Here, by the way, is a little of what horrormeister Wes Craven, who was here to talk about Starz's "Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film," had to say:

"Torture has entered into [some recent films] in a big way, and it's no coincidence that torture is in the news all the time: Guantanamo and, you know, outsourcing torture and torture of prisoners that are taken by the other guys; you know, that's horrendous. Whatever is in the news that is deeply troubling will turn up in horror films in the area of violence because then you say -- nobody does it consciously, but it's just like, 'Okay, what's the scariest thing that you can expose a character to?'

"It would be like, 'What if he's being tortured?' So they're dealing with torture now. And it's all about that, confronting your worst fears and the worst things you feel are out there, and seeing a central character that you identify with going -- getting out of it somehow, getting through it. Because horror films are kind of like the boot camp for the psyche, of young people especially."

Also:

"I've always felt horror films are a mirror but not talking about violence that's so much in the filmmakers, although you have to acknowledge your own ropensity or capability of that, but it's about the violence that they're seeing that is so deeply frightening to the filmmakers.

"I mean if you look at the body of horror filmmakers, the typical guys, for the most part, they're funny guys, they're quiet guys, and they're very sensitive
guys. I hate to say it, but it's true. You talk to John Carpenter, you talk to Tony Hooper, talk to any of those guys, George Romero -- they're sweet people; they're deeply disturbed by the violence in life."