Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11

Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 challenges the conventional wisdom about horror movies like Hostel and the Saw series. Aaron Kerner argues that, even as these films express anxieties and sadistic fantasies that have emerged from the War on Terror, they are rooted in a much longer tradition of American violence. He also reveals how the “torture porn” aesthetic has gone mainstream, popping up in everything from the television thriller Dexter to the reality show Hell’s Kitchen.