Splatter Film - Resurgence of Splatter Film

Resurgence of Splatter Film

In the 2000s, there had been a resurgence of films influenced by the splatter genre that contained graphic depictions of extreme violence, nudity, torture, mutilation and sadism, labeled "torture porn" by critics and detractors. The year 2000 brought Final Destination, a splatter film consisting of survivors dying in Rube Goldberg machine-like ways. The film was a hit, spawning four sequels after its release, and also became a trademark franchise in the splatter film genre.

Filmmaker Eli Roth's Hostel (2005), released in January 2006, was the first to be called "torture porn" by critic David Edelstein, but the classification has since been applied to Saw (2004) and its sequels (though its creators disagree with the classification), The Devil's Rejects (2005), Wolf Creek (2005), and the earlier films Baise-moi (2000) and Ichi the Killer (2001). A difference between this group of films and earlier splatter films is that they are often mainstream Hollywood films that receive a wide release and have comparatively high production values.

The torture porn subgenre has proven to be very profitable: Saw, made for $1.2 million, grossed over $100 million worldwide, while Hostel, which cost less than $5 million to produce, grossed over $80 million. Lionsgate, the studio behind the films, made considerable gains in its stock price from the box office showing. The financial success led the way for the release of similar films: Turistas in 2006, Hostel: Part II, Borderland, and Captivity, starring Elisha Cuthbert and Pruitt Taylor Vince, in 2007.

Some films in the genre received criticism. Billboards and posters used in the marketing of Hostel: Part II and Captivity drew criticism for their graphic imagery, causing them to be taken down in many locations. Director Eli Roth claimed that the use of the term torture porn by critics, "genuinely says more about the critic's limited understanding of what horror movies can do than about the film itself", and that "they're out of touch." Horror author Stephen King defended Hostel: Part II and torture porn stating, "sure it makes you uncomfortable, but good art should make you uncomfortable." Influential director George A. Romero stated, "I don't get the torture porn films they're lacking metaphor."

The success of torture porn, and its boom during the mid to late 2000s, led to a cross over into genres other than horror. This became evident with the release of many crime thrillers, particularly the 2007 film I Know Who Killed Me starring Lindsay Lohan, and the 2008 film Untraceable, starring Diane Lane and Billy Burke. The British film WΔZ, starring Stellan Skarsgård and Selma Blair, and its US counterpart Scar, starring Angela Bettis and Ben Cotton continued to facilitate this hybrid form of torture porn, which was also to a lesser degree, evident in films such as Rendition (2007) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and Unthinkable (2010) starring Samuel L. Jackson.

In the mid 2000's, torture porn was given a major boost within the horror industry by a new wave of French films--commonly referred to as the New French Extremity--which became internationally known for their extremely brutal nature: Martyrs (2008), directed by Pascal Laugier, Frontier(s) (2007), directed by Xavier Gens, and Inside (2007), directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury. Rapper Eminem explored the genre in his music video for the single "3 a.m." that year. Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier's Antichrist, starring Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, was labeled torture porn by critics when it premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival due to scenes of extreme violence, graphic sex, and genital self-mutilation.

By 2009, the box office draw of torture porn films had mostly been replaced in the U.S. by the profitable trend of remaking or rebooting earlier horror films from decades past with the modernization of such notable titles as: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), The Amityville Horror (2005), House of Wax (2005), The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Black Christmas (2006), Halloween (2007), Funny Games (2008), My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009), Friday the 13th (2009), The Wolfman (2010), The Crazies (2010) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). In some instances, however, remakes did flirt with the torture porn threshold, particularly Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween. The 2009 remake of Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left, and the 2010 remake of the controversial horror film I Spit on Your Grave contained levels of violence that were so brutal in nature, they made the convergence of torture porn with the remake trend very apparent.

Despite this era of remakes and reboots, the torture porn genre also sustained life on its own front with the 2009 film The Collector, directed by Marcus Dunstan and co-written with Patrick Melton (both writers from the Saw series), as well as with the sequels of the Saw series (the final film, Saw 3D, having been released during the Fall of 2010), which as of 2009 became the most profitable horror film franchise of all-time. The genre continued into the next decade with the Dutch film, The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (2010), about a German surgeon who assembles the gastrointestinal tract of three kidnapped tourists. A sequel titled The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) was released in late 2011, continuing the genre, and introducing more explicit violence and gore (with the element of forced fecal consumption), sparking controversy and bannings (overturned after cuts) in both the United Kingdom and Australia.