Psychiatrists as Film Critics call 'Hostel II' painfully compelling

From the Boston Globe. Where in a collection of psychiatrists are not terribly disturbed by what could be called the cutting edge in 'torture porn' a slasher flick called 'Hostel: Pasrt II' First the introduction:

On a recent afternoon, five shrinks sat inside a movie theater and watched as a naked lady, hanging upside down over a bathtub, was tortured to death by another nude woman using a scythe.

This was not some twisted version of a Harvard Med School retreat. It was a screening of "Hostel: Part II," the latest slasher flick by Newton native Eli Roth.

Sheldon Roth, the filmmaker's father and a professor of psychiatry at the medical school, organized the outing at the Globe's request. He recruited four others -- two men and two women -- to analyze the film by his son, a writer/director considered to be at the forefront of a genre not so kindly referred to as "torture porn."

"This is one of the most misogynistic films ever made," a New York Times reviewer wrote of the original "Hostel" last year.

None of this worried Sheldon Roth. [Psychiatrist father of the film director]

While we expect that professionals in the field on the human mind to be capable of handling some pretty grim stuff, this does not mean we would expect them to take pleasure in the perverse. But we forgot, these are psychiatrists.

There wasn't much chatter in the theater. The shrinks sat quietly, watching the action as the lead characters, three college-age women taking a tour of Slovakia, were stalked, captured, and eventually offered up to the violent deviants paying to live out their fantasies in a grimy factory building.

Kennedy took a certain amount of pride in not turning away from the screen.

"I had heard about the first 'Hostel' and my kids had said, 'Mom, you're never going to be able to get through this,' " she said.

Fabricant admitted she had to close her eyes during a scene in which a young child was killed. She also found the scythe tough to take. She was asked about another scene, in which a man is castrated by one of the college girls with an pair of scissors.

"I watched that," she said, and the others laughed.

As film critics, they were far more forgiving than the national press. The doctors -- Roth's father was excluded from the vote -- gave the young filmmaker two 3-star rankings, a 3 1/2, and a 4. Gutheil said he was very impressed by Roth's use of insider film references, which included casting Ruggero Deodato, the director of the controversial 1980 film "Cannibal Holocaust," as a cannibal.

[...]

[One psychiatrist] said that while he would encourage fans of horror films to see "Hostel: Part II," he would not recommend it be shown in prisons. Serial killers would also not be a good target audience.

"By fusing the erotic and violent, there are ways you create fantasies that become a playground for serial killers," he said.

The therapists said they did find Roth's characters compelling, particularly Stuart, the haplessly beaten-down family man who directs his anger at a stranger meant to look like the wife he hates and can't confront.

"Displacement," said Hoffer.

"It's subtle," Gutheil joked, "but it's there."

Does Eli Roth have a problem with women? None of the shrinks thought so.

Sheldon, his father, wrapped up the debate, noting that relationships are always complicated.

"I can say I've been married over 40 years," he said, " and I have a lot of learning to do."

Somehow I cannot help but think that such a creative exercise of cruelty would be disturbing to most normal rational folks. There is also traditional folklore that the children of mental health professional, such as psychiatrists, are often the weirdest and craziest kids on the block. [Note that the film maker is a psychiatrist's son]

Thus I find it worrisome that these professionals were so tolerant or admiring of a film of this genre, in a time when we all could wish for a less violent world.