[Editorial] Exploring Sexuality Through Horror: Trouble Every Day

Our relationships with sexuality are a complicated and confusing landscape, one that requires acute navigation skills to even begin to understand why we have the desires that we do. As humans, society has always forced us to feel repressed when it comes to being open and honest about our sexual needs, especially for females.

Discussing sexuality as a female as long been frowned upon and it often classified as not ‘lady-like’, however modern society is becoming more and more accepting of the fact that women too have sexual needs and desires just as men do, and openly exploring these or even simply just being verbal about these aspects, is something to be celebrated rather than disgusted by. Which is why Claire Denis’ 2001 horror film, Trouble Every Day, felt like it was slightly ahead of the times by providing a completely manner-of-fact perspective on how as humans we have intense and ravaging desires for human flesh, and even women can become so engulfed in their need for sexual pleasure that they become like aggressive animals.

Please note: This editorial contains spoilers 

Trouble Every Day is an erotic film from the New French Extremity wave and openly looks at two central characters both of whom are becoming more and more overwhelmed by their compulsion to consume flesh and taste the blood of another. Although Denis examines human sexuality through the lens of cannibalism, it feels like the most appropriate metaphor for the human’s intensified need to satisfy the carnal desire with another’s body. When discovering sexuality and the need for another person, there comes this crushing craving to want to use our mouth to experience their body in any way possible; through tasting their flesh with our salivating tongues or gently gnawing at their skin to show how hungry we are for them. In Trouble Every Day, we see Core, played by the mesmerising Beatrice Dalle, ravaged by her affliction for human flesh, so much so that she has become an untameable animal in her nature, with no bounds on how far she will go to feed her needs. Husband Leo, played by Alex Descas, has such a passionate love for Core that even through her transformative state he still finds a way to care for her, simply by locking her up and protecting the world from her hunger.

Unfortunately Core is a symbol of desire, and for two young boys, something they must have in order to satisfy their obsession with the woman who they only glimpse through the windows of her cage. When the two young boys finally break into the lavish house, they are both perturbed yet aroused to find Core locked away, completely boarded up from the rest of the world, something that one of the boys finds challenging and exciting in his need to have Core. Once he has freed Core from her cage, he embraces her and allows her to seduce him with only a look in her eyes that explains she needs to have him, and him to have her. It is during this sensual scene in which we begin to see how the feasting on another’s visceral is both a form of consumption and climax for Core; her caresses and kisses of the youthful flesh begin to become more and more erratic, eventually subsiding into animalistic behaviour as she starts to bite him repeatedly and use her tongue to lap at the blood pouring from wounds on his face. As he struggles against her, she becomes more frenzied in her state, laughing and snarling as she tears at him piece by piece. This representation of sexuality begins to show that our deepest desires are often more like urges, and ones we keep hidden from the outside world. For centuries we as humans have been disguising and hiding our true sexual natures, for fear of judgement regarding what we truly find arousing. Trouble Every Day looks at the consequences of if we are allowed to fully embrace those desires and let them flourish - could they become something unmanageable like seen in Core or should we simply give way to them and see where it leads us? 

During the same scene, just before Core engulfs herself in a sexualised feeding frenzy, we witness the young boy break through the wooden barrier which Core’s husband Leo has built on her cage in order to stop her from escaping. This breaking through the barrier symbolises our constant compulsion to allow our true sexualities to be discovered and known by the world, but also understanding that sometimes fantasies are safer as thoughts and feelings rather than real actions. If humans were to stop locking their sexual desires in hidden boxes and openly and freely explored them in their totality, would we find ourselves repulsed by the true nature of said desires? This concept presents a fascinating argument between the two sides; we have long been repressed in expressing our sexualities but in some cases perhaps it is for the better judgement? However on the other hand, being able to communicate about sexuality can be a freeing experience, one that can lead to exceptionally satisfying relationships with both parties being completely open to the needs of another. Violence in sex is often seen as a controversial and taboo kink, however, consensual violence in sexual relationships can be gratifying for both (or more) parties involved, allowing those involved to truly express themselves and reach heights of euphoria that they cannot through non-violent sexual acts. So should humans be liberated enough to explore their true sexual identities to their fullest or are there particular boundaries that still need to be put in place?

The protagonist in Trouble Every Day is the very conflicted Shane, who as a newly wedded man takes his bride on their honeymoon yet he has a secret motive. It seems that Shane is troubled by the same affliction as Core and battling his internal monologue for blood, he seeks the help of Leo, who has been conducting extensive research in the field of this disease. But the audience quickly begin to learn the possibility that Shane is not just searching for a cure, but sees there could be a chance for indulgence as his previous life involves Core and perhaps they have indulged in their erotic lust for flesh together before. Shane constantly imagines his new bride drenched in blood, but struggles with his deep care and compassion for her, to the point that reaching ecstasy with her is impossible, because he is too afraid that his carnal libido with overpower him and result in a devastating feast on the flesh of this innocent woman. Through Shane we witness an ongoing internal battle with wanting to embrace the desire that rules his sexuality, and having the knowledge that perhaps consuming another human is not a desire that should be entertained. Throughout Trouble Every Day we see how Denis aims to explore our personal relationship with our own sexuality and how the expectations society has always put on us creates an internal struggle that can suppress a person until they explode into madness in order to satisfy the need they have been trying to conceal for so long. This rings true in Shane’s case as we see him do everything in his power to fight against his longing for flesh - the measures he goes to are so extreme that he even murders Core in cold blood in an attempt to stifle his lustful desire for cannibalism, even though mere moments after this occurs he realises that her eradication has done nothing to quench his thirst for gore. Eventually Shane becomes so consumed by his starvation that he cannot contain the need anymore, and proceeds to become intimate with a housekeeper that he’s had a mutual attraction to since the beginning of the film. Although consensual and lustful to begin with, as Shane allows his sexuality to empower him, he frees the caged beast that dwells within, forcing the girl to the floor and committing one of the most devastating a shocking acts of cruelty on another human; maiming her vagina so horrifically that she dies from the injuries whilst he revels in the act of consuming her intimacy. Even without having to witness the carnage in full graphic detail, this is a clear demonstration of the disturbing depths that sexuality can go to when allowed to be discovered without any reprimands or thoughts of consequences. 

Trouble Every Day on the surface is about two adults suffering from an affliction to eating humans, but by taking a deeper analysis it is clear to see that this erotic film is about sexuality and where boundaries should lie in our exploration. Even though sexual liberation should be encouraged and sought out where possible, the sexuality of humans is complicated and deep-rooted, often with fantasies and desires that perhaps might be too extreme to be embraced in the real world, hence why they are exclaimed as ‘fantasies’. But Denis allows her two central characters to explore their sexuality openly and freely, without judgement from others characters and without the consequences that would be faced in the real world. It evokes the question; should human sexuality have boundaries? And if not, could the consequences of true sexual liberation be damaging to the entire human race?

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