Themes in Erotic Horror

Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman

Horror fiction elicits disgust and terror; erotica, lust and desire. In the former, an antagonist acts violently toward others, often injuring or killing them, usually in imaginative, gory ways. In the latter, an antagonist acts violently or, more often, seductively, toward others, sometimes causing them to act against their own better judgment or against their will. Sometimes, erotica ends in death, just as horror stories occasionally result in an unspeakable pregnancy (for example, as the result of intercourse with a demon or a monster) or an obscene birth (for instance, the birth of a demon child or a monster). The two genres have a lot in common, which is why, perhaps, they are sometimes merged as “erotic horror fiction.”

As the following table suggests, erotic horror fiction (in this post represented by films) often also involves a kinky sexual twist of some kind.

 

What makes these stories horrific isn't their antagonists (a housekeeper, shipwreckers, a possible ghost, vampires, a sorceress, a serial killer, and a piano tuner, among others) or some of the erotic content (masturbation, oral sex, and even sadomasochism, to some extent, are commonly accepted, for example, if not generally promoted). These stories are seen as horrific due to their denial of free will or their corruption of natural reproductive processes. Each perverted act in some way subverts the “true” or natural purpose of the act (reproduction) or violates a participant's right to exercise his or her—mostly her—free will:

Erotic horror stories, in short, show antagonists as victimizing men and (primarily) women by denying victims' the free will to consent to or to refuse sexual intercourse, by substituting non-procreative acts for procreative acts, and by encouraging non-procreative sexual acts or dehumanizing sexual conduct. Therein lies the true horror of these films. Their redeeming value? Some show or suggest that the villains pay dearly for their crimes against human decency and humanity.

See also “Bentley Little: Aberrant Sex as Symbolic of the Nature of Sin.”