Best Horror Film of the Current Trend--Torture Porn
I took an upper-division horror film seminar in the spring of 1986 at the University of Colorado. Since then I have always considered myself a bit of an aficionado of horror. But I am not a fanatic. I passed on most all of the torture porn films of the past decade, dismissing them as not having the potential to advance the genre in any of it multitudinous facets.
The other night I stumbled on Senseless (2008). I think the industry has missed the mark on this one. It is terribly brutal, really goes too far. However, it is so well written, acted, paced, plotted and themed, that I believe it must be the best torture porn film made.
The premise is simple, and I kind of dismissed it as trite at first. But because of that brilliant level of writing where throw-away lines resonate the deepest and the longest, the tension mounts painfully. It moves seamlessly from brutal physical torture to mind bogglingly hurtful psychological torture, not torment. There are only five acts of violence in the film, but what happens between those acts makes the film difficult to endure. The writing is excellent, but the primary actor’s non-verbal scenes really make the film. The end masterfully ties up the experience. It is utterly unsatisfying while being completely fulfilling. The viewer becomes so desperate for respite, that the one instance of mercy, which is part and parcel of the film’s most horrific moment of cruelty, makes for a vaguely happy ending.
Quite honestly, I have never been scared by a movie. Too much suspense bores me. Senseless, on the other hand, horrified me and haunts me still five days later.
I am starting a grass-roots campaign to get these film makers the recognition they deserve. They took the genre to the next level using the cutting edge themes of big studio horror—torture porn.