That’s a pretty rich spectrum right there, and this came from fucking Eli Roth. We get to see two people in a trusting physical relationship, then two people in a budding relationship, and yet another permutation of a couple that engages in sex in the face of certain death. Why does this matter? For a horror film that prides itself on being gory and accurate in terms of flesh-eating grossness, it certainly focuses upon human relationships and reactions to mortality. Sex in this instance becomes a life-affirming escape for two people in an impossible-to-survive situation. ![]() There’s no final girl in this film, so there’s no use in keeping sexual chastity. As much as Paul doesn’t want to admit that it’s that late in the game, he goes along with it, which means that on some level or another, Paul knows he will die too. She even declines the use of a condom, which makes sense: neither of them will be around long enough to worry about pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases in the face of a flesh-eating virus. What’s left here is the unspoken acknowledgement of their impending doom: Marcy knows, after seeing multiple people die, that she will die too, so she might as well get a few minutes of enjoyment out of it. Everybody around you is screaming, ‘We’re going down! We’re going down!’ And all you want to do is grab the person next to you and fuck them, because you know you’re going to be dead soon, anyway.” Out of this sense of terror, we get the sex scene between Marcy and Paul. Marcy knows that the likelihood of survival is not high, and she tells Paul, “It’s like being on a plane, when you know it’s gonna crash. After the virus has ravaged Karen, and Burt and Jeff have both run off, Marcy’s left with Paul and a growing sense of dread. It is just about sex between Paul and Marcy, though. Strong’s performance as Paul helps drive home the caring factor, which we don’t doubt for a moment. This is someone who wants to build a relationship. These aren’t the actions of a man looking for a quick lay. That horrifying moment aside, though, look at Paul’s actions: he falls asleep next to her while comforting her he doesn’t demand she service him sexually first his hand slips below the covers to offer her sexual pleasure first. This culminates as the pair lie in bed together and start fooling around one morning, only to discover that Karen’s thigh is sporting a nasty spot of flesh-eating virus. So he waits for her to kiss him, and pursues her at her own pace. ![]() Paul isn’t interested in just nailing Karen: despite that he doesn’t come right out and say it, Paul is clearly in love with her, and has been for a long time. On the flip side of this established and trusting sexual relationship, we have Karen and Paul, who have known each other for years and haven’t acted upon their attraction until this point. It’s also clear that he’s in a relationship with someone he trusts as he heads toward this act this isn’t second-date material, people (either that, or my standards of dating are way too high). ![]() Male sodomy is typically a joke or a punishment in horror films, which makes Jeff’s enjoyment a welcome rarity in this respect. Jeff’s reaction isn’t a bad one, either: judging by the sighs and facial expressions, he’s having a good time. In a moment we don’t get to see very often in film, Marcy flips Jeff over and – while we don’t explicitly witness it – it’s implied that she sodomizes him. Marcy and Jeff’s duration of relationship isn’t established, but the moment they get to the cabin, they run to their room and have enthusiastic sex. Roth and Pearlstein present two versions of couples in this film: definite couple Marcy (Cerina Vincent) and Jeff (Joey Kern, who looks like he could be the bastard child of Greg Marmalard from National Lampoon’s Animal House) and Karen (Jordan Ladd) and Paul (Rider Strong), a pair who haven’t quite gotten there yet.
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