I usually wait for the dvd. Why pay at the theatre when these movies will probably have an unrated version come out on dvd in a few months.

The cuthbert movie has gotten bad reviews from those looking for bondage content.

I have seen a leaked scene from Hostel II on the web. There is a elizabeth bathory like scene where a nude girl is hung by her ankles over a bathtub.

It quickly turns very bloody as she is hacked up with a scythe.

SPOILER: This post probably gives away plot points for Hostel 2. There only were about two points in the plot so that’s kinda inevitable. It also contains a mixture of ranting, invective and philosophising about BDSM and horror films 🙂 and it may have a spoiler or two for Sin City, which is a million times better than this pile of shit.

Right. I needed to get out of the house for a few hours, so I thought I’d go an see Hostel 2.

Short review: it is vile with no redeeming features.

Long review: the film is leaden excuse to show some torture scenes on screen. Any possibility of suspense is totally removed within the first five minutes by a “nightmare” scene from a survivour of the first film (which I haven’t seen) waking up just as he finds that the organisation of rich people who like to hunt and torture backpackers have tracked him down.

The exposition is totally leaden. “Interview in hospital bed, nice police inspector turns out to be ONE OF THEM, stabs hero in the chest, hero wakes up screaming next to girlfriend”.
And shortly after they do catch up with him and cut his head off. You could have set your watch by it. Argues with girlfriend, goes downstairs. Check. Girlfriend wakes up alone next morning, sound of man with chainsaw cutting trees outside… thirty seconds later, goes downstairs, screams, finds boyfriend’s headless corpse. Head is delivered to bad Mr. Boss guy of whole murder industry set up. I mean honestly, the script must have been written in crayon. Or just assembled by computer from fragments of older, better movies.

The only mild amusement I could sustain during the film was to pick up on the ridiculously over-telegraphed “plot twists”. Oh, so one of the girl-travellers-soon-to-be-victims is really slumming it and is actually hyper-hyper-rich in her own right? Want to bet she’ll try to buy her way out of it? And probably she’ll have to kill someone else to do so… some mild uncertainty over whether she’d have to kill her erstwhile murderer, the lesbian minx who entrapped her, or one of her buddies. (My money was on all three, but she only did two out of three. See, I’ll leave some suspense as to who she DIDN’T hack to bits).

Two of the clients who have won bids to murder two of the girls are annoying American businessmen, one gung-ho “do this you’ll be a man” type and one quiet nerdy wet nice guy dragged along by Mr. Gung-ho. You just know he is being set up to want to back out, but you also just know the gung-ho one is going to wimp out and Mr. Quiet is going to turn psycho and turn out to have a taste for it.

The whole setup is described in excruciating detail by the soon-to-headless survivor of film one.

This might have been foreshadowing if the writer or director had a clue. Instead, it means you are sitting twiddling your thumbs while the sinister people and the nice people at the harvest festival get the three American female backpackers into suitable position for nabbing. Frankly I don’t know why they wasted their time- the whole town seemed to be in on it so why not just whack them as soon as they get through the door of the hostel? And you KNOW they are going to get snatched, the leaden exposition guarenteed it, so there’s half the movie right there that hasn’t got a hint of drama or suspense to it.

Any vague bondage elements are just prior to blood-letting, mutilation and murder, of both sexes, in pointless on-screen wallowing-in-gore style. It lacks the grotesque sense of humour and the amazing low-budget but still groundbreaking camera presence of The Evil Dead. It lacks the style, story, sense, wit, imagination, characterisation, setting, intelligence and style (again) of Sin City. In Sin City, where cannibalism is introduced as an element, it has huge emotional impact, and you really care about the tough lug who’s no angel but who is going to send those responsible to hell.

In Hostel 2, when cannibalism is introduced it is just… lame. Effects days have come on so far that it looks like a medical instruction video for all the graphic gore sequences. It is just plain yuck.

The most terrifying thing about the film is the insight it gives into the “the whole world is so envious of us that they will kidnap and kill us if they can” mentality which is worryingly present in the USA at the moment and which certainly seems to be in the author’s mind.

In hostel 2, Americans seem to command a premium price as murder victims (although at $80,000 or so a pop, not THAT big a price) and the whole of Europe, let alone even more shockingly foreign parts, is one big jealous conspiracy against the people of the good ol’ US of A. One gets the impression that every European is to be imagined brooding every waking moment with jealousy towards America and Americans, and to be plotting against them in some nameless reds-under-the-beds/terrorist/murderers/perverts manner. Aided and abetted from within by corrupt Americans, of course. It is a nasty portrait of the author’s prejudice and paranoia.

So enough about Hostel 2 in general. It sucks, it has no redeeming features, and I would not recommend watching it for the few seconds of “bondage” it contains prior to wholesale and utterly pointless slaughter of unlikeable cardboard characters.

What about the relationship between BDSM and horror films?

I have a confession to make. I used to watch horror films as BDSM fantasy material. Indeed, some of my early fantasies were very dark and featured torture chambers and execution cells. This aspect of my kink used to worry me A LOT. I was very wary of getting drunk the first time just in case I somehow went psycho.

These days, I do not find horror films good BDSM fantasy material. If I did, there would probably be scenes in Hostel 2 which when suitably mentally edited out of the rest of the crappy film would press a few buttons.

You will note that Restrained Elegance has no stories in which people get killed. Out of over a thousand stories I’ve written for the site, I can recall one or two which have a horror/murder element, but they had a built-in “get out of jail free” card lurking in the wings which is usually at least hinted at in the story itself. A vampire who will rise from the grave again if the stake is removed, for example.

Why the change? And why did I watch horror films for BDSM kicks in the first place?

The second question is easier to answer than the first.

In the UK in the 1980s it was all-but impossible to find visual BDSM material. A few spanking magazines existed (like the venerable Janus, the cover of which our very own Ariel has recently graced). I found one or two extraordinarily over-priced bad reproductions of US bondage magazines from the 1970s.

By contrast, it was pretty easy at the time to get hold of video nasties. The infamous “tree rape” scene in The Evil Dead was about as close as it was possible to get to a proper BDSM fantasy depiction.

It was also easy (trivial!) to find BDSM inspiration in mainstream stuff like Wonder Woman, Penelope Pitstop, Doctor Who, James Bond and all the other places people have mentioned drawing inspiration from. But if you wanted to go beyond the very chaste damsel-in-distress, horror films were about all there was to watch.

So that’s a partial excuse. If you wanted nude ladies with your BDSM, or princesses getting whipped, horror films were the only option.

It would also be true to say that when feeling your way towards understanding the fetish, the control element of being the one in charge in situations as portrayed that way was not to be ignored because there’s nothing more controlling than having the power of life or death over someone. Fantasies with Evil Barons and peasant girls where the Baron makes the laws and can do anything he likes, up to and including killing her, can be HOT in the right context (or shared with the right person) . But it is having that power, not actually using it, that’s hot.

I’m glad to say that I never did watch the gory denoument with much interest. The fiendish deathtrap with spikes and spines, yes. The heroine who would plead to be spared, yes. But actually killing her? Actual gore? No. (A complete waste of a gorgeous woman, for a start… sorry to be flippant!)

So what’s changed?

Well, I’m a reasonably smart person, and in real life I’m a pretty nice chap, believe it or not. It is only in fantasy that I can be a real son-of-a-bitch. And I’ve got enough empathy and sense to know that fantasy is where this sort of stuff belongs.

So my very darkest fantasies still contain some of the same elements, but I made myself comfortable with them with the “get out of jail free card” ideas of immortal vampires or succubi… or indeed magician’s tricks, as witness EvilMagician.com which was spun off from RE after a shoot or two. We always talked about adding gore to Evil Magician, but I seriously doubt we ever will. It provides another safe exercise of the absolute control of the power of life and death, in a very structured and safe context. The magician is even more in control than the Evil Baron, because he can mend what he’s done with a wave of his hand. It is a cartoon-safe version of reality where it is OK to explore these really dark control fantasies in a much lighter-hearted way. (Often positively silly, in the case of Evil Magician).

Horror films have gone way beyond the realms of fantasy, into the realms of medical surgical instruction videos. Skin is sexy. Subdermal human biology is not sexy. A trickle of blood at the corner of the scarlet pouting mouth of a superhumanly erotic vampire babe is sexy. A slaughterhouse bucket of blood and guts is not sexy. It never was sexy. It was the power relationship and the hot naked babes that were sexy.

Thankfully, at least for this brief moment in time, it is possible to find visual BDSM material which isn’t the prequel to snuff and gore. Although the British government seems fairly intent on bringing in laws which will criminalise an enjoyable mutual fantasy spanking with a riding crop and a happily-ever-after but which would probably leave Hostel 2 alone. That’s pretty fucked up- it is OK to show anything you like so long as no-one enjoys it. Sigh.

[end rant!]

Hywel.

Edited By Hywel on 1183589669

Wow, I guess you really are taking a break from shooting Hywel.. 😀 Thanks for the heads up re: Hostel, i’d been debating finding time to see it. I saw the first one without having any prior knowledge of its plot and so was quite genuinely shocked at times, shame about the hollywood ending tho, why does the good guy ALWAYS have to get away, just. Had I known the plot in advance it would indeed have been gore-by-the-numbers and gratingly predictable – ignorance is bliss.. :smoke2

Anyone seen Black Snake Moan? Its the old “Guy who lives in the woods stumbles across a wayward nympho and decides to keep her chained up until he can teach her the “error” of her ways” storyline. Is it as one-cliche-after-another as I’m imagining?

Welcome back Cav..

Cheers M

@merlin wrote:

Anyone seen Black Snake Moan? Its the old “Guy who lives in the woods stumbles across a wayward nympho and decides to keep her chained up until he can teach her the “error” of her ways” storyline. Is it as one-cliche-after-another as I’m imagining?

I was going to see it, but didn’t have the time so far. But judging by the current reviews, this is FAR from being a sexual movie.

It seems to be more of a play with prejudices, and a lot of Blues music. Seems quite good, but not bondage at all.

Hm… maybe I’ll take my time this weekend.

Thanks for the heads up on “Black Snake Moan.” I’ll have to look into that.

There’s a part of me (a rather large part) that feels I should apologize for my country. However, as comedian Greg Proops pointed out, you didn’t exactly send over the best and brightest to start this party. 🙂

What has spawned from that is a junkie culture that gorges itself on any new thrill to the point of indifference. Feed that with a healthy dose of capitalistic greed and you go from “The Newly-Wed Game” to “Temptation Island”; from Marlyn Monroe and Audry Hepburn to Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan.

And on top of that I have to wait six :censored months to see the new episodes of Doctor Who. :splat

Anyways, it does appear to be improving. Sanjya helped show how big of a joke “American Idol” is becoming. Paris seems to have reformed, and seeing as she’s the head cheerleader of “America High School” the rabble may follow her lead. Better yet, Hostel 2 was in the theaters in my area for like.. two weeks.

Now if only we could fix our economy… :banghead

@marius wrote:

My impression is: brilliant. One of the best movies this year so far.

See it! You won’t regret it.

Thanks Marius!

M

Hywel, have you ever thought about putting together a gallery showing? Bondage photography as high art.

Ooh, that sounds interesting – think you should, Hywel… Happy to help with this too.

Kate x

Very interesting, I think I made a comment in a previous post or maybe at the tutorial day that one of the things that attracted me to RE was Hywel’s style and that many of the pictures would not look out of place in an NY art photo gallery! Try, Ariel in the French bathtub, change to Black & White, place in large format book, put book on coffee table…

As you may have picked up, I’m into art photography (and old movies), I’d had a half formed idea for an art-nude/bondage crossover at the tutorial day, I guess Merlin with his B&W low light idea might have been thinking along the same lines, but I went with a kitsch idea as it was getting late and we hadn’t covered high-key …. If anybody has the time time try radically changing the colour balance or leaving the socks technicolor and everything else black and white…. kitsch!!!!

The ideas I had (and this is the answer to Ariel’s question from the other thread) were
a) conventional art-nude, but with a hidden bondage sub-text, viz. a close inspection of the image revels the contour of the rope or the mark left by the rope! or
b) to go for some out-landish art-nude poses that could only be achieved with some form of support … except the support is in fact a restraint too. Going back to the France 2007 preview again, take the Ariel on one leg, with one leg tied, in the outbuilding, not a pose that could be held for long without the support of the bondage … then take that notion a little further and change the photographic style a bit.

Not such an outrageous idea….