Kink in Mainstream Movies and Shows

[CyranoJ]

Perhaps cannibalism and necrophilia cross the line from kink into something else. For one thing, they are illegal in most places. One might away with it if one found the body of a homeless person and absconded with it.

People like Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer weren't "kinky;" they were criminally insane.

To be clear, the example of kink in the original post is incest, not cannibalism. The cannibalism is just an example of the many other crazy things in the show.

Still, it's perfectly possible to have kinks for deservedly illegal or forbidden things. I'm not among the people who think real-world incest is no big deal, for example. And when "non-con" kink manifests in the real world, it's just rape. "Vore" is in fact a kink for cannibalism (but I don't think Taboo plays that part of things in a way that voreophiles would be into). The line between kink and criminality is the difference between fantasy and roleplaying and outright delusion and violence.

Aside from crimes, what's "across the line" from kink is fetish. A kink is something that turns a person on. A fetish is something without which a person simply cannot get aroused.

 

[CyranoJ]

I thought so: she's Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter. His fourth and final wife was Oona O'Neill.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_O'Neill

Wow. I thought the surname was just coincidence. That's wild.

 

[CyranoJ]

It was deeply, deeply boring and he got awful performances out of Cruise and Kidman.

Em

Yeah, that was a disappointment for me.

I think a standout for me is Shame. It's really more a movie about sex addiction than about sex per se (and its various sex scenes bring this home), but the implied dynamic between the protagonist and his sister is fascinating, not to mention disturbing as fuck. If were an Incest writer it might invite "fan-fic" of a sort, b/c there is clearly something deeply off, there.

I actually owe one of the hottest real-life relationships of my life to The Pillow Book, which gave me the idea of writing on a partner's body in chocolate. I fucked it up with over-honesty (I told her the idea wasn't original to me at one point, and she lost interest after that) but we had some good times nevertheless. Actually, it occurs to me that I've never really written an erotic story directly based on my own life, and maybe that one would qualify... that shit was incredible while it lasted.

 

[AchtungNight]

Can one top Eyes Wide Shut?

As a real life swinging enthusiast, I was not into that film and deliberately left it out of my fanfic. Unless you count the vague references to Tom Cruise having a past life as a swinger in Passion 5.

Other films featuring kinky sex like Terminator and Pretty Woman were more inspirational to me. You can see their influence throughout my works.

 

[PennameWombat]

There was Lady Heather in CSI - a recurring character who was a dominatrix meeting every cliche tickbox - 'English', wealthy, titled, runs a club with very strict membership requirements and rules and protocol, unnerving Grissom and colleagues who fancied her...

I, personally, never forgave "CSI" for having Grissom in a relationship with... ugh, can barely type it, Sara Sidle, and not Lady Heather. I won't disagree on the 'cliche tickbox' point, but I will say that Mistress Toni, with whom I, uh, spent some IRL time in a couple of dungeons, would've killed to have been able to fill in the same set of tickboxes. Except maybe the 'English' bit, Mistress Toni was unashamedly American. But the rest... where's the dotted line for her to sign?

 

[HeyAll]

Boardwalk Empire season 2 has mom/son incest.

Girlfriend Experience season 2 has the most erotic scenes (several) ever filmed for a mainstream movie or tv series. The storyline and production is fantastic overall.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I, personally, never forgave "CSI" for having Grissom in a relationship with... ugh, can barely type it, Sara Sidle, and not Lady Heather. I won't disagree on the 'cliche tickbox' point, but I will say that Mistress Toni, with whom I, uh, spent some IRL time in a couple of dungeons, would've killed to have been able to fill in the same set of tickboxes. Except maybe the 'English' bit, Mistress Toni was unashamedly American. But the rest... where's the dotted line for her to sign?

Where's my free mansion and servants? Similarly lost in the post, I suppose.

Back to TV, The Magicians starts off like any late-teen drama as a bunch of good-looking messed-up students enrol at a postgraduate university for magic, but then you end up with death, corruption, and an epic amount of sex like you would if you could magic up wards against sound in college, along with magicking up contraception and lubricating your partner with a wave of your hand. And travel to another world which isn't Narnia for copyright reasons, where politics require even more sex - and how often do you see bisexual men on mainstream telly where their sexuality isn't the plot? - and there's in-depth discussion of practicalities and ethics of shagging faeries, centaurs, Greek gods and various Talking Animals. And Marlee Matlin as a MILF... By the end of the first season it's a remarkably good complex tightly-plotted drama.

The other series that comes to mind is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, particularly s6 where Buffy and Spike have lots of violent passionate sex, with scratches, bleeding, and destruction of surroundings.

 

[SimonDoom]

But, as I said, that’s me. Is there a line?

There's no objective, universal line. We all have our own lines.

Reading Crash was interesting, because it treats an activity--driving like a homicidal maniac and getting involved in car crashes--as erotic while most people wouldn't think it's erotic at all. The book does a good job of taking us into the minds of the participants and seeing their insane and criminal activity as kinky and erotic. I didn't find it erotic in the sense of being personally arousing, but I could see the erotic potential in it for others.
So, no, I don't think there's "a" line, although I have various personal lines, both as a person in the real world and as a writer (two completely different things and standards for me).

 

[AchtungNight]

The other series that comes to mind is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, particularly s6 where Buffy and Spike have lots of violent passionate sex, with scratches, bleeding, and destruction of surroundings.

Let’s not forget that series also gave us the characters Cordelia, Faith, Willow, Tara, and Anya. Many other great women too. All women I’d gladly call friends or more if our interests synced and I could keep going dark out of the equation. Gail Bergman, Jane Espenson, Marti Noxon, and a lot of other great people did a great job creating that series.

What? You say some faux feminist jackass helped them? Sorry, I don’t recognize that name.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Q and Eliot. I'm still not over that heartbreak

And this is what fanfic is for. Some great stuff out there, with not too much teenage dross to sift through.

 

[SimonDoom]

Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, Parts 1 and 2, is one of the kinkiest and most explicit "mainstream" movies I've seen. It stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as a woman who is, you guessed it, a nymphomaniac and covers a variety of experiences and encounters she has. Stacy Martin plays the character as a younger woman. It's well-acted and intelligently written.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It was deeply, deeply boring and he got awful performances out of Cruise and Kidman.

Em

Interesting. I thought Kidman was excellent, especially the scene where she recounts her fantasy of the naval officer, whereas Cruise was wooden, I agree. Must have driven Kubrick nuts! Best scene though: Alan Cummings as the hotel clerk. Kidman's got a cute little ass, though

Bias disclosure: Kubrick's my favourite director, ever since I saw 2001 aged twelve - I've subsequently seen it at least fifteen times on a big screen, including once on a giant curved screen it was made for - its tenth anniversary release in 1978. So I had to wait eight years for EWS.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Interesting. I thought Kidman was excellent, especially the scene where she recounts her fantasy of the naval officer, whereas Cruise was wooden, I agree. Must have driven Kubrick nuts! Best scene though: Alan Cummings as the hotel clerk. Kidman's got a cute little ass, though

Bias disclosure: Kubrick's my favourite director, ever since I saw 2001 aged twelve - I've subsequently seen it at least fifteen times on a big screen, including once on a giant curved screen it was made for - its tenth anniversary release in 1978. So I had to wait eight years for EWS.

Kidman can turn in much better performances in my opinion.

Em

 

[ElectricBlue]

Kidman can turn in much better performances in my opinion.

Em

Agree, she has, but she did okay in EWS, for me. But, guy time, to be fair.

I often wonder what Kubrick would have done with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger - given that his main casting criteria was to use a married couple, and there weren't that many choices. That would have been much edgier, I think.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Agree, she has, but she did okay in EWS, for me. But, guy time, to be fair.

I don’t find Kidman that attractive - I know many will disagree with me.

I often wonder what Kubrick would have done with Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger - given that his main casting criteria was to use a married couple, and there weren't that many choices. That would have been much edgier, I think.

I think that might have worked better, I agree.

Em

 

[SimonDoom]

It was deeply, deeply boring and he got awful performances out of Cruise and Kidman.

Em

I wouldn't go quite this far, but I would agree it was not a great movie, and surprisingly unerotic given what's going on in the film. It's the weakest Kubrick film I've seen. I thought Cruise and Kidman were miscast for the roles, and I've enjoyed both of them in other things.

It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but I'd say it's a movie where the director's thumbprint is too heavy and intrusive. The story doesn't feel organic to the characters and their motives. It feels contrived from start to finish, to me anyway.

Kubrick is a great director, but I find him to be a cold director. Most of the time, there's little warmth in the way characters are presented. For a movie to be erotic, I think you have to be able to get inside the character's skin and experience erotic events as the character experiences them, but I almost always find myself distanced from the characters in his movies.

The most erotic episode I can recall from a Kubrick film was in Spartacus, where Spartacus encounters Varinia, played by a very sexy Jean Simmons, swimming nude in a pond. THAT was sexy, in part because I cared about the characters more and because of, well, Jean Simmons.

 

[AchtungNight]

I’m ok with Kidman’s acting ability personally, but agree she is often given inadequate scripting and direction. Sometimes her co-star chemistry is lacking also. I think she often does a good job under pressure, like many great artists. Let’s leave it at that.

As for Kubrick, I’m with Simon. The man was a good director but not a great one unless he had the right talent backing him up.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I wouldn't go quite this far, but I would agree it was not a great movie, and surprisingly unerotic given what's going on in the film. It's the weakest Kubrick film I've seen. I thought Cruise and Kidman were miscast for the roles, and I've enjoyed both of them in other things.

It's hard for me to put my finger on it, but I'd say it's a movie where the director's thumbprint is too heavy and intrusive. The story doesn't feel organic to the characters and their motives. It feels contrived from start to finish, to me anyway.

Kubrick is a great director, but I find him to be a cold director. Most of the time, there's little warmth in the way characters are presented. For a movie to be erotic, I think you have to be able to get inside the character's skin and experience erotic events as the character experiences them, but I almost always find myself distanced from the characters in his movies.

The most erotic episode I can recall from a Kubrick film was in Spartacus, where Spartacus encounters Varinia, played by a very sexy Jean Simmons, swimming nude in a pond. THAT was sexy, in part because I cared about the characters more and because of, well, Jean Simmons.

He was happier directing HAL .

Em

 

[SimonDoom]

He was happier directing HAL .

Em

The best character in 2001 is the non-human one.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Sodomy is still illegal in most places as well.

Not condoning either necrophilia or cannibalism. My moral aversion to them doesn't change the fact that they are things that some people find arousing that isn't considered a "natural" sex act.

I actually know someone who is into necrophilia, super disturbing thought, but as far as I know he has never acted on it, just paid girls to pretend to be dead.

I asked once why he didn't just use a sex doll and he said it was because they didn't have the same "give" and I have no idea what that means, nor do I want to know. I do know he said actual dead people don't appeal to him. Just the appearance of death is what gets him going. I mean, I'm still disturbed by it, but as long as he doesn't cross that line, then whatever.

I think there's a line between him and Ed Gein, but given his arousal is around thinking about the body being dead, I don't think that takes it out of the realm of necrophilia, which is the same aspect that plays out in sleeping beauty, living girl who has the appearance of being dead but isn't.

Deadgirl is about a zombie, so I'm not real clear on the line there... It's disturbing, but I still like the movie because I find it an interesting concept.

I may or may not have a zombie brothel erotica story centered on curing recently turned zombies.

There is a difference between having somebody pretend to be dead and actually having sex with corpses. Thus it's basically a form of playacting or role-playing. If sublimates a the desire for the real thing, than it's the business of the people participating it.

Ed Gein actually murdered at least two people to get bodies, but he also dug up bodies from cemeteries. That must have been easier in rural Wisconsin at the time than it would be in a city cemetery now. I don't think he ate of their flesh however.

Zombies appear in African and West Indian folklore. They may have been based on real-life people who had a catatonic mental illness, and others may have be induced into zombie-like behavior through drugs or hypnosis.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Wow. I thought the surname was just coincidence. That's wild.

Her mother is Chaplin's daughter Geraldine Chaplin, who is still alive at age 79. Charlie must have been a busy guy, because he had four wives and eleven children.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

I know it's not permitted to diss Kubrick, but... the film stuck with me *because* of how dull it was.

As long as we're dissing Kubrick, I didn't like A Clockwork Orange, and I found the rape scene disturbing -- that may seem like a strange thing for a noncon author to say, but it's true.

I don't know if I would consider that film particularly "kinky"... although it does deal with non-con, which is considered a kink.

The rape is not glamorized exactly, although it is hardly condemned. The husband of the rape victim is even portrayed in a negative light, as he seeks vengeance against Alex.

 

[djrip]

I mean I think it's supposed to be disturbing. Alex is the leader of a gang of ultra-violent criminal goons!

But it was also played for comedy, with the phallic sculpture and everything. Didn't he knock her out or kill her with that thing, too?

I think the comedy is mainly about criminal elements running amok and being coddled by the authorities, and then of course we get the system trying to re-habilitate them, which could be seen as coddling although it does culminate in fairly disturbing mind washing, then the triumphant defeat of mind control and return to one's true, violent and criminal self... I don't know what it's trying to say overall, really. But I do feel like it was supposed to be a mix of funny and disturbing, and a commentary on society's means of exerting authority and failing to do so, and treatment of criminals, or disaffected youths, or something...?

 

[Altissimus]

Her mother is Chaplin's daughter Geraldine Chaplin, who is still alive at age 79. Charlie must have been a busy guy, because he had four wives and eleven children.

Now it all becomes clear why he wanted to work in silence.

 

[CyranoJ]

I mean I think it's supposed to be disturbing. Alex is the leader of a gang of ultra-violent criminal goons!

But it was also played for comedy, with the phallic sculpture and everything. Didn't he knock her out or kill her with that thing, too?

I think the comedy is mainly about criminal elements running amok and being coddled by the authorities, and then of course we get the system trying to re-habilitate them, which could be seen as coddling although it does culminate in fairly disturbing mind washing, then the triumphant defeat of mind control and return to one's true, violent and criminal self... I don't know what it's trying to say overall, really. But I do feel like it was supposed to be a mix of funny and disturbing, and a commentary on society's means of exerting authority and failing to do so, and treatment of criminals, or disaffected youths, or something...?

Kubrick's film cuts off an important epilogue from the book where the protagonist is shown to have actually learned something from his hellish trip through The Consequences of His Actions, and is shown growing beyond criminality. I suppose Kubrick thought this resolution too pat.