Dark Anxieties About Globalization at the Movies

This past Friday night I went to see the third installment in the Saw franchise - what can I say? I really like watching gross-out horror films in theatres (it seems like no other types of movies instill such affective or physical responses in me), but horror films also fascinate me because they tend to function as relatively conservative critiques of morality and - to varying degrees of complexity - highlight cultural anxieties in really crude ways. Each Saw movie, though ostensibly presenting the same kind of gore, has focused on three different themes: the first focused on how one values life and exhibits that value through everyday actions and consideration for others; the second explored our dependence on others for life and how trust functions in group dynamics; finally, the latest installment explores power relationships between heterosexual couples and whether there is such a thing as a "life-altering event" where one's character can radically change in response to trauma. The unfortunate assumption in all three films, and one that our federal government also takes for granted with the recent passage of the "torture bill" - is that physical pain and torture seems to trump mental pain and torture in terms of taking its effects seriously and efforts to monitor it. To overcome or withstand physical torture indicates good character and commitment in Saw while mental pain is simply an indulgent, controllable failing of the individual.

The previews before Saw III advertised the upcoming release of Turistas and the second installment of Hostel - the basic message of these films seems to be that when stupid Americans treat "developing" countries as their playground for random sexual encounters and drug and alcohol abuse, then they are so going to get it. The first Hostel even suggests that the value of an American body (even if it's a value placed on it by thrill-kill executioners) is dramatically higher than the value of Other bodies in the world. I can't help but wonder if this recent slew of movies isn't creating representations of our anxieties about the perception of the U.S. and reactionary fears about the effects of globalization.