By Rex Reed 6/13/12 12:25pm

movies

The Tortured Leaves Audience Past Pain Threshold

The Tortured, unconvincingly written by Marek Posival and awkwardly directed by Robert Lieberman, is a nasty piece of work that’s been hanging around for two years looking for an audience. It’s a revolting horror film that wastes the talents and good looks of Erika Christensen and Jesse Metcalfe in favor of severed penises and other violent atrocities performed on a kitchen table. Be forewarned: it’s not for the demure or easily shocked. Read More

By Rex Reed 4/10/12 7:22pm

movies

Jenkins, Amy Acker and Whitford in The Cabin in the Woods.

The Cabin in the Woods Is a Pixelated Nightmare

On the advice of a friend who described The Cabin in the Woods as the next cinematic “happening” in horror and mayhem, I bit the bullet and suffered through a creepfest so stupid it makes trashy slash-and-burn epics like Humans Versus Zombies and I Spit on Your Grave seem like Molière and Proust. Some films have to seek their own audience like oil seeks its own level in water. Others arrive with a preordained sort of word-of-mouth anticipation that cannot be explained. This is one of them.

A testament to the wonders of writing under the guidance of crystal meth, this nightmare spoof of everything from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the Scream franchise totally defies logic, and pretty much eludes description. Read More

By Joe Conason 6/09/10 3:23am

Op-Ed

Our Tortured Past

Torture is no longer a pressing concern for the American public, if it ever was. The country’s attention has understandably turned to lost jobs, costly health care and spilled oil. Most Americans probably agree with President Obama that rather than dwell on the secret abuses of the Bush-Cheney regime, we ought to be Read More

By Steve Cohen 5/04/09 3:48pm

Torture: Ineffective, Illegal, and Unprincipled

The issue of torture and security keeps reemerging in the news, as we debate matters of national survival and our core values. The issue is often posed in the following way: What if a terrorist had information about an urgent threat to American lives and the only way to obtain that information would be to Read More