Say It Isn't So (2001) and Incest in Movies

Before I get into the post, I want to give a warning. There may be some sensitive, triggering material in this post. I won’t be getting too deep into that material. I understand if you choose to avoid the post, however, because I know it can be a sensitive subject. That subject is incest. This post will touch upon familial sexual relations, due to the story of this week’s movie. And I’ll be mentioning other movies that involve incest because, well, I feel the need to point out how the film industry seems to have a strange addiction to incestual stories. Consider yourself warned. Now let’s get into the post.

Over the past couple years, I checked out a bunch of the teen and college movies from the turn of the century. You know, those movies with Freddie Prinze Jr., Joshua Jackson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and all those people. There were a whole bunch of movies that fell into that group. Some of them were horror. Some of them were romantic comedies. Some of them were sports movies. There was even a western or two tossed in there. There were the big ones that everyone still remembers fondly, like Scream and She’s All That. There were the slightly off-the-beaten-path ones like Down To You, Wing Commander, and Texas Rangers. Then there were the strange movies, such as Lone Star State of Mind, or this week’s movie.

Say It Isn’t So was one of the romantic comedies from that era that didn’t stick in the collective mindset the way that other movies did. Gilbert Noble (Chris Klein) was an animal control guy in a small town. He fell in love with Josephine Wingfield (Heather Graham), a barber who just returned to town after a breakup with her boyfriend Jack Mitchelson (Eddie Cibrian). As soon as they consummated their relationship, Gilbert discovered that his birth mother was actually Josephine’s mother, Valdine (Sally Field). Josephine ran back to Jack in shame as Gilbert lived his new life with the Wingfield family. On the eve of Josephine’s marriage to Jack, Gilbert discovered that Valdine’s real son was Leon Pitofsky (Jack Plotnick). Gilbert then set out to win Josephine back before she could marry Jack.

That may have sounded a little complicated and convoluted. It was. It basically boiled down to this. Two people hooked up, found out that they were siblings, separated, then found out they weren’t really siblings. That was the basis for a wacky romantic comedy. Oh, how strange the early 2000s were. A studio thought that a romantic comedy based around incest was a good idea. They thought that people would want to watch a movie about mistaken incest, which also included a man putting his hand up a cow’s butt, and some very questionable humour involving a disabled man. Woof.

The thing is, the movie business seems to always have an interest in stories that include incest. There’s something about using incest as a form of dramatic tension, whether as a joke, or as some sort of twist, that piques the interest of people making movies. Filmmakers like to sprinkle it into their stories because it will shock the audience. It will make them remember the movie. Incest is a taboo and taboo is a hot topic.

Say It Isn’t So wasn’t even the only teen or college comedy from that time to use incest as a story point. I brought up Lone Star State of Mind a little bit ago. In that movie, the main character was in love with his stepsister. A lot of wacky, dark comedy hijinks ensued before he could finally be with her, in love, happily ever after. That might not technically be incest since they aren’t blood related, but it’s still a weird, borderline incestual situation. Eurotrip also touched on the idea of incest, utilizing it as a joke. Brother and sister twins got a little drunk at a club in Bratislava, Slovakia, and ended up kissing. They didn’t realize for a few seconds and were rightfully disgusted by it when they noticed who they were kissing. One of the other characters made fun of them for it.

One of the more serious teen movies from that era to use incest, or that same borderline situation as Lone Star State of Mind, was Cruel Intentions. The movie was about people being terrible people and manipulating their peers for their own amusement, but that almost incest was at the center of the story. There was a bet about whether the stepbrother could sleep with a specific student. He was offered sex with his stepsister if he was able to do it. Sex between a stepbrother and stepsister. Not blood related, but still weird.

Horror movies have also focused on incest a little bit more than you might think they should. The taboo topic of incest is a horrific concept, so tossing that into horror could make things even more horrific. Two months ago, I covered a movie called Silent Night, Bloody Night. That movie had a twist near the end where all the murders taking place within the house were the result of a father’s incestual love for his daughter. This physical relationship led her to have a child. The child was given away to hide the secret, the daughter was placed in an asylum, and she was killed during a patient uprising. The father was lashing out and taking his revenge for her death.

Another horror movie that touched on incest was Amityville II: The Possession. I haven’t covered that yet, but I will confirm that it will be a part of Sunday “Bad” Movies this year. Anyway, the movie was a fictionalized account of the DeFeo murders, with the names changed, and added supernatural elements. The murderous son, who was possessed by a demon in the movie, had a close relationship with his sister. After being influenced by the demon, he went one step further and had sex with her. It wasn’t just incest. It was incestual rape. All to shock the audience.

Moving on from horror, some movies just use incest as a surprise twist. I’m not going to name any movies because the ones that first come to mind are great movies. One of them involved a man who was imprisoned for over a decade being released and seeking vengeance on the people who kept him captive. The other was about two siblings who sought out their family history following the death of their mother. By the end of their respective stories, you saw that the key to everything was incest. It was the most important part, the twist that brought everything together. A sexual relationship between family members.

The final thing that should be discussed is porn. There is a lot of porn devoted to incest fantasy. I’m not entirely sure how that came to be. There are a lot of son and mother porn flicks, a bunch of father and daughter porn flicks, and many, many brother and sister porn flicks. Obviously, they aren’t real. That would be against the law. But there is a hell of a lot of fictional porn that depicts a sexual relationship between family members. Or between stepfamily members. For whatever reason, that gets people off. Incest is a huge deal in porn.

Say It Isn’t So was one of many movies that made me wonder why movies have such a big fascination with incest. The movie was based on the idea that a man may have slept with his sister, not knowing it at the time. It was about trying to win back the woman when he found out they weren’t actually related. People constantly made fun of him for hooking up with a woman they thought was his sister. The whole movie was incest jokes while a character tried to let people know it wasn’t incest. It was one of those movies that showed the movie business was really hung up on one specific taboo.

There’s a strange obsession in the movie business with the idea of incest. Numerous movies tie the idea of sexual relationships between relatives into the story. It could be the story itself. It could be one plot point within the story. It could be a joke, a scare, or a twist. It could even be a sexual fantasy played out on screen for viewers to beat their meat to. Incest has worked its way into much of the fiction people take in. And I find that to be a little strange.

A little less strange are these notes:

• I brought up Silent Night, Bloody Night (week 472) and Wing Commander (week 394) in this week’s post.
• Say It Isn’t So put C. Ernst Harth into the five-timers’ club, following his appearances in Space Buddies (week 270), Dudley Do-Right (week 336), Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (week 390), and The Search for Santa Paws (week 420).
• Richard Riehle was another actor making his return to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Say It Isn’t So. He was previously seen in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (week 20), Dorm Daze 2: College @ Sea (week 40), and The Search for Santa Paws (week 420).
• Lin Shaye had a small role in Say It Isn’t So. She also had roles in Surf School (week 42) and Big Ass Spider! (week 61).
• Another three-timer was Daniel Boileau, who was in Ghost Storm (week 97) and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (week 220).
• Finishing off the actors who now have three appearances was Jack Plotnick, who was in Beverly Hills Chihuahua (week 70) and Ground Control (week 474) before this week’s appearance in Say It Isn’t So.
• Colin Foo has now appeared in two Sunday “Bad” Movies. They were Stan Helsing (week 64) and Say It Isn’t So.
• Brent Briscoe appeared in both Say It Isn’t So and Zombeavers (week 142).
• Jingle All the Way (week 160) featured John Rothman, who was also in Say It Isn’t So.
• Eddie Cibrian played Jack, Josephine’s fiancé, in Say It Isn’t So. He also had a role in The Single Moms Club (week 179).
• Brent Hinkley was in Mom and Dad Save the World (week 186) and Say It Isn’t So.
• You might remember Chris Klein’s facial expressions in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (week 280). He was the star of Say It Isn’t So.
• Rick Poltaruk was in Dudley Do-Right (week 336) before he made an appearance in Say It Isn’t So.
• An actor named Greg Kean had roles in both Say It Isn’t So and Black Christmas (week 368).
• Say It Isn’t So was the second Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance for Robert Musnicki, who was in Halloween: Resurrection (week 413).
• David L. Lander appeared in Say It Isn’t So and Zoom (week 457).
• Finally, Henry Cho showed up in both Material Girls (week 467) and Say It Isn’t So.
• Have you seen Say It Isn’t So? What did you think? Do you think movies have a strange obsession with incest? Do audiences have a strange obsession with incest? Let me know what you thought by leaving a comment, or you can find me on Twitter.
• I’m always open to suggestions about what movies I should check out for Sunday “Bad” Movies. If there are any movies you think would be a good fit, drop a message on my Twitter feed. Or you could leave a comment. That works too.
• Instagram is a place where you can find more Sunday “Bad” Movies stuff.
• Here’s where I give you the reason for the delay on this week’s post. The delay was a matter of my trying to figure out what was going on with next week’s movie. I was supposed to be covering one movie, but I don’t currently have a way to watch it. For that reason, I have flipped the schedule for the next two weeks. I may have to flip another week. It all depends on if the DVD arrives in the mail within the next week. Anyway, the movie I’ll now be covering next week is Evil Bong 666. Yep, I’m returning to the Evil Bong franchise. I’ll see you in a week with that post, and an update on the week after.