# Torture porn - do you enjoy it, and if so why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970 "2011-10-17T22:05:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/21 "2011-10-18T00:16:06Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > I think the best definition is _via negitiva_. It is _Saw_, _Hostel_; it is not _Cube_. I don’t see where _Cube_ comes into the discussion at all. At any rate, defining a genre in this way is useless and arbitrary, perhaps a bit circular. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/22 "2011-10-18T00:17:57Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I don’t think even an explicit statement by the director is going to settle it once and for all, as everyone’s personal reaction to the work is the only one that really means anything. Agreed, absolutely. > [@](#): > > Haneke claims that _Funny Games_ was about “subverting the audience’s expectations” while I’m of the opinion that he’s just an asshole (an opinion reenforced by his movie _Cache_) heh. I too hate _Funny Games_ (not because of the content, more because of the annoying ideology behind it), but the rest of Haneke’s movies range from very good to all-time favorites of mine. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/23 "2011-10-18T00:19:29Z")
> [@Made\_in\_Macau](#): > > I agree with the notion that the movie ‘Saw’ seemed to be a psychological suspenseful thriller with gore, rather than the more flagrant ‘Hostel’. However, I watched the 3rd Saw movie (i think) on tv recently and while not appalled by the violence, just didn’t find the quest to find different ways to kill people to be entertaining. It seemed juvenile at best and disturbed at worst. No more Saw movies for me. Nor Hostel 2, nor Final Destination 2,3,4,5,6,7,8. > Seven, however, is imho a masterpiece. Ying and yang baby. > Could ‘Red State’ have the label ‘torture porn’? I thought it was ace! > MiM Interesting that you mention _Hostel 2_ - I thought the first was among the most repellent and inane things I’ve ever seen, but the second was quite good. Curious to see _Red State_, though I’m not a Kevin Smith fan. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/24 "2011-10-18T00:26:23Z")
> [@jordanr2](#): > > heh. I too hate _Funny Games_ (not because of the content, more because of the annoying ideology behind it), but the rest of Haneke’s movies range from very good to all-time favorites of mine. I avoided _The White Ribbon_ because I saw _Cache_ and _Funny Games_. Both were irritating enough that I resolved to not give one more penny to this jerk, however indirectly. Do you share my opinion that it is an arthouse torture porn like _[Salo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073650/)_, or _[A Serbian Film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1273235/)_? ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/25 "2011-10-18T00:38:16Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I avoided _The White Ribbon_ because I saw _Cache_ and _Funny Games_. Both were irritating enough that I resolved to not give one more penny to this jerk, however indirectly. He definitely tends to provoke love-it-or-hate-it reactions. _The Piano Teacher_ is probably his most straightforward movie, lacking the trickery of _Funny Games_ and _Cache_ - you might try that one if you get adventurous. > [@](#): > > Do you share my opinion that it is an arthouse torture porn like _[Salo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073650/)_, or _[A Serbian Film](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1273235/)_? Since I don’t think “torture porn” is a valid concept, I don’t share that opinion. Superficially it’s got obvious arthouse qualities, and I suppose like the other two titles you name, it places ideological concerns over the advancement of narrative and genuinely compelling characterization. _Salo_ is the only one of the three you name there that I like (out of curiosity, have you seen _Salo_ or _Serbian_)? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/26 "2011-10-18T00:52:32Z")
Years ago when the Robert Maplethorpe brouhaha was churning, we considered the difference between pornography and art. No fine line, but when I see porn my reptilian brain shouts “Whoa! Hello.” Art is not necessarily more subtle, but the description “it really resonates: when you go back to it after time, you discover new aspects that you hadn’t seen before” is never used for simple flat-out porn. So I have no interest on slasher “hold onto your boyfriends!” fare. But there’s much more to 1975’s **Salo - or 120 Days of Sodom**. Themes such as how, rather than resisting, victims will submit meekly to torture in the hope that submission will make torture more bearable; or how holding so much power over others makes the torturers crazy-drunk with self-justifying contemp for their victims; how their goons will willingly sell each other out to maintain an ever-shifting (actually nonexistent) line between victims and torturer’s assistants. At the end of the movie the two surviving boys simply change the radio to more pleasant music and dance, as if to say “that’s life. May as well make the best of it.” All these themes were found IRL in Argentina, the USSR, Iraq, etc. etc. That makes it more than just an icky thrill. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Bosstrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstrain)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/27 "2011-10-18T01:05:38Z")
I would personally like to meet someone who liked any of the Saw movies or any similar films. I’ve got good money on said person either being psychotic, stupid (actually having a very low IQ) or some sort of sick-minded, twisted human being that enjoys torturing things in real life and already is, or will soon be, a serial killer. The thing I find so bizarre is that 90% of people don’t seem to mind causing harm to animals and creatures, to me that just means they’re one step away to doing it to humans. Of course, on another level, I don’t care as much about people being tortured in _real_ life as I do animals, an animal doesn’t understand, but a person does, so it doesn’t seem as bad. That being said, I don’t like torture at all, I hate it…that could be because I know what it feels like to be tortured, physically and psychologically, and I also know what it’s like to be the torturer. Most people that torture others have never been tortured themselves, once you’ve been tortured, you no longer wish to do it or even see it. Movies like Saw are a disgrace, torture is real, just ask a Vietnam vet, or POW that was over in Japan during WWII, and many would tell you it’s better to put a round in your head than get captured, I know about some guy that’s still pulling bamboo out of his elbows. Give me five minutes with a professional torturer and I will make it so they’ll never harm a fly ever again…that’s a promise :D. [talking to self] Okay, calm down, Train, just breath, you know this subject always gets you worked up… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/28 "2011-10-18T01:12:11Z")
> [@jordanr2](#): > > (out of curiosity, have you seen _Salo_ or _Serbian_)? No, but like any other film that I choose to see or not see, I read reviews and summaries of the film and decide if I wish to see it or not. I know that I would not wish to see _Salo_ or _Serbian_ in the same way that I know I have no desire to see the upcoming Adam Sandler film [_Jack and Jill_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810913/). I didn’t let my general dislike of Adam Sandler keep me away from _[Punch-Drunk Love](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/)_ or a [couple](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490204/) of other [films](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201167/) where [he was not](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371246/) attempting comedy. But this seems to have gotten a bit derailed. Whether or not you accept the handle “torture porn”, why do you see films like that? ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/29 "2011-10-18T01:15:25Z")
> [@Bosstrain](#): > > I would personally like to meet someone who liked any of the Saw movies or any similar films. I’ve got good money on said person either being psychotic, stupid (actually having a very low IQ) or some sort of sick-minded, twisted human being that enjoys torturing things in real life and already is, or will soon be, a serial killer. Well, the first thing I’d say is that you’re 100% wrong there, and if you haven’t seen “any of the _Saw_ movies or any similar films,” you have no basis for assuming anything like this 😛 > [@](#): > > The thing I find so bizarre is that 90% of people don’t seem to mind causing harm to animals and creatures, to me that just means they’re one step away to doing it to humans. Of course, on another level, I don’t care as much about people being tortured in _real_ life as I do animals, an animal doesn’t understand, but a person does, so it doesn’t seem as bad. That being said, I don’t like torture at all, I hate it…that could be because I know what it feels like to be tortured, physically and psychologically, and I also know what it’s like to be the torturer. Most people that torture others have never been tortured themselves, once you’ve been tortured, you no longer wish to do it or even see it. Movies like Saw are a disgrace, torture is real, just ask a Vietnam vet, or POW that was over in Japan during WWII, and many would tell you it’s better to put a round in your head than get captured, I know about some guy that’s still pulling bamboo out of his elbows. Give me five minutes with a professional torturer and I will make it so they’ll never harm a fly ever again…that’s a promise :D. > > [talking to self] Okay, calm down, Train, just breath, you know this subject always gets you worked up… > > 😃 Mostly true, I think, but I don’t really see what it has to do with the matter at hand. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/30 "2011-10-18T01:24:35Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > No, but like any other film that I choose to see or not see, I read reviews and summaries of the film and decide if I wish to see it or not. I know that I would not wish to see _Salo_ or _Serbian_ in the same way that I know I have no desire to see the upcoming Adam Sandler film [_Jack and Jill_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810913/). I didn’t let my general dislike of Adam Sandler keep me away from _[Punch-Drunk Love](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272338/)_ or a [couple](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490204/) of other [films](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1201167/) where [he was not](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371246/) attempting comedy. I’m just not sure why you’d call movies “torture porn” - a derogatory phrase - when you haven’t seen them. Not caring to see something is fine, but pre-judging it is unreasonable, even if you know with near-certainty that you wouldn’t like it. I’ve been pleasantly surprised too many times by movies I thought I’d dislike (and I’ve found myself revising my own opinions many times also) - I never assume anything in advance of seeing a movie. If it doesn’t interest me, that’s that. > [@](#): > > But this seems to have gotten a bit derailed. Whether or not you accept the handle “torture porn”, why do you see films like that? Short answer: I’m intrigued by movies that depict extremes in experience. Fundamentally I’m a gentle soul but I’m drawn just as much to the _outré_ in art as I am to more calming things. And there are any number of other things in movies dismissed by some as “torture porn” that also draw me in: amusing and gimmicky casting (Edwige Fenech, Ruggero Deodato and Heather Matarazzo in _Hostel 2_), intriguing plot elements (the locked-room mystery of _Saw_), gorgeous landscape photography (_Wolf Creek_), intriguing use of philosophical ideas (_Martyrs_). ---
**Author:** ![Bosstrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Bosstrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstrain)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/31 "2011-10-18T01:30:12Z")
> [@jordanr2](#): > > …I don’t really see what it has to do with the matter at hand. I disagree, it has everything to do with it, it’s also the reason why I believe Saw fans to be borderline serial killers or some type of lunatic. The fact that torture is still around to this very day, and torture that only ends in death is by far the worst thing a human being can endure, is tragic. To see it taken so lightly on a film is tragic, but don’t take my word for it, ask a returning soldier from Afghanistan or Iraq who’s been tortured and ask if they’d like to watch Saw… ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/32 "2011-10-18T01:42:00Z")
I have seen **Saw 1** and **Hostel 1**. \*\*The Strangers \*\*falls into the catagory. I did not enjoy these and avoided the sequels. The phrase torture porn is derogotive but appropriate. In the Saw and Hostel, the torture isn’t a plot device, it _ **is** _ the plot. It is the whole point of the film. Without it, you don’t really have a film. I have nothing against folks who enjoy this kind of film. But if I am stuck in a room with one of them, _I will watch them carefully_. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/33 "2011-10-18T01:45:56Z")
> [@Bosstrain](#): > > The thing I find so bizarre is that 90% of people don’t seem to mind causing harm to animals and creatures, to me that just means they’re one step away to doing it to humans. Are you talking about in film or real life? Because animals being tortured on screen is still a very taboo thing, something you won’t find in any of the Saw, Hostel, etc. type movies. Animals routinely are the ones to survive some kind of harrowing situation. Or is this supposed to be some king of vegan thing like “All meat eaters are just a step away from killing humans!!1! OMG! Eating a cow is practically cannibalism, man!” > [@](#): > > That being said, I don’t like torture at all, I hate it Wow, what a brave stance to take. > [@](#): > > and I also know what it’s like to be the torturer. Riiiight. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/34 "2011-10-18T01:52:15Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > The phrase torture porn is derogotive but appropriate. In the Saw and Hostel, the torture isn’t a plot device, it _ **is** _ the plot. It is the whole point of the film. > > Without it, you don’t really have a film. And without violent crimes ranging from picturesque mutilation to starvation and flaying, you don’t have _Silence of the Lambs_. And without even more grotesque crimes, you don’t have _Seven_ (not that this would be such a bad thing IMO). And without the brutal strangling of women for sexual kicks, you don’t have _Frenzy_. > [@](#): > > I have nothing against folks who enjoy this kind of film. > > But if I am stuck in a room with one of them, _I will watch them carefully_. sorry, but that’s pure melodrama. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/35 "2011-10-18T01:55:17Z")
> [@Bosstrain](#): > > I disagree, it has everything to do with it, it’s also the reason why I believe Saw fans to be borderline serial killers or some type of lunatic. The fact that torture is still around to this very day, and torture that only ends in death is by far the worst thing a human being can endure, is tragic. To see it taken so lightly on a film is tragic, but don’t take my word for it, ask a returning soldier from Afghanistan or Iraq who’s been tortured and ask if they’d like to watch Saw… Since there are no ex-military personnel who’ve been tortured conveniently at hand, I’m afraid I can’t verify what you’re saying here, but I can confidently say that your histrionic claim about those interested in this area of film being “borderline serial killers or some type of lunatic” is incorrect. (Not that the two personality traits don’t coincide in some folks, I’m sure, but we all know what correlation is not). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/36 "2011-10-18T02:22:18Z")
> [@jordanr2](#): > > I don’t see any way to know for sure what the purpose of a film is. We can pretend to know - “oh, Eli Roth says he’s just a horror director, but we all _really_ know that he and his fans get off on seeing people tortured” - but speculation isn’t the same as knowledge. Similarly, one could argue that the _Casino Royale_ scene is there because Martin Campbell thought the audience would be perversely titillated by seeing this happen to the attractive Daniel Craig, or that the _Reservoir Dogs_ scene is there because Quentin Tarantino thought it’d be badass. I don’t think it’s safe to assume anything like this. Sure you can. Any intelligent viewer can watch a movie and see what its purpose was. _Black Swan_ had a lesbian sex scene but it wasn’t a porn movie. But the lesbian scenes in _Sorority Strap-On Party 5_\* were the purpose of the movie. \*I just made that title up. But it’s probably a real movie. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/37 "2011-10-18T02:28:07Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > Haneke claims that _Funny Games_ was about “subverting the audience’s expectations” while I’m of the opinion that he’s just an asshole (an opinion reenforced by his movie _Cache_) [Off-topic] _Cache_ is one of my favorite films. I caught it by accident one day on IFC and loved it. I haven’t seen either of Haneke’s _Funny Games_, but just from the descriptions, they seem in a diametrically different genre than _Cache_ or _The White Ribbon_. [/Off-topic] **jordanr2** , if I accept that “torture porn” is unnecessarily pejorative, can you suggest a better genre name? Or do you not accept that Hostel and Human Centipede deserve their own sub-genre of horror/thriller? ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/38 "2011-10-18T02:34:31Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Sure you can. Any intelligent viewer can watch a movie and see what its purpose was. > > _Black Swan_ had a lesbian sex scene but it wasn’t a porn movie. But the lesbian scenes in _Sorority Strap-On Party 5_\* were the purpose of the movie. > > \*I just made that title up. But it’s probably a real movie. No, they can speculate about what its purpose was. They can even come to a consensus about that with other intelligent viewers. Know for sure, though? I don’t buy it - it’s easy for viewers to find conflicting but equally valid things in a movie. And there’s always the question of serendipity - bizarre moments of unintended grace and beauty that can raise an otherwise banal movie to heights that were never _intended_, but which it’d be churlish to deny are there. I don’t think the point of your example’s as clear-cut as you’d like it to be. A director casting Natalie Portman, even if he has the best intentions, will also carry her other baggage as an attractive and appealing actress into the film. Unless you do something like what Patty Jenkins did with Charlize Theron in _Monster_, and deliberately subdue her beauty, you’re making a film with explicit sexual content, featuring a lovely actress, and that’s gonna hit people on a sub-intellectual level, even if it’s not an outright “porn movie.” By contrast, there’s an entire tradition of directors making overtly lurid and sexy films - people like Doris Wishman, Jean Rollin, Radley Metzger - who’ve been rightly recognized as doing work of artistic interest. No reason the cerebral and visceral can’t co-exist, even if that was no one’s intention going into the making of a film. ---
**Author:** ![gladtobeblazed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85f322/32.png) [@gladtobeblazed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gladtobeblazed)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/39 "2011-10-18T02:34:59Z")
I’ve enjoyed a few movies that could qualify as torture porn. Some torture porn movies are good (_Martyrs_) and some are mediocre (_Inside_) and some are bad (_Hostel 2_). I would just categorize torture porn as a sub-genre of horror. Just like exorcism films are a sub-genre, where you have the good (_The Exorcist_), the mediocre (_The Exorcism of Emily Rose_), and the bad (_Exorcismus_). Just because I enjoyed a few films in a particular genre, doesn’t mean I will like just any film in the genre. It still has to be a good film on it’s own merits. ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970/40 "2011-10-18T02:41:01Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > **jordanr2** , if I accept that “torture porn” is unnecessarily pejorative, can you suggest a better genre name? Or do you not accept that Hostel and Human Centipede deserve their own sub-genre of horror/thriller? I don’t see why we can’t just call them horror movies. My issue isn’t that people consider the movies bad (a lot of them _are_ bad), more it’s that the phrase seems meant as a way of dismissing a whole slew of movies out of hand - “oh it’s just torture porn, don’t bother.” This is a stupid approach to take with anything, even a cheap horror film. If it doesn’t interest you, don’t watch it - but if you haven’t given the movie your two hours, don’t pretend to be able to talk about it - it’s that simple. This goes for any area of film: Adam Sandler movies, romantic comedies written by Nora Ephron, structuralist experiments, “Oscar bait” and so on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/torture-porn-do-you-enjoy-it-and-if-so-why/599970.md?page=3)