S’nuff said: The torture trend

Published 3:12 pm Thursday, October 16, 2008

I’m guessing I’m not the only one not really comfortable with the influx of movies in which the entire plot is based on people being tortured. I feel like I’m watching a snuff film. And as we are all painfully aware, there’s real torture and suffering going on in the world that has nothing to do with fiction.

I wouldn’t mind the whole thing going away. However, I’ve got to take responsibility for my own actions: I don’t have to watch them. But for god’s sake, I do hope they don’t escalate into kiddie torture.

Torture has long long been part of horror cinema but seldom the whole point of the movie like it is in this decade. (Remember “Marathon Man”? I’ve had enough dental work that I won’t watch that movie again.)

Have you noticed that most of the torture victims “deserve” what they get? Shades of the “don’t have sex” The doctor in “Saw” was an adulterer, for instance, and the torturees in the sequels are varying degrees of criminals and general bad guys. The guys in “Hostel” were only there to begin with in order to snare women for sex. And the troubles of the lead character in “Audition” began when he scammed actresses into auditioning for a movie that didn’t exist only to meet women.

The most commercially successful is 2004’s “Saw.” Focusing on two characters at Jigsaw’s mercy — with two actors who can act — made for a pretty decent story and effective suspense, I thought. And a nice nasty conclusion. But the sequels that have been released every year since abandoned those qualities entirely, and to me are nothing more than same gore/different day slasher movies. “Saw V” debuts in movie theaters on Friday, Oct. 24, and all I can think is, geez, here we go again.

Speaking of “Saw” sequels, don’t they remind you of the “Cube” movies?

And, honestly, what is up with the puppet on a tricycle? It reminded me of something that might have happened to Rimmer on “Red Dwarf.”

“Hostel” features one of the best terror/horror performances I’ve ever seen by an actor, and it’s the best part of the movie. Derek Richardson, as I’ve mentioned before, isn’t just bone chilling, your marrow freezes as well. You definitely feel his pain.

The last time I saw “Hostel,” I timed it to see when the first real scene of horror takes place, and darn it, I can’t remember. I’m pretty sure the movie was slightly half over. All the build-up wasn’t necessary, but being a sucker for a decent pop song, I loved being introduced to “Treti Galaxie.”

“Hostel II” was just “Hostel Lite.” And “Turistas” was “Hostel Dim.”

“Audition,” aka “Odishon,” has Ryo Isibashi going for it, and I really liked his performance. You may not be as familiar with this Japan film as you are with the ones I listed above, but it’s a horror movie worth watching. The torture aspects are mostly confined to the climax, but like I said in an earlier blog entry, there is a scene that might do more than just test your gag reflex. You’ve been warned.

I’ll try not to give too much away here, but a character’s cheerful chirping of “Deeper, deeper, deeper” in Japanese — the creme de la creepy in the scene — sounds like the English “Here kitty, kitty, kitty.” Brrrr!