Recent Reviews
DVD Review: Psychopathia Sexualis
By John Marrone
Jan 9, 2007, 15:34

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Psychopathia Sexualis is based on a psychology book on sexuality, written in 1886, by an Austro-German psychiatrist named Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing.  Krafft-Ebing wrote it with the intention of it becoming adopted as "a forensic reference for doctors and judges", scripted in academically rich text so as to hopefully ward off those looking to read it for a cheap thrill.  Krafft-Ebing believed that "the purpose of sexual desire was procreation, and any form of desire that didn't go towards that ultimate goal was a perversion." 

Psychopathia Sexualis, the film, follows a series of sexually dysfunctional cases through different stages, and eventually these are dissolved down to thier socio-scientific elements, where homosexuality and necrophilia meet their eventual treatment and cure by treatments explained and acted out by the actors and actresses in the film.  Different than a typical plot where stories are put together over the course of time, these passages play out like glimpses into the lives of the disorder at different stages, so those who can not think abstract or adapt to a storytelling technique outside the average screenplay may engage in a futile effort trying to make sense of it.  To those who can look at art for what it is, fans of the gothic, and classroom/textbook (Faces of Death) narratives may find a unique enjoyable quality about this film.

On one side its very velvety, victorian and gothic in style.  Almost to the point that if you're not "goth", you may be sickened by its Canterburian appearance.  There is sex throughout the film, and many critics were appropriately disgusted by its lack of sensuality or sex appeal - but just as Krafft-Ebing had "delibrately chosen a scientific term for the name of the book to discourage lay readers" - I believe that the choice in less attractive characters and actors was done on purpose so as to focus the film on its horror border theme of sexual perversities, dysfunctions and old school treatments, and to avoid becoming a nudie "cult classic".  It is, if nothing else, a very different type of movie.

What director Bret Wood accomplishes is having created a film that honors its material source, not particularly candied up with hot T&A to tell the story.  It relies on its weirdness and scientific backbone and mixes it with a costume/propped environment that looks almost timeless.  Its hard to believe that it was made in 2006 out of Atlanta, Georgia - it looks like it was imported from overseas.  And while sexual topics are discussed from beginning to end, including ejaculating on corpses and entrails, masturbating to a woman while she's sucked by leeches, reaching orgasm while sucking blood, lesbianism between lovers 40 years apart, and the homosexual longing for another man's bushy, unkept mustache - none of this will inspire the slightest arousal in the average viewer.  The actors and actresses are old, out of shape, and purposefully uninspiring, aside for maybe the young lesbian towards the end of the movie and thats going out on a limb.

Final Analysis:  Scary?  If seeing out of shape old men doing frontal nudity is scary, then yeah.  This one's weird, and for that alone, it belongs among us.  Director Bret Wood puts together a unique film which is as informative as it is nauseating eye candy.  By this I mean, you find it hard to look away, hard to stay interested in the material/story, yet you're compelled to see more, and for what reason you'll have no idea.  Its easy to turn this one off and reach for an old reliable DVD.  Many horror fans will wonder why theyre watching it and lose interest quickly.  There's no shortage of weirdos to gawk at in Psychopathia Sexualis.  Hardcore horror fans in search of violence or sexy nudity will by amply disappointed.  Those with an open mind, a taste for old science, an interest in plush red velvet or the sex lives of the ugly and "deflaccidizing" may find themselves oddly compelled to see it through.  You wont catch yourself masturbating to this one, thats for sure - and if you do, for Gods sake, seek counseling.

Psychopathia Sexualis
- Employing a complex multi-narrative structure, Psychopathia Sexualis dramatizes case histories of turn-of-the-century sexual deviance, drawn from the pages of Richard von Krafft-Ebing's notorious medical text. Among the cases are a sexually repressed man who discovers an unhealthy appetite for blood; a homosexual man who submits himself to a doctor who promises to 'cure' his condition; and a masochist who hires a pair of corseted prostitutes to enact a most peculiar performance. In the final chapter, a woman who has spent her life suppressing her lesbian desires is hired to tutor a sexually curious young woman. These stories are bound together by the thread of an ambitious doctor who not only studies the patients, but uses them as pawns and playthings. - Kino.com

DVD Features Include:  Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
Additional Release Material:
Behind the Scenes
Bonus Shorts -
1. "JUDGEMENT"
2. "RAPTURE"
Deleted Scenes
Interviews - Cast & Crew
Trailers - Theatrical Trailers
Text/Photo Galleries:
Photo Gallery
Screenplay Excerpts

- Official Website

Starring: Jane Bass, Kristi Casey, Bryan Davis, Ted Manson, Tracy Martin
Directed by: Bret Wood

Thanks to Wikipedia, Kino.com, Video Universe and Yahoo Movies for some of the information provided in this article...

Click HERE to purchase the DVD from Amazon.com