6. Grotesque (2009)
So-called torture porn movies (in particular the Saw and Hostel franchises) have proved to be extremely popular movies. Grotesque largely follows in this tradition but features such unrelenting nastiness and pointlessness as to have the good grace to be banned in the United Kingdom. It is a Japanese production in which the whole plot consists of a man torturing another man and a woman to death. I guess its closest film compadre is Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood which has a similar ignominious censorship history in the UK. With Grotesque, the main problem is that the film is very limited in narrative and characterisation. This is what sets it apart from Saw and Hostel which have the basic decency to wrap their horrors up in a storyline. The BBFC only saw unrelenting sadism, ultra-violence and humiliation which is presented to the viewer as entertainment - sexual sadism for its own sake. This exceeds the Video Recordings Act guidelines about the sexualisation of violence. The BBFC ruled that cuts to the film were unfeasible - nothing could make the film any less sadistic than it already is. Furthermore, moral harm and desensitisation to violence could occur in the viewer. Really the movie is so mean spirited and useless, unless you get off on torture there is no point in seeing it. It is depressing and horrific.
