Graphic Sexual Horror (2009) [Blu-Ray]

Now Available from Synapse Films.

One of the bigger surprises of 2009 was “Graphic Sexual Horror” a documentary that pegs itself as this extreme movie about sexuality. In actuality, Barbara Bell and Anna Lorentzon’s film ends up as this very complex and interesting study on fetishes, S&M and torture. The whole concept of “Graphic Sexual Horror” came at an interesting time when America was still reeling from the Abu Ghraib incident, prompting us to take a good look at the darker side of our sadistic tendencies and personal accountability.

The pair of directors creates an interesting time capsule of the early days of the internet where the landscape of the world wide web was less regulated and censored. This was a time where websites like insex.com could flourish without much ballyhoo from the outside world. “Graphic Sexual Horror” spotlights the creation of insex.com and its founder Brent “pd” Scott who spent a lot of time creating a world of that revolved around satiating the fetishes of a massive clientele, all of whom paid to watch gorgeous models be tortured and abused online.

Although most of the time the acts were primarily for show, founder Brent did eventually begin to cross a line which stirred a lot of anger from his colleagues and the models themselves. With insex.com’s success, “Graphic Sexual Horror” dissects the pitfalls of success, and the exploitative nature of the beast. The directors don’t shy away from the revealing the inherent nature of the website and Brent’s own methods for staging certain BDSM and bondage scenes for his clientele, offering us a deeper look in to what unfolded with the models and when exactly he crossed a line.

“Graphic Sexual Horror” is worth the look warts and all, with often fascinating sometimes complicated ideas about when entertainment ends and exploitation begins.

The newly remastered Blu-Ray from Synapse Films comes in 1080p with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 from the original 2009 archival documentary files. It includes brand new features such as thirty five minutes of Deleted Scenes, ten more minutes of interview segments from the models featured in the documentary, an eight minutes interview with co-director Barbara Bell, and the original promotional trailer for “Graphic Sexual Horror.”