Necrophilia

I love October. The cool air, changing leaves, and intermittent blizzards. And Halloween, my favorite holiday, right around the corner. I thought it would be fitting to talk about a word that’s dark, nasty, and seems suited to the holiday of the dead : necrophilia.

Necrophilia is a sexual attraction to corpses. The word derives from the Greek nekros, meaning corpse or dead, and philia, meaning friendship. While it is classified as a paraphilia – becoming sexually aroused by something that isn’t normal (and having a friendship with a corpse is decidedly not normal) – by psychologists and psychiatrists, no federal law in the USA specifically bars it. Some states have their own laws against the act, ranging from a misdemeanor to a Class A felony.

Having sex with a corpse is referenced in music, movies, and even books. The first time I was exposed to a reference to necrophilia was back in the 80s. I was a punk rock girl, and one of my favorite bands at the time was T.S.O.L. (True Sounds of Liberty). They have a rather classic song on their first album Dance With Me called “Code Blue”. Now Code Blue is the term for a patient needing immediate resuscitation (as in the patient is turning blue). We thought the lyrics were seriously funny, and the whole tone of the song is humerous! The song deals with a guy who doesn’t get along with girls at his school, so he wants to go out and “fuck the dead.” They won’t complain no matter what he does:

“Never on the rag or say leave me alone, they don’t scream and they don’t moan.
Don’t even cry if I shoot in their hair…”

Alice Cooper has two classic songs about Necrophilia as well. “I Love the Dead” from Billion Dollar Babies:

“While friends and lovers mourn your silly grave
I have other uses for you, darling…”

And “Cold Ethyl” from Welcome to My Nightmare:

“She’s cool in bed
Well she oughta be ‘cuz Ethyl’s dead”

There are several movies devoted to the theme of Necrophilia, most notably the German film Nekromantik (1987), in which a man and his girl have a thing for fucking dead bodies, no matter their decomposed state. The most memorable part of the film is when the girl has sex with a corpse, after putting a condom over a steel rod to use as its penis. I remember the first time I saw this thinking, “Don’t the Germans have dildos?”

The 1985 film Re-Animator, based on a series of stories by H. P. Lovecraft, is one of my favorites. The whole movie is rife with black humor, and features a scene near the end where the reanimated head of Dr. Hill, with the assistance of his body, kidnaps the busty and beautiful Megan and tries to give her – pardon the pun – head.

The suggestion of necrophilia in movies, while most common in horror (Kissed, Visitor Q, The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock, House of 1,000 Corpses), also appears in comedy. Weekend At Bernie’s, My Boyfriend’s Back, and Clerks are notable examples of the funny side of sex with the dead.

Necrophilia also appears in books, either as the main or a side plot. Authors such as Poppy Z Brite (Exquisite Corpse), Helene Tursten (The Torso), J. R. R. Tolkien (The Children of Hurin), and Try by Dennis Cooper have included references or the outright act in their works.

Necrophilia continues to fascinate and disgust, attract and repel. It’s truly a friendship I would never want to have.