Horror and porn have long been intertwined. Both stringently controlled through America’s strict moral guidelines for movies, known as the Hays Code, until the 60s, the lingering taboo lasted long after it was replaced by the MPAA rating system, making sex and scares an exciting space for directors to play around and create something shocking and contentious. After all, both horror films and sex scenes aim to provoke a visceral response in us, albeit in different ways.
From erotic horrors that offset our biggest fears with a carnal edge, to visceral body horrors that explore the messed up intersection of intense pain and intense pleasure, the past century is crammed with movies of this ilk. Here are the best spicy yet scary movies you should seek out this Halloween.
The Hunger (1983)
Nothing screams bisexual energy more than David Bowie playing a vampire husband to a vampire wife, played by French gay icon Catherine Deneuve, in a movie that puts them in a throuple with Susan Sarandon. The Hunger is set in New York. Miriam (Deneuve) is a lethal and gorgeous vampire praying on unsuspecting club-goers for blood. But her lifestyle goes awry when she notices her vampire husband (played by Bowie) is ageing faster than he should, which he shouldn’t, because he’s a vampire. Cue Susan Sarandon arriving as a doctor who saves the day, falling in love with the duo in the process. When it first premiered, critics praised it for its visual world-building but took umbrage with its lack of real plot development. Years on, and the goths of the world have reclaimed it as a cult classic. They really are society’s greatest.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
After directing some of the greatest movies ever made in The Godfather and its sequels, Francis Ford Coppola decided to switch things up by adapting some more fantastical source material. His version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula — starring Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman and Anthony Hopkins — takes much of the sexual coding of the original 1897 horror novel and blows it up into an erotic tale of romantic redemption, full of neck-biting horror and tantalising love scenes. Come for the promise of a frightening vampire story, stay for a film about how lust can lead to the most volatile and deadly of situations.
Nekromantik (1987)
Is there any greater cosign for a fucked up horror film than being banned in several countries? This movie, which is unavailable in Iceland, Malaysia, Singapore and parts of Canada, takes the concepts of infidelity and mortality and places them in close proximity to each other. Shot in West Germany, it tells the story of Rob, a man who works for a crime scene clean-up company who also, alongside his partner Betty, has a necrophilia kink. After discovering the rotting body of a lonely gardener, Rob brings it home for Betty, but soon finds that she loves the corpse more than she does him.
A Night to Dismember (1983)
This movie is more of your old-fashioned 80s slasher than a straight up erotic horror, but earns a spot on this list due to the talent involved. Doris Wishman, the movie’s director, started out making films about nudism before veering into sexploitation flicks and ultimately making porn through the 70s and 80s. Following the slasher craze, she then made A Night to Dismember, about a woman who checks out of a mental facility, only to find that the curse bestowed upon her through her family bloodline is still very much present, thus leading her to start a violent rage across the town, dismembering folks. The film’s protagonist Vicki is played by the late Samantha Fox, then known best for her work as a porn star, and who used this as a jumping off point into making mainstream cinema.
Hellraiser (1987)
Widely considered the best British horror film ever made and based on a novella released the year prior, written by the film’s director Clive Barker, this movie about the summoning of a group of sadomasochistic beings from the underworld is a disturbing, horny classic. It goes like this: a sex-obsessed man toys with a puzzle box that promises to open a new plane of pleasure, leading to his demise and eventual reincarnation as a blob of diabolical goo. His former lover (who is also his sister-in-law and has been longing for his touch again) finds him and starts gathering men as sacrifices, so he can return to his original form and escape the demonic Cenobites who dragged him to hell in the first place. The sexual subtext here is obvious, and just look at the film’s iconic character Pinhead — basically a man zipped up in a BDSM leather mask.
Les Diaboliques (1955)
Nothing is more chic than two women coming together to triumph over trash men. It’s a sentiment that seeps through cinema’s history, but one of the most notable examples of it is the erotically charged French masterwork Les Diaboliques. Set in Paris, a violent, unlikeable headmaster meets the reckoning of his overlooked wife and powerful mistress on the side, as they come together to plot a plan to kill him. But that kinship between the headmaster’s wife and mistress is the most interesting thing about this unsettling erotic horror, because it tips over into a subtly sapphic love story too.
Cat People (1982)
David Bowie can’t stay away from horny horror. Here, he lends his voice to a score composed by dance legend Giorgio Moroder for the 1982 movie Cat People. This Paul Schrader film (that’s the guy who made Taxi Driver) is an adaptation of a film from the 40s, following a similar plot only in a more intense and stylised manner. Nastassja Kinski plays Irena Gallier, a young woman who arrives in New Orleans to spend time with her brother. There, she finds herself drawn to a zoologist, who she falls for, unaware that she harbours a dark family secret that only rears its head when she’s aroused: her ability to become a violent and powerful panther.
CAM (2018)
Written by Isa Mazzei, who based it on her own experiences as an online sex worker, this trippy psychological horror follows Alice, a cam girl on a live porn website. Obsessed with becoming the most popular account on the site, she starts to take her content to more deranged and morbid heights in order to increase her ranking. However, just as she cracks the top 50, her account is hijacked by… herself? A person with her face and voice begins putting on live shows as her, leaving Alice to figure out what the hell is going on. Starring Madeline Brewer of Hustlers and Orange Is the New Black, CAM is the kind of messed up Hitchcockian thriller that will leave you reeling for days.
Titane (2021)
Arguably the most deranged movie of last year, Titane comes from Julia Ducournau, the acclaimed director behind Raw (2016). The film follows young Alexia, who is left with a titanium plate in her head after a car crash and develops a morbid fascination with the vehicle she almost died in. As she grows up, that fascination turns into a fetish and the adult Alexia (played by model Agathe Rousselle in her first full length movie) is now a car showroom model, surrounded by temptation. But as she explores her sexuality, it leads Alexia down a shocking and incredibly gory path. If you want to know more, read our review of the Palme D’Or winning film here.
Videodrome (1983)
Tbh we could probably fill this entire list with the movies of David Cronenberg – the father of gory body horrors. When television producer Max Renn (James Woods) is shown an eerie new snuff film channel, he begins to hallucinate that the flirtatious pornstars on its screen are beckoning him. But as he investigates the true twisted origins of Videodrome, the hallucinations get stronger and the torture kink begins to manifest IRL. Playing on the fears at the time that widespread access to TV and video porn were rotting our brains, the psychosexual horror has been lauded for being fascinatingly messed up and very much ahead of its time.
Interview With The Vampire (1994)
Based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Anne Rice, in this very homoerotic horror Brad Pitt plays Louis, a vampire telling his origin story to a journalist, played by Christian Slater. Two hundred years prior Louis had been minding his own business in his rather tragic life with his rather tragic ponytail when he was attacked by the vampire Lestat (Tom Cruise) who promised him an exciting new immortal life. Together they raise a cute little vampire child (played by an incredibly young Kirsten Dunst). But, as time goes on, the baby-faced bloodthirsty killer becomes more and more vindictive, hedonistic and manipulative. Fun fact: When Anne Rice wrote the script she considered making Louis a woman (thinking the film was more likely to be produced with a heterosexual relationship at the centre), and the role almost went to Cher.
Thirst (2009)
If you want some more thirsty vamps, South Korean horror Thirst is your next watch. Winning the Jury Prize at Cannes, the movie comes from Park Chan-Wook, lauded director of The Handmaiden (2016), based on an 1867 novel by French writer Émile Zola. Parasite’s Song Kang-ho leads as Sang-hyun, a zealous Catholic priest who volunteers to be part of an experimental vaccine program that turns him into a blood sucker. With a growing desire to feast on humans, Sang-hyun must fight the urge to drain the body of his lover. Think: Twilight but with more foot fetish content.
Possession (1981)
When spy Mark (played by Sam Neil of Jurassic Park fame) returns home to West Berlin, he is welcomed by his wife asking for a divorce. Confused and hurt, he hires a PI to investigate whether she has a new lover, who discovers that she has! The PI walks in on her being dicked down by a slimy tentacled monster giving her out of this world orgasms. The epitome of the Kylie Minogue lyric “this is what’ll happen if you ain’t giving your girl what she needs”, the cult body horror gets messy and twisted as Mark tries to get his wife back from the monstrous creature. The movie was originally banned by the UK, considered a video nasty and was heavily edited down in the US with over 40 minutes of X-rated scenes removed.
Crash (1996)
Probably the manifestation of a Charli XCX sex dream, David Cronenberg’s Crash is about symphorophilia — the sexual arousal to staging and then watching tragedies like car crashes take place. Based on the J.G. Ballard novel, it follows James Ballard (James Spader) an unhappily married man who, after colliding vehicles with Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter), finds himself heading further and further into the kinky car crash fetish community who recreate the famed vehicular manslaughters of major celebrities to then get off to. With its mixing of intense sexual discovery and extreme violence, the film and the book were incredibly taboo at the time, with a tabloid campaign to have the movie banned in the UK. Although it was awarded a special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival, many members abstained out of anger. Naturally, then, it has now become a cult classic.
X (2022)
One movie bound to get your blood pumping is X, the first part of the chaotic porn horror trilogy from A24, that also includes the prequel Pearl, and upcoming sequel Maxxxine. Taking place in 1979, scream queen Mia Goth stars in X as Maxine, a girl who arrives at a secluded farmhouse to film an adult movie in the hopes that it will be her first step in becoming a star. But as night falls, the annoyed but seemingly-harmless elderly couple who own the barn start to get violent. Also starring Jenna Ortega (Scream), Brittany Snow (John Tucker Must Die) and Kid Cudi, you can read our full review of the slasher here.