Tentacle Sex In The Movies
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From vintage Japanese Edo period erotic woodblock prints, to Lovecraftian horror, and a whole raft of anime movies, tentacle erotica is a bizarre fetish in anyone's book. Among the most famous of the early instances is an illustration from the 1814 Hokusai Katsushika novel The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. But before you go calling Japan a nation of ichthyomaniac fish diddlers, check out "Tentacles of Desire: The Man Who Loved Cephalopods." Contained within is the story of Joshua Handley, an English artist in the late 19th century whose travels to Japan resulted in an obsession with tentacle erotica. It would seem that Victorian England were most uncomfortable not with the act of tentacle penetration, but the perceived enjoyment that the ladies received from it.
Tentacle erotica gained popularity in the 80s, as manga artists used it as way of circumventing Japanese censorship laws. At the time, depicting penetration with a penis was against the law, whereas a giant phallic tentacle was perfectly acceptable. Anime movies of the time took the practice to whole new levels, with infamous examples to be seen in 1989's Urotsukidōji, often referred to in the West as Legend Of The Overfiend. Within live-action movies, particularly those produced in the West, tentacle erotica took on a Lovecraftian theme, starting with Roger Corman's production of H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror in 1970. Tentacle erotica however remains a bizarre sub-genre of erotica in cinema. Here are a few examples of movies that feature scenes of tentacle sex. |
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The Dunwich Horror (1970): A Roger Corman produced b-movie, based on the famous Lovercraft short-story, starring Dean Stockwell. Stockwell would also appear in a 2009 adaptation of the story. The movie itself bears little resemblance to the original story, but then again we don't expect anything else from movie adaptations of Lovecraft stories. Lovecraft's story is itself a homage to the works of Welsh horror writer, Arthur Machen. In particular the novel "The Novel of the Black Seal", in which he wrote, "Something pushed out from the body there on the floor, and stretched forth, a slimy, wavering tentacle."
The tentacle scene at the end of The Dunwich Horror is a piece of high-camp stuff and nonsense, made all the more weird that the actress involved in the goody-goody Sandra Dee. Seeing her naked on the sacrificial alter surely was more shocking to audiences of the time, than to appearance of some dodgy Corman tentacle effects. Still The Dunwich Horror is generally regarded as one of the better movies based on works of Lovecraft. And remains a campy cult classic. Next we move onto another Corman classic from over a decade later. |
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Galaxy Of Terror (1981): Sci-fi horror fluff and nonsense from the Corman camp. The movie features a per-Nightmare On Elm Street Robert Englund. And was one of director James Cameron's first gigs, working as Production Designer and Second Unit Director. The infamous sex scene in the movie featuring actress Taaffe O'Connell, has gone down in cult film folklore. Under pressure from the movies backers, Corman upped the ante on the sex scene. O'Connell and director Bruce D. Clark were uncomfortable with the rewritten and much more explicit scene that Corman had come up with. Corman decided to direct the entire scene himself. He hired a body double for O'Connell to shoot the full-nudity sex scene. The re-written scene not only included full nudity and far more explicit sexual content. It went from O'Connell's character being merely stripped topless and being consumed by the giant worm alien, to including simulated sexual intercourse, and ended with O'Connell's character moaning provocatively, covered in excreted slime, and being driven to an orgasm so intense it kills her. Needless to say, the scene caused controversy with the censors. The movie was given the then still existent "X" certificate, which was generally reserved for pornographic movies. Minor cuts were made to the scene, so that the movie eventually was given a more acceptable R-rating on its release.
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Edo Porn (1981): The Hokusai Manga, also known by its more exploitative sounding title Edo Porn, is a 1981 biographical drama based on the life of Japanese artist Hokusai Katsushika. The references and uses the works of Hokusai Katsushika as narrative tools, including his most well known work The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife. This is a rather straight-forward biopic of a very well-known historical figure, chocked full of nudity and erotic caricature. Bathhouses, prostitutes, drunkeness and seedy pleasures are brought to the foreground. In one scene towards the end of the movie, an "ama" (a Japanese pearl diver) is seen playing with a dead octopus, by Hokusai's daughter. Hokusai persuades the girl to pose for the erotic illustration of an ama engaged in a threesome with two octopuses.
The Japanese public and the historical accounts in general remember Hokusai in a highly favorable light, and here, despite his hedonistic fixations, he is shown with reverence. The man who started it all, bringing to whole idea of tentacle erotica to the world. |
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Possession (1981): An all out arthouse piece of European horror directed by Andrzej Żuławski and starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill. The film was considered controversial on first release, and was heavily edited for distribution in the United States. After an initial limited theatre release in the UK, Possession was banned as one of the notorious Video Nasties, although it was later released uncut on VHS in 1999.
The film tells the story of the utter disintegration of a marriage, and the downward spiral of the couple into madness. A roller-coaster ride of a movie that doesn't pull any punches, and leaves viewers as exhausted as the protagonists, as it attempts to show emotional repression exploding in unrelenting performances. Symbolism is splashed all over the place, and no more so than in the creature that Adjani's character harbours in a derelict apartment she rents. All blood and tentacles at first, she kills to protect it. And is found by Neill in the throws of passion with the writhing multi-tentacled abomination, in a scene that is likely the one that got the film its infamous place on the video nasty list. |
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The Evil Dead (1981): It's well known among cinephiles, that Sam Raimi was heavily influenced by the works of H.P. Lovecraft when he made his break-through début feature film The Evil Dead. Remote locations, malevolent unseen entities in the dark foreboding woods, the Necronomicon, it's got Lovecraft influence written right through it. On its release the most controversial scene, and one that people still talk about to this day, was the tree branch rape scene. Okay so not "tentacles" exactly, but all the same the writhing branches are a nod to sexual violation by tentacle.
The scene featured the character of Cheryl going out into the woods alone after hearing voices, where she is entwined and held down by demonically possessed branches, while a branch snakes its way up between her legs and rapes her. The film almost made the video nasty list in the UK, and despite the urban myth that it did, it was eventually given a cinema release after minor cuts. The Evil Dead was therefore originally passed with an "X" certification for UK cinema release in 1982. Although the cuts made at that time, were not to the infamous tree rape scene. |
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Progeny (1999): Sci-fi movie, directed by Brian Yuzna, who also directed Society (1989), Bride of Re-Animator (1990) and Return Of The Living Dead III (1993), among others. In the movie Sherry, discovers she is pregnant. While this is happy news for her and her husband, both begin having strange memories from the night of conception. Uneasiness then becomes terror when both are convinced that she is carrying something alien inside her body. Under hypnosis Sherry recalls being abducted by aliens and impregnated by a tentacled alien.
Progeny is a step above the campy b-movie fair you might expect from Yuzna, giving us a genuine piece of psychological horror. Which means he doesn't milk the tentacle sex angle as much as he could of. What you get is a blink-and-you-miss-it flash of tentacle penetration, but all the same there it is, and so the movie makes the list. The scene is actually quite disturbing, as actress Jillian McWhirter is strapped down by the tentacled alien, who then proceeds to impregnate her with a penis that appears from its forehead. |
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