I can't really say much about "torture porn", as I've only seen the first movie in the Saw series, and haven't seen anything else that really fits that description.

Forget the phrase lol.

Goodness knows where it came from but it covers such a wide variety of sub-genres that it's pretty much meaningless anyway.

Media Construct much lik 'Video Nasty'.

Torture Porn is a silly term.

Haha, I'm looking for who actually coined that phrase into popular use.

It's odd that Saw always gets held up as an example of TP, I mean if that series is known for anything it's surely the stories as much as the gore? I never really understand that.

I was actually surprised by the gore (or lack thereof) in the first Saw film. I have seen many movies with significantly more gore than Saw. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I find the first Saw film to be quite brilliant. Easily in my top ten or fifteen best horror movies of the last decade.

I think it descended quickly. Though the twists kept coming thick and fast, I got the impression that from 3 onwards, with brief respite at the end of the series, the films became a vehicle for brutal torture scenes. Though the twists were present, they were often so convoluted and pseudo-shocking that I didn't feel like much effort was being put in. I mean, it doesn't really take much effort to write the story, then go "and then...it was HIM all along" and shove in a 3 minute rapid sequence that "explains" it all.

That being said, I DO think the first two were great contributions to the post-millenial horror scene. Well thought out psychological thrillers with a great concept.

YES. My mind is a bit mushy right now so I'm scrambling for examples of this - What comes to mind for you?

I think Sinister with Ethan Hawke overused music for some scenes. It drained tension by drawing attention to the music instead of the overall scene.

Sinister and Insidious basically is a giant example of everything I hate about modern horror films.

Slick hollow and tacky cheap jump scares with some of the most fucking ridiculous looking villains in the history of horror.

I really don't get why they get so much praise when they are just poorly executed messes.