(Originally published on The Rec)
The movie poster on the left is for the Andy Warhol produced “Chelsea Girls,” an exploitation movie released in 1966. Enlarge it for a better look – I dare you.
This poster, like many of the posters for exploitation films, is gratuitous, scandalous, and titillating. Its whole purpose, like the film itself, is to present extreme material in order to quickly sell movie tickets over the course of one or two weeks. Many producers became rich men over several decades by exploiting human curiosity.
So it seems an odd thing when outrage erupts over the movie poster of an exploitation flick. In 2007.
I am no fan of the torture porn industry that has blossomed since the first “Saw” movie premiered (and yes, I do realize that there were many graphic torture porn movies prior to that, but not by major studios). In general, the makers of these shitty movies mistake torture and graphic violence for horror, which in my mind is much more potent.
Eli Roth’s first “Hostel” movie is nothing more than a torture porn exploitation flick, designed to have an opening weekend gross of around $20 million and then leave town. However, the film made three times that amount, which is a profit percentage that sleazy exploitation filmmakers like Roth cannot resist, so … here comes the sequel.
“Hostel 2″ opens in June, but already the slop merchants in their publicity department have whipped up a frenzy over their poster for the sequel. Here it is (click to enlarge):
Most theaters have refused to display this advertisement due to it’s sensational nature, and the ones that do receive enormous amounts of complaints about it.
Which is just what they wanted all along.
My question is this: Is this poster really any worse than the one for “Chelsea Girls,” or any other explotation flick of the sixties and seventies?
Sure, it’s gross. Yes, it is probably offensive, especially in its use of a dead woman as the victim (aren’t they always??). But is it really worse than anything we have seen before??
And we are guaranteed to see more of the same in the future. Given the success of films like “Saw” and “Hostel,” a host of imitators are following the formula to the letter. The new torture porn movie “Captivity” has hit the publicity goldmine with a billboard prominently displayed in Los Angeles and New York. Take a look:
The public outrage over this poster, which depicts a woman being tortured and killed, has reached epic proportions this week. The promotional department of Lions Gate – the Twentieth Century Fox of “high class” smut – has been forced to discontinue their campaign, but not before millions of people were exposed to the film’s images and subsequent backlash. Score one for Lion’s Gate, and nothing for film lovers everywhere.
But the question remains: Is it worse than anything we have seen in the past? I personally think not. Rather, the reactionary, politically-”correct” climate in the United States blinds the people who complain. Despite all of the new definitions in the ratings sytem in the last twenty-five years, despite all of the censorship, and despite all of the neutral terminology, the United States has become more violent, more sexualized, and less tolerant. Movies like these would have barely made noise in the sixties and seventies, where their advertising would have been the norm for these types of pictures, and people were much less apt to fly into religiously-fueled outrage.
In the end, the people who complain about these types of films – and especially their advertising – only fall right into the game plan of these sleazy lowlifes. Eli Roth doesn’t care one bit about artistic merit or the values of a percentage of the population. His entire machine runs on the promise of grossing people out for one weekend, and walking away a rich man.
If you don’t like it, then stay away from it. But if people do support it (through buying tickets, for instance), then shut the hell up and deal instead with the fact that it’s society’s fault.
When you open your mouth in protest, you’re being exploited by an exploitation flick.
8 Comments
That’s a great article Ray…
I agree with your points, the posters are nothing worse than what we have seen before… it’s just that they are slightly more prominent now because as you say the major studio’s are tackling these films…. and they are getting released worldwide.
What we have to remember, is in the 70’s and 80’s, especially in Britain… flicks like The Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Faces of Death, Driller Killer, I Spit on Your Grave and all the rest of them didn’t just have their posters banned…. but the films also. They became, the infamous “video nasties”.
You couldn’t just walk into your local theatre and buy say “Hostel” from a major dvd chain, you would have to actually work a little (although it wasn’t really THAT hard) to get a copy of it.
Now any 15 year old kid can pretty much pick up Hostel depending on who’s on the counter. That’s what I have a problem with the most…
These films should never get a major release, they should be confined to “video nasties” and shouldn’t be widely available everywhere. They certainly should never make a cinema release.
Thanks Matty … yeah, I agree with you. Although movies like Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw are actually worth something. Eli Roth is a smut peddler.
Have you two even seen Hostel? It isn’t THAT gory or horrific, it’s just run of the mill. You sound like those moms who try and get Harry Potter banned for it being anti-christian before they’ve even read it.
@ Sumpter: Yes I have. I never said that I thought it was gory or horrific. Read more carefully. I said it was torture porn, which it most certainly is. It places characters in physically and psychologically intense and dangerous situations simply to watch them (and the audience) squirm and fight for their lives before either dying or surviving.
NO part of the film is actually SCARY in the sense of a true horror film like “Halloween.” Rather, a film like this exists in the current climate (thanks to SAW) of “let’s show intense scenes of torture and/or mutilation instead of actually building a story and executing actual scares.”
You are right – “Hostel” pulled its punches to some degree, much more so than one was led to believe by watching the advertisements. However, if they had gone all the way with what was suggested, the film would never have been released commercially. The fact of the matter is that “Hostel” was released in order to give people the adrenaline rush of watching something “extreme” and nothing more. In other words, TORTURE PORN.
It’s nice to know that there are others out there who feel the same way I do about Eli Roth. I was no fan by Cabin Fever, and I won’t even go into that rant. I avoided Hostel because I’m no fan of his and it was just smut. I did not and would not support it in any way. Sadly now a days people think this Saw/Hostel genre is the horror norm. I LOVE horror movies, gimmie Evil Dead and the likes of Evil Dead 2 any day!
Considering that there is a male-castration scene (by a female character no less) and men being eaten by dogs and another man in Hostal II, it seems that Eli Roth is a pure misandrist and I shy away from this movies because of it. I too am a horror movie fan, and I don’t even mind a bit of occasional exploitation (of either gender), but blatant misandry is far too upsetting for my tastes. Show a man loosing his genitals by a vengeful woman and that is fully acceptable (complete with “you go girl” attitude), but try showing the other way around by a man doing the same to a woman, and you would have protests in the streets.
The best thing we can do for this crap is vote with our feet!
BULL SHIT to all OF the ABOVE, this film is no different then a WALY DISNEY( mindless middle class america) FLICK, forget about misguided torture horror PORN, bottomline, this is what sells in todays misguided 16 to 35 yr; old fools to caught up in there stressed out live’s to realize the diff. from REAL HORROR films and THAT’S XXX-ACTLY what THESE DIRECTOR’S FOR SAW,SAW 2, HOSTILE, ETC RELY ON. Why create atomsphere, plot structure, decent acting , etc, when you can puke in a bag-release it to the ignorant masses, make millions, and laugh all the way to the bank. Sad part is, anyone stupid enough to thin this crap is even worth commenting on. we should ALL, make this drivvle and become millionaires, and , so, because, blah,blah,blah…LUV, a true horror fan living in a truely horrifing decade. SHE SELLS SEEN SAW(YAWN) AT THE SEA…………sure!
@ Ed – Your comment is barely comprehensible, but I think I understand what you’re getting at … and I agree.
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