Severed Cinema’s Top Films Involving Necrophilia!
Loving You Was Like Loving the Dead
Over the decades there’s been libraries of tomes filled with articles and books about vampires, zombies, werewolves, monsters, killers, that kind of thing. However, whilst chatting away to TetroVideo’s very own, Barbara Torretti about the film eROTik, I thought about necrophilia in general, and suddenly realized there haven’t really been enough written words put over about this topic. Certainly, I haven’t reviewed or scribbled enough anyways about your humble necrophiliacs!
I cannot really cover the whole nine yards, from the famous to the lesser known and those like The Black Cat (1934) which only hint upon such a taboo. Instead, I will go for the jugular and present the top titles that I know about, because naturally, I’ve not seen each one in existence. If I had I would have to be really strange… hmm…
For instance, Lucker and Kissed have passed me by thus far so it would be rather unfair for me to comment upon them and not very sporting. I’m about to watch and review James L. Edward’s Her Name was Christa, so I cannot include that. I thought to myself, why not just have a bit of fun with this, even though the subject matter is usually treated very seriously and artistic.
I’ll start with Jörg Buttgereit’s, Nekromantik. It’s infamous amongst the lovers of the extreme and the boundary pushing, however this film is truly a sad and heartfelt love story. A triangle between a man, a woman, and a decomposed corpse. It can only end in pain and loss for one of the trios…
It’s so easy to forget exactly how much goes on in this movie. From the opening car accident, to the introduction of the characters, the creation of the cadaver, the build up to the love triangle, then murders (plus the film within a film, and the rabbit scene) – all accompanied by one of the most memorable musical scores by Hermann Kopp, John Boy Walton, and star Daktari. Released in 1987, I remember a friend giving me a multi-generation dupe tape recording in 1991. I watched it many times, and life was never the same for me. Nekromantik is beautiful and engrossing. It lures you in and doesn’t hold back on the juicy bits. Who can resist the story of Rob, who spends his workdays as a street cleaner – the sort that visits and cleans up the areas where dead bodies and accidents have occurred. Hence why in the thick of the plot he obtains a cadaver for himself and his girl, Betty. Unfortunately, Rob’s life has a downturn in luck and Betty questions her direction and who to love…
To quote Jörg Buttgereit in the book, Sex Murder Art, “It started out with us contemplating the relationship between love, sex and death. Franz (co-writer) and I talked a lot about that, and that the orgasm and the moment of death – emotionally – must have a lot in common…”
Nekromantik 2 arrived in 1991 and told a similar story but from a female perspective as Monika. She digs up our main character, Rob, from the original and tries to have a relationship with him but as she finds an actual breathing flesh and blood partner, sacrifices her true love for something it turns out she doesn’t crave.
The sequel ends in murder of course, and has all the right ingredients on the soundtrack, plus some scenes of beauty (the falling lizard springs to mind). All in all it’s played a bit more upbeat and fun, some would say more human, forming two far more solid people this time around, but part one was an art piece and I always return to that far more.
Either way, Nekromantik 2 provoked the authorities so much that copies were seized in raids and Jörg kind of became Germany’s most wanted for a while. Jörg and his gang don’t make films simply to shock; the films have a striking atmosphere and a complex weaving of scenes. The movies are sort of like strolling through a labyrinth of dreams and are quite unpredictable.
Speaking of films simply out to shock, do I count Dead Girl and A Stink of Flesh? I’ll mention them. Fucking a zombie technically counts as necrophilia, but not the sort we’re delving into here. Both are worth a viewing however, and deliver the bloody goods, squelchy sex with cold holes, and a few chuckles.
We can count Flesh for Frankenstein because of one scene and one scene only – “To know death Otto, you have to fuck life in the gallbladder!” I will leave it at that, my Severed buddies. If you haven’t seen the film, I strongly recommend it as soon as possible.
I’ll group two films together for this next section which is basically the old love conquers all moment when you drill into a woman’s head then shove your penis into the hole. Yep, works every time, that does. Like a bone fragmented and splintering flesh light. FX genius, James Bell, he scored one deep with his short flick, Tantrum.
My youngest son, Kane, had recently moved in with me. One evening I was sat all relaxed watching this short epic when he walked into the room just as the main guy was inserting his penis deep into a dead woman’s skull. Kane mentioned it to his friend, “You’ll never guess what I found my dad watching?” His friend replied, “A porn?” Kane was like, “Sort of. It involved skull sex and ejaculation anyway…” to which he went more in-depth. I’ll be reviewing Tantrum soon so I’m not going to spoil it too much here, but if you ever get a chance to watch any of James Bell’s gems, grab ’em with both hands. They’re worth it!
Header (see review here) is the other one. Based on Edward Lee’s classic novel. Header is the tale of hillbillies and traditional hill folk’s revenge on other families on their young ladies. “I don’t think it’s fair fo’ ma grandpa not bein’ able ta join in!” says the central man, Travis, and he proceeds to carry his disabled Grandfather over to the corpse and patiently lets the grinning man have his fun. Header is pure uncut fantastic bad taste and is glorious.
Let’s get serious and throw down a totally jaw dropping entry into this – eROTik (see review here). And when I mean serious, I mean totally hands down discussing one of the greatest in this small but daunting subgenre of necrophilia. Based very loosely on the crimes of Dahmer, corpse love isn’t the complete dominating factor, but the effect of the moments are totally sublime to this Domiziano Cristopharo masterpiece. Just in case this is your first time venturing into the dark corridors of Severed Cinema, Domiziano currently holds the record for the most reviews and articles connected to one individual. Plus, he has an interview on these pages (interview with Domiziano Cristopharo here). All in all, eROTik is a tense, disturbing, almost hypnotic piece of celluloid madness and, like Nekromantik. It is absolutely beautiful to behold. I’m not going to do it an injustice by briefly describing the synopsis here. Follow the link to the review of eROTik and then click your finger on the mouse here (https://tetrovideo.com) because TetroVideo have such sights to show you…
I’m going to conclude with Aftermath (see review here). Yeah, I’m staying on the serious side of things here. There’s nothing art-like and pretty or blackly humorous about this underground classic. This exists to rub dead flesh into your eyes making you scream in agony.
The legend surrounding this short film is intense and totally and utterly deserved. Within a thirty-minute running time, director and writer Nacho Cerda puts you to the test. Bleak, grim, and compulsive viewing, Aftermath isa simple tale of a lonely mortician and his lust for recently arrived, Marta, a female car accident victim. We can only assume she is the latest in many, or this is the first and perhaps only one, perhaps he has dreamed of this for a long time and dared himself into a frenzy, finally completing his needs. However, the cold and planned way he feeds his dog at the end aims more to the former.
Marta is vulnerable and defenceless; the slab man is in total control of his new toy…
To summarize, what makes necrophilia so enthralling and repulsive to some people at the same time? I suppose to many it’s akin to stumbling across the path of a car crash wherein lay hideous twisted remains of once living breathing people. It’s something that should repel, but the morbid fascination glues you to the ground.
I read years ago where a writer compared it as one of the far more graphic sexual taboos and crowbarred it into a section with child pornography. A child, whether knowing or unknowing of what the ‘games’ actually are, can never be a willing companion, then neither can a corpse because there is nothing left inside to agree or disagree.
Then is necrophilia a power trip? Is it complete and utter control over an unresisting slave? This was one of the motivations behind some of the acts Jeffrey Dahmer performed. Does it compare to rape? Would that person, if alive, have agreed to sexual intercourse? Rape in as such defiling the temple, now abandoned of the spirit.
Is it because it defies God, and all which society deems wholesome? The raw excitement of performing such an act?
Or is necrophilia the act of two people who do not judge one another, who are bonded in the bubble of unquestioning lust? A deceased partner will not let you down, and like a sex doll or toy, there’s no emotional commitment or work in building to the point of intimate love.
There are many categories and variations in the world of necrophilia including the more minor but very common practice of role-playing death as the other partner gets busy. In fact, films genuinely only touch on one minor fragment in a huge largely unimagined realm.
Cinema really does challenge viewers showing tender moments with cadavers more than is realized over the years and some very known titles. Aside from using severed heads for certain purposes (Bloodsucking Freaks, Haute Tension) The Neon Demon, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Visitor Q, The Devil’s Rejects – and the most shocking has to be Tina copulating with the dead Bernie in the classic ‘80s comedy, Weekend at Bernies!!!
Necrophilia is an act as old as the ancient worlds and as recent as it comes. For instance, last year a ‘twisted’ hospital worker in Bangladesh had sex with female cadavers, whilst back in 2014, an Ohio man admitted to relations with about one hundred corpses.
Sooner or later those two tales may arrive on a screen near you…
