, which can easily be accessed by
everyone and is heavily used by teenagers. The affects of pornography material
I believe doesn’t have a huge affect of audiences but when it does it affects a
minority. Generally crime against women has gone down, it’s just one or two
shocking stories being hyper-real. Media coverage “masks the absence of a basic
reality”[46]
We are more likely to feel sympathy for a victim, we view such horror films to
gain entertainment and escapism.
Word Count:
2352 words
(without quotes and title)
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violence, and the media. London: Temple Smith, 1978. Print.
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Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 6.1 (2010): 103-108. Print.
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Print.
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freedom." Media Magazine: Freedom Issue Apr. 2009. Print.
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- Wood, Wendy, Frank Y. Wong, and J.
Gregory Chachere. "Effects Of Media Violence On Viewers' Aggression In
Unconstrained Social Interaction.." Psychological Bulletin 109.3 (1991):
371-383. Effects of media violence on viewers' aggression in unconstrained
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- "You think you know the story ...
icons of horror in The Cabin in the Woods ." Media Magazine: Images and
Icons, Horror Sep. 2012. Print.
[1] Human
Centipede 2 (Full Sequence). Dir. Tom Six. Perf. Laurence R. Harvey, Ashlynn
Yennie. Bounty Films, 2011. Film.
[2]
Neil Cavuto, Eli Roth Fox News 07 Interview, 0:51-0:55
[3] Berge
Garabedian, Sitges 09 Interview, 3:55-4:30
[6] Ibid
[8] Aston,
James. "Introduction." To see the Saw movies essays on torture porn
and post-9/11 horror. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers, 2013. 3. Print.
[9] Representation
of Women in Horror Films http://screampsychohorror.wordpress.com/representation-of-women-in-horror-films/
[10] Martin
Daubney, ‘Porn on the brain’, Channel 4 documentary
[11] Gail
Dines, ‘Pornland: How porn has hijacked our sexuality’.1-3:Preface
[12]
Kira Cochrane, “Kira Cochrane on the rise of ‘torture porn’”, The Guardian
article http://www.theguardian.com/film/2007/may/01/gender.world
[13]
Abi, “EverydayMediaSexism.org.uk”
http://www.everydaymediasexism.org.uk/index.php/669-2013-11-25-20-14-33
[14] Angie
Barry, “The cabin in the woods: Best horror movie in a decade?”
http://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2012/10/cabin-in-the-woods-the-best-horror-movie-in-a-decade-angie-barry-thriller-zombies-joss-whedon-film
[15] Ibid
[16] Ibid
[17] Sam
Hatch, “Hostel part II review”, culture dogs,
http://www.wwuh.org/program/culturedogs/reviews/sam reviews/hostelpartii.htm
[18] Ibid
[19] McLeod,
S. A. (2011). Bobo Doll Experiment. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html
[20] Revision World post.
http://revisionworld.co.uk/a2-level-level-revision/sociology/mass-media-0/effect-media-content-audiences-and-society
[21]
R.L. Shaffer “The human Centipede [First Sequence] DVD Review, IGN. http://uk.ign.com/articles/2010/10/07/the-human-centipede-first-sequence-dvd-review
[23] Boy,
12, raped younger sister after viewing porn on games console." theguardian.com.
Guardian News and Media, 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/03/boy-rape-younger-sister-porn-games-console
[24]
Ibid
[25]
June Kelly, “Rise in convictions for violence against women” BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18949533
[26] Lamar,
“Effects of violence in horror films past and present” original quote by (Allen
2009) http://lamar82.hubpages.com/hub/Effects-of-Violence-In-Horror-Films-Past-and-Present
[27] Ibid
[28] Clare Simpson, “10 film scenes of
astounding ultra violence”, whatculture.com blog post. http://whatculture.com/film/10-film-scenes-of-astounding-ultra-violence.php/10
[29] Butler,
Judith. "Preface." Gender trouble feminism and the subversion of
identity. New York: Routledge, 1999. 13. Print.
[30] Ibid
[32] Ibid
[33] Greenberg,
Roy Harvey. "The shows of violence." Journal of Popular Film &
Television 26 (1998): 50. Print.
[34] Ibid
[36] BBC News, ‘banned horror film gets
18 rating after cuts’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15203870
[38]
Ibid
[39]
Mark Lawson, “The TV watershed: not in front of the children”, Guardian Article
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jun/08/tv-watershed-not-for-children?INTCMP=SRCH
[40] Ibid
[41] Ibid
[42]
Hawkins, Ross. "Online pornography to be blocked by default, PM
announces." BBC News. BBC, 22 July 2013. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23401076.
[43]
Glyptoteque, IMDB User Review of ‘The Human Centipede’
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1467304/reviews-156
[45] Mic Wright. “A ‘watershed’ for the
internet? People this stupid should not be making our laws.”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/micwright/100009434/a-watershed-for-the-internet-people-this-stupid-should-not-be-making-our-laws/
[46] Jean Baudrillard, “Simulacra
and Simulations”, in Modern Literary Theory and Criticism: A Reader, ed. David
Lodge and Nigel Wood (Harlow and New York: Longman, 1988), 423. Print
