I promise this is a genuine question and I’m not trying to provoke anyone.
“Torture porn” is the name given to a particular subtype of horror that flourished in movies in the early 2000s. It’s basically horror that is focused on fear of physical pain, and in which the victims have to go through deaths that are especially long and agonizing (think the Saw movies as an example). The term is often used as a pejorative, but it is a legitimate niche in and of itself, and while it’s not my thing, I understand it has its audience.
Now, I’m not a big Stephen King fan, but the man is undeniably a gifted storyteller and I appreciate some of his work. However I really did not enjoy IT. It just seemed like a very simple story used as a platform for over 1000 pages of the most painful, nightmarish, unpleasant death scenes you can imagine. The part where >!a psychopath kid spends days torturing a dog puppy!< was especially hard to bear for me.
So I’m just wondering, would you say that IT, in terms of genre, falls under the category of “torture porn”? If you agree or disagree, why?
NB This is really not intended in any way as a slight towards Stephen King fans. As I said, I don’t think torture porn is really a derogatory term, and I’m fine with the idea of IT being considered as belonging to that genre and in fact as one of its best representatives.
by Judge_T