Psychosexual Thrillers for the Horny and Disturbed
There’s been surge in strange and sexy cinema lately, with the release of Babygirl and the teasing of the new Wuthering Heights receiving a mixed reception from audiences. A common critique is: “why is everything about sex these days?” Moral panic is nothing new to cinematic discourse. The psychosexual genre makes movie-watchers reflect on taboo, consequently making them uncomfortable, and, even more disturbingly so, think about things. To make you think and reflect on the creepy and horny, here’s seven films to add to your watchlist.
Infinity Pool (2023)
****1/2
Horniness: ****
Weirdness: *****
Infinity Pool depicts a pretty standard holiday in Dubai. There are rich, sexy, psychopathic people, engaging in nightly orgies and depraved heists. Their antics are excused on the basis of their finances, as they're fortunate enough to be able to pay for a clone of themselves to take their place in the country's form of capital punishment.
For legal reasons, it's important to mention that this film isn't actually set in Dubai; Brandon Cronenberg has christened this eerie paradise as Li Tolqa, and the tourists are confined to their holiday resort due to the dangers beyond its walls. Those dangers, though, are the tourists themselves, taking advantage of the Tolqan 'infinity pool' to commit their perversions over and over. Said pool reproduces clones of said tourists in an infinite amount, much to the local law enforcement's chagrin.
Alexander Skarsgård plays the tragically pathetic protagonist James Foster, whose lingering eye strays from his wife (Cleopatra Coleman) to the posh and seductive Gabi (Mia Goth). One dinner and a beach trip later and we're watching James' peenits spurt goo onto the sand, courtesy of Gabi's hand. After that and a poor attempt at late night drink driving, James kills a man with a car and must now face the long arm of the Tolqan law.
Psychedelic, slutty, degenerate and toe-curling, Infinity Pool will leave you confused and aroused days after watching.
Nosferatu (2024)
*****
Horniness: **
Weirdness: **
Nosferatu is a delightful study into the gothic genre: supernatural weirdness, a cunty heroine, and happy, fluffy cats. Some may find the pacing slow, but this is what makes the gothic thriller so delicious. The gradual, spine-tingling tension as a pasty Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) journeys to an outlandish castle in the depths of Transylvania isn't dull if you can appreciate the genre's conventions in all their cinematic glory. Vast, sweeping landscapes, and a tall, moustachioed vampire. It's a swoon-worthy set-up.
Lily-Rose Depp propositions herself as the next iconic scream queen in her performance as Ellen Hutter. Combining melodrama with visceral physical contortions, her movements are bound to illicit a reaction from even the stuffiest of cinemagoers. She and Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) embody their characters entirely. Despite having few scenes together, the tension between the two is palpable, as is Ellen's repulsion for this forced romance. The dynamic between them can be interpreted in many ways, but the most fitting feels to be the relationship between a woman and an abusive ex-partner. Haunted by a past that will forever sit within her body and mind, her conformity to convention seems an impossible task with the vampiric Orlok sucking the life from her and her beloved husband Thomas.
Crash (1996)
***
Horniness: *****
Weirdness: *****
Probably the most unconventional film on this list, David Cronenberg's Crash is loosely based on the J.G. Ballard novel of the same name. It explores the intersection of sex and violence through the perspective of a group of car crash fetishists, who are willing to break limbs and risk death for the sake of their sexual thrills.
There's not much of a plot to this one. It's more of a visual trip, with harsh, brutalist landscapes key to the Ballardian genre, and with dark, seedy sex scenes amongst blood and glass. It's like the daddy to Julia Ducournau's Titane, using vehicular mechanics to mirror the body horror experienced by its protagonists. It's not disturbing per se, more... unnerving. How does one get addicted to car crashes?
One suggestion, similar to Titane, is James Ballard's (the lead character played by James Spader, not the author of the book) experience with a car crash that leaves him in rehab for a shattered leg. Said trauma leaves him fixated upon the violence that left him with his injuries. As he becomes enveloped within a group of people similar to himself, the activities they partake in range from recreating fatal celebrity car accidents to penetrating old scars.
Crash isn't for the squeamish -- but is for the morbidly curious.
Mulholland Drive (2002)
*****
Horniness: ***
Weirdness: ****
The thing about Mulholland Drive is that it's so carefully crafted you can't help but feel a little bit dumb for not understanding it for the first two acts. It's like, you know you're watching a super filmy film by a super filmy film director (David Lynch), and you're really watching it to make sure you don't miss anything crucial, and then you get to the third act and you're like Homer Simpson watching an episode of Twin Peaks: "brilliant. I have absolutely no idea what's going on."
That being said, this film is a gorgeous, heartbreaking story. Plus, there's lesbians in it. Even though there's a great sense of mystery about why things are happening the way they are (hello, scary lady behind the diner), it's incredibly emotive. You become so attached to the romance between Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Harring) that when the third act rolls around, you are first and foremost stunned into silence by their reality and then flawed by the flip in their performances from light to dark.
After breaking into Betty's apartment to find safety after a car accident on Mulholland Drive, Rita confesses to Betty that she has no clue what her true identity is. The two of them go on a hunt for clues as to who Rita might actually be amongst the hills and crevices of Hollywood. During their investigation, they stumble upon the neglected home and body of Diane Selwyn. From here, the film transcends traditional storytelling and ventures into a tale of what might have happened the night Rita crashed on Mulholland Drive.
Ex Machina (2014)
*****
Horniness: **
Weirdness: ***
Despite being over a decade old, Ex Machina holds a mirror to today's issues with AI. Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) wins a competition to become part of the testing process for a humanoid AI called Ava (Alicia Vikander). Owned by tech CEO Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), Ava begins to question the purpose for her existence and her capability of free will whilst living in his isolated home.
Ex Machina taps into the nefarious purposes AI may be used for under a capitalist patriarchy. If you consider how AI is already being used to remove clothes from people's photos and produce explicit images of children, what happens in Ex Machina doesn't feel too much of a stretch from reality. An eccentric, well-groomed billionaire keeps a female robot confined in his luxurious, soulless home for his own devices. It feels familiar, doesn't it?
Amongst all his expansive wealth, there's no denying Nathan's soullessness. Caleb is there as a control variable in the narrative, for us as the audience to consider what we might believe and do if we were in the presence of a manipulative mastermind. Would we choose to trust our instincts? Or would we become invested in the devil's advocate?
American Mary (2012)
***
Horniness: ***
Weirdness: *****
Listen, American Mary isn't a narrative masterpiece, but if you like gore and revenge, then this will tantalise your bloody tastebuds. The titular Mary (Katharine Isabelle) is a medical student turned black market body modification artist, who also happens to be keeping her college professor in a warehouse hanging on a meat hook. After being lured to a party full of creepy doctors, Mary is drugged and raped by the aforementioned professor, and she exacts her revenge by kidnapping him and cutting pieces off of him. It's a little bit I Spit on Your Grave, without the long sexual assault scene.
The man-on-a-meat-hook storyline is only a B-plot, though. The main throughline is the body modifications, and through Mary's job we meet a woman who's had surgery to look like Betty Boop, her friend who wants her vagina sewn up so she can be like a Barbie doll, and two identical twins who want to be joined at the hip. That's not even all of it. There's another story with Mary having a will-they-won't-they romance with a strip club owner, which is kind of interesting and somewhat necessary to the plot, but it's a little bit messy combined with all the other elements.
There are some similarities to Crash in the links to blood, sex, and violence, but doesn't quite reach the same level of horniness due to the lack of consent amongst the intercourse that does happen.
The Love Witch (2016)
*****
Horniness: ****
Weirdness: ***
A legendary film amongst strange girls everywhere. The Love Witch is a 1960s-style folk horror flick about Elaine (Samantha Robinson) who moves to a new town after the unexpected death of her husband. She's a practising witch who casts spells to seduce men but uses her power recklessly, causing them to crave her so deeply that she begins to resent their neediness. She eventually leaves them to wither away in their depression.
Armed with long black hair and bright eyeshadow, Elaine is a textbook femme fatale. Men want to have sex with her, but women want to be her. Elaine relishes more so in the former and is convinced she's found the key to keeping a man happy -- giving him his fantasy. She's right, though finds that it's more trouble than it's worth. Through this, we discover the differences between sexual objectification and self-objectification, object and subject, male gaze and female gaze.
It's hard to explain how concisely and thoughtfully the director, Anna Biller, does this. Considering she not only wrote and directed the film, but also produced, edited, and scored it, it's no wonder why all the elements work so immaculately together. It's Technicolor, it's camp, and it's dead on one hour and twenty minutes.
