Let’s talk about sex. Specifically, let’s talk about eroticism and horror. They do say (whoever “they” are) that sexual arousal works in a very similar way to fear, and it’s certainly true that horror, whether in films or in books, tends to go hand in hand with eroticism. Pick up any cheap horror paperback, or watch any slasher flick, and you’ll see what I mean. The amount of sexual content in horror films seems to have decreased recently with the popularity of jump-scare films like Lights Out (which I’ll be talking about later in the month) but with films like Muck and The Neon Demon being released, it’s clear that the public still want some tits with their blood and gore. And let’s be honest – we’re talking almost exclusively about female nudity here. I can’t remember ever seeing a horror film that deliberately eroticised the male form, and I doubt any of you will be able to either. Horror films, like all too many things that should be gender-neutral, are made largely by and for straight men. I mean, I live in hope that we might get to see Jason Statham get his cock out some time soon, but hope in one hand and shit in the other, see which fills up first.
I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with erotic art, but what I do have a problem with is bad art, erotic or not, and too many horror films fall into that category when they try and bring sex into the mix. You see it all the time, films where there’s a random sex scene before the monsters arrive, films where a female main character happens to be attacked while she’s wearing very little, even at the worst extreme films like Hostel 2, where the pain and suffering inflicted on female characters is itself sexualised. The problem with films that do that is that they’re trying to force sexual content in where it doesn’t belong – and jamming stuff in where it doesn’t belong is only occasionally sexy. Which brings us to The Wicker Man.
The Wicker Man does not introduce eroticism artificially – it doesn’t need to. Sex, and our attitude to it, is an intrinsic part of this story. Basically you’ve got a devoutly Christian police officer who goes to an island off the coast of Scotland to look for a missing girl, only to find that the locals are pagans, and the girl isn’t missing. What it turns out has happened is that the girl was a ploy to bring him to the island so he could be sacrificed in what has got to be the worst possible way to die. If you’ve seen the film, you know what I mean, and if you haven’t, I don't want to ruin the surprise. The film is shot through with sex. Near the beginning, the main character (played brilliantly by Edward Woodward) stumbles across an outdoor orgy after leaving a pub because he wasn’t comfortable with the lewd songs the patrons were singing. A little later, he’s horrified by the extent to which sex is openly discussed around and by children, and of course there is the fantastic scene where the landlord’s daughter tries to seduce him. The set-up is like this: he’s in bed at the inn, and she’s in the next room, completely naked, singing and dancing in this weird, magical/sexual/religious ritual, trying to tempt him into sleeping with her, while he desperately tries to stay pure. It’s almost a kind of microcosm of the film – the conflict between this earthy, fleshy paganism and Christian repression. Woodward’s character refuses to renounce his faith and sleep with Britt Ekland, and because of that he gets killed – the sacrifice, you see, has to be a virgin.
What’s interesting about The Wicker Man is that it doesn’t seem like the sexual content was bolted on after the script was written, to bring in a larger audience - it’s part of the story, to such an extent that it’s hard to imagine what the film would look like without it (maybe something like the godawful Nicholas Cage remake). The story is one of Christianity vs the religion of Summerisle, and the battle takes place largely on the field of sexuality. In a way, in fact, Ekland’s advances towards the Woodward are an attempt to save him; if he had succumbed to her considerable charms, he would have been unfit to be sacrificed, and would probably have left the island alive. Imagine an alternate version of the story, where a policeman goes to a strange Scottish island looking for a missing girl, has an affair with a local landlord’s daughter, and returns without incident. Imagine the look on Lord Summerisle’s face as the boat took Woodward’’s character back to the mainland.
So there you have it - The Wicker Man is the film to look at if you want to know how to write something sexy, but with substance. Also, give it a look if you want to see a battle between Christianity and indigenous religions where Christianity loses.
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