Chemsex

A really good insight into the more seedy side of gay life, loving the honesty (and good looking guys!) and truths told through the eyes of real gay men. Opens your eyes to the underground life that is in our society. Does not hide anything, real tears and real lives! I would highly recommend anyone to watch this documentary, whether you're straight or gay. Good on the producers for covering this area, more should be made me thinks. A must see in my books!! Going into the lives of a group of men who partake in both gay sex and enhanced chemically enduced sexual parties, is a non discussed area in life today, shame as it is part of our modern culture and today's society, covering all levels of people from high rollers to the people who have to sell their bodies.

I wasn't sure at first if I wanted to watch this because it's obvious that the subject is heavy and certainly not a picnic to experience yet I was curious enough to give it a chance. It took a while before I got into it and almost gave up several times but then I slowly started to care enough to want to know more about the fate of the different characters.

Some segments are very hard to stomach mostly the drug use where we basically see everything in graphic details and the sex scenes are also difficult to sit through but I think it was a necessary evil to really depict just how things are in reality. There is nothing pretty about the heavy drug use and sexual debauchery associated with it and on this front, the documentary was efficient but uncomfortable to view.

The ending was quite satisfactory and I was able to get a sense of this universe which I would never want to experience myself yet I found the whole thing informative and in a way, essential to understand the deeply rooted issues that create the scene where some gay men can lose not only their health but their sanity. A couple of the protagonists were really whacked out and totally lost in their chemically induced state but a few succeeded in turning things around to become functioning human beings again.

Still the drug use is often very difficult to stop and as one character clearly stated, once you taste sex with those artificial enhancers, regular sex doesn't seem quite so enticing. Which is why I felt it was important for me to watch and it reinforced my belief that behind the drug abuse, there is a lot soul trying desperately to come to grips with reality and lead a satisfying life free of the drug shackle.

A 7 star rating seemed appropriate because even though this is not the best documentary I've seen on this subject and some of the segments were poorly shot or rendered, the technical flaws didn't detract from the fact that this is an important subject to portray on the screen and I for one believe that they succeeded in showing us the truth of this milieu gone wrong. Hope is still present and I enjoyed it as much as I could even though we can't qualify this as entertainment but mostly as information.

I still remember the first time I watched this documentary and it made me feel so many things because I have experienced some of these things depicted.

Nobody wants to talk about the issues arising within the gay community and the now mainstream use of PreP which gives men who don't have HIV the freedom to have unprotected sex - should they choose to.

Opening up their chances to then becoming prone to uninhibited situations involving methamphetamines, which in turn has the potential to alter their state of mind, making them forget to take the required drugs and possibly seroconvert.

Many people won't agree with this, but from the experiences of men in Sydney, Australia, this is EXACTLY what is happening in gay communities.

I know a few gay men who are into the scene of so called 'chemsex' and they have absolutely no issues with it what so ever. This film highlights the stories of a number of gay men who have had extreme experiences whilst taking a variety of drugs in order to loosen inhibitions and thereby get more or have better and longer lasting sex.

The stories to camera are often extremely moving as most of the men suffer with the dual addiction of the cravings for the drug and more importantly the feeling that they are having the best sex ever whilst intoxicated. One man says 'if I have to spend the rest of my life sober then euthanize me now'. There in lies the rub. The problems come with the added risk of STI's via the sharing of needles and unprotected sex – especially with strangers in back rooms, saunas etc. There are scenes of actual sex in this film too and nudity.

Now this also features the work of an outreach programme located at 56 Dean Street in London's Soho and its commendable work. It is not the only programme though and there are a lot of people that can offer help. This could have been emphasised more in the film. Also it chose to tell the dark stories – we do not have anyone who is a recreational user and manages to get by having a fulfilled life etc which may have added balance. We all get that 'drugs are bad umkay'.

That said I am not condoning drug taking but I also do not want to denigrate a chosen life style if done in a safe and moderate way. Ultimately this is an engaging film that does have its heart in the right place and if it can help prevent men from having such calamitous and life changing experiences then it is all for the good. This is a good one to get for a rental – recommended.

This film tells the lives of some homosexual individuals in London, who are hooked on sex while under the influence of illicit drugs.

This is a controversial and highly explicit documentary film that features a lot of sex scenes and drug taking scenes. What is more disturbing is the fact that the individuals interviewed in the film actually do much harm to themselves by their chosen lifestyle, yet they see good rather than destruction resulting from it. Then a club owner talks about how patrons collapse into a coma in his establishment because of drugs. The hedonism and subsequent self destruction that results from drug use is painful and saddening to me. This film is an eye opener for alternative lifestyles, and is definitely not for the lighthearted.