Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 challenges the conventional wisdom about horror movies like Hostel and the Saw series. Aaron Kerner argues that, even as these films express anxieties and sadistic fantasies that have emerged from the War on Terror, they are rooted in a much longer tradition of American violence. He also reveals how the “torture porn” aesthetic has gone mainstream, popping up in everything from the television thriller Dexter to the reality show Hell’s Kitchen. 

Contents

Preface

1   Torture Porn: From 9/11 to the Multiplex

2   The Torture Porn Genre

3   Some Antecedents: Sadism, Exploitation, and (Neo-)Slashers

4   The Saw Franchise: Videogames, and the Sadistic Pro(an)tagonist Jigsaw

5   The Hostel Films: Consuming Bodies

6   “I think we took a wrong turn . . .”

7   Soft-core, and Beyond Torture Porn

Filmography

Notes

Bibliography

Index

AARON MICHAEL KERNER is an associate professor in the cinema department at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Film and the Holocaust: New Perspectives on Dramas, Documentaries, and Experimental Films.