4. KURJA POLT: Dr Steve Jones - Torture Porn as Political Allegory скачать в хорошем качестве

4. KURJA POLT: Dr Steve Jones - Torture Porn as Political Allegory

4. KURJA POLT Genre Film Festival Torture Porn as Political Allegory Dr Steve Jones (Northumbria University, UK) 21. 4. 2017 / Kinodvor / Ljubljana, Slovenia Horror films are often dismissed by critics, who presume that fans mainly watch horror films for physical thrills (shocks, jumps, excitement), rather than intellectual stimulation. One common way of defending horror against such accusations is to suggest that beneath the gore, the filmmakers have something serious to say about the real-world; that some horror films have political allegorical subtexts. That defence has been presented in relation to torture porn; a cycle of horror films that focuses on the abduction and torment of the protagonists. Numerous press critics, film-makers, and academics have sought to defend films such as Saw and Hostel by suggesting that torture porn movies pass comment on the War on Terror, encompassing 21st century terrorism, 9/11, the Abu Ghraib scandal, and the Bush Administration’s torture sanctions. However, there are a number of problems with this defence. First, this political allegorical reading has been repeated so often that it has become the single answer as to why torture porn is significant, meaning that little attention has been paid to the wide diversity of torture porn films and the variety of reasons that they are interesting. Second, many of the published political readings are far too blunt, making crass comparisons between the films and real-world events that do not reveal anything significant about either the films or the political situation. These scholars have also routinely ignored the fact that sadistic, intentional violence is one of horror’s staple themes; torture is not what makes “torture porn” unique. This presentation argues that although political allegorical readings of films can be interesting and valuable, unless the technique is approached with care, it can also lead to self-fulfilling, superficial interpretations.