Torture Prevalent, Effective in Popular Movies, Study Finds

-January 21st, 2020

"TUSCALOOSA, Ala.-The majority of popular films, including those for children, have at least one torture scene, and the scenes are usually depicted as achieving the torturer’s goal, according to a study involving a researcher at The University of Alabama."

"-They created a database of scenes from the 20 top-grossing films in North America from 2008 through 2017. Of those, 60 percent had at least one torture scene.

In all, there were 275 scenes of torture from 27 R-rated movies, 108 PG-13 movies, 58 PG-rated movies and seven G-rated movies. There were nine torture scenes among the G-rated movies, although they were lighter actions, such as dropping characters from big heights, researchers found. “I did not appreciate how prevalent torture was actually going to be,” Delehanty said. “The thing that shook me and what led to the title of our research – ‘Wait, There’s Torture in Zootopia?: Examining the Prevalence of Torture in Popular Movies’ – was how many kids movies have torture scenes in them.”

https://www.ua.edu/news/2020/01/torture-prevalent-effective-in-popular-movies-study-finds/