eROTik (Italy, Turkey - 2019) is an extreme horror film about necrophilia, an uncomfortable theme already addressed in 1979 by Joe D'Amato in Beyond the Darkness (itself inspired by The third eye of 1966) and, later, in amateur films that have now become cult movies such as Lucker - The Necrophagous (1986) e Nekromantik films (1987).
Directing this unhealthy film devoted to one of the most revolting paraphilias is the experienced Domiziano Cristopharo (House of Flesh Mannequins, Doll Syndrome), a prolific Italian director who recently directed the extreme film Xpiation and body horror The Obsessed.
With eROTik, Domiziano Cristopharo draws a line between fiction and reality by dedicating this film to one of the most terrifying serial killers in history. eROTik in fact is loosely based on Jeffrey Dahmer (1960 - 1994), the U.S. serial killer also known as "The Milwaukee Cannibal." Dahmer was sentenced in 1992 to life in prison for acts of sexual assault, murder, necrophilia, cannibalism and quartering but died in prison two years later at the hands of an inmate.
eROTik is a depiction of an indefinable horror in which life and love merge with death, instilling in the viewer a heavy sense of oppression.
In this indigestible and disturbing film, the psychopath's actions emulate Dahmer's by giving space to his increasing depravity that borders on sexual aberrations (including autoeroticism with corpse parts), deplorable actions, and love of all things death-related.
In particular, eROTik delves into the necrophilic theme by insisting, with a touch of pornography and without taboos, on morbid sexual relationships but also on the stages of decomposition.
In eROTik, Adam Western gives a valid and credible performance immortalizing a disturbed and tormented character who is overwhelmed not only by the murderous impulse but also by an obsessive sexual perversion that drives him to have relations with male corpses, or parts of them, even in an advanced state of decomposition. All in keeping with the funereal context and leveraging the eroticism ("erotik") and putrefaction ("rot") to which the title itself alludes.
Bewitching while being deeply ill, eROTik holds within the story some elements that refer back to Blood Feast such as the mystical practices of Ancient Egypt and santeria. The latter is related to the worship of the dead which is followed by a kind of ritual accompanied by an unexpected dance that leads to a trance-like state.
In eROTik love of death drives the protagonist to indulge with corpses in other ways as well. Domitian Cristopharo's Dahmer tries the embalming route by showing the audience a macabre process that incorporates various stages: from murder to rigor mortis, to SPOILER: to the removal of the brain by means of a hook inserted into the nose.
In this, too, the film differs from previous titles on necrophilia in the singularity of the unstoppable character and his atrocious actions enhanced and made believable by excellent practical effects (SPOILER: the nail driven into the head, the injection of boiling water, quartering, decapitation, amplexes with decomposed corpses...) some of which hark back to the cinema of Frank Henenlotter.
With eROTik Domiziano Cristopharo offers a hellish and personal vision of a sick mind. Unhealthy, as cold as the photography that surrounds it, this extreme film emphasizes the relationship between perpetrator and victim, insisting on violence inflicted and received.
Disfigured by psychosexual disorder and dominated by a decadent atmosphere, eROTik has a pronounced aesthetic appeal and a fine directorial style that distinguish it by elevating it to one of the best films on necrophilia as well as extreme cinema.
Produced by TetroVideo, eROTik stars Adam Western and Simone Avincola (Xpiation). Practical effects were done by Athanasius Pernath while music is by Antony Coia (House of Flesh Mannequins, The Obsessed).
Filmed between Turkey and Italy, eROTik is the first film tagged TETROMANIAC, the brutal extreme serial killer series conceived by TetroVideo.
