America Slams the Door on Torture Porn: 'Captivity' Opens In 12th Place

"...but in all seriousness, what is wrong with the American movie-going public?"

Are you actually claiming that there's something wrong with the the movie-going public because a piece of crap thriller like "Captivity" didn't make any money?

Give me a break.

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horror does not equal torture porn. I'd say torture porn is a subsecetion of horror and people are tired of it.

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No, you're not the only one left. The rest of us just prefer to support good horror, not tactless exploitative cash-ins.

I'm glad after nailing the tactless, exploitative part, Captivity completely missed the in on making cash.

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Even factoring in that it only opened on a quarter of the screens HP did, CAPTIVITY just tanked.

My fear is that the studios won't see it as the public not being interested in "torture porn" so much as just not being interested in horror films in general and just abandon them again for a while. The Weinsteins have alreay sold of MANDY LANE which was supposed to open next week.

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I hope also that this serves as a reminder to future horror filmmakers to avoid Courtney Solomon and After Dark - and others like them - like the plague. Any film that allows itself to be promoted in such a twisted fashion deserves to tank so... beautifully and poetically. *grin*

It's not that "Captivity" was a particularly heinous piece of torture-porn - as these things go, it was relatively tame. Its promotion capitalized on and exploited the titillation factor of such films, and caused an outcry because of it. I think audiences gave it the cold shoulder partly because of that, and bloody high time, too.

I'm sure horror films are safe from extinction - they've been around & popular for a long, long time - but that torture-porn might be on its way out seems to me sublimely wonderful.

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What Curt, Scott, Peter and QuoterGal said. Good horror is great. Torture Porn isn't good horror and folks who like good horror will still be there when it reappears. This hopefully extinct form of misogyny that Ted Bundy would approve of and enjoy and which is rightfully labeled as Torture Porn has been exposed to the light of day and shriveled up like Dracula. Here's hoping that the directors and actors in these things get ostracized for this crap as well.

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So you complain about Captivity opening on 12, but you fail to see 1408, which is also a horror, on the 6th place, stable for a few weeks in the top 10. I think it's great that torture porn/gore gets less and less attention, while atmospheric/psychological horror does well. I consider myself a horror fan, but I hate most of the gore/torture crap that has been made recently. To me, horror is more about building atmosphere/chills/scares/mystery/unknown than gore & stuff. If R-rated horror has become similar with Captivity, Hostel and so on, then let it die, baby.

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Is it possible that many of the same people who lined up to see Harry Potter would have supported Captivity had it opened on a different weekend?

Probably.

The audience that made Torture Porn so profitable did not simply disappear overnight. I would like to think that they have come to their senses.

I tried to watch one of these abominations one night and had to leave. I question the humanity of anyone who enjoys these films.

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No surprise here. CAPTIVITY is utter trash. After Dark Films is a joke of a production company. Have you noticed everything they release is nothing more that D-grade straight-to-video garbage that most horror fans would never pay money to see in the theaters. CAPTIVITY isn't offensive because of the torture-porn aspect....it's offensive because is poorly made and conceived entertainment. After Dark Films sucks.

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Just like others are saying here, I chose not to see "Captivity," not because there's "something wrong" with me as a horror fan, but because it is apparently a terrible TERRIBLE movie and I really don't feel like wasting my time and money on crappy movies. I saw "1408" and loved it. I'm hoping more horror movies like that will be made. "Captivity" seemed like its entire raison d'etre was shock value, emphasis on the "torture" and "porn" without dedicating enough attention to, you know, the story or the characters or anything that makes a really great movie great. Bring back the Hitchcockian suspense style of horror, Hollywood. Then we'll head back to the theatres...

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Someone elsewhere said about Captivity, that the only horrorfying thing about it was that people were actually paying money to see it.

I happen to agree with #7. To me a good horror movie is one that builds up the chills and focuses more on the atmosphere than the gore. That said, I like gore. I like it a lot. I like to be squicked out. But I like it well done. So far I haven't seen one person say that Captivity was any good. The reviews I have read all say it was badly directed, badly edited and to a certain point it badly acted but only given that the actors didn't seem to have much to work with.

Given that, why would I go out and pay $15 (australian) to see it when it opens here? I'll probably rent it on DVD once it is released just to satisfy my curiosity but I'd rather save my $$ I think.

And like someone else said, given the choice between Captivity and Harry Potter, I would have chosen HP.

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Walked out after an hour of CAPTIVITY because it bored me shitless..

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No matter what, SAW 4 will be a hit this fall. Given the track record of the franchise, I'd be very surprised if the current drop continues with their next film on its release.

SAW hasn't been as graphic and of course it is more story driven than most of the films audiences have been avoiding but it is still more over the top than say something like 1408 or The Messengers. What will probably happen is that film makers will settle somewhere in the middle ground and will continue to make their fright fests more thrilling and less graphic. The "Hard R" torture films will ease up to finally rest somewhere in the strong PG-13 or mild R range but we'll still get them.

http://www.myspace.com/scoobarama

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#1 -
"horror does not equal torture porn. I'd say torture porn is a subsecetion of horror and people are tired of it."

Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner!
I can't believe the article writer is trying to defend this trash.

I love horror films and Captivity has never appealed to me. After watching Hostel, the whole "torture porn" genre doesn't appeal to me, either. Talk about a horribly written movie.

Ryan, pull your head out.

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a good horror film should be like an amusement park ride it should scare you and get the adrenaline going, that's what makes it entertaining.

these films seem to be built on the idea that it's an endurance test for your gag reflex.

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+2 for #7.

My wife and I saw 1408 last week. We both commented on how that is what a horror movie is supposed to be.

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First of all, the people who are bashing After Dark Films should watch some of their straight to video stuff before they blab their blind opinions. After Dark came out with those Eight Movies to Die For last year on video. I have seen 6 1/2 of the 8 movies. (The dvd started skipping on the 7th movie). Out of the 6 1/2 movies I saw 3 were really good and worth watching again. And one of them had english subtitles. So seriously, watch them before you blab. Kapesh?? Second of all, if the future of the horror genre is based soley upon Rob Zombie's Halloween (which I doubt it is) then the horror genre is doomed because Rob Zombie's movies are horrible and hard to follow. The horror genre needs a balance of pyschological thriller and gore. And in some movies this balance will work and in others it won't. Or they can do a movie with a lot of gore and make it funny like Grindhouse did.

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Give me a break. Did you watch the 8 Films To Die For? They were terrible. Oh boy, I cant wait to see what crap After Dark Films will try and peddle to us for their next festival. "festival"....what a joke. Do you not see the creap they are trying to sell us horror fans? They suck.

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Give me a break. Did you watch the 8 Films To Die For? They were terrible. Oh boy, I cant wait to see what crap After Dark Films will try and peddle to us for their next festival. "festival"....what a joke. Do you not see the crap they are trying to sell us horror fans? They suck.

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After Dark's 8 Films were a mixed bag, but you can't just shit a blanket over all of them. Unrest is fantastic and the Abandoned is a superb haunted houser, even if the ending isn't all that inventive.

After Dark Films did a tremendous thing with their Horror Fest last year, something I want to happen every year. I'm more than happy to support even decent Indie horror (Gravedancers) at a theater, but Courtney Solomon needs to learn to shut his trap and cut his losses or no one is going to give a damn come the next time they try a 'fest'.

In the day of the internet you'd think someone as communicative as Solomon would realize that the net makes or breaks things, and people EVERYWHERE (not just nerds) obliterated Captivity before its release solely because of the man's behavior. It was a joke. I hate that it may cost other movies down the line, but I'm dad glad it did nothing to fatten that moron's wallet.

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