Hostel 2: It’s All About Plausible Deniability, Man

“We’re just not seeing things the same way any more, baby.”

I really dislike horror movies, but I was intrigued by the whole “torture porn” thing that occurred with Hostel 2 so I had to have a look at it, like it or not. And I didn’t. But I was rewarded for my perseverance (though not monetarily OF COURSE): I discovered that the whole “torture porn” thing was all about plausible deniability. So there's that!

The Hosteler-Bondager Convergence

"So, um, is having a thin rag tied in your mouth considered "breakfast" in this part of Europe? Because this is so not what I have in mind when I think "bed and breakfast."

The image above is from the mainstream horror film Hostel 2.

Some have attepted to redefine Hostel 2 as "torture porn" but I'm not buying it because horror movies have always been full of grisly images of human being experiencing prolonged, agonizing torment, often followed by death. It doesn't seem to me that in the case of movies like Hostel 2 the fact that it's a human being rather than a supernatural being or event that is the cause of all the misery isn't an important distinction to make. They all suck equally in that regard.

(Full disclosure: I haven't seen Nightmare on Elm Street or any of its sequels, I haven't seen any Texas Chainsaw Massacre film, I HAVE seen Halloween but not any of its sequels. I haven't seen any of the Hellraiser films though I have seen a couple of nice-sized chunks of Hellraiser III (the one with Terry Farrell in the head harness) ... oh, the list of horror movie's I've not seen is long. I'm just not into SM, apparently unlike most horror movie fans.)

ANYWAY, so Hostel 2 is a mainstream horror film by any reasonable definition of the term. And the thing is, this vidcap from Hostel 2 could have easily come from many commercial bondage sites, especially those that feature lots of clothed bondage.

Really, look at the two hotties from Hostel 2. Imagine if you saw them tied up on a sofa or a bed in a motel room, exactly as they are tied now. You'd be thinking David Knight. You'd be thinking FM Concepts. Really, look at them, hands tied behind, sporting thin cleave gags, both bound hands behind, and both bound at the waist and feet.

The difference between the bondage imagery found in mainstream films, especially horror films, and the bondage imagery found on commercial bondage site, continues to dwindle.

Pony Soldier, Funny Games and Pimpin' Da Bondage

I've written an article called "Pony Soldier, Funny Games and Pimpin' Da Bondage" over at my bondagerotica site. It was inspired by the discovery that Penny Edwards wore a VERY tight bitgag in her scenes in the 1952 Canadian Mountie-worship Western, "Pony Soldier."

Bitgags are extremely rare in mainstream media, maybe because to make them look halfway convincing, they have to be worn kinda tight. And Edwards wore the bitgag in SEVERAL scenes, which meant she spent quite awhile sitting around tied up with that thing in her mouth.

I wondered if there might have been some comment about it in movie mags of whatever, so I did a Google search over 100 sites deep looking for results under several different keywords.

In the meantime, I'd been discussing the way Naomi Watts talked up the bondage for her scene in the upcoming film "Funny Games" over on Brian's Page. I felt Watts was trying to promote the film by talking up the bondage scenes, others felt the talk about the scenes was incidental.

So I did some research ... actually a LOT of research ... looking for evidence that current actresses were talking up their bondage scenes to promote their films, and that actresses in older films didn't do that. The results of my research are detailed in my article. The best resource I found was H's Damsel in Distress Site which has over three dozen interviews with actresses about their bondage scenes, or their feelings about bondage. I also found lots and lots of caps of for the films I researched, all are present at the article site. Check it out, it's a fun article.