Conclusion: ‘Will You Continue?’: Beyond ‘Torture Porn’

Abstract

Although it is too early to accurately predict torture porn’s future, torture-themed horror continues to be produced; Nailed Down, Rogue River, and Would You Rather are just three films scheduled for release in 2012 that follow in torture porn’s footsteps. Scholars are only just beginning to take significant steps beyond the limiting allegorical approach to ‘torture porn’ (see Hills, 2011; Walliss and Aston, 2012; Reyes, 2012). The label has been proliferated in the press and adopted by horror fans to such an extent that ‘torture porn’ is likely to endure as part of popular horror’s lexis, in the same way that the slasher and splatter subgenres — from which torture porn evolved — have. ‘Torture porn’ arose in response to a boom in production, most notably between 2003 and 2007. During this era, particular motifs — abduction, torture, and graphic violence — were dubbed ‘extreme’. As more films concurrently displayed these traits, critics began treating those qualities as characteristic attributes that could be used to identify ‘torture porn’ as a discrete category. Now that those elements have been established as properties of torture porn, the next wave of popular multiplex horror accused of presenting graphic violence, pushing acceptability boundaries, or being titillating is also likely to be termed ‘torture porn’.

The Man in Broken.