Deadgirl, The Zombie Rape Flick

Deadgirl, That Zombie Rape Flick You’ve Been Waiting For, Is Finally Here

Posted by: Jessica Wakeman Filed in: news
8:30AM, Friday July 3rd 2009

Ah, horror films. If you found the corpse of a dead woman in a mental institution basement, you’d totes have sex with it, right? Then chop up the body parts…until she comes alive and eats you.

Such is the plot of “Deadgirl”, a new horror flick, whose movie poster even looks vaginal! Looks like conservatives and feminists can finally find some common ground…to freak the f**k out.

Alas, “Deadgirl” leaves us horror-film loving feminists grappling with many serious questions. Is having sex with a zombie necrophilia? Or is it rape, because she’s actually partially alive? Can necrophilia also be rape?

And also, what the hell is wrong with people?

Tracy Clark-Flory at Broadsheet did an amazing job analyzing how “Deadgirl”‘s filmmakers equate the power rush of sex (in this case, sexual violence) with the powerlessness of fear so seamlessly. She wrote:

“Horror films have always toyed with arousal and fear, those two easily confused feelings. Increasingly, porn is following the same formula—just consider the viral genre-merger of 2 Girls, 1 Cup. The goal in both porn and horror flicks is often to elicit an extreme, adrenaline response and force us to confront our baser, animal selves.”

Clark-Flory has not seen “Deadgirl” (neither have we). But she did watch the trailer online (NSFW, obviously) and came away from it sickened by the content. So we’ll take her word for it that the flick is totally depraved—and doesn’t exactly tap into the “baser, animal selves” that most of us can relate to.

We’re not censorious; we won’t be writing angry letters to the filmmakers or urging movie theaters not to show the film. But we will vote with our dollars and skip this one.

comments

peacock
wrote on July 3 2009 @ 08:44 am: [report]

How can someone do an “amazing job” analyzing a movie without actually seeing the movie? Would you write an analysis of a book based on the back cover?

Jessica Wakeman
wrote on July 3 2009 @ 09:16 am: [report]

@peacock Good point. I have clarified in the post.

mayorbubbles
wrote on July 3 2009 @ 09:22 am: [report]

the lipstick in the poster looks awesome though.

raqueleza
wrote on July 3 2009 @ 09:31 am: [report]

As one of those horror movie-loving feminists…this looks friggin awesome! The horror movie genre is too easily delved way too far into, and inevitably Pandora’s box of issues that uppity feminists will get offended about. This is a goofy, fun genre that no one takes too seriously—the point is to get a rise out of audiences on a bunch of different levels…so I’m hoping folks won’t get pissy for a change and enjoy some zombie sex—I know I will.

Jessica Wakeman
wrote on July 3 2009 @ 09:36 am: [report]

@raqueleza I agree with you about how it’s a goofy, fun genre that we shouldn’t take too seriously, but the way Tracy Clark-Flory describe the “sex” scene, it’s more like rape than necrophilia, since the audience knows the woman is actually alive (er, undead). Clark-Flory also says the men in the film “pimp her out as a sex slave”...I can only imagine how that will play out. (http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/07/02/zombie_rape/index.html) Believe me, I LOOOOVE horror movies, but all of that sounds pretty gross. I wouldn’t enjoy it.

juliePS
wrote on July 6 2009 @ 05:38 am: [report]

completely unlike what raqueleza said, I think the horror genre is one that’s actually offered a lot of interesting (and hilarious) opportunities for social commentary. “Night of the Living Dead,” for example, is tremendously thought-provoking and symbolic with regard to race and class issues. Many horror filmmakers, like George Romero, are extremely intelligent and thoughtful, and thus are more than capable of making a movie that’s appealing on more than one level.

Just so y’all know that some of us who like horror movies aren’t, ya know, female misogynists looking for every opportunity to dismiss “uppity feminists” in order to impress men.

Revolutionary Girl
wrote on July 25 2009 @ 10:13 am: [report]

I have actually seen thsi film. I went to see it a TIFF last year in Toronto and as disturbing and horrific as it was it did what it set out to do, scare the #&@$% of me and distrub me in all ways possible. I think the beauty of film is the idea that anything is possible and if its not something you agree with then don’t watch it. I felt the film was horrible in many ways yea but it wasn’t made to try to band feminists and conservatives in a kumbaya moment. Its a movie to trigger fear, questions and emotions and they did just that. It was well done even if the content just doesn’t sit in right.

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