Clayton George Wickham - final thesis

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sequences of Saw, where Adam and Dr. Gordon are trapped in the disused industrial
bathroom, and provides one example of the mutual development of these two subgenres.
The Saw series includes six sequels of varying success, one released each
year, ending with Saw 3-D (2010; dir. Greutert). Although very few films of this
sort are still produced, the release of Saw initiated a group of films retaining a
similar formula, including Hostel, The Devil’s Rejects (2005; dir. Zombie) 18 , Wolf
Creek (2005; dir. Mclean), Paradise Lost (2006; dir. Stockwell), Captivity (2007; dir.
Joffé), and Hostel: Part II (2007; dir. Roth). The diminished box office intake of
Hostel: Part II and the declining earnings in the Saw series verify the genre’s
decrease in popularity since 2005, although the straight-to-video Hostel Part III
(2011; dir. Spiegel) has been released and films such as The Human Centipede (First
Sequence) (2009; dir. Six) and particularly its sequel, The Human Centipede 2 (Full
Sequence) (2011; dir. Six) borrow closely from the torture-horror formula.
However, the primary elements of this specific movement of torture-horror, have
closely informed the ongoing trend in slasher remakes with which it shares
significant aesthetic and thematic links, and can be seen in clear evidence in Friday
the 13 th (2009).
The following chapter will discuss “perspective” as I choose to define it,
which will then provide the conceptual framework for the succeeding analysis of the
Friday the 13 th series. However, I find it important, within the structure of this
historical outline, to remind the reader of the following: while little has been said of
the aesthetic representation of perspective during this section, narrative analysis still
18 The Devil’s Rejects is a follow-up to Rob Zombie’s film House of 1,000 Corpses (2003), and bears
similarities to these torture-horror films, but it both recognises and deviates from horror formulas, and
was not frequently imitated. The Devil’s Rejects shares more in common with films like Saw and
Hostel.