In a genre covered in guts and gore, is sex just a step too far?
An explosion of blood, and maybe a few organs. Murders galore as teenagers run for their life. Yet, if you are a teenage girl, your survival is entirely dependent on whether or not you're having sex. In essence, Marilyn dies voyeuristically and Jackie lives to tell the tale. This tension between sex and horror has become an ever present joke of the genre, but why?
A very short answer is the Hays Code, a set of studio enforced rules which, among many other things, made sex a crime punishable by (fictional) death. Or more specifically, consensual sex. Yes, ‘sex’ is actually incredibly prevalent in horror. However, a quick rewatch of some of your favourite 70s and 80s slashers will most likely reveal themes of non-consent and voyeurism where women’s suffering is produced to the killer’s (and audience’s) pleasure.
To me, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) is one of the starkest examples of this. While Wes Craven manages to hold himself back from showing actual sex on screen, women throughout are framed through Freddy’s (the titular ‘Nightmare’) perspective, depicted as prey to be hunted, tortured, and killed slowly. The men of the film, in contrast, die in quick and occasionally comedic ways. Even further, Freddy is suggested to have been a child molester, compounding on the framing of the young women of the film. Sex, gender and purity culture are inextricably linked in this way, as many 70s and 80s horror films doom their women to violent and sexually-grotesque deaths. Surely talking to girls and women about safe sex was easier than this?
Scream (1996) broke this mold. Both a parody of the genre and a great slasher in its own right, Scream managed to pull off the impossible - portray a consensual sex scene where the woman initiates. Even further, we are not voyeuristically placed in the shoes of Billy (her boyfriend, and one of two killers in the film). Instead, sex is used within the narrative as a tool to show Sydney’s attempts to assert control in a rapidly spiralling situation while equally making commentary on Randy’s number 1 rule for horror - ‘Never Have Sex’. Randy in many ways acts as the contemporary horror audience, pointing out the tropes of the genre which he is actively fighting to survive in. This is what, in my opinion, makes Scream such a strong commentary on sex and horror - its characters know they’re in a horror! But did future flicks learn from Scream’s lessons, sardonically delivered and all?
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) certainly has, with this gore-fest using blood and guts to comment on gender, queerness, and of course sex. Our protagonists, Kris and Billy (played brilliantly by Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson respectively), have had their experiences of pleasure fundamentally shaped by horror. Kris can only find pleasure by imagining herself as the victimized final girl while Billy views pleasure entirely through the lens of pain due to her assault on the set of the fictional Camp Miasma film set. Through this, Schoenbrun deftly comments the lessons women were supposed to take away from 70s and 80s slashers while highlighting the importance of women’s autonomy in sex. The ending takes this to its natural conclusion, a massive explosion of blood, guts and gore! The killer hilariously named ‘Little Death’ (a cheeky nod to the French term ‘La petite mort’) is allowed to avenge their victimisation as the genderfluid killer slays their killers in a gory release. While the ending is left to interpretation, our protagonists appear to survive the ending in what can only be described as the bloodiest innuendo for a climax put to the big screen.
So where does this leave us? Sex no longer carries the taboo it once did, yet we can often struggle to overcome our prudishness when it comes to nudity and sex on scream. My takeaway? Sex isn't the end of the world, until it is!