Abstract
The American cycle of horror films dubbed as ‘torture porn’—the Saw and Hostel films being most representative—were summarily dismissed as sadistic. But little regard has been given to the true nature of sadism and the ways in which these films actually grapple with this much-abused term. Furthermore, while the history of disciplinary power has largely witnessed the removal of state punishment from public view, in the post-9/11 era torture porn films return what has been kept from view.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Work Cited
Barthes, Roland. “Sade—Pasolini.” In Pier Paolo Pasolini: The Poetics of Heresy, 100–103. Edited by Beverly Allen. Saratoga, CA: ANMA LIBRI, 1982.
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.
Donnelly, K. J. “Saw Heard: Musical Sound Design in Contemporary Cinema.” In Film Theory and Contemporary Hollywood Movies, 105–123. Edited by Warren Buckland. New York: Routledge, 2009.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Klossowski, Pierre. Sade My Neighbour. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. London: Quartet Encounters, 1991.
Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Translated by Leon S. Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.
Middleton, Jason. “The Subject of Torture: Regarding the Pain of Americans in Hostel.” Cinema Journal vol. 49, no. 4 (Summer 2010): 1–24.
Murray, Gabrielle. “Hostel II Representations of the Body in Pain and the Cinema Experience in Torture-Porn.” Jump Cut vol. 50 (Spring 2008): no pagination.
Pinedo, Isabel. “Torture Logic: Entertainment and the Spectacle of Deliberately Inflicted Pain in 24 and Battlestar Galactica.” Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media no. 52 (Summer 2010): no pagination.
Sade, Marquis de. Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom and Other Writings. Translated by Richard Seaver and Austryn Wainhouse. London: Arrow Books, 1991.
Sade, Marquis de. The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writing. Translated by Austryn Wainhouse and Richard Seaver. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1987.
Scarry, Elaine. The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Sharrett, Christopher. “The Problem of Saw: ‘Torture Porn’ and the Conservatism of Contemporary Horror Films.” Cineaste: America’s Leading Magazine on the Art and Politics of the Cinema vol. 35, no. 1 (Winter 2009): 32–37.
Zizek, Slavoj. “Kant with (or against) Sade.” In The Zizek Reader, 283–301. Edited by Elizabeth Wright and Edmond Wright. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.
Zizek, Slavoj. “Much Ado About a Thing.” In For They Know Not What They Do: Enjoyment as a Political Factor, 229–277. London: Verso, 1991.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kerner, A. (2016). Torture Porn: The American Sadistic Disposition in the Post-9/11 Horror Genre. In: de Valk, M. (eds) Screening the Tortured Body. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39918-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39918-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-39917-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-39918-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)