The moral panic behind "torture porn," "gorno" or whatever the PC police are calling it this week is really tiring. Kind of reminds me of the "video nasties" scare in 1980s England.

Wow, what an intelligent use of the word "gay"

You beat me to that fantastic bit of linkage. A wonderfully thought-provoking essay.

Although SGs are obviously more than capable of making their own choices on this, I couldn't agree more with Wil about the tone and implications of films like this. I don't quite have the stomach to fully contemplate the marketing mindset behind setting the garishly eroticized and detailed violent torture of an innocent woman as light entertainment.

From the Whedon commentary:

How else to explain the fact that cultures who would die to eradicate each other have always agreed on one issue? That every popular religion puts restrictions on women's behavior that are practically untenable? That the act of being a free, attractive, self-assertive woman is punishable by torture and death? In the case of this upcoming torture-porn, fictional. In the case of Dua Khalil, mundanely, unthinkably real. And both available for your viewing pleasure.

What makes me laugh is if a women news wire correspondent who worked on here had posted a rant againts this guy and againts this movie premier deal that SG has made, All the women here would be ranting againts this.
This is a busines and knowing an SG and having read the contract they sign, the images posted on here are the sole property of SG as is your NAME. Sean the owner will get a fee for hiring out some SG's to this premier as well as the girls themselves. So who cares if a couple of upperty femnazi's dont like it, who cares if a few guys who want to mensturate on behalf of women and cry about their exploted ovaries. Some women are happy to be paid to be expolited its in their nature. Hey your built to be prostitute doesnt mean you have to be one.

Okay, so there's defending your movie of choice and then there's just being obtuse. It is not indiscriminate of gender bias. It's a hot woman being tortured by a killer - practically every horror movie has this, and while they usually have a few men who get killed around, there is a clear focus on women in peril. In more recent years, aware of this cliche, filmmakers have taken to exploiting it by having the woman ultimately be the one to take down the killer, but they remain focused on the women nonetheless. That this routinely happens horror movies is significant, and with this movie in particular, the clear focus from the poster and trailers is a woman in peril - I didn't even know about the man involved, and apparently the filmmakers and marketing department felt that I did not need to. Also significant.

And the link between killing and sexuality in these movies has always been really troublesome to me. Every time one comes out, people are all, "Hooray, tits!" And it turns out that yes, I see the girl's tits in Hostel II - while she's hanging upside-down and covered in blood and screaming. Hooray.

(Also the fact that it's the girl from Welcome to the Dollhouse just makes me )

i don't even want to start with the errors here, but i can't resist this one--if someone is happy to be paid to do something, assume that person is fully informed and an adult with the capacity to make his or her own decisions, explain to me again how this person could be exploited?

or does that only work if the person is a woman?

Ladies and gentleman of Captivity distribution, your target audience!

Does the SG service deliver?

I liked that he brought up the problem of "honor killings." It's something many in the west know nothing about. But the rest is ridiculous. Mostly the "womb envy" parts, and the suggestion that movies like Captivity lead to violence against women in the real world.

I didn't even see the trailer, just bits of commercials, but are you sure about this? Because seriously, do they want people going out and saying, "Yeah, I saw Saw already?"

I'm not 100% but working in this town and having seen enough horror movies, I'd put it at about 95%.

And yes, they are that dumb.

Yeah, I just looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes, and one of the reviews mentions "an extremely guessable twist." So yeah, you're right. But that's almost the exact twist from Saw, and it was pretty groanworthy then.

C'mon Wil. Self-respect, morals, attention spans, ethics. All of these things, and a lot of others have been going steadily South for a long time now. People will do just about anything for just about any asking price these days. Who gives a fuck if it's legal, ethical, good/bad for the environment? All that matters is if you're young, hot and beautiful: These people get away with anything. (Being rich doesn't hurt either.)

This is extremely well said. Thank you.

Joss Whedon is so right.... I love that guy.