‘Insectasy’: A Kink-Positive Erotic Fantasy…With Bugs [Fantasia Review]

At this point in my life, there’s a whole lot I’ve forgotten from middle school. Yet I never could shake our reading of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. You know, the story about a guy who wakes up to discover he’s turned into a giant bug? Certainly, one of the weirder tales ever gifted to me by my English teacher. I don’t, however, think we’ll be seeing writer/director Angus Silver’s Insectasy on school curricula anytime soon. It’s a hypnotic slice of eroticism that plays out like the ending of Metamorphosis…if a woman suddenly came in and had sex with the massive insect.

No, you didn’t misread that. And if you thought Kafka’s story was weird, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Insectasy introduces us to Sadie (Tirion Healy), a receptionist at a doctor’s office. From the get-go, we know two things about her: she’s a woman yearning for someone who can match her freak…and her freak is orgasming with bugs. What follows is a journey of lust, disappointment, and the ultimate self-discovery.

Just like Kafka opens Metamorphosis with the protagonist having already transformed into a bug, Silver sees no reason to ease the audience into Sadie’s kink. We aren’t with her as she gradually discovers a passion for insects that goes a few steps beyond casual interest. Nope. In the very first scene, we find the young woman masturbating as she holds a jar over her belly, letting the grasshopper inside crawl around on her flesh. Her voice softly narrates a sequence of images that sizzle with lust, whispering dialogue like, “I don’t want to make love. I want to be eaten alive”. Call it sexy insect ASMR. Call it screwed up. Whatever you like. Insectasy doesn’t care if you find it too weird, too gross, too…off. It’s Sadie declaring, ‘This is who I am, deal with it.’

Respect.