ARTICLE Sex and Death in Horror Cinema, Part 1 Sex and death have been closely intertwined in horror cinema since its genesis. From the seductive and mysterious Phantom of the Opera to every summer's psychopathic killer-of-the-month, the archetypes of horror have always maintained a certain sexual nature. The Slasher Movie and the Cautionary TaleThe most readily familiar sequence of sex and death is found in the modern american slasher movie. The familiar convention of teenagers going off to some deserted road / basement / attic to have sex, then being messily dispatched, has become a hallmark of the teenaged slasher flick. The horror send-up Scream, which centered itself around these creaky old horror-movie conventions, used this as a centerpiece: "Don't ever have sex! Sex means death in the horror movies!" Of course, the female lead's sexuality later comes into play as a plot point, and after her first sexual encounter, we find her life threatened by a knife-wielding maniac soon thereafter. This particular slasher-movie phenomenon can best be described as an inadvertently cautionary tale. In horror cinema, one rarely sees middle-aged married couples murdered while coupling. Nor do the elderly, who are almost invariably depicted as devoid of sexual nature in all movies, often find the business end of the slasher's knife. Teenagers who engage in ilicit sex, however, generally do not have long to live in your average horror film. Furthermore, if one looks at the Friday the 13th series as an example, the "virgin" archetype is most often the one most likely to survive any given encounter with the enemy. Conversely, the most sexually active female in any particular "victim group" is the most likely to get killed off first, and in the most gruesome fashion. This is an extension of the "horror movie morality," a rigidly defined moral structure that is the underpinning of a typical slasher movie. Chastity, true love, and perseverance will win the day against the faceless psychopath. Casual sex, stubborn disbelief in the supernatural or the divine (usually made manifest in law enforcement officials), and pleas for mercy will all earn one violent death. For all the flak horror movies generally receive from the religious right, the movies themselves are often Puritanical in their morality. Sorority House Massacre, or, Myth and MisogynyA close cousin to the Hollywood slasher movie is what we will call the "Sorority House Massacre" type of film; usually B-grade, independent productions, often shot on video and found occupying the dregs of any video rental establishment's horror section. Casting aside even the tenuous story conventions of a typical slasher movie, the Sorority House Massacre genre makes no illusions about its intent. Such films, and the characters in them, exist solely for the purpose of wanton bloodshed. It can be argued, of course, that plot and characterization have never been central concerns in any low-grade horror movie. This is certainly true. The Sorority House Massacre films, however, rarely bother with even a pretense of such aspirations. Their rules are simple and to the point: 1. A variety of attractive young females must present themselves in the opening act, preferably appearing nude at least once, by taking showers, getting ready for bed, etc. Said characters may also be in a potentially dangerous environment, such as taking refuge in an old house during a storm, etc. These females may or may not have boyfriends, male acquaintances, etc. 2. The female characters will then be killed off one by one, and must be naked or scantily-clad when they are killed, i.e. in the shower, getting ready for bed, etc. 3. Only the most virginal "good girl" will survive, by becoming like the killer and dispatching him in some violent fashion. Most movies in this genre exist for the sake of the cheap thrill. They are knock-off movies, inspired by Halloween or some similar film, and are made strictly for the purpose of gleaning a few dollars from the market. Others, however, descend into what Stephen King calls "squalid porno-violence," in which one can begin to sense a deeper fetish beneath the slasher-movie veneer. Take, for example, the obscure and forgettable Invisible Maniac. The main character of the story is a high school teacher, sexually repressed, who harbors deep and obsessive sexual desires about his class of nubile young women. Socially stunted and clumsy, he endures constant teasing and toying by these young women, who realize their power over him and use it to their own amusement. In his frustration, the teacher conconcts an "invisibilty potion" which allows him to play out his voyeuristic fantasies by spying invisibly on them. However, the potion has unforseen mental side effects, and the teacher slowly goes mad. In the end, he begins stalking the young women, trapping them in the high school, and kills them off one by one. Many of them are stripped naked by their invisible aggressor before they are killed (asphyxiated, drowned, electrocuted), making for a sort of homicidal come-uppance, the Invisible Maniac physically perpetrates on his victims the sexual torments he endured mentally at their hands. Such a film likely tells untold psychological tales about its makers. The themes of sexual repression, social isolation, and vengefulness are palpable. B-grade horror cinema is full of such conventions; characters who are sexually repressed often turn to voyeurism and fantasy, then invariably unleash their repression in the form of mania and homicide, and the audience -- themselves engaging in voyeurism and fantasy in watching the film -- get to see these acts of aggression played out. Vampires, Werewolves and the Beast of AppetiteSexual repression is hardly a new topic in horror. Sexual archetypes have been present in horror fiction since the ninetheenth century. Bram Stoker's Dracula is most often pointed to as the prime example of a melding of horror and Victorian-era sexuality. The character of Dracula, romantic and sensuous, exists in sharp contrast to the stiffly proper British souls who cross his path. While the romance between Dracula and Mina Harker plays a central role, there is an indisputable underpinning of sexuality in Dracula's character; a bestial, uncontrolled inner self that reflects the darker desires of man -- perhaps especially Victorian man. The archetype of the Beast is common in horror literature, and often carries a sexual element. The story of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, while ostensibly a simple fable of the violent nature of man, bears with it a sexual undercurrent. The age-old stories of the werewolf -- in which an otherwise proper and God-fearing man turns into a hairy, hirstute, night-dwelling animal -- undoubtedly has sexual connotations, be they conventional or no. This is what Clive Barker calls "the beast of appetite" -- the beast within that cares nothing for social mores, morality, or human concerns, but merely takes what it wishes, without remorse, without pity. Such beasts may represent, if one may delve deeply into armchair psychology, a certain sexual potency, an unleashing of desires that dare not show themselves in the light of day. -*- |