The frenetic movements of the dancers throughout exacerbate the gory confusion that plays out onscreen. Noe treats spiking as the catalyst for the horror of losing bodily autonomy. Straying further from the mainstream is Gasper Noe’s Climax (2018), a nightmarish, pulsating fever-dream of a film in which a troupe of dancers are spiked with a powerful hallucinogen while trapped in a French basement. More contemporary depictions of the clubbing scene, however, have become increasingly sinister, exposing issues which are heightened by darkness, proximity, and opportunity.
QUEER AS FOLK SOUNDTRACK SEASON 1 AMAZON TV
Davies’ 90s TV drama, Queer as Folk, uses the Mancunian club scene as a means of self-exploration and liberation at a tense period in history. Yet it’s the drama and excess of the dance floor that provides a fertile ground for storytelling. Perhaps it’s the club setting, an atmosphere not particularly conducive to being filmed, too dark, too flashy, too noisy for dialogue, with its slightly seedy quality, that is responsible for the lack of clubbing narratives up until now. And nowhere is sexism more prevalent than in the club. These stories, all helmed by female auteurs, speak truthfully to the presence of sexism and misogyny in society since #MeToo. Whether it’s the so-called ‘nice-guy’ who can’t take no for an answer in Promising Young Woman or a lonesome walk home in an unfamiliar place after a night-out goes wrong in I May Destroy You, these situations are unfortunately indicative of real experiences. Seeing a familiar experience depicted cinematically can either become uncomfortable in its truthfulness or soothing as a confirmation of lived experiences. Revenge thrillers such as Promising Young Woman (2020) and genre-blending black comedies like I May Destroy You (2020) and Hustlers (2019) are all explorations of what happens when male inhibitions are liberated in the dark, otherworldly space of the club. In recent years, the saturation of narratives surrounding club culture and instances of spiking (the two being undeniably linked) has risen significantly. Films must not fall into the territory of defining or blaming victims for the bad things that happen to them. The film recognises the difficulty with depicting spiking on screen. This, in turn, means being responsible for the actions of others, especially those with sinister intentions.
Therein lies the crux of the situation, women have always been made responsible for their own safety. What’s significant about these opening words is the impetus of blame which they suggest if she’s not careful. In the scene, a group of men look on as a woman lies in a nearby booth, clearly drunk.
If she’s not careful, someone’s going to take advantage.” These are the words spoken by a man standing in a club in Emerald Fennell’s 2020 dark comedy Promising Young Woman. “They put themselves in danger, girls like that. It might contain some content that readers may be uncomfortable with. Content warning: This article was included in our ‘Spiking Awareness’ print issue.