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Torture horror like all genres is perpetually faced with two choices: evolve or die. I would like to see the first one happen because Phibes and Coffin Joe and the progenitors of the genre showed us a really good time, one that I don't feel has been replicated yet. With all of its existentialist flourish and grimy realism, Saw took away the carnivalization and the carnivalization of torture is what makes it interesting. The ability to have a fun world where people are having their blood siphoned out and locusts eat people's flesh was something great, something that made torture horror really seem like it could be a lot of fun. No fun, no progress. Cool traps are great. Bond writers and Dungeonmasters (both the pencil and roleplaying and BDSM kinds) all agree, but they can't make a D+ movie into a masterpiece, it takes a sincere and thorough sense of fun and irreverence to do that.
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