Eden Lake

I have long since accepted that I have inhibitions which could stand in the way of my being a serious film critic. Perhaps the most prominent of these is the fact that I cannot watch anything remotely scary. Now, I have overcome this to such an extent that I can watch thrillers, but the horror and (most extreme) the slasher genre are still intolerable.
Today, however, I was forced to reevaluate this limitation. Am I truly afraid? Yes. But is that why I cannot watch these movies. I have seen (and loved) Repulsion, Let the Right One In, Diabolique, Wait Until Dark, and The Devil's Backbone. I have watched (and lived through) The Shining and Jennifer's Body. I have actually reached a point where I seek out thrillers, despite the inevitable pangs of fear.
So why could I not make it through Eden Lake today? Why could I not watch the first torture scene? I begin to think that it may have nothing to do with it being "scary". Instead, I think I have a problem with objectification. Watching that movie, I couldn't help but feel that I was supposed to be enjoying watching the bloody debasement of Michael Fassbender. And I did not enjoy it in the slightest. I hated it.
I do not enjoy watching men be violently emasculated, nor do I enjoy watching women be baptized in blood. So why would I watch a slasher film? Mind, I have no problem with outright objectification. I feel no guilt watching Channing Tatum films (which, let's face it, are just thinly-plotted vehicles for his muscles to get some screen time). But those films exalt the finer qualities of actors. Even dramas vaunt their emotional capabilities. Thrillers acknowledge the craft of the director. But slasher films revel in evisceration: it is a sadistic objectification.
I will not say that the genre is without merit. I even enjoyed the film I watched today, up to the point where I had to turn it off. It is that very enjoyment that I shy away from. I am not comfortable enjoying something that simultaneously distresses me. Of course, a professional critic does not have the option of turning off a film she must review. So this is something I must overcome. For now, I will not be watching Eden Lake again anytime soon.