Bane (2008, aka
Bane: An Experiment in Human
Suffering, dir: James Eaves; script: James Eaves; cast:
Sophia Dawnay, Lisa Devlin, Tina Barnes, Sylvia Robson, Daniel
Jordan, Jonathan Sidgwick)
Despite this,
Bane has been marketed as "science fiction." I first saw it on
a DVD film festival screener. Years later I saw it on the schedule
of a sci-fi cable channel. I didn't watch its TV edit, so I don't
know how much of
Bane they censored, but it's a pretty bloody film. They must
have censored some of it.
Catchy title, no? The emphasis is not on fear or terror, but on
suffering. Think of
Bane as a snuff film, but without anyone actually dying.
One reviewer praised
Bane for not relying on nudity. Well, no. While
Bane is not
quite hardcore porn, there's much softcore porn,
including shower scenes.
Bane is torture porn. Four women wake up in a futuristic
prison, and are periodically taken off to be tortured and/or
killed. There's also a "surprise twist" ending, where we learn the
details of this post-apocalyptic world, and why the women are in
prison. This revelation is not especially interesting, and
certainly not "satisfying" as another reviewer claimed.
Bane tries to compensate for its misogyny by making the
surviving Last Girl into a tough, Lara Croft type super-heroine.
She turns on her captors and kills with gusto.
Bane is essentially about a bunch of women who are mercilessly
tortured and killed for no good reason, balanced by one of the
women getting in her own blood-thirsty jabs.
Science fiction, like horror, benefits from a "sense of wonder."
The Ring,
The Grudge,
Jeepers Creepers -- even
Halloween -- all had a "sense of wonder," in that the
protagonists were confronted with dark powers greater than
themselves. (People forget that Michael Myers's indestructibility
was shocking and surprising in 1978, before indestructible
slashers became a cliché.)
Bane has no "sense of wonder." Nor does its "suspense" rely on
mysterious, intriguing characters (e.g.
Psycho). Instead,
Bane is sordid torture porn, with a (sorta) sordid torture
revenge ending.
"Communist Vampires" and "CommunistVampires.com" trademarks are currently unregistered, but pending registration upon need for protection against improper use. The idea of marketing these terms as a commodity is a protected idea under the Lanham Act. 15 U.S.C. s 1114(1) (1994) (defining a trademark infringement claim when the plaintiff has a registered mark); 15 U.S.C. s 1125(a) (1994) (defining an action for unfair competition in the context of trademark infringement when the plaintiff holds an unregistered mark).font>