Torture Porn and Bodies Politic: Post-Cold War American Perspectives in Eli Roth's Hostel and Hostel: Part II
2009; Issue: 78 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2562-2528
Autores Tópico(s)Modern American Literature Studies
ResumoDuring press tour for his directorial debut, Cabin Fever (2003), American horror filmmaker Eli Roth compared his $1.5 million independent film to 1980s American horror films of his youth: By end of decade, horror had literally become a joke. term I often use to describe this effect is 'gore-porno,' where true impact of horror is drained away and motive for these movies becomes just a way of fast-forwarding from one death to next. (1) While Roth discussed his views of gore-porno before Cabin Fever earned $34.5 million internationally and propelled himself and his distributor, Lions Gate Films, to forefront of American horror film production, he would see his criticisms of films that depict violent content in a pornographic manner used to describe not only his own work, but also entire wave of 21st century horror of which he was a part. When Roth's second film, Hostel, earned more than $20 million its opening weekend and unseated Chronicles of Narnia: Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe (2005) as top-grossing movie in America during first weekend of 2006, Roth became a scapegoat for declining American social mores in articles published by several prominent media outlets. An amalgamation of teenage sex comedy and violent exploitation film, Hostel follows two American backpackers and their Icelandic friend as their Eurotrip for sex and drugs turns violent when they become victims of a Slovakian hostel owned by Elite Hunting, a club that sells travelers to international clients who pay to live out their murderous fantasies without legal repercussions. Though film met with negative reaction that many critics reserve for horror films, Hostel's reception was atypically scathing. Reviewing Hostel for Village Voice, Mark Holcomb writes, The film is too casually misanthropic and enamored of its expulsive prosthetic virtuosity to be politically relevant, and it's not clear what response--shame? outrage? titillation?--Roth is after. (2) In an even more venomous review for New York Times, Nathan Lee writes, The calculated outrages of Eli Roth's brutal exploitation film prove less shocking than its relentless bigotry. (3) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a result of a virulent critical reception that contrasted sharply with its box-office and home-video performance, Hostel transcended opening-weekend lifespan of most horror movies, becoming film indicative of increasingly graphic violence of horror genre in post-9/11 America. (4) While Time branded Roth a charter member of The Splat Pack in an article discussing success of Hostel and other ultraviolent horror films, including James Wan's Saw (2004), Rob Zombie's Devil's Rejects (2005), and Alexandre Aja's remake of Wes Craven's 1977 cannibal film Hills Have Eyes (2006), Roth's most enduring label would come from a cautiously positive review of his film. (5) In 2006 New York Magazine article Now Playing at Your Local Multiplex: Porn, film critic David Edelstein coined term to categorize aforementioned films within history of genre. As Edelstein writes, Torture movies cut deeper than mere gory spectacle. Unlike old seventies and eighties hack-'em-ups (or their jokey remakes, like Scream), in which masked maniacs punished nubile teens for promiscuity (the spurt of blood was equivalent to money shot in porn), victims here are neither interchangeable nor expendable. (6) Writing in response to Hostel's box-office success previous month, Edelstein praised Roth for his depiction of the mixture of innocence and entitlement in young American males abroad. (7) However, despite Edelstein's positive comments about Hostel, several media critics distorted Edelstein's definition of torture porn and turned it into a pejorative buzzword. In year and a half between release of Hostel and its sequel Hostel: Part II (2007)--a continuation of first film that substitutes female protagonists for original's male leads and includes perspectives of two of hostel's clients--torture porn became epithet du jour for sub-genre of horror Roth helped create. …
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