Demonlover

Work Title: Demonlover
Medium: Film
Episode Title:
Year: 2002
Writer(s): Olivier Assayas
"Original" Writer: Yes Own work?: No
Summary:

Directed: Olivier Assayas; " 'Demonlover'' is a thriller revolving around deception, virtual reality, sexual fetishes and violence. If you didn't like the surrealistic worlds of David Lynch's "Lost Highway'" and David Cronenberg's "Videodrome,"' this is not a movie for you. It has a similarly nightmarish quality, leading viewers through an inescapable maze. ... / One day, Diane is kidnapped, blindfolded and taken to a room where she is videotaped on a bed. She subsequently slips into a state of paranoia, unable to distinguish friend from foe, or reality from a computer-created virtual world. / What starts out as a cyberpunk spy flick gradually soon makes no sense, then descends into delirium, in which reality and the fantasy of a computer-generated world mingle on screen. / The twist in "Demonlover"' will horrify some viewers, who will leave the cinema hoping the real world they're returning to is not as revolting as the one they've just seen. / ``The film is about how reality is losing ground to fantasy, how we are losing touch with humanity and reality,'' Assayas says." (from http://www.asahi.com/english/arts/TKY200502250125.html

Era/Year of Portrayal: present_day
Distinctive characteristics of the world in portrayal:

Contemporary world with no distinctive traits except for the conspiracies implied in the narrative. Multinational businesses broker deals to best rivals.

Technology

  • Name of portrayed presence-evoking technology: Hell Fire Club website hidden within the Demonlover website
  • Description of the technology: the Hell Fire Club sub-site allows the user to log on and view pre-recorded torture scenes. It is implied that the fantasies users submit to the site will be fulfilled with future torture scenes. To use the Hell Fire Club website, the user needs a computer, a credit card, and a taste for watching women costumed as their favorite fictional heroines being tortured, gassed, beaten, electrocuted, and drugged by unrevealed {and often masked } assailants. The user logs one, pays the fee, and then selects an option from banner scrolling across the screen as to which tirture seen he (or she) would like to watch. The scene then plays out in full sight and sound on the monitor screen for the user. The scene has been recorded using cameras placed around the torture chamber, with the victim's reactions highlighted by close-ups and tight face-shots.
  • Nature of task or activity: The user typically just watches the events unfold. It is implied that some viewers derive sexual pleasure while watching these events. One user, a teenager, is shown doing his science homework while a torture scene begins to play on his monitor screen
  • Performance of the Technology: the Hell Fire Club website is considered to be in beta-testing throughout most of the film. By the end, it is implied that the site is sully operational and available to the public.
  • Description of creator(s): the creators of the Hell Fire Club website are implied to be male. Most of their employees and agents are female, and it is implied that they are all former torture victims who have been discarded from use in the torture scenarios. Each of these g
  • Major goal(s) of creator(s): to make money from porn addicts, sadists, and voyeurs
  • Description of users of technology: Because the main tirture victim is a constantly changing character named Zora, always depicted by a woman, I believe the users are meant to be male (at least primarily). These people must have access to credit cards (whether their own or others), and must own or have access to computers. This implies a degree of socioeconomic clout necessary to access the service.
  • Type(s) of presence experience in the portrayal: social_presence
  • Description of presence experience: the presence occurs mostly in how the website is set up. When a user logs on, they get the prompt: "Click here to find me" after which a series of images of women dressed as Wonder Woman, Emma Peele, Barbarella, and Lara Croft scroll across the screen. The prompt serves as social presence to make the user feel as if the character is speaking to him (or her). Likewise, another section of the site addresses the user: "You want to torture ZORA? Send us your fantasy and we will make it real" and "If you want to know more about ZORA, click here." This sections of the site is where the user can send a fantasy that might become a new scenario, thus drawing the user into a parasocial relationship from the site's ability to respond to his/her desires.
  • User awareness of technology during experience: the users know they're using a computer, but in one instance the female lead is shown perusing the site and falls alseep at her desk, implying the "lost herself" in the site and nodded off while exploring it thoroughly.
  • Valence of experience: No one is ever shown enjoying the site. It is implied it is highly profitable though, which would indicate unseen users enjoy it immensely.
  • Specific responses: As mentioned before, the female lead, Diane, falls asleep while exploring every nook and cranny of the Hell Fire Club section of Demonlover.com, indicating a high degree of involvement that may have been peculiar to her because she was investigating the site for business purposes. She also becomes a ZORA by the end of the movie. The teen using the site is doing homework while watching the torture scenes, which implies that usage desensitizes viewers to sights of torture and abuse.
Long-term consequences:

The end of the moive implies the Hell Fire Club site has detrimental social consequences. The teen who uses the site steals his father's credit card to access the site. He seems to enjoy seeing women dressed as fictional characters being abused. And finally, he submits a new fantasy to the site: "ZORA IS STORM OF THE X-MEN TWO MUTANTS NEUTALIZE HER SUPER POWERS SHE IS BOUND TO A METAL BED ONE [...]" This fantasy mimics one Diane witnessed twice, and the movie ends with Diane tied to a metal bed. As the new ZORA, Diane looks up at the video camera and out through the teen's computer monitor as he does his science homework.

Other:

French with English subtitles. Not an easy movie to follow. The instance of social presence seems minimally interesting {unless something was missed in translation}.

Coder name: Tom Polcari
Coder email: tpolcari@temple.edu
Coder affiliation: Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122