Sex House
Sex House is a web series produced by The Onion, produced via their Onion Digital Studios department. It is exclusive to YouTube per a grant from the website.[1] It is a dark satire of reality shows, their production and surrounding culture.[2][3][4] The series was directed by Geoff Haggerty, produced by Grant Jones, Sandy Gordon and Matt Corrado, cinematography by Mark Niedelson and production design by Lauren Adel Klich.
Cast
- Ashley Lobo as Tara
- Boyd Harris as Jay
- Chris Agos as The Host
- Chris Boykin as Derek
- Fiona Robert as Erin
- Jesse Dabson as Frank
- Lea Pascal as Alex
Plot
Six people representing various reality show stereotypes are put in a house designed around having as much sex as possible. In order of arrival, they are Jay, a stereotypical fratboy, Alex, a sex-crazed "indie" girl, Tara, a self-described spoiled party girl and ex-cheerleader, Erin, an 18 year-old virgin, Frank, a married 45 year-old accountant with two children who won a pizza contest to gain entry to the house (admitting that he doesn't intend to have sex with anyone but simply wants to meet people), and Derek, the house's only homosexual who is immediately disappointed to learn that neither of the other men in the house are gay. It gradually becomes clear that despite being luxuriously decorated, the house is extremely shoddily constructed, and the show itself is extremely poorly organised. The temperature is maintained by sporadic blasts of scalding air. The clocks all tell different times and run at different speeds. The wiring in the house is dangerously faulty. The creators of the show are seemingly apathetic to the group's wellbeing, only eager to have them have sex. Indeed, despite the filming of the show seeming to take place over several weeks, there are no plans to have the house cleaned or maintained, or even have food delivered to the group.
Frank and Erin, both heavily drunk, have sex on the first night, and filled with remorse, she becomes withdrawn and unwilling to participate in the sexual tasks of the show. Frank is held in low regard by the other housemates, lacking integrity, despite meaning well. Alex is hypersexual, and is the only housemate who regularly tries to have sex with others, but she is continually rebuffed, seeming desperate and seeking attention. Jay and Tara hit it off immediately, both being attractive and shallow, but their mood is continually killed by the increasingly dirty and dangerous house. Derek is the most sceptical of the group, from day one, seeing the oversight in choosing only one gay man to partake in the show. He is intelligent and resourceful, investigating the many problems of the house and acting as a voice for the group.
The tasks of the show, intended to encourage the group to have sex, are initially assigned to the group via a tablet computer. The first is Truth or Dare, with all the questions and dares being sexual, which goes poorly, as Jay and Tara are the only two with any attraction to each other. The following day, the group are visited by a raunchy comedian, Danny, and a poledancing teacher, Camilla, who try to make the group more sexual, but this ends in injury for Camilla, who is blasted by hot air from a vent, and falls from her pole, breaking her leg. Frank destroys the tablet in frustration, after it offers a prize to the next couple to have sex.
The growing amount of garbage and mouldy food begin to present a problem, and the group store it in a bedroom which none of them use due to the heat being constantly on. The mould soon overtakes the entire room. The Host of Sex House shows up, though none of the group know or recognise him. Derek describes him as a wax figure, lifeless behind the eyes. He organises a series of tasks and challenges, such as a photoshoot, in an attempt to get the group to have sex, but the group are extremely unmotivated to do so, being malnourished and the house becoming increasingly unsanitary. Erin is revealed as having been impregnated by Frank on the first night. The Host delivers a large pile of bananas to the group, but these quickly rot, attracting a large amount of flies. Frogs are released into the house to deal with the growing fly infestation. Eventually the Host resorts to drugging the group with a mysterious "cloudy drink", which while making them suggestible and euphoric, also makes them lethargic and unfocussed. Eventually Tara discovers and is able to remember that the drink is dangerous, in that it dissolves frogs, and tells the others. In a struggle with The Host, some of the drink gets in his eyes and he is blinded. After detoxing, a Soothing Voice over the intercom ignores their demand to leave and instead floods the house with a knock-out gas.
The group, looking disheveled and afraid, have conversations in secret away from the cameras. They outwardly claim to be planning an orgy but this is obviously a ruse to appease the Soothing Voice, who has replaced the Host and simply repeats the command to have sex. Feigning a broken sybian, the group capture the repairman who is sent to fix it, tying him up in the mould room. They use his tools to try and find a way out of the house, but in vain. A large masked man comes to subdue them, and beats Frank horrifically, but Frank manages to gain the upper hand, assuming himself to be dead and therefore losing all fear. Derek wants to release the repairman, him not being a part of the show, but find that the mould has already killed him. The Soothing Voice calls the group murderers and demands that they have sex. Frank snaps, and despite the protestations of his housemates and the Soothing Voice, strips naked, takes up a hammer and chisel, and mutilates his genitals.
The penultimate episode opens with a boardroom meeting with television executives discussing the state of Sex House. All of the executives' voices and faces are obscured. They declare that the show was a failure, with the sponsors having left and the cast being uncooperative. They resolve to shut the show down, and salvage what they can for a web series, with the intent of recouping losses through pre-roll advertising. Back in the house, an unknown but obviously long amount of time has passed. Erin's baby is born and named Danny, after the comedian. The group have established a rudimentary society within the house, growing barley by the sink, and are seemingly indoctrinated by their own agrarian sexual culture. The group are looking much healthier, bar Derek who is gravely ill. Tara is keeping the remaining frogs as pets. At one point a wall panel is knocked down, which falls down to reveal a large window, easy to exit. Stunned, the group lift the wall panel back up, and push it in to place.
Some undiscerned time later, the contestants have left the house and appear in the final episode in the form of a reunion talkshow, hosted by the blinded Host. They do not appear to have ill will towards the producers, have all become extremely vapid, and all have blogs. Erin reveals that her baby was given up for adoption to a wealthy couple. Jay and Frank have become good friends and have written a script together, and blog about trying to sell it to movie studios. Frank also tells the Host that he and his wife have separated. Derek tells the Host that he is now heterosexual and is working as a maître d'hôtel in a hotel owned by Coolio. The Host describes the mould as apparently being an effective vaccine against dengue fever, a cause which Tara has taken up, delivering the vaccine to those in need, and blogging about the Philippine cuisine she experiences on her travels. Alex reveals that despite her failure inside the house, she has found love in the form of a man named Paul, who the host reveals to her was the Soothing Voice, and Paul admits to Alex that following her departure from the house, he stalked her until they met naturally. The cast stand for a line-up as the credits roll, and the host announces "Sex House: San Diego" which will focus on mating between the frogs released in the first Sex House.
References
- ↑ "Quick Hits: There’s A Real Show Called Sex Box, And It’s Coming To America". Cultivated Wit. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
- ↑ "Sex House, A Hilarious New Web Series From The Onion, Strips Away The Real World’s Boring Subtlety". Mediaite. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
- ↑ "Goodbye to Sex House, the Best Show of the Summer". Gawker. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
- ↑ "Sex House and the Refusal to Fuck". Jacobin. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
External links
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