Monday, September 14, 2015

LACE CRATER and Other Ghostly Sexual Encounters


Lace Crater follows the story of Ruth (Lindsay Burdge), an awkward twenty something that begins to experience strange physical changes after a weekend tryst with a ghost. The phenomenon of sexual encounters between ghosts and humans is called spectrophilia, and there are some films that have explored this phenomenon in the past. While not exactly a trope explored often, the relationship between humans and ghosts is one that can produce either romantic or terrifying outcomes.

Ghost (1990) is perhaps the most famous example of a romantic haunting. While no actual human-ghost sexual encounter occurs in the film - the famous pottery scene occurs at the beginning of the film - Sam Wheat's (Patrick Swayze) love for Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) is so strong that he watches after her to protect her after his murder.


The Entity (1981) is a film that is the exact opposite of a romantic haunting, and Martin Scorsese considers it one of the scariest horror movies of all time. The film stars Barbara Hershey as a woman who is tormented and sexually abused by a ghost. The film is based off the story of Doris Bither, a woman who in 1974 told Culver City, California police that she was raped by invisible assailants.


Last year's hit Midnight Madness film It Follows (2014) doesn't feature a human-ghost sexual encounter, but it does feature something arguably scarier - a sexually transmitted poltergeist as programmer Colin Geddes put it in last year's programming notes. The film follows Jay (Maika Monroe) as she confronts a murderous entity visible only to her after having sex with a new boy she has been seeing.

 

Further information about Lace Crater can be found on the Festival website, as well as on the film's Facebook page and director Harrison Atikins' website.

LACE CRATER Screening Times:
Tue. Sept 15, 9:30PM SCOTIABANK 10
Thu. Sept 17, 9:30PM SCOTIABANK 14
Sun. Sept 20, 3:15PM SCOTIABANK 9

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