Title of interest – To See the Saw Movies: Essays on Torture Porn and Post-9/11 Horror, edited by James Aston and John Walliss (McFarland, 2013).
The Saw films, often derided by critics as “torture porn” and an excuse to show blood and gore, are the highest-grossing horror series in cinema history. In view of their hold on audiences and their controversial content, they deserve study. This first collection of fresh essays by academic authors from Europe, America and Australia addresses the cultural, religious and philosophical facets of the films, investigating how the franchise reflects a post-9/11 shift in U.S. popular culture towards increasing pessimism and how it may be read as a metaphor for the “war on terror”; dissecting how the series explores such issues as freewill and determinism; assessing the films’ representations of the body; and applying a Deleuzian perspective to the franchise.
About the Author
James Aston is director of studies for film at the University of Hull. He lives in Worcester, United Kingdom. John Walliss is senior lecturer in criminology in the faculty of sciences and social sciences, Liverpool Hope University, UK.
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