Relationships have gone bad due to the presence of horror. Marriages have ended because one of them simply can’t stand the existence of horror films, while the other won’t stop watching them. Couples have questioned how to go on after one reveals horror isn’t their thing. Yes, it can be a toxic genre.
We prefer to talk about the other possibility.
Horror can bring people together. It’s the community of fans that gets bigger every year, and the one with the largest quantity of material to discuss. It’s also been responsible for connecting couples, as their passion for the genre is the glue that holds them together.
Not to be sentimental about it, but let’s face it. Horror can be hot. It’s got vampires, and those are always horny. Sexuality is part of some of the most basic horror tropes: From the sexual awakening that makes a girl a terrible choice for surviving as the final girl, to the most extreme forms of love which some horror monsters have shown to have.
We have put together a list that’s not very obvious. Considering a more psychological aspect, we’ve taken a few films and discussed their psychosexual nature, one that’s definitely weird for more traditional viewers, but also one that makes horror a curious path for escapism and exploring the darkest side of desire.
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10 The Hunger
MGMUA
Tony Scott’s The Hunger is a beautiful film. It tells the story of a love triangle that gets rotten when rules aren’t respected. From the very start, with its legendary Bauhaus performance of Bela Lugosi’s Dead, this vampire film looks like a music video with no restrictions regarding the sexual content. With David Bowie, Catherine Deneuve, and Susan Sarandon, yes, it’s the steamiest film on the list.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
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9 Eyes Wide Shut
Warner Bros.
Eyes Wide Shut finds then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman headlining Stanley Kubrick’s last film. It tells the story of a man whose relationship takes a stumble when his wife reveals weird fantasies about other men. Wandering the streets at night, Cruise’s character becomes fascinated by a woman who may be way inside the deepest levels of a sexual cult whose twisted practices may be the tip of the iceberg.
8 Audition
Omega Project
In Takashi Miike’s Audition, love is in the air. A fortunate man finds his soulmate in the most improbable of ways, but as viewers, we’re willing to accept it. After all, this is Miike, and he will deliver. What follows after the second act is a brutal reveal that makes dating a horrible choice for this now unfortunate man. You will think twice before your next blind date.
7 Body Double
Columbia Pictures
In Brian De Palma’s Body Double, a frustrated man accepts a proposition to housesit a stylish modern bachelor pad, from where he witnesses a murder. As he tries to solve it, he enters the universe of the adult film industry and witnesses depravation De Palma style. It’s Melanie Griffith’s role that makes this one a perfect choice for the list.
6 Under the Skin
StudioCanalA24
An alien who consumes humans during sex? Bring it on. Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin is a gritty, darkly shot film about an alien encountering a visceral species whose only goal may be to reproduce. We are mere objects to this beautiful woman who hypnotizes all men to fall under her spell. But hey, it’s Scarlett Johansson, and certainly that can’t be bad, right? Think again.
5 It Follows
RADiUS-TWC
In David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, sex can transmit diseases just like in real life. But nothing that will show on your skin or genitals — this is something far more horrific and dangerous. The great script by Mitchell stays away from an obvious and exploitative focus and simply sails through the supernatural aspect of the story, while giving force to one of horror’s most important leads in recent history.
4 Mulholland Dr
Universal Pictures
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive is a film many still haven’t been able to solve yet. But the cryptic aspect is so well presented, that it’s hard not to feel a sudden connection when Lynch confirms what kind of direction he will take. At least there are hints in this haunting, often erotic, epic fantasy movie. Laura Harring and Naomi Watts star as women who enter the Hollywood underworld while trying to solve a mystery.
3 Blue Velvet
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Yes, we like Lynch that much. Blue Velvet is one of his most important films, exploring the dark side of suburban America that gets revealed when a young man falls for someone that he shouldn’t have noticed. The roots of suburbia are rotten and corrupted here, and there’s a whole underworld where monsters reside. Their desires are twisted to say the least. We figured no one used the word “daddy” the same way after watching this one.
2 Vertigo
Paramount Pictures
Technically, Vertigo isn’t a horror movie. But Alfred Hitchcock’s approach to a sexy thriller is very, very twisted. From its dream sequences to the horrific psychological attack, it’s a visual, psychosexual masterpiece. What many consider the best film ever made may seem outdated, but it’s a classic take on human obsession, and where it can take you if you refuse to let it go.
1 Dressed to Kill
Filmways Pictures
De Palma was the heir to Hitchcock, and thus deserves to be on this list twice. Dressed to Kill is the director’s way to homage Hitchcock’s Psycho, and there’s nothing wrong with that. In Dressed To Kill, a woman is killed in a brutal manner inside an elevator. That’s what starts a series of events that make the film more of a bonkers horror thriller. Of course, there’s a sexual aspect in the film’s complicated but quite logical resolution. We won’t spoil this one, but the reason why there’s a killer has to do with a sexual desire that’s so repressed it can spawn a monster.
