Hostel takeover: "Horror pornography" tops the box office, defeats Aslan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(Thanks to Peter T. Chattaway for noting this so quickly.) A movie that gives audiences the opportunity to watch human beings tortured, decapitated,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2006\/01\/hostel-takeover-horror-pornography-tops-the-box-office-defeats-aslan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hostel takeover: "Horror pornography" tops the box office, defeats Aslan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Thanks to Peter T. Chattaway for noting this so quickly.) 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{"id":13582,"date":"2006-01-08T05:11:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-08T05:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/2006\/01\/08\/hostel-takeover-horror-pornography-tops-the-box-office-defeats-aslan\/"},"modified":"2012-10-29T13:42:45","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T19:42:45","slug":"hostel-takeover-horror-pornography-tops-the-box-office-defeats-aslan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2006\/01\/hostel-takeover-horror-pornography-tops-the-box-office-defeats-aslan\/","title":{"rendered":"Hostel takeover: "Horror pornography" tops the box office, defeats Aslan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

(Thanks to Peter T. Chattaway<\/a> for noting this so quickly.)<\/p>\n

A movie that gives audiences the opportunity to watch human beings tortured, decapitated, having their throats cut, their heads smashed in, parts of their body chopped up and thrown in a furnace, shot point blank, their eyes dangling from their sockets and eventually cut (to relieve the pain), poked full of holes with a drill, having digits snipped off, throwing themselves in front of trains, having their chest cavities opened for more torture\u2026.<\/p>\n

\u2026. is #1 at the box office this weekend, according to early numbers.<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, Eli Roth\u2019s hyperviolent Hostel<\/em> looks like it not just defeat, but overwhelm <\/em>both Aslan <\/em>and King Kong <\/em>at the Box Office.<\/p>\n

Brokeback Mountain <\/em>is getting all kinds of flack from conservatives beyond the boundaries of Christian movie reviews. But it\u2019s nowhere near #1. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how many \u201cculture-watchers\u201d sound an alarm over America\u2019s embrace of a movie that even mainstream critics are calling \u201chorror porn.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to just write something off because it\u2019s violent. I\u2019ve defended a lot of violent films as worthwhile and redeeming, from Saving Private Ryan<\/em> to A History of Violence<\/em>. But in those cases, the violence has served a meaningful purpose, and I\u2019ve provided plenty of cautions about the content, qualifying that only discerning and conscientious adult viewers should proceed.<\/p>\n

And in a sense, the description above bears some similarity to Dante\u2019s L\u2019Inferno<\/em>. But L\u2019Inferno <\/em>is a dead-serious work of art about the nature of hell and the wages of sin. Is Hostel<\/em> serious about anything?<\/p>\n

Some critics think so.<\/a><\/p>\n

Still\u2026 what\u2019s being advertised? Human suffering, as entertainment. And lately, it seems there\u2019s a contest on to see who can serve up the most taxing and extreme display of grotesquerie and bloodshed.<\/p>\n

I invite anyone who sees Hostel <\/em>to post a comment and defend the film here, if they\u2019ve seen it. Since I haven\u2019t seen it, all I can do is pass along what I\u2019m hearing. (Please don\u2019t misunderstand this as an exhortation to go see it for yourself, though. I suspect the nay-sayers are right about this one.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"