Monstrous Sex: The Verge of a Pornographic Turn? Bending, Breaking, Penetrating the Rules

Filmic horror narratives traditionally evoke a restless pursuit to locate the other, not only in the mutilating predator, but also in its sexually active and thus doomed victim. In the recent history of horror film, however, this ‘sex-equals-death’ condition has been progressively subverted. Drawing on the notion of ‘body genres’ and Monster Theory, the article traces various, increasingly explicit forms of this death spell reversal, from popular teen horror The Cabin in the Woods to the orgiastic art house symphony of Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, to the television-realm of the vampiric True Blood, where combined excesses of sex, blood, and narration spark a sex-positive mode of monstrousness.

Lingen_Monstrous

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