'Torture Porn' Ads Go Too Far

This creepy Captivity ad was effectively banned in the US, but still used in Europe. This is one of the films some are calling "Torture Porn."

Check out Hollywood NOW President Lindsey Horvath and CA NOW "Women in the Public Eye" Conference speaker Jill Soloway* in this Women's eNews story on the subject. Here's some of it:

Women have long borne the brunt of on-screen terrorizing says Jill Soloway, a consulting producer of ABC's TV show "Dirty Sexy Money." But she says the difference is the element of torture in movies that followed "Hostel," such as "Captivity," which prompted a storm of criticism for its graphic ads.

"There's all this blood spurting and it's like waiting for the money shot in a porn movie," says Soloway.

Lindsey Horvath, who works in film advertising and is president of the National Organization for Women's Hollywood chapter, doesn't see it that way. "We think the term is devastatingly accurate," she said about calling the films torture porn. Both she and Soloway emphasize that they do not want to censor the films but have organized against graphic, torture-porn advertisements, since they are in public view, where onlookers don't make an active choice about seeing the images.

Ick. If people are going to make and watch this kind of dehumanizing, violent crap, they could at least keep the ads fit for popular consumption. Right?

*If you haven't read Soloway's Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, and you "came of age" in the 80s and 90s, OMG you MUST!