You know what bothers me? The way that people so loosely throw around the term "torture porn" to label everything from 'Hostel' to 'The Human Centipede'. Basically, anything these days that is remotely gruesome is slapped with the ol' TP label that seems to bring a lot attention on the internet . Wanna make sure your shitty, amateur, student horror film gets some much needed hype? Just label it a torture porn! Perhaps the term is subjective, but for me a genuine 'torture porn' is a film with no plot, but rather just a graphic portrayal of violence or sexual violence with absolutely no goals other than to make the viewer uncomfortable. I'm not even sure that it's so easy to set a standard for which we can all universally define the term 'torture porn', but I think we can at least safely say that a torture porn can be called any film in which violence is the 100% focus, such as sex would be the 100% focus in a real porn. With that being said, 'The Bunny Game' is certainly what I would call a torture porn. That being said, I don't really have to focus too much on the plot, do I?
I had heard a lot about this movie before I finally got around to watching it. I have heard that the actress was not 'acting', she actually was subjected to 5 days of torture (toned down, I'm sure) in order to make the film feel 'more genuine'. The actress (Rodleen Getsic) really did get branded for the purpose of this film, just like she really did get tossed around and humiliated all for the purpose of making this film. As sad as that sounds, I do have to give some credit where credit is due and applaud the actress for taking on such a absolutely degrading, terrifying role all for the purpose of creating what she felt was art. It's hard to even call this film a film, because it really is more of an intense visual experience rather than a traditional movie. Knowing a little background, I couldn't help but feel vaguely disturbed thinking about the effects this movie must have had on the mental well being of the actress, even though everything was consented to. Apparently the rule while filming this movie was to take the 'whatever happens, happens' approach. To me, this film served as an eerie reminder that hey, there really are creepy dudes out there who kidnap and torture women (and men I'm sure) and this is what it could look like! The commentary on the DVD revealed that Ms. Getsic felt as if 'a part of her soul died' after finishing this film. If you brush aside the notion that all of this could have been said for hype and publicity, there is just something so real and disturbing about that statement. This film feels gritty and raw. It feels like a voyeuristic foray into the dark room of a real kidnap/torture scenario. It certainly is not a film that we see very often.
However, the film has one major problem. It is incredibly, incredibly BORING. Dear sky daddy in heaven, this was the longest 76 minutes of my life. We have scene after scene of characters staring into walls and screaming. The tired 'black and white' filming technique just feels as if the director is trying way too hard to be artistic. It's a shame that such a bold and powerful premise turned into such a boring pile of garbage. Strange and frequent camera cuts continually serve to remind us that we are watching a 'professional' production rather than some camcorder snuff. There is hardly any dialogue in the film at all, and many of the scenes are repetitive as well as drawn out.
Overall, I would not say that this is a 'good' film. I think it would have worked much better as a short. 76 minutes was just way too long for such a short and simple premise. The background and what went into making this film is certainly interesting and disturbing. The movie does succeed in setting up a rather creepy atmosphere as does it succeed as making us feel absolutely terrible for this poor prostitute who was kidnapped. However, the few glimmers of light are snuffed out by the flaws. I think this movie suffers a bit from overhype. Sure the movie is controversial, if you can stay awake. I usually never tell any diehard horror fans to not check out a movie at least once regardless of how bad it is, and I certainly would not tell anybody to NOT see 'The Bunny Game', simply because it has an interesting real life story with the actress and the 'real life torture', etc. However, I will surely warn you that you probably won't be re-watching this one a bunch of times, so perhaps that fancy Blu-Ray is unnecessary.
RATING:
** 1/2 out of *****
I had heard a lot about this movie before I finally got around to watching it. I have heard that the actress was not 'acting', she actually was subjected to 5 days of torture (toned down, I'm sure) in order to make the film feel 'more genuine'. The actress (Rodleen Getsic) really did get branded for the purpose of this film, just like she really did get tossed around and humiliated all for the purpose of making this film. As sad as that sounds, I do have to give some credit where credit is due and applaud the actress for taking on such a absolutely degrading, terrifying role all for the purpose of creating what she felt was art. It's hard to even call this film a film, because it really is more of an intense visual experience rather than a traditional movie. Knowing a little background, I couldn't help but feel vaguely disturbed thinking about the effects this movie must have had on the mental well being of the actress, even though everything was consented to. Apparently the rule while filming this movie was to take the 'whatever happens, happens' approach. To me, this film served as an eerie reminder that hey, there really are creepy dudes out there who kidnap and torture women (and men I'm sure) and this is what it could look like! The commentary on the DVD revealed that Ms. Getsic felt as if 'a part of her soul died' after finishing this film. If you brush aside the notion that all of this could have been said for hype and publicity, there is just something so real and disturbing about that statement. This film feels gritty and raw. It feels like a voyeuristic foray into the dark room of a real kidnap/torture scenario. It certainly is not a film that we see very often.
However, the film has one major problem. It is incredibly, incredibly BORING. Dear sky daddy in heaven, this was the longest 76 minutes of my life. We have scene after scene of characters staring into walls and screaming. The tired 'black and white' filming technique just feels as if the director is trying way too hard to be artistic. It's a shame that such a bold and powerful premise turned into such a boring pile of garbage. Strange and frequent camera cuts continually serve to remind us that we are watching a 'professional' production rather than some camcorder snuff. There is hardly any dialogue in the film at all, and many of the scenes are repetitive as well as drawn out.
Overall, I would not say that this is a 'good' film. I think it would have worked much better as a short. 76 minutes was just way too long for such a short and simple premise. The background and what went into making this film is certainly interesting and disturbing. The movie does succeed in setting up a rather creepy atmosphere as does it succeed as making us feel absolutely terrible for this poor prostitute who was kidnapped. However, the few glimmers of light are snuffed out by the flaws. I think this movie suffers a bit from overhype. Sure the movie is controversial, if you can stay awake. I usually never tell any diehard horror fans to not check out a movie at least once regardless of how bad it is, and I certainly would not tell anybody to NOT see 'The Bunny Game', simply because it has an interesting real life story with the actress and the 'real life torture', etc. However, I will surely warn you that you probably won't be re-watching this one a bunch of times, so perhaps that fancy Blu-Ray is unnecessary.
RATING:
** 1/2 out of *****