50 Shades of Gore: ‘The Dare’ Invites Us to Revisit Mid-2000s Torture Porn
As horror fans, we have mixed reactions to the term “torture porn”. On the one hand, it’s a frustratingly vague moniker that writes off a whole swathe of mid-2000s horror films, implying (often wrongly) that, beyond their confrontational aesthetics, they had nothing of substance to offer. On the other hand, Leigh Wannell‘s Saw and films like it did lead to a market flooded with cheap imitations, all too keen to ape the gory atmosphere of torture porn without really understanding what made those original films engaging. So where is torture porn in 2020? What is the ugly stepchild of mid-2000s horror up to now that it’s in its troublesome teens? Enter Giles Alderson’s The Dare, a film that unapologetically drags us back to 2004, locks us in its brown basement and starts sharpening its knives.
Workaholic Jay (Bart Edwards) is enjoying a night in with his family when a mysterious assailant breaks in, knocking him unconscious. Soon, Jay wakes to find himself locked in a filthy cell, chained to a wall with three other unfortunates. There’s Adam (Richard Short), Cat (Alexandra Evans) and the unconscious Paul (Daniel Schutzmann). All the inhabitants of the room show signs of wear and tear, but Paul is practically at death’s door, covered in cuts with his mouth sewn shut. When a masked, muscle-bound psychopath enters, it becomes clear that his house guests must perform violent acts on each other in order to save their families.
From here, the narrative splits. We follow a boy named Dominic (Mitchell Norman) who has a slightly obscure relationship with a man named Credence (the inimitable Richard Brake). As we follow this pair, it becomes clear that their relationship is abusive. Credence exhibits a tendency towards cruelty with an edge of twisted morality, and young Dominic is held in his thrall.
These flashback sections are much more interesting than the subterranean ordeals of the kidnap victims. There’s a bit of psychological complexity to the pairing of Dominic and Credence, the latter exerting a kind of Stockholm syndrome hold over his charge. In contrast, the other sections are little more than shallow cruelty being enacted by a cast of extremely unlikeable characters.
Visually, the film is very accomplished. However, once again there is a quality divide between the two timelines. The flashback sequences are well lit, but the basement torture scenes are often dark to the point of being completely unreadable. The practical effects, on the other hand, are top-notch throughout. Sequences involving crucifixion and peeling trips of flesh from a living torso are every bit as wince-inducing as you would expect from a film of this type.
What critics of torture porn often wrongly asserted was that extreme violence was being used as a replacement for storytelling. On the contrary, when used correctly, violence is itself a storytelling tool. It doesn’t just move the plot along and add tension – it re-contextualises the characters, taking workaday schlubs and forcing them into extreme situations to expose their true natures. Some of the early films in the genre used violence reflectively, encouraging the audience to examine their own relationship with extreme onscreen sadism.
Despite its visual references to other films in the sub-genre, The Dare never quite gets there. All too often, the film feels like it is putting the story on hold in order to get another shock in. Nor are the characters transformed by their experiences. We don’t spend enough time with any of them to really see how the traumatic experience has hardened them. From our point of view, they start off mean-spirited and unpleasant, experience a lot of pain and (if they survive) go on to be mean-spirited and unpleasant (but now very sore).
The end result is a rather shallow-feeling film. Some good performances, gory sequences and the hint of a more interesting story than the one we get elevate this above some other entries in the crowded sub-genre. However, they aren’t nearly enough to set it amongst the pack leaders.