Extreme? Don't make me laugh

Rating: 3/10 (9 November 2008)

I'll get right to the real reason I hate this film, which is not necessarily because of the concept, the acting, the directing, or a lack of genuine scares. I hate it because it convinced a bunch of idiot kids that they had seen the gut-wrenching of the gut-wrenching when it came to horror films, when they have in fact seen only this, the whitewashed version.
I have heard a lot about how "original" the movie concept was. It's not. There were dozens of movies with "everyone plays everyone else" themes made before this, many of better conceived. I've also heard a lot about how intriguing the villain was. Persosnally, I can't believe they have now made five full-length films centered around this fellow. He's nothing special; Michael Myers and Norman Bates are more frightening, Regan MacNeil and Damien are more shocking, and Annie Wilkes, Jack Torrance, Lord Summersisle and Hannibal Lecter are all more psychologically mind-numbing.
But more than anything, it bothers me that people have the gall to refer to this as "extreme cinema." It tries very hard to be, but it fails; the director and writers are too afraid of what the censors might do to them, and it shows. Saw would be fine and marketable as a good watch on Halloween, but this effort I've seen to paint it as some kind of horrific moral treatise is downright insulting.
Cannibal Holocaust is extreme cinema. Salo is extreme cinema. Mondo Cane is extreme cinema. Irreversible is extreme cinema. In the Realm of the Senses is extreme cinema. Requiem for a Dream is extreme cinema. This is run-of-the-mill horror. Stop trying to make it into what it's not, and then we can assess it appropriately.