13 Horror Movies Without Sexual Violence

crepusculars:

Joey Comeau, writer of A Softer World and horror movie enthusiast,has compiled a list of great horror movies that don’t depict sexual violence. The list also denotes which of the films are gory, which are foreign language/subtitled, and which are “stupid but awesome anyway.”

As someone who is very sensitive to the content of films in general, especially when they contain scenes of rape or sexual assault, I really appreciate Comeau putting together a list like this.

Go check it out! Halloween is just around the corner!

Reblogging this for our followers, but. A lot of these suck, aren’t genre film, or are PG-13. Obviously ratings are ridiculous, but they are also a tool and a big part of determining how horror films are made. I will write more about the way ratings interact with sex and violence in horror soon, but so many PG-13 movies trade gore for cheap jump scares and that stupid thing where creepy children look at the camera and I’m just way too sophisticated for that bullshit.

And Shaun of the Dead doesn’t count! THIR133N GHOSTS, though. That movie has a Matthew Lillard and it’s not even worth it for me.

I also take issue with the claim that a lot of these don’t have “sexual violence.” Behind the Mask is excellent, I would highly recommend it, but one of its aims is to disrupt (and poke fun at) the “virgin” narrative and in doing so sexualizes one of the objects of violence. That may not be rape, but sexualized violence is still sexual violence. To quote desliz about Inside, “I am side-eying the fuck out of the implication that violence directed at pregnant women/forcible attempts to terminate a pregnancy/steal someone’s baby aren’t going to be triggering for some.”

This, of course, is a running concern with my horror coverage, and I can’t say I’ve come up with an easy solution. As I write about horror films I’ll try to be more thorough about what type of traumatic stuff we might be dealing with. In films I have recommended for inquiry here, I know that there are instances of rape, incest, implied rape and incest, unwanted sexual contact, nudity combined with violence, sexualized violence, regular-old-gore, violence against children, transphobia, etc., etc. When I’ve watched a film recently, I can speak more assuredly about what you can expect, but I mention lots of films I haven’t seen. The best I can recommend is to use internet resources, ask me for clarification, and take care of yourself.

And remember this handy rule of thumb: if it’s a slasher, and it’s got an R rating, there will probably be boobs. #patriarchy

(Source: nychthemeral)

• Tagged:violence sexual assault rape abuse film horror
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