'Blood and Circus' Jenny McCartney

Jenny McCartney expresses her views upon the 'Fear and Brutality' in horror films today, and how possibly the genre could be now named 'torture porn.'

Some of her points I feel are rather valid yet some maybe rather extreme. Nevertheless it has made me question why as a nation we enjoy films such as 'Saw' and 'Hostel' of which contain horrific torture scenes. A common suggestion is we need more to shock us? Maybe what is tame; is what we have seen before. This can relate to many other arts, not just film. For example in the world of Fine Art what will the Chapman brothers or Tracey Emin next create? perhaps to offend a part of society, or to gain as much publicity as possible. I am not suggesting that this may be the definitive intention of the artists or film makers, perhaps they intend to reveal a secret or selective part of society, or something we are all very much aware of, however do not like to discuss, (and perhaps bringing such to attention is a good thing.) Within the world of design I only need to mention the well known campaigns for the united colours of Benetton, which raised a few questions on its controversial aspects.

When will it stop? Will we one day reach a peak where mass media can present anything and our nation will not be surprised? Is that possible, perhaps not.

I would like make a big 'HOWEVER' and a point nicely made by Jenny McCartney. There are films out there that do a much better job of expressing compassion for a victim rather than showing the actual gruesome scene it self. An example given by McCartney is 'lilya 4-eva' 2002 directed by Lukas Moodysson, (admittedly of which I have not seen myself) 'is about an eastern European girl forced in to sex slavery: her plight is denoted simply by a quick fire series of shots of adult men arriving outside her hotel room door.' I can only imagine by what is described the scene appears a lot more serious than the trashy films we are seeing a lot of today. However as film is also about entertainment rather than simply communicating, perhaps trashy and easy watching is what we want? Considering torture is not only something you see in films but actually still happens across the world, the question is should it be handled with more care?