Jack the Ripper wasn't a kink forefather

The independent film “Psychopathia Sexualis” was honestly one of the worst films that I have ever seen. This poorly done art film supposedly meandered its way through “a dreamlike depiction of turn-of-the-century sexual deviance, from the pages of Richard von KrafftEbing’s notorious medical text” however in reality it was a less than lucid smattering of blood, and vampires. Beyond the horrific acting, bad wigs, and poor sound quality the portrayal of “deviant” sexuality was not done well at all. I had no delusions going into this film that it would portray BDSM/leather in any sort of positive light, nor did I expect that gay and lesbian issues would be shown positively given that the film is intended to portray the Victorian understanding of sexual difference as it was becoming intimately connected to an oppressive medical community.

I did however expect that because this film would problematize the medical industry’s turn-of-the-century approach to sexual “deviants” given that it claims to create a “haunted vision of an era when medical science endeavored to label, cure or eliminate anyone who refused to conform to its idea of sexual ‘normalcy.’” It was this underlying plot message, which led me to watch the film in the first place after running into it by chance at a local Blockbuster. However the films nonlinear plot was highly distracting, but more than anything else I was frustrated by the ways in which kink was portrayed as this affliction and perversion. The characters in the film were one dimensional, and there was an excessive reliance upon blood and vampire tendencies. This portrayal was not done tastefully, nor realistically and seemed in some ways to simply be present to unnerve the audience; particularly with things like the lobotomy scene, as well as the theatrical vampire scenes which were not done realistically at all, particularly in terms of the amount of blood which was present. Furthermore the film opened with accounts of the historical figure of Jack the Ripper, which seemed to be suggesting that this gruesome historical figure was a sexual deviant akin to those who participate in consensual BDSM practices, gay men, and lesbians.

By far the best part of the film in my opinion was the last half hour which ironically came just as my partner and I were about to turn the film off as we couldn’t stomach much more of it’s offensive, and gruesome imagery. The end of the film explored the lives of two lesbians. This section seemed the most lucid of the entire film and ironically felt as though it was almost an afterthought to include the experience of lesbians, as it didn’t seem to connect with the rest of the film. That said the portrayal was on the whole rather well done as it showcased the difficulties that turn-of-the-century lesbians faced in life and love in a world which couldn’t’ handle their existence.

A trailer for the film can be viewed here: