The Craft of Erotic Horror

Dalila di Capri

All good things do come to an end and in the hope that my work has been a good thing I now am at the end of my career as one of Erotic Horror's most active actresses and producers.

Note first of all that I use the phrase Erotic Horror and not “necro”, “snuff”, “necro porn” or other such rough titles to describe my own work.

I never saw myself as a "snuff queen" or a "necro queen" but rather a perpetual villainess straight from the grand traditions of European Horror, American Film Noir and of course the low budget slasher films of the late 1970's.

There are many choices that can be made in terms of making an erotic horror film. Mine was always to stick to a few basic principles.

1. The evil femme fatale deserves what she gets.

2. Her death must be slow enough for her to reflect upon her own evil doings before she surrenders into oblivion.

3. Her slow demise is sexually charged and should at very least be stimulating for the viewer, if not also for the femme fatale herself.

When I started to produce these films back in January of 2004 I had very little experience as anything other than an actress and performer. I was new to the idea of film and I had to learn quickly to keep up with the other more seasoned producers.

I learned right away that I would not be able to top the special effects of Dr. Don, KHP and a few others, but that I brought one thing to the table that seemed very rare: Acting experience.

My calling card became my ability to extend death throes for extremely long periods of time, and to utilize my skills as a belly dancer in the context of all of my deaths, not just the belly dance themed stories, but in nearly every film.

That little wiggle I do is nothing more or less than a belly dance undulation!

 I have learned how to present it to the camera so that it makes the maximum impact upon the viewer as part of my death.   

English is by no means my first language, but I have the ability to deliver lines in a manner that projects the evil arrogance of my character types. I love to chew the scenery and I have those larger than life actresses from the golden age of Hollywood in mind when I speak. There is something far more sensual about the demise of a larger than life character.

Anyone can kill a little skank of a girl. Killing the spoiled pompous queen, or the powerful gun moll is far more thrilling, and takes a manlier man.

Send In The Clones!!

Another one of my calling cards has been the use of the clone technique. Without a green room I have used my own acting intensity instead to convey two, three, sometimes as many as seven women in a single film. My first attempt in this sub genre is still one of my personal favorites: "Green Eyed Envy" wherein I play a hardened "Gangster Girl" who kicks doors down, a soft sensual lipstick lesbian preparing herself for an afternoon of delight, and her highly intelligent well read lover, who gets the best of Gangster Girl until...her pistol jams! (Gran Dio)

All three characters meet their end but I have to say that the only line in the film comes from the "smart clone" who after being machine gunned across the belly chokes on her own blood but still manages to say "Too...turned on...to die..." She lives for a good two minutes after this point and gets out of bed to attempt one last desperate shot at the wounded Gangster Girl.

This led to dueling spies in red and black hats, and matching heels, (but nothing else) sisters jumping out of showers to stab their twins, evil queens sacrificing look alike slaves, college deans murdering students who seem to resemble her, and of course alter egos trying to take over the consciousness of a woman who has just recently survived a stabbing by haunting both her night and day dreams.      

Something About The Belly

Those of us who are excited by erotic horror have our own special fetish and mine is, I think quite famously at this point, the belly. I have done strangulation scenes, have depicted head shots, any number of breast wounds, and even one drowning, but without a doubt my favorite type of death is the slow demise either from a few slugs to the gut, a few stabs to the same area and, more than just about any other actress I think, full disembowelments.

When I started my films I tried to use quantities of blood that were realistic as possible. To this day I still think that my films are bloodier than most, but I have learned to restrain the quantities just enough to excite a wider variety of viewers.

 I have taken some criticism for my thick use of mouth blood. I have a very compelling reason for using as much as I do which I will share with you at the end of this article. Let it suffice to say that I have listened to these critical hints and taken them into consideration in order to make the mouth blood more believable and effective.

 Still for me personally there is nothing hotter than an evil femme fatale just barely able to hold in her guts and spit out a few final words as blood gushes from her heavily painted red lips. 

Moaning but no screaming

I have a large, low speaking voice that is very metallic in nature. I have never screamed once in any of my movies nor do I ever intend to do so. Part of this is because of my singing. I am a trained opera singer and I simply refuse to put "La Voce" through such punishment.

Beyond this self protective choice however is the fact that I find screaming whimpering sniveling female victims to be a complete turn off, and well outside of my femme fatale type's behavior patterns.

She will grunt if she is hurt. She will moan if her guts come out into her fingers, but she will never ever scream cry or beg.

In a recent film of mine, "The Crawl",  my character is cornered by a male assassin set to take revenge on her for killing his lover.

She was shot in the belly during the previous altercation and has just tried to seduce her way out of trouble. She knows this has not worked so she makes one final plea. With an uncomfortable smile on her face and her head slightly tilted to one side she says quite calmly "No, no not in the bullet wou...uuch" never quite able to get to the word "wound" because he has just given her exactly what she deserves: A cruel stab right to the bullet wound itself. He finishes her off by gutting her. She falls to the bed staring at him in awe. He is even more sadistic than she. Her last thoughts as she tries to keep her guts in are:

"What a REAL man! Too bad we worked for different teams."

Her henchman arrives just in time to see her final death throes. She tries to name her attacker but chokes on her own blood and dies, eyes open, perhaps in mid orgasm.  

No scream can compare to the rich low moans expected from such a dynamic, evil, sexy villainess.

A Final Film

I announced my retirement from Erotic Horror on the front page of my site Grotto di Venere about three months ago. I am about to turn 34, still in my prime but no longer a "girl", and really want to concentrate on a wider variety of performances and films. There is my singing, my dancing, and so much more I want to do with my life.

By the same time I wanted to produce one final film that would be offered as a tribute to my fans.

It is called "Il tempo a dire addio" or Time to say goodbye. It is a clone film and part 2 is currently posted at the Grotto. I am killing off some of my favorite alter egos in this series and it will touch upon all of the erotic and dynamic points I have discussed above.

I have learned a lot about how to film the death sequence. In addition to my own acting skills my cameraman and I have learned how to maximize lighting for the best ambiance, and how much or how little of the special effect to present to the public. As I said before we are not trying to be KHP, but we don't use little two- dollar plastic knives either.  We do our best to make the shooting or stabbing look real, but happen quickly so that the time is spent not on the impact of the wound but the agony and erotic writhing of my characters.

So far I am quite happy with this last film and can promise that it will be of as high a quality as I can produce.

Tune in if you have the opportunity!

More on my personal tastes!

Our good friend Mr. Templar asked if I would talk about how long I have personally enjoyed this fetish, when I knew I had it and so forth.

The answer: Since I was about three. I am not American so I was never told that my society should be ashamed of its violent impulses. The idea of being wounded in the belly has simply always appealed to me. I have no other explanation, and cannot pin the blame on a specific film. Just call me "blood- thirsty".

There is one other fact that is somewhat known among people in the genre. That long scar that goes down my belly is the result of a real stabbing.

It was NOT self-inflicted, and I have no idea who attacked me, but through the sheer coincidence of crime I know exactly what it is like to get stabbed in the lower belly.

As I said in my film "Dreams Like These" most people think that the stab will be a sharp stabbing pain. It was not. It was a dull ache, at least directly in the wound. The sharper pains cut across my thighs, and as the minutes ticked by before I was able to stumble my way to help my legs became very weak and heavy.

Believe it or not it was pretty much as I imagined it would feel.

During the ride to the ambulance I became very sick and vomited a mixture of mostly bile with a tiny bit of blood. (I am not sure how the blood got there, but neither my liver, nor my stomach was punctured so I may have bit my lip some how.)

This was highly unpleasant so I use the mouth blood to depict the blood/vomit combination I experienced. I have spoken with other abdominal stabbing victims who did spit up blood, so it does happen depending upon where the puncture occurs.

 In my case this allows me to separate fantasy from reality.

I was of course frightened when it happened to me, but I am not denying that the experience was both frightening and exciting.  I would not want it to happen again in real life, but it gives me a great advantage when I play a death scene.

Keep it as Fantasy 

So as both a crime victim and am Erotic Horror vixen do I feel that this genre creates more violence?

Absolutely not! In my case I can own something that really happen to me and flip it on its head. How many times have I died on screen? 100? 120 perhaps? Yet there I am ready to die one more time. It is very empowering.

I think that if an individual is inclined to murder he/she is going to do it, and if it is because of a sexual urge, then even more so. Most fans of my work however are well grounded in the idea that this is not only fantasy but a very far fetched fantasy.

There is no secret Dalila clone factory. I am NOT a mafia queen, assassin, or secret agent. I just play them very well. I am only about 5'2" despite my tall appearance on screen and could barely hurt a fly in real life. In front of the camera however I am very dangerous, very sexy and have had the time of my 100 or so lives and deaths.

Baci

Dalila di Capri

Discuss Dalila di Capri's article on the Darksites' forum. Click HERE.