Analysing Torture Porn through Distended Fetish Images: Female Identities, Metamorphosis and Agency

Abstract

The thesis asserts the need for a re-evaluation regarding the stylistic influence, historical development and global proliferation of the genre of Torture Porn. It applies Rick Altman’s semantic/syntactic/pragmatic model of assessing film genres to examine torture porn. It considers the role and impact that mainstream industry professionals such as critics assert in the creation and reception of the Torture Porn genre. The thesis contextualises a historical framework for the genre’s inception within the transnational history of cinema. It argues that Torture Porn’s visual aesthetic has organically flourished and evolved from this transnational history of cinema. Applying visual analysis, the thesis explores the fetish image’s functionality to convey sexual meaning within edited sequences thematically depicting violent torture. The thesis asserts that the authentic classification of torture porn depends on the visual aesthetic of a distended fetishistic image. It argues that torture porn films must encapsulate the illustration of this distinctive visual aesthetic within sequences that thematically contain a form of sadistic torture or significantly relate to the infliction of impending torture. Building on previously established feminist theory canonised by Carol Clover, the thesis offers a re-examination of Clover’s work to argue that torture porn offers the spectator an innovative, sadistic type of ‘final girl’, a character who both evolves, and similarly differs from, its predecessors within the American Slasher, Horror, and European Rape Revenge film genres. The thesis demonstrates a clear connection between the spectator’s desire to view torture porn spectacles, and an international increase in box office sales. It provides a case study of the independent Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation to expose their active role in establishing torture porn as a mainstream multiplex genre. The Torture porn genre transforms the company within the entertainment industry.