Blow-jobs! Rimming! Toe-sucking! Sex scenes are back, and they’re hornier than ever. WORDS BY SAM DAMSHENAS HEADER BY ANISA CLEAVER The industry’s sanitised, sexless era has finally fizzled out.
The 2010s witnessed a sharp decline in erotic mainstream filmmaking as a result of increasing scrutiny from the internet (and sometimes, those within the industry) over whether sex scenes are necessary in driving the plot forward.
Although billion dollar franchises didn’t hesitate to gratuitously flaunt actor’s ripped bodies – for example, Chris [insert any last name here, honestly] in [again, insert any superhero film] – general raunchiness took somewhat of a hiatus.
Now, TV and film is horny again! 2023 smashers such as Oscar-nominated dramas Poor Things and Oppenheimer and, of course, Emerald Fennell’s bathtub thriller Saltburn heavily contributed to the industry’s increasing acceptance towards on-screen raunchiness.