Sadistic Horror
A type of horror film in which terror is induced not by mere suggestion, but the graphic torture and torment of various victims as they scream for mercy which will inevitably not come, sadistic horror may have some roots in the increasingly violent slasher films of the 1980s and 90s, but has since gone on to transcend those semi-campy popcorn munchers as it dares viewers to even think about snacking as they recoil from the screen and scramble to cover their eyes. Though sadistic horror may have begun to proliferate on U.S. movie screens with the release of Saw in 2004, it's origins can be traced back at least as far Wes Craven's groundbreaking Vietnam-era chiller Last House on the Left (1972) (not to mention such 70's-era exploitation classics as I Spit on Your Grave and Make Them Die Slowly). As audiences grew tired of the numerous and increasingly inept Scream clones of the 1990s and the Japanese remake craze that started with The Ring (2002) began to die down, filmmakers were gradually forced to resort to more brutal tactics in terrorizing the viewer. Since such U.S. production companies as Roy Lee's Vertigo Entertainment and Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures had already mined the catalog of popular, supernaturally-themed Japanese hits, the next wave of films went looked slightly deeper into the realm of Japanese horror to draw influence from such filmmakers as Takashi Miike, and such gruesome torture series' as the All Night Long and Guinea Pig stomach turners. The result was such films as Eli Roth's squirm-inducing Hostel and Rob Zombie's The Devil's Rejects. But international filmmakers seemed eager to jump on the bandwagon as well, and by the time Greg McLean's sadistic slasher flick Wolf Creek hit stateside screens, it was obvious that something of a trend had developed. While some critics viewed the films as a sickening example of just how low Hollywood would stoop in order shock an increasingly desensitized public, others viewed them as an acute commentary on a post-9/11 society (shades of Last House) in which the seemingly infinite war on terror and push-button topic of enemy combatant torture had pushed mankind's potential for violence into daily headlines more frequently than ever before.
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