Torture porn film ‘Compliance’ arrives in theaters September 26

Film festivals have always been a venue where edgy filmmakers can push the limits of art with new ideas. At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, one director pushed the limits with a torture porn film about a young female employee being interrogated for theft.

The film generated waves of controversy from the moment it first appeared at the festival, and many of those who saw the film reportedly stayed to boo the director and his stars. Those who didn’t boo the film left early because they “felt so violated” according to a recent article by Time

So what’s the big deal with Compliance? Well first of all, it’s not reality. While the film is based on true events, everybody in the film is a paid actor/actress, and the entire film is scripted.

At the start of Compliance, viewers are introduced to an average fast food location called ChickWich. The fast food joint is dealing with typical problems – there aren’t enough tomatoes to handle the evening rush, for example. But there is one problem deemed more important than the rest: one 19-year old female blonde employee is suspected of stealing money from the cash register.

Soon enough, a prank caller is contacting the fast food place and telling employees to do all sorts of illegal things to the young woman – whose name is Becky. The caller claims he’s a cop and he sounds authoritative, so the employees follow the caller’s orders as best as they can. Before long, Becky is being locked in a back office and strip searched. And things escalate even further from there.

The idea of the film is that people will go to surprisingly great lengths when they hear a voice of authority on the other end. It was shown in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and it was demonstrated by the Milgram electric shock experiments at Yale in the 1960s.

According to the directory, another goal of the film was to involve the audience as much as possible. Instead of simply watching the film, the audience is becoming implicit in the film’s actions by simply watching it. After all, moviegoers can decide whether to stay for the entire film or get up and leave halfway through.

According to Time, the movie is a “tough sit”, and it’s been described as “riveting, repelling.” It’s a what would you do? type of movie, except this time, you can actually change the way you experience the movie by deciding whether to stay or go.

You can check out Compliance on IMDB here

What do you think? Do movies like this go too far? Or is this just another art piece pushing the boundaries of what’s acceptable in the world of film?

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