Psychopathia Sexualis

R

Released Jun 8, 2006

1h 38m

Drama

List

23%

Tomatometer

13 Reviews

28%

Audience Score

250+ Ratings

Re-enactments present case studies of Victorian sexual deviance, lifted from the pages of a notorious medical text. Stories include those of a sexually repressed man with a thirst for blood, a doctor who promises to cure a man of homosexuality, and a masochist who hires prostitutes for a bizarre performance.

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Lugubrious to the extreme of unintended comedy, the movie suggests a regional dinner theater production of a late- ' 80s Peter Greenaway film.

Rated: 1.5/4

Jul 14, 2006

Full Review

Joe Leydon

Variety

Psychopathia Sexualis seems both plodding and snickering in its almost comically tepid rendering of masochism, homosexuality,

Jun 9, 2006

Full Review

Ted Fry

Seattle Times

Psychopathia Sexualis isn't sexy enough to be soft porn. Neither will it cause an excess of cerebral stimulation.

Rated: 1.5/4

Jun 9, 2006

Full Review

Eric Monder

Film Journal International

Manages to be provocative without being exploitative.

Mar 1, 2007

Full Review

Ernest Hardy

L.A. Weekly

It's a mildly enjoyable romp.

Aug 17, 2006

Full Review

Marc Mohan

Oregonian

The turgid accumulation of tedious sex just bores.

Rated: C-

Jun 16, 2006

Full Review

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Audience Member

Saw this a long time ago by accident. Worth seeing just for the final scene; the age of Puritanism grows up and evolves into a much deadlier Religion of Psychology and Science.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Actual piece of shit. Low-quality, obviously low-budget, and beyond what is simply in the texts it is based off of, it is homophobic and buys into sexual myths (e.g. in the dramatizations, there is the "pop the cherry" myth, you can supposedly tell if a girl is a virgin or not by her "intact hymen" which isn't true). Stupid, over-dramatic, poorly acted, and offensive.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is a dramatization/recreation of several case studies from a late-19th century medical text by Richard von Kraft-Ebing called "Psychopathia Sexualis." Basically a catalog of various sexually deviant behaviors, there's not much of a plot to speak of and the movie presents these as intertwined, but unrelated vignettes. It also has a lot of voice-over, which makes it feel like one of those History Channel specials except that it's sexually explicit (rather tame, actually). Rather than being titillating, it's mostly stiff and boring. Still there were some nice artistic touches, like filming the whole movie in this chiaroscuro/Masterpiece Theater style which lent it an expressionistic quality not unlike some 1920's German silent films. The score was pleasant and grating in almost equal measure, with maybe one or two classical selections. Back to the material actually presented, there really is no position taken on the rather antiquated attitudes toward sexuality, but a lot of the pseudo-scientific babble gets pretty hard to take (seriously, or otherwise) after a while, especially when many conservatives hold viewpoints not that different from what is presented here. Some of that includes the notions that homosexual attraction is just a form of hysteria that can be treated through hypnosis, and there are some painfully outdated, Victorian views on women's roles. However, the whole movie is set during the Victorian era, so it makes sense in that regard. Maybe I went into this expecting something a little more arousing, but I was ultimately disappointed. It's not very sexy or explicit, and frequently boring to watch. My advice: just skip it and watch something else if you're in the mood for softcore.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

material seems 2 be the problem here like some books like 'everything you wanted to know abouit sex" this book documenting sexual deviants doesn't translate well to the screen.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Heavy on the psychopathia; light on the sexualis. It did employ some gorgeous shadowpuppetry for the necrophilia story, and the musical score created a great, dark, eerie mood. But it wasn't that good, and it wasn't really erotic. I feel like I saw a 60s/70s version of this at one point?

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/14/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Wasn't as interesting as the synopsis makes you think it's going to be. Not as twisted as I thought it was going to be. The behavior wasn't as deviant, well it kind of was, but it switches back and forth through so many types of deviant behavior where it should have focused on one at a time.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

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Bret Wood

Director

Jane Bass

Mother

Bryan Davis

Dr. Goudron

Veronika Duerr

Annabel Lindstrom

Sandra L. Hughes

Madame

Ted Manson

Prof. Krafft-Ebing

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Synopsis

Re-enactments present case studies of Victorian sexual deviance, lifted from the pages of a notorious medical text. Stories include those of a sexually repressed man with a thirst for blood, a doctor who promises to cure a man of homosexuality, and a masochist who hires prostitutes for a bizarre performance.

Director: Bret Wood
Distributor: Kino International
Production Co: Illustrated Films
Rating: R (Some Violence|Aberrant and Deviant Behavior|Graphic Nudity|Disturbing Images|Strong Sexual Content)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 8, 2006, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $3.6K
Runtime: 1h 38m