Coined by David Edelstein in 2006, the term ‘Torture Porn’ described the sub-genre of horror films characterized by the Saw and Hostel series, and has since been adopted widely: the press referred to nearly seventy horror films between 2003 and 2010 as exemplifying the cycle. The discourse surrounding Torture Porn — also dubbed ‘blood porn’, ’carnography’, and ‘gorno’ — suggests that it is ‘possibly the worst movement in the history of cinema’ (Aftab 2009: 12). My aim here is to challenge the simplistic and dismissive assumptions underpinning Torture Porn discourse. The images that fall under this rubric are evidently contentious, yet reaction to them rarely considers what values the films apparently contravene, and why, if the films are offensive, they are simultaneously so popular. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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