Using Sex to Tell a Story

3. She worked very hastily, showing no interest in savoring the experience herself. Riding Paul so hard and fast would've made it practically impossible for him to last very long, thereby reducing her own chance of reaching orgasm before he was spent.

4. She kept him pinned down securely beneath her, basically ensuring that his penis would remain inside her vagina until she relinquished her control.

5. As soon as Paul came, Marcy was finished with riding him.

6. When they were finished Marcy laid down on top of Paul without moving her hips, thus ensuring that his penis would block his semen from leaking out of her.

This is why Marcy's dominance is absolutely crucial to interpreting this scene. Because if Paul was the dominant partner and it ended with him cumming inside Marcy, there would not necessarily be any particular meaning to that. A guy can conspire to spill his load inside a woman for no greater reason than it feels really good. But when it's the woman who seems to be hell-bent on receiving the man's sperm, there's only one credible message we can infer.

This scene is all about making a baby.

How The Gesture Tells A Story

This is where we have to start interpreting the scene less literally and more figuratively. Because, as viewers of the film will know, Marcy doesn't actually get pregnant. In fact (spoiler alert!), neither of this pair outlive their sexual tryst by very long.

The scene isn't even a literal attempt to make a baby.

We aren't meant to presume that either of the lovers got in to that bed conspiring to get pregnant. They didn't discuss the matter off-screen before they began having sex. The sexual encounter is just as impulsive and unplanned as the film implies.

Nonetheless, that spontaneity gives us a window into Paul and Marcy's deeper natures - their subconscious selves, if you will. Through that window, we see a shared inclination to breed with one another. This is conveyed in all the small choices we see them making that ultimately result in Paul successfully inseminating Marcy.

So this scene isn't about a literal pregnancy. It's about weaving the abstract concept of pregnancy in to Marcy and Paul's character development. Its purpose is to get the audience to imagine Marcy getting pregnant from Paul, regardless of whether those imaginings will ultimately come to fruition as the film plays out.

To use a different turn of phrase, the scene alludes to Marcy and Paul creating life together. Considering that the main theme of Cabin Fever is mortality and death, that's a hell of a statement to make about these two. Remember, Marcy and Paul are the only pair in the film who perform this deed; so essentially they are the sole characters who directly contrast the film's villain, death.

If you reflect back on the film, you will realize that this defiance against death doesn't simply come out of nowhere. Throughout the film, Paul and Marcy have always been death's strongest opponents.

When Karen became infectious, Jeff and Bert refused to go anywhere near her; but Paul and Marcy picked her up, carried her, and then closely tended to her when she became violently ill. They were the only two characters brave enough to risk infection - to confront death - in order to do what they knew was right.

And when the mad dog Dr. Mambo, a harbinger of death, wandered in to the cabin's grounds, Paul and Marcy each challenged him; Paul with a rock, and Marcy with a rifle.

Their act of procreation, even though it was entirely symbolic, serves as a fitting culmination to this character arc: Paul and Marcy ultimately rebel against death by personifying its direct opposite: life.

This is the relevance of that cutaway shot of Karen on her deathbed, which I previously mentioned. She makes the sex scene's allusions to life stand out more clearly, by acting as a direct contrast to them. Karen represents death.

We see her, laying there in the dark tool shed, perfectly still, perfectly silent. If not for the minor fluctuations in the film grain, you could almost believe that shot was a single still frame, stretched out for three seconds. Karen has no life in her.

The sex scene that surrounds it, however, is the exact opposite. The screen is filled with activity. Marcy and Paul's mating efforts are as athletic as can be. The room is filled with the raucous noise of wanton grunts and moans. Paul and Marcy present a vibrant image of life while simultaneously creating life.

Subtle choices in the cinematography glorify the scene as they perform this heroic gesture. The bright sunlight shines down upon them as they make love, almost as if God is smiling upon them. Then, as Paul cums - at the precise instant where she is 'impregnated' - Marcy's head is framed by the radiant white void of the bedroom window, as if it were a makeshift halo, akin to what you might see on a medieval mosaic of a saint.

By the way, the reason why Marcy dominates every shot in the scene is because she the vessel of this conception. Paul has his indispensable role in the scene, of course. But the scene is all about an event that takes place inside Marcy's body. The camera angles have been specially chosen to ensure that the visuals of the scene revolve around the process of impregnation.

Once the deed is complete, Marcy rests upon Paul, who embraces her tightly. This is their moment to bond over what they have just accomplished with all that strenuous effort.

The sex act itself was all about getting the job done; all about getting Paul's sperm into Marcy's womb. They pursued this end with such brutal efficiency that there was no time or energy wasted on intimacy or tenderness. It isn't until they've succeeded in their mission that they come together on that deeply emotional level. The sex scene is very intimate; but that sweet intimacy is deferred until the all-important task is complete.

This also glorifies the act of conception, since we see how it creates a solemn, beautiful bond between these two characters. This bond doesn't come from them being physically joined, nor from the shallow, fleeting pleasure of their wild screwing; it comes from the potential offspring they now share.

At the begging of this essay, I briefly touched on the film's other major theme: how relationships break down in a crisis. And I also explained that Paul and Marcy uniquely defy this trend as well - growing closer, while all the other main characters have turned their backs on one another.

It's no coincidence that Paul and Marcy just happen to defy both of Cabin Fever's main evils: abandonment and death. In two separate ways, the film establishes that these two are the heroes of the story. Their heroic standing in one thematic line reinforces their heroic standing in the other, and vice-versa.

This in turn gives us a frame of reference for discerning the film's sense of morality. If you want to understand how the film defines 'right' and 'wrong', 'good' and 'bad', then just watch how the behavior of its heroes - Marcy and Paul - contrasts with the behavior of its other characters.

With that in mind, let's take a look at how these two 'champions of life' fit in to Cabin Fever's overall theme of death. Because when you look at the principal five characters as a group, you can see many of the common archetypes for how people deal with mortality.

Jeff runs away and hides from the specter of death.

Bert winds up at a convenience store, begging the clerk to help him - essentially trying to bargain for his life.

Karen lies down and simply waits for death to take her, too numbed and weary to resist the inevitable.

Paul and Marcy are very different. Like Karen, they come to accept that they will eventually die. We observe this in their brief conversation before the actual sex scene.

But unlike Karen, this knowledge does not break their spirit. Once they have this epiphany they immediately climb in to bed and get to work creating an offspring. They may not be able to live forever, but perhaps they can ensure that their legacy lives on in the blood and hearts of their children.

Perhaps this is the deeper message of Cabin Fever. We are all doomed to die, and it's not going to be pretty when it happens. But the healthy way to handle this immutable truth - the noble way to handle it - is to create a lasting legacy that will outlive our mortal coils. And the best legacy we can invest ourselves in is children who will carry on our memory.

It's a rather traditional philosophy, isn't it? And it syncs up very neatly with the various character arcs within the film.

The fact that Marcy and Paul ultimately fail to conceive a child is almost beside the point. They gave it their best shot, which is all they can do. They are no worse off for trying, and there is a certain gallantry in watching them do so. While all their friends come off looking rather pitiful in their selfish and futile attempts to elude death, Paul and Marcy confront him head-on, with a beautiful gesture of creation. It doesn't change their fates, but it makes you respect them more; and it makes their story more fulfilling.

Marcy and Paul's sex scene is so incidental to the basic narrative of Cabin Fever, you could completely edit it out of the film without disrupting the story at all. The scene has no impact on the plot whatsoever.

But it significantly alters the film's presentation of these two characters. It grants them the attribute of being intimate lovers; the attribute of (symbolically) being baby-makers; the attribute of embodying creation and life. As such, it has an immense impact on the film's underlying themes of mortality and human nature. The film gains new levels of depth because its dark concepts are challenged. Yes, there is selfishness, cowardice and betrayal in the world, but there is also trust, unity and love. Yes, there is much death and tragedy in the world, but there is also the glory of new life.

Without the sex scene, you lose all of this deep thematic conflict.

But, it takes more than merely adding a sex scene to the film to achieve all this. It had to be a very carefully crafted sex scene; one that conveyed a strong implication of Marcy being impregnated, while respecting that any direct references to pregnancy simply wouldn't fit within the film's narrative. A scene that lauds this act of conception as an expression of a woman's strength, and creative potential.

Marcy and Paul's sex scene doesn't simply inform us that they had sex. All by itself, it tells a very elaborate story. It tells us a great deal about Marcy and Paul's fundamental natures. It reveals a deep rapport in their relationship which the surrounding film only lightly hints at. It defines their role in the film's overarching war with death; and it makes a deep philosophical commentary on how mankind as a whole contends with our own mortality.

This is why I consider Cabin Fever an excellent example of how art can use sex to effectively tell stories with substance and nuance.

Sex scenes can be so much more than just simplistic displays of rhythmic bumping and grinding that establish a sexual relationship between two characters. A skilled storyteller can tailor the details of a sex scene to make powerful statements about their characters, their key themes, or even both. All it takes is patience and diligence.