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Butchered in Translation: A Transnational “Grotesuqe”

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Transnational Horror Cinema

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Abstract

The Japanese torture film Grotesque (2009) and its life on the DVD circuit, following its much-publicized ban in the United Kingdom, provide a unique case study into the peculiar ways some low-budget genre films travel across disparate cultural markets. Dillon identifies a tendency for distributors of horror DVDs to devise titles, taglines, and/or DVD cover art that take foreign properties and contrive to repackage them as part of the American “torture porn” movement, most often by tying them to the successful Saw franchise. Through close examination of representative DVD presentations, he explores how cultural value and political meaning can be artificially imposed upon a film through mishaps and acts of mischief in the translation of horror film titles.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cinema and Television Arts, California State University, Fullerton, CA, USA

    Mike Dillon

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  1. Mike Dillon
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Film, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

    Sophia Siddique

  2. University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, USA

    Raphael Raphael

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Dillon, M. (2016). Butchered in Translation: A Transnational “Grotesuqe”. In: Siddique, S., Raphael, R. (eds) Transnational Horror Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58417-5_2

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