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Sex And Violence

Janet Leigh, clad in a bra which she threatens to pop out of and a slip which you strain to see through, walks about her room at the Bates Motel.

She is getting ready to take a shower. With the camera discreetly avoiding the obvious, Janet strips and steps under the running water. She is trying to wash away her sins and the water beats down sensuously on her firm naked body. Through the shower curtain we see her bathroom door open and a figure moves toward the languishing lady. Suddenly the curtain is ripped open and we see a grotesque creation poised above Janet with a long gleaming knife. Janet sees it also, but what can she do? She screams as the knife comes down. We hear bone crunching, flesh splitting, muscle shredding damage... The knife appears to enter her breasts, soft flat stomach, full thighs, pulsating throat, damp pubic mound... Her blood washes down the drain...

The director Alfred Hitchcock yells "cut" and the first sexually erotic terror scene in my film viewing history is indelibly recorded in my mind. (Bill Margold)

Ever since Hitchcock presented that sensual series of images, I've been hooked on the sexually sadistic side of cinema. There is nothing more arousing than sexual terror. A helpless woman being strangled, stabbed, axed, suffocated or drowned is the most exciting thing I can watch. It unlocks my fantasies, and I believe that I share those fantasies with 99% of male viewers. When done properly, nudity is not always necessary, though it is pleasant, the violence need not always be graphic, though I do have a strong stomach, such a scene will prompt me to hunt that movie down to study it to relive my fantasies through visual recreation.

Hitchcock's film Psycho (1960) was the first of about a dozen productions that have featured at least one great sexual terror scene. (Bill Margold)

My favorite took place in 1963's Dementia 13 directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The scene in which Luana Anders dies has illuminated my mind for the past 12 years.

Luana, a catlike blonde, trots off to the pond to plant toys in the water. She is beautiful, cool, and bitchy but radiates sex. She strips down to a white bra and panties...and lowers herself into the water. Her panties and bra absorb the moisture and hug her breasts and buttocks.

She paddles down and does her dirty work. Suddenly, she sees something odd and lets loose a scream. She thrashes upward and grab hold of the shore. Then we see a pair of feet and... an ax flashes down in the night and her body convulses at its blade hacks into her. She tries to grab the shore but her hands, covered with her own blood, cannot take hold... From underwater, her helplessness is erotically magnified as we see her legs thrashing about... They are spread and inviting, covered only by the thinnest of nylon panties.

Her lower body pulsates wildly and we see her blood seeping below the surface, filtering between her legs as if it is caressing her sexual center. Then it is over. She is dead. Her killer pulls her hacked and bleeding body by her blonde hair and drags her away. Her looks mirrors the expression of Janet Leigh's after the shower scene. It is the death stare of helpless horror and it is totally arousing.

The gore and blatant butchery of Blood Feast almost outweighs any of the eroticism. From its own opening scene, a girl taking a bath is brutally murdered as she slips and slides about her tub, to the final bit in which the kiler is gobbled up by a garbage truck, Blood Feast left nothing to the imagination. A woman is choked to death by having her tongue pulled out. There is also a sacrifice scene and a crude lobotomy. (Bill Margold)

The lady prepares for her bath. She has been a bitch throughout this film Curse of the Living Corpse (1964), and one is anxious to see her get what she deserves. Slowly disrobing, the actress is discreetly shown from the back, but one knows that she's wearing little more than warm flesh and wet hair. She climbs into the tub and relaxes in the soothing water. The water caresses her body and she lays back. The viewer is lulled into a sexual sense of satisfaction as he watches the bathing beauty languish in her tub. Then we see the door open and the familiar figure of the murderer move forward... She faces the screen. His hands reach out and grasp her neck.

Now the erotic struggle ensues. She flails in her tub, rising up and down in an attempt to free herself from the strangling grip of her unseen killer. As she struggles, we catch a glimpse of her heavy, full delicious-looking breasts. Earlier in the film we learn that the lady fears drowning. Now we see the killer not only choking her, but also pushing her head under the water. Her body thrashes as he chokes and drowns her. She rolls over and we see her inviting buttocks rise out of the water as her death throes set in... Her lifeless body floats, like an Ivory Soap bar, rolling over so the aroused viewer can take in the sight of her naked anatomy.

The murderer is played by Roy Scheider who later stars in Jaws.

In Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace, there's an initial strangling, face burning, a drowning, another strangulation and, best of all, a smothering.

The victim in this case is clad only in a slip and as she dies, under an oppressive pillow, her legs kick wildly and her breasts bounce with exreme fear. Both exercises do little to keep the slip in place. The camera angles on the murder scene are arousing, as the sequence is shot from overhead and one is afforded a tremendous view of terrified womanhood. (Bill Margold)

You hear only the sound of heavy breathing as you watch the beautiful young girl walk about her bedroom. You become aware that you are not watching the girl undress alone. Slowly she strips off her clothing and prepares for bed. Her massive breasts swing freely in the dim light of her room.

She dons a transparent nightgown and walks toward her bed. She wears mini-panties and your eyes take in the inviting sights of her lower delights - her firm thighs, her tapered buttocks, her dark and mysterious sensual center.

She lies down on the bed...her legs slightly apart. She waits, perhaps for you? A dark figure rushes out and slaps a hand across her mouth and pushes her back on the bed. The light picks up the complete terror in her eyes.

Little except her flimsy nightie protects her from her assailant. She moans and shakes. Seeing the knife, she moans louder.

The knife cuts through her unresisting garment, baring her breasts. They spill forth, seeking to be fondled. The knife cuts and parts her panties. There is a flash of light as the blade dives forward towards the straining pink flesh. Her body convulses as the sharp instrument enters her innocent body. Blood spatters her bedroom wall.

In 1970 an Italian director named Dario Argento discovered the way to my most delightful sexual fantasy (death at the ultimate moment of sexual terror) by incorporating the previous detailed scene into a titillating show The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. (Bill Margold)

Nineteen seventy one must be remembered for a slickly sick slice of sexual sinematics called The Psycho Lover. This show had it all.

A nut goes about strangling and stabbing women and the police are baffled. Each of the murders is done with care for the viewers arousal. He uses the strangulation method combined with sexual taunting and terrorism. Excellent use of overhead camera angles heightens the sexuality. A stylish dual electrocution/execution at the end of the film (with much writhing about) was particularly stimulating.

The 1971 German film Whirlpool, rated X, deals with a photographer who not only photographs beautiful women while they are being sexually terrorized, but also kills them while they unwillingly model. Some incest thrown in.

After terrorizing the lovely female star for 90-minutes, the looney leading man makes love to her while forcing her up against a log.

The scene features some good thigh nudity and animal sexuality of the pushed-up skirt, torn-open blouse variety. After he finishes with her, he thanks her for her sexual services by stabbing her to death and pushing her feebly protesting body into the mire. (Bill Margold)

Bill Margold makes explicit the dark desires of many men for achieving the ultimate revenge against women - murder. In a less dramatic fashion, standard porno reveals male desire for revenge through its habitual depiction of facial cum shots. Just as there are few jokes without a victim, so too there is little porn without a victim.