I'm sure by now I don't have to tell you my blog is NSFW, but in case you need a reminder...
I'M GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT HORRIFIC, TERRIBLE, WEAPONIZED SEX!
*cough* There...let's continue shall we?
This Wicked Weapons post was inspired by the movie TEETH. It's a good film, and brings up interesting issues with sex. And while there are films out there who lean more towards porn than towards horror, I am focusing for the purposes of this post on the ones that don't seem like sexploitation. I'm also going to focus more how the act itself can create killers who are in of themselves weapons, or how the act of sex itself is a weapon in horror cinema. I know plenty of sexualized killers, but we'd be here all day talking about that.
Sex is one of those things that can be both a beautiful, fun experience shared between people, or a horrific ordeal. Because sex is such a vast and complex topic, even in horror, I am only going to focus on how sex is used as a weapon in horror movies. Because believe me, it happens more than you'd think. It's probably because horror is the one genre that will purposely wander into sensitive material and twist it up just to see what happens.
People can explore taboos in horror.
Sex and horror have been paired together quite a bit in cinema. Sex isn't usually a beautiful act in horror, and if it is, it doesn't last long. Because ultimately horror doesn't want to give you a happy ending. Horror wants to frighten you, shock you, and sometimes make you sick. Horror as an emotion mingled in with sex never really ends well...for at least one or more of the participants involved. Sex is used as a metaphor usually in horror more than just to stimulate the loins. They are paired together to show the dance of sex and death.
Sex is one weapon that isn't an object. It's an act that is inflicted upon, seduced, inspired, coerced, hinted at, teased, and downright pulled out of people. You can't hold the object of sex in your hands, but you can use your hands to provoke a sex act. The thing that makes sex a unique and powerful weapon is because of it's complexity, and the fact anyone can use it. You don't have to be a certain size, strength, or person. It helps to be human enough to have sex organs, but that even isn't that much of a restriction.
Some sex weapons are actual genitals, like in the movie Teeth, that have mutated to become dangerous. The character finds out that puberty gave her an extra set of teeth down south to protect herself with.
Some sexualized weapons involve actual rape. There are quite a few films, especially in horror, where rape is used as a weapon, like I Spit On Your Grave. It's a very uncomfortable thing to witness on screen, the the rape basically turned her into a killer, making her a weapon from the experience.
Sometimes serial killers get creative, and turn your own genitals against you. In Se7en, the killer strapped this terrible device to a guy and forced him to fuck a girl to death. This act not only kills, but it breaks the man who is forced to commit the act.
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Sometimes sex is used symbolically as a weapon, like in Alien. Ever notice how the creature in alien reminds you of genitals? There is a reason for that. H.R. Giger was afraid of sex organs, and that fear inspires his work. The Alien creature is basically a walking sexual weapon, penetrating everything it kills. "Oh look, a face full of alien wing-wang!" ~VGCats
Some movies brilliantly use sex in more subtle ways. Take Audition for example. It's a film that uses sex but not overtly, as a weapon. A pretty girl at first is the one being exploited by an older man, something that happens a lot in Asian cinema due to their culture. But in this movie, the girl gets the better of him, and in a horrific way.
The thing is, while horror tends to over-dramatize sex or make it out to be something absurd or horrible, in real life it is used as a weapon all the time. You see it everywhere, people using their bodies to manipulate others. In horror however, that theme is explored to it's darkest, stupidest, and sometimes sickest conclusion. When sex is used as a weapon in horror, it's usually quite shocking, even if the shock is of how stupid or silly the scene is.
Did you learn anything about horror movie sex? Because I will tell you, if I have learned anything, it's that sex is never a good idea in a horror film. Nothing in a horror movie is spared from being a weapon. So...what's your favorite scene of sex being used as a weapon in horror?
I think most sex scenes in horror films are sexist, exploitive, degrading and violently misogynistic. But so are sex scenes in most (American) movies, period.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed "Teeth", but it bothered me that it was obvious in the end that she would have to be penetrated every time she wanted/needed to use her weapon. Abuse/rape begins long before the penetration, and often times it's violent object penetration, and not a man's part.