Editorials
“The Walking Dead” Is the Furthest Possible Thing from “Torture Porn”
There are few things I’ve come to hate more than the term “torture porn,” which was coined in the wake of mid-2000s films like Saw and Hostel. Basically, the term means what it sounds like it means, denoting films that exist for no other purpose than to subject the audience to graphic and gruesome torture sequences. Mind you, the story-rich Saw franchise doesn’t exactly fit that bill, but it’s nevertheless the film that led to the creation of the reductive and disrespectful term.
Of course, horror has since the beginning of time been looked down upon by film buffs, and “torture porn” is just another way to slam the genre for being the bastard stepchild of the entertainment industry. Granted, there are a handful of movies that can indeed be appropriately described as “torture porn,” but for the most part, the term tends to be applied in all the wrong places. It seems to have become a catch-all term for any piece of entertainment that’s violent, whether it’s a Tarantino film or, well, the latest episode of “The Walking Dead.“
As we’ve already touched upon here on Bloody Disgusting, this past Sunday night’s Season 7 premiere of the hit AMC series was one of the most disturbing, harrowing, and grueling hours of television we’ve ever endured, and though we understood that it was exactly as upsetting and brutal as it needed to be, many viewers didn’t quite feel the same way. You’ve probably noticed that your social media feeds are presently filled with outrage about the episode, with many viewers feeling that the network went too far; some have even gone so far as to proclaim that they will never again watch the show. And worse yet, many have written off the incredible episode as, you guessed it, mindless “torture porn.”
What’s funny about this is that “The Walking Dead,” for six complete seasons now, has been mostly criticized for one thing: oddly enough, countless viewers have tuned out because the show is just a bit too story-dense. Horror fans hungry for nonstop zombie action have for years bemoaned the fact that the show is often as talky and dramatic as it is horrifying, if not moreso, and they’ve found themselves bored by all that pesky storytelling. But somehow, in the wake of Negan beating both Abraham and Glenn to death, many articles and social media posts have slammed the series for being nothing more than “torture porn”: a term that, I must remind you, denotes entertainment that is bereft of… story.
Okay, so a show logically cannot have both too much story and no story and all, so let’s assume that those currently criticizing “The Walking Dead” for being “mindless torture porn” are only actually referring to, specifically, the Season 7 premiere – which was, without question, the most brutal and hard-to-watch episode of the show to date. The murders of both Abraham and Glenn were incredibly graphic and downright torturous to watch, and yes, the entire episode was essentially devoted to those heinous acts of barbarism. But if you think what you watched this past Sunday night was mindless violence, nothing more, you surely must’ve been a first-time watcher.
What we saw this past Sunday night was the culmination, for several characters, of YEARS of slow-burn storytelling – of course, for Abraham and Glenn, it was the end of their stories, but for Sasha, Rosita, and Maggie, the direct loved ones of those deceased characters, it was the start of devastating new chapters that will play out in the weeks, months, and years to come. And then there’s the impact that all of this will have on main character Rick Grimes, which was very much at the center of the episode.
Negan’s primary goal was to establish dominance over the group and make Rick understand that he was no longer in control of anything, and by the time he nearly forced Rick to cut off his own son’s arm, that message was firmly beaten into our hero’s brain. The episode was all about the complete destruction of Rick and nearly every single character we’ve fallen in love with these past six years, both the ones who died and also the ones who survived, and the reason why so many viewers are so upset is, I assure you, because it was hard to watch the implosion of a family unit we hold so near and dear to our hearts. In other words, the only reason any of it was disturbing and upsetting is because of all the storytelling that came before it… YEARS worth of storytelling.
And all those individual stories, oh boy have they been forever changed.
So how can a series, and a specific episode, so rich with compelling narrative threads be reduced to “torture porn” by anyone who has any idea what they’re talking about? Honestly, it cannot be. There is meaning to literally every single thing that happens on “The Walking Dead,” whether it’s a character conversation or a character death, and to assign the term “torture porn” to the show is to disregard all the incredible storytelling that has kept millions of viewers, myself included, riveted to the screen for more than half a decade now. It’s a bloody show. It’s a violent show. It’s a cruel show. But no other horror property on either the small or big screen right now is telling a better story than it.
“The Walking Dead” is, simply put, the antithesis of “torture porn.”
If you think otherwise, you haven’t been paying much attention.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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