James Wan, 'Torture-Porn', Saw and the Horror Genre

"I hate that [torture porn] label, that because a movie is necessarily violent to the story, that makes it torture porn. As if that’s all our fans our about". James Wan (1)

In 2006, film critic David Edelstein wrote a review entitled “Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn”, for New York Magazine. (2) He suggested there was a new trend in horror which he labelled ‘torture porn’. A range of different movies were offered as examples of this new trend, including Saw (2004), The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson 2004), Wolf Creek (Greg Mclean 2005), Hostel (Eli Roth 2005), and The Devil’s Rejects (Rob Zombie 2005). Edelstein proposed that such films were not simply violent and gory but also had a number of features that set them apart from previous horror films. First, unlike the b-grade exploitation films of the 1960s and 70s, which showed ‘explicit scenes of torture and mutilation’ but were largely confined to the grindhouse and drive-in circuit, he suggested that the ‘torture porn’ flicks had high production values and were exhibited in popular, multiplex venues. (3) Second, he claimed that:

"Unlike the old seventies and eighties hack-‘em-ups (or their jokey remakes, like Scream [Wes Craven 1996]), in which masked maniacs punished nubile teens for promiscuity…the victims [in ‘torture porn’ films are] neither interchangeable nor expendable. They range from decent people with recognizable human emotions to, well, Jesus."

Edelstein also made a suggestive, if loose, connection between ‘torture porn’ films and the images of US military personal torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib, which were initially brought to the public’s attention by a 60 Minutes news report in April 2004, approximately 6 months before Saw, the so-called granddaddy of the ‘torture porn’ subgenre, was released. Edelstein wrote:

"Fear supplants empathy and makes us all potential torturers, doesn’t it? Post-9/11, we’ve engaged in a national debate about the morality of torture, fuelled by horrifying pictures of manifestly decent men and women (some of them, anyway) enacting brutal scenarios of domination at Abu Ghraib. And a large segment of the population evidently has no problem with this."

Not only did the ‘torture porn’ label stick – it became a shorthand term used in the press and in social media circles – but also the idea that a new trend in the horror genre had emerged was accepted by a number of scholars.For example, Gabrielle Murray stated in the online media journal Jump Cut in 2008 that prior to the growth in ‘torture porn’ productions: ‘the horror genre had been in one of its cyclic declines. The overblown reflexivity of films like the Scream series (Wes Craven 1996-2000) and Scary Movie (Keenen Ivory Wayans 2000) resulted in a comic trend in the horror genre, to the point where it seemed to have lost its edge’. (4) A year later Dean Lockwood proposed in an article in the academic journal Popular Communication that while journalists tended to lump a number of films together under the ‘torture porn’ umbrella, without paying pay sufficient attention to the differences between the films, there was still ground to argue ‘that a new, “extreme” subgenre [had] displace[d] the postmodern slasher’. Echoing Edelstein, Lockwood also suggested that one difference between the low-budget exploitation films of the 1970s and ‘torture porn’ movies was that the latter are part of a ‘mainstream, multiplex business’. He also claimed that this might be evidence that the films are feeding an appetite ‘for graphic and increasingly realistic spectacles of suffering bodies’. (5)

A number of the ideas associated with ‘torture porn’ can be contested. For example, there was a cluster of ‘extreme’ horror films made in the early-to-mid 2000s before Saw was released, films such as House of 1000 Corpses (Rob Zombie, 2003) and the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Nispel, 2003). Moreover, in France since the late 1990s, a number of films showing transgressive scenes of sex and violence had been produced, films such as Baise-moi (Coralie Trinh Thi, 2000) and Haute tension (Alexandre Aja, 2003). These films were labelled New French Extremism by critic James Quandt.

Haute tension (2003)

Furthermore, given the distribution and exhibition of films has become increasingly fragmented since the VHS era, and genres have arguably become more diversified due to the fact that 'subsidiary' segments of the movie economy – such as direct-to-DVD and Video-On-Demand (VOD) – constitute a major proportion of film sales – it is worth asking, along with Ramon Lobato and Mark David Ryan : ‘Where do the boundaries of genre begin and end when potentially thousands of films are produced each year, across several continents and in dozens of languages?’ (6) In other words, how true is it to say that there was a postmodern, comical trend in horror cinema during the late 1990s, early 2000s? The word trend suggests a general tendency or inclination, yet during this time Asian horror cinema, particularly the sub-genre known as J-Horror, had a strong presence in international art house markets as well as niche horror markets (both theatrical and non-theatrical). J-Horror quickly found a mainstream audience in the West via a number of American remakes, starting with Gore Verbinski's The Ring (2002), a version of Ringu (Hideo Nakata, 1998). As Lobato and Ryan also suggest, a great deal of horror content has become increasingly fractured and diversified since the 1980s, starting with the VHS revolution in film distribution and exhibition which began a number of social and economic processes that have been intensified in the Internet era.  

"Films can now be distributed online to niche audiences via both formal (legal video streaming and download-to-own services) and informal means (BitTorrent, unauthorized YouTube postings, etc.). [This provides] an outlet for many films that would not previously have been distributed in any meaningful sense... contributing to an increase in the number of films which are commercially (if marginally) released each year and a corresponding expansion of existing generic categories to include ever more films, along with a concomitant increase in the number of genres, sub-genres and extreme niche markets...As a result, it is now increasingly difficult to systematically monitor fluctuations in the horror genre" (7)

Ringu (1998)

Gabrielle Murray has also pointed out that trying to establish a correlation between a current historical event such as 9/11 and a specific trend in cinema is fraught with difficulty. Drawing on David J Slocum’s critical reappraisal of the apparent relationship between an escalation in screen violence in New Hollywood Cinema (1960-1975) and the political and social unrest of the 1960s, Murray says that often it is presumed that a connection exists between violent film images and contemporary social events; however, such a connection has not in fact been rigorously debated or proved. Rather, much of the discussion about screen violence remains ‘circumstantial and speculative’. It should also be mentioned that a basic content analysis of 'torture porn'  films reveals the fact they do not all present the same kind or degree of violence; indeed, Wan has consistently pointed out that it is only in retrospect, via the filter of the Saw sequels, that the original Saw movie is remembered as being extremely violent and gory. As he rightly suggests, the first Saw is a psychological thriller as much as horror film (8) and, arguably, the  psychological violence in the film is more disturbing than the rare scenes of physical mutilation.  As such, if 'torture porn' films are feeding an appetite for representations of torture, then these films are not doing so in the same manner; across the spectrum of 'torture porn' movies there are spectacles of psychological terror as well as of bodily pain and disfigurement and these spectacles are not all as equally confronting or graphic.

Nonetheless, the ideas associated with ‘torture porn’ have become part of Saw’s narrative image. Moreover, Saw itself is central to the marketing of Wan's films and to constructing Wan as a particular kind of author.  From the perspective of industry, the crediting of Wan in the posters and trailers for his films – even if this billing largely happens indirectly i.e. ‘From the director of Saw’ – aims to create some kind of reciprocal relationship between the film being advertised and other texts. In other words, the goal is to make sure the related texts have complementary meanings that can be interchanged. In this sense, matches are created between Saw and all the other films that utilise Saw as a selling point. The correspondences between these texts are designed to motivate people who are part of Hollywood’s large national and international movie market to consume the advertised movie; in the process of doing this, however, these paratextual matches also function to address target audiences, since while Hollywood films may end up as part of other screen cultures around the world they are also packaged with particular audiences in mind. These audiences are addressed on the basis of things like genre – which involves the experiences and pleasures spectators expect to get out of viewing films with certain generic characteristics – and what John Ellis refers to as narrative image. The narrative image of a film has to do with how the film functions as a component in public discourse; put another way, it has to do with how cultural knowledge builds up around a film – not only knowledge about what kind of film it is or, in other words, it’s generic structure and tone i.e. a nasty or fun horror, but also other concepts that help to define the film and differentiate it from other texts in the market-place. These concepts can involve everything from how the advertised film is identified with commercial and/or critical success – either in terms of the past successes of people involved in the making of the film or in terms of the box-office results and positive reviews it has received – to how it is related to other cultural phenomena i.e. related to the history of a particular genre or to contemporary issues. Put another way, the narrative image of a film has to do with the intertexual contexts within which a film can be placed. Of course, many things can contribute to the creation of a narrative image for a film. As Ellis says:

"The narrative image of a film is a complex phenomenon that occurs in a number of media: it is the film’s circulation outside its performance in cinemas. It consists of the direct publicity created by the film’s distributors and producers; the general public knowledge of ingredients involved in the film (stars, brand identifications, generic qualities); and the more diffuse but equally vital ways in which the film enters into ordinary conversation and becomes the subject of news and of chat." (9)

From the point-of-view of industry the aim is not only to contribute to the creation of a narrative image for a film but to also utilise some of the meanings that a narrative image accrues as it circulates within formal media channels and the discourses of everyday life. The title Saw, for example, can evoke different connotations over time, particularly given there have been a number of Saw films made and each of these films has contributed to the creation of the franchise’s serial narrative and also played a role in generating a variety of ancillary products, including supplementary narratives created by fans. (10) It should also be pointed out that from the perspective of industry it is not always a bad thing if the correspondences between the advertised film and other texts generate meanings that are contentious and which generate debate. In the case of low-budget films in particular it can be essential to attract publicity via a controversial image or subject. As Justin Wyatt has said, given low-budget films cannot generally afford to hire star-actors, orchestrating a publicity campaign that stimulates argument, or maximising the public attention that a film’s controversial subject matter generates, ‘substitute(s) for stardom as the most significant selling tool’. (11) Hence, the label 'torture porn' can be used for marketing ends. 

To read my article in Senses of Cinema on how Wan is promoted as an author through the film tittle Saw please go here: http://sensesofcinema.com/2013/issue-69-december-2013/paratexts-and-the-commercial-promotion-of-film-authorship-james-wan-and-saw/


Endnotes 

1. James Wan, 'James Wan & Leigh Whannell Interview', Feo Amante's Horror Thriller, 2010, Accessed 12 December 2013 http://www.feoamante.com/Movies/STU/Saw/Saw_Inter_view.html#.UrVOv2f_ZnU

2. David Edelstein, 'Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Torture Porn', New York Magazine, 2006, Accessed 12 December 2013 http://nymag.com/movies/features/15622/

3. It is worth noting that the total budget for Saw was approximately only $US1,000,000. Undoubtedly, one reason Wan has, so far. had a successful career in Hollywood is because he is able to make small-budget films look like big-budget films. 

4. Gabrielle Murray, 'Hostel 11: Representations of the Body in Pain and the Cinema Experience in Torture-Porn',  Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, No. 50, Spring 2008. Accessed 12 December 2013 http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc50.2008/TortureHostel2/

 5. Dean Lockwood, 'All Stripped Down: The Spectacle of "Torture-Porn", Popular Communication, No. 1, Vol 7, 2009, pg. 41. 

6. Ramon Lobato and Mark David Ryan, 'Rethinking Genre Studies through Distribution Analysis: Issues in International Horror Movie Circuits', New Review of Film and Television Studies, No. 2, Vol. 9, 2011, pg. 194. 

7. Lobato and Ryan, pg. 194. 

8. See for example 'Director James Wan Discusses "Insidious"' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXgcdxcIkKs


9. John Ellis, Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,1982, pg. 31. 

10. See for example Saw Fan Fiction Archive https://www.fanfiction.net/movie/S

11. Justin Wyatt, 'Economic Constraints/Economic Opportunities: Robert Altman as Auteur', Velvet Light Trap, Fall 1996, pg. 65.