Posted 3:53 AM by Steve
What is the deal with torture movies?

"Saw", "Tourista", "The Hills Have Eyes".

These are just a few examples of recent films where the main attraction seems to be torture. One human inflicting pain on another human. This phenomenon is certainly strange.

Why are Americans so engrossed by depravity both in terms of violence and sex? This is perhaps a natural and expected reaction to the weakness so rampant in our coddled and luxurious society. Movies filled with mindless killing and violence, played for laughs or titilation of a pampered and soft audience. Suburban youth trying to emulate the posturing of a "gangsta" culture that is as much a figment of the imagination as June Cleaver's lily-white 1950's household was.

When Rome fell, it fell from within long before it fell from outside invasion. It fell to it's appetites for excess, which became markedly more and more depraved and repulsive as the empire crumbled.

Is the measure of our art the measure of our soul as a society?

On a related note, what is the deal with young couples bringing toddlers and young children to these types of films? At what point should this be considered child abuse?