[Adult/Lovecraft]Beyond Tickling

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 9:26 pm

As part of the research for my essay, and strictly in the interests of scientific curiosity, I've watched Beyond Tickling, a short (approx. 15 minutes) pornographic tickle-fetish film based on H. P. Lovecraft's "From Beyond." The bare-bones release lists its producer as "The Laughing Gas Zone," and the copy I purchased is a simple no-frills DVD in a plain white envelope; the date of production is given as Oct 22, 2007. The DVD menu is likewise incredibly basic, with no special features or additional material.

The film opens on a woman in a straitjacket; giggling and gibbering. The voice over narration assures us she has done nothing but laugh and sing since she was committed, and that she was once the assistant to Dr. Tillinghast. Shift scenes to the laboratory of Dr. Tillinghast, the assistant in a lab coat and glasses rather than a straightjacket, hair done up in a bun rather than a wild mane. Tillinghast is ever off camera, except for a hand or arm, and engages in a narrative soliloquy about his research, how he must take it to "the next level," and how "others" are trying to stop him. His assistant attempts to be the voice of reason to the dry, maniacal tones of the doctor, but he manages to rope her into being the subject of his next experiment.

Literally, as the scene shifts again to the assistant, now nude, on a cloth-covered tabled with a few candles burning, her hands and feet loosely tied with soft ropes. Tillinghast's hand appears with a lengthy white feather and he begins to tickle her - and this is an epic session of tickling, with the woman playing the assistant maintaining a near-constant titter. For several minutes, Tillinghast provides further narration about his machine, levels rising - and then when sufficient levels are reached the picture turns to a negative filter, with some simple shapes imposed over her naked, laughing body, which Tillinghast exclaims he can see. At this point the narrative switches to the monstrous voices (provided by an audio filter) of those things from outside - who, of course, demand she be tickled further. So, Tillinghast continues his ministrations with the feather and, occasionally, a bare finger, focusing on different areas - here the crotch, there a bit of foot-play. The film ends with a final scene shifting back to the assistant in the straitjacket, mad and giggling.

For the Laughing Gas Zone's own summary, please visit this link (Adults Only).

Cheesy FX, poor narration, bare sets, and minimal cast, crew, and props aside, the production quality is, given the nature of the release, not terribad. Maybe along the line of other amateur Lovecraft theatricals - I think I would rate it above Beyond the Dunwich Horror but less than The Last Lovecraft, and I doubt it had a budget anywhere in the range of those two. The camera is steady, and the minimalist setting, props, and characters are generally beneficial to the production. The whole movie was done in black and white, which also helped a good deal, less because it was fitting to an "old timey narrative" than because it allowed great and almost artistic contrast between the girl and the white ropes, the white feather. The cast and crew are mostly unnamed - the girl was played by "Brandy," Tillinghast's arm by "Shemp #1," the camera man "John Doe," &c. Brandy, it must be said, is very nice to look upon, and again I cannot say enough about what a champion laugher she was for this film, forced though a lot of it probably was; there's something oddly appealing about the way her belly button piercing would jiggle as he diaphragm convulsed at a couple points. Maybe I'm just jaded by having to review far more hardcore Mythos porn these days, but I found the lack of penises, penetration, and bad porn dialogue rather quaint.

From a narrative standpoint, Beyond Tickling is actually fairly appropriate as a take on "From Beyond" goes. Stuart Gordon's 1986 film adaptation famously included both heavy bondage and heightened sensuality/sexuality elements, and Cody Goodfellow emphasized the latter particularly with "Infernal Attractors," his entry in Cthulhurotica. The tickling fetish element more or less synchronizes with the heightened/expanded sensitivity and realm of the senses involved.

So while this might not be something for every Lovecraftian's film library, I do think it is of some small note - if nothing else because it is one of the few pornographic adaptations or homages explicitly of Lovecraft's work.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 10:56 pm

Forgot a link there somewhere? O.o

And for a bit more harmless homage of Cthulhu . . have you watched the Anime Haiyore! Nyaruko-san yet?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiyore!_Nyaruko-san

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Sun Nov 04, 2012 11:34 pm

Fixed. And yes, I've seen Nyaruko-san.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 2:02 am

Tickling with a feather...?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 2:03 am

double post

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 2:48 am

I don't get tickling fetish. I hate being tickled, and tend to lash out aggressively when even threatened with it...

RadiantPhoenix · Post by **RadiantPhoenix** » Mon Nov 05, 2012 5:55 am

Ted the Flayer wrote:I don't get tickling fetish. I hate being tickled, and tend to lash out aggressively when even threatened with it...

It's a form of "torture" that doesn't cause actual harm. I would imagine that's the main reason.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 7:42 am

Also, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that a lot of people do see tickling as somewhat pleasurable, and that gets tied into (I think) the loss of control that is a part of a lot of BDSM.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 12:15 pm

Tickle torture is a bit weird, but no more so than the zombie gore-fuckfest of Re-Penetrator, the other Lovecraft parody sex film.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:19 pm

I don't even want to know.

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:21 pm

So does that mean you're not interested in my other review?

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:25 pm

If it's about this... zombie... whatever... then, for the dear love of everything that is green and crunchy, please don't. I'd like to retain what ever remains of my innocence. I know the addage, if it exists, then there's a porn of it. But some things either should not be pornified, or if they are, are best left undisturbed.

I will, however, say that Re-Penetrator is a fucking hilarious name.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:30 pm

Korgan0 wrote:Also, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that a lot of people do see tickling as somewhat pleasurable, and that gets tied into (I think) the loss of control that is a part of a lot of BDSM.

Oh yeah, it sure is pleasurable to have uncontrollable lung spasms where you drool and choke and get to experience slow suffocation, where your pleas for mercy are met with laughter and renewed vigour. And even when you tell the person you can't breath and to stop, they laugh and keep doing it while your fingers tingle and turn blue and your vision clouds with red and black and your saliva fills your mouth and throat while you gasp for breath.

People who like tickling other people are fucked in the head.

tussock · Post by **tussock** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 11:00 am

Ted, the person who disrespected your safe-word is an ass, but people who like tickling other people are ticking people who like to be tickled.

People who fail to observe other people's personal contact boundaries are fucked in the head. It's a whole different thing.

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 12:39 pm

Ancient History wrote:So does that mean you're not interested in my other review?

I sure as hell am.

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 4:09 pm

I forgot to ask: You actually watched this thing?!

(the zombie one, I mean)

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 7:35 pm

Yeah. I bought a copy. For research purposes!

Korgan0 · Post by **Korgan0** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 9:32 pm

You're either one of the most dedicated researchers I've ever met, or we're operating on sharply different definitions of "research."

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Thu Nov 08, 2012 10:34 pm

I have poured...a rather vast amount of my time, money, and energies into this essay. But if you're going to do something weird and stupid, you might as well overdo it so that people will at least be amazed at the scope and depths of your weirdness and stupidity.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 1:05 am

Ancient History wrote:So does that mean you're not interested in my other review?

So you're going to review Nyaruko? Isn't it still ongoing?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Nov 09, 2012 4:01 pm

Nope, Nyaruku is finished.
At least season one, no idea wether or not there will be a season two . .
And he just posted a review of the Re-Penetrator Zombie-Gore-Porn-Flick.

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:13 am

Necro, but I just got the news that I'll be a guest speaker/panelist at the HP Lovecraft Film Festival again this year, so I hope to perform "field research" for AH's grand project.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 7:13 am

what does it have to do with lovecraft though?

Ancient History · Post by **Ancient History** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 10:40 am

Yay, research!

JigokuBosatsu · Post by **JigokuBosatsu** » Wed Mar 13, 2013 3:39 pm

Now I have to come up with a brand-spankin' new story to do a reading. I'm thinking a garage band version of "Music of Erich Zann". I'd like to experiment with some audio accompaniment, really mess with the sonic space.