Dismissively tarred with the derisive label “torture porn” in the wake of its mainstream boom in the 2000s, torture-horror is in fact one of the most compelling and provocative horror subgenres. Although its roots date back much further, the subgenre gained notoriety after the 2004 launch of the immensely popular Saw franchise, with many subsequent horror films continuing its bloody legacy.
Exploring the limits of what the human body can endure, as well as themes of gender, power and political unrest, torture-horror is able to provide gruesome scares and compelling stories. These are 10 of the very best torture-horror films, showcasing the strengths of the surprisingly varied subgenre.
- ‘Martyrs’ (2008)
- ‘The Devil’s Rejects’ (2005)
- ‘Saw’ (2004)
- ‘Calvaire’ (2004)
- ‘The Loved Ones’ (2009)
- ‘Hostel’ (2005)
- ‘Hard Candy’ (2005)
- ‘Eden Lake’ (2008)
- ‘Wolf Creek’ (2005)
- ‘Saw VI’ (2009)
While this is purely subjective, I maintain a big torture porn list in IMDb and would argue that these are two different things. Torture porn revels in the pain it inflicts - something like Hostel (or A Serbian Film) make you want to have shower after watching them, while quite a few films on this list are horror films with scenes of torture in them but they aren’t torture porn. Martyrs, for example, is brutal but the violence is almost… transcendent.