Short Film Review: TORTURE PORN (2008)

Writer/director Patrick Rea’s Torture Porn (2008) is a send up to one of the horror genre’s most infamous sub-genres.  Borrowing from both James Wan & Leigh Whannell’s Saw (2004) and Eli Roth’s Hostel (2005), Rea’s film doesn’t seem like it brings anything new to the genre until you realize that it’s a total send-up to the genre.  A Man has many instruments of torture at his disposal to put to use on a young man who is bound and gagged in front of him.  This Man is in for more than he bargained for when the bound man doesn’t seem to react to being tortured and has his own secret that will come to bare.  Revealing any more would be giving away the secret to why the film is so good but rest assured this is one torture porn flick that anyone can enjoy. 

The film is produced by Rea and Ryan S. Jones and Josh Robinson and the team does a great job at producing a very high production value short film that takes place all in a single room.  This is achieved through director of photography Hanuman Brown-Eagle and Julian Bickford’s music (which is very much inspired by Charlie Clouser’s music from Saw).  The look and sound are very much like a normal torture porn flick only twisted and made funnier.

There is just the right amount of hokey gore thrown in to help sell the film which never takes itself too seriously or too outrageous.  It’s a delicate balance that pays off really well.  Rea and company have crafted one of the best parodies of the genre that is not to be missed.

You can view the film Torture Porn now at FearNet.com - http://www.fearnet.com/shorts/torture-porn

Film Review: THE TORTURED (2010)

The idea of a good torture porn flick went out the window when they decided to make six sequels to the infamously profitable Saw franchise (and to some extent the Hostel franchise as well) but film makers and studios continue to churn out derivative horror film to derivative horror film with complete disregard or lack of understanding of what it takes to actually make a decent much less good torture porn film.  I am sad to say that despite the heavy presence of decent star names above the title The Tortured (2010) is yet another easily forgettable film. 

The Tortured stars Erika Christensen and Jesse Metcalfe as loving couple Elise and Craig Landry whose son is kidnapped and then killed by psychopath John Kozlowski (played by the always entertaining Bill Mosely).  Kozlowski is subsequently captured and tried for the murder of which he is sentenced to prison where he may have the chance at parole one day.  Elise & Craig are torn asunder by this injustice and decide to take matters in their own hand.  When Kozlowski is being transferred to prison they hijack his transport.  Elise and Craig want to deliver as much pain and suffering to Kozlowski as he put their son prolonging his death until they are ready to let him die.

Now the set up for this film is actually not that bad because it depicts every parent’s greatest fear which is the loss of a child.  They seek justice for that loss but when politics get in the way they decide to deliver their own justice.  This is played very serious by Christensen and Metcalfe who do their best with the mediocre script, but when Mosely appears everything becomes very tongue in cheek.  For most of Mosely’s other films this would be fine but not for this film which takes itself seriously.  Then when the Landry’s start torturing Kozlowski the unintentional comedy jumps into high gear and the seriously established from the beginning is completely lost. 

There are a few things to offer which is that the performances, for the most part, are solid and Robert Lieberman’s direction is well paced and suitable but the biggest part is with the script which starts off real well but falls apart part way through because of the horror film aesthetics associated with the torture porn genre.  There are a lot of good points to be made through the film but its trapped in its own mode of torture from it cannot escape from.

Film Review: HOSTEL: PART III (2011)

Films labeled as torture porn have been on the decline since the release of Hostel Part II (2007) and the Saw 3D (2010) so it comes as a surprise that this sequel Hostel: Part III (2011) ever saw the light of day but this film is not directed by Eli Roth (who did the first two films) and this film takes place here in the U.S.A. but more importantly in Las Vegas, the City of Sin. 

Four friends head off to Las Vegas for a bachelor party to end all bachelor parties and find themselves on the receiving end of the filthy rich who pay to kill people in creative ways.  Now they must find a way to survive or risk becoming another victim in the City of Sin.

Using the Hunters Club as seen in the first two films, this film is somewhat grounded in the world created in the previous films but this world seems like a step back from the previous films.  In Hostel Part II the captured victims have been cut off by any escape routes leaving nowhere to run (an improvement based on events in the first film) whereas in this film it’s far too easy for them to escape; you’d think that if one faction of the Hunter’s Club upgraded their security system then they all would (especially in America where you think that it would be even more elaborate and modern).  

The film is not nearly as inventive with the death sequences as the previous films nor as inspiring as one person is killed by bugs while another by arrows by a woman dressed up in a mask.  If there is one thing that audiences come to these films for it’s to see people/victims get killed in new and creative ways (which is one of the reasons why the Saw franchise lasted as long as it did).  Unlike the previous films most of the gore and shock is off screen which is fine for the casual viewer but for fans of the previous films this is a disservice.  It renders the film utterly flaccid and ineffective.  

Relocating the film to Las Vegas was also a mistake as it has become the lynchpin destination for just about every film that wants to deal with the wages of sin and the theme of adultery and revenge not to mention other deadly sins.    By this third film I wanted something a little more substantial but then again this is a straight to video release so you can’t expect any more than the most mundane of execution.