Psychopathia Sexualis 2007 Horror Movie Review

Psychopathia Sexualis, Bret Wood’s visual adaptation of Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s eponymous book, investigates sexual perversity in an attempt to better render Krafft-Ebbing’s medical definitions for conditions like necrophilia, vampirism, masochism, and homosexuality. Fictional vignettes enliven chapters in the book, and an omniscient narrator commands attention between live-action scenes. One would expect the explicit nature of this material to be sexy or campy, but it’s really not. The scene of a man cowering under his dominatrix’s heeled boot is dulled by slow pace. A man getting hypnotized with metronome by Sigmund Freud’s teacher (Ebbing) practically hypnotizes the viewer with its severe mood. To its benefit, Psychopathia Sexualis looks like a Goth Guy Maddin film, with its colorful Victorian sets. A couple quick scenes, like a woman’s corset being laced up, or the nurse who gets off on her patient’s blood-sucking, are inviting in a sensationalistic way. But in general, the film’s sections such as “Manifestations,” “Methods of Treatment,” and “Melancholia” are too belabored to intriguingly reflect the text’s case studies. “Methods of Treatment” portrays the dire Victorian asylum, but not in any new light. Psychopathia Sexualis is an anticlimactic take on infinitely fascinating fetishes and obsessions. Though the film is tedious, it still reveals insights about sexuality and its narrow definitions a century ago. —Trinie Dalton