Some characters, when in situations of psychological or physical stress or pain, have the tendency to externalize their suffering by moaning, crying, or even screaming out loud. However, in this particular case, the noises made by the victim are mistaken for sounds of sexual pleasure by other characters. This trope is applied mostly to female characters, although it has been used by male characters too, it's just rarer. If she really is enjoying it, she's Too Kinky to Torture or a Combat Sadomasochist. If both combatants are (ahem) doing it, it's Orgasmic Combat.
Can either overlap with either version of Abuse Mistake. See also "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- This is what happens when Dirk Anger finally kills himself in Nextwave. He accidentally hangs himself while shut in his room, which causes two Office Ladies, standing outside the room and listening to his strangled grunts, to think that he's looking at naughty websites.
Film
- In Urban Legend, the heroine stumbles across her goth roommate getting strangled in her bed. Due to the darkness and her roommate's grunts and groans, she assumes that her roommate is having sex (which is explained by an earlier scene in the movie where she walked in on her having sex and was angrily told to "turn the fucking light off") and leaves her to die. This sets up the "Aren't You Glad You Didn't Turn On The Light" scene.
- Snakes on a Plane, after a couple having sex in an airplane bathroom are attacked by snakes, they're being listened in on by two flight attendants.
[thumping and screaming] "he's good" [silence a few seconds later] "maybe not that good."
- In Mel Brooks's High Anxiety, the protagonist calls up the heroine moments before getting attacked by a strangler. She immediately concludes that it's an anonymous dirty phone call.
- In Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, the protagonist's sister screams in pain from a kidney condition. Her neighbors assume her screams are moans of pleasure.
- In The Dirty Dozen, Maggot points his knife at a terrified woman and tells her "scream." When she does, the Nazi officers in the lounge have a good laugh about how much she is enjoying the moment.
- In the 1982 adaptation of I, the Jury, Mike Hammer is observing an orgy at a sexual surrogate clinic when he hears a scream upstairs. The therapist running the clinic dismisses it as an orgasm, but Mike is familiar with both types of screams and rushes upstairs, though too late to catch the killer.
- In The Joy Luck Club, a pre-teen boy in an arranged marriage shows something to his new bride... she lets out a startled scream, and the boy's mother, listening at the door, chuckles and leaves, thinking the marriage is underway. It was nothing but his pet lizard.
- Inverted in the original short film version of D.E.B.S. in which a group of secret agents are rushing to rescue a colleague whom they believe is being tortured. She is in fact Dating Catwoman.
- In the 1982 kung fu parody They Call Me Bruce, two Action Girls are fighting each other, smashing up the motel room Bruce is using (Bruce is in the shower unaware). Next door his friend Freddy is with a High-Class Call Girl who's impressed with all the noise Bruce is apparently making, and tells Freddy to get Bruce to call her next time. Freddy goes next door and finds Bruce coming out of the shower and two women unconscious from exhaustion in his bed. He decides his friend has had enough Destructo-Nookie for one night and insists they leave.
- In Lizzie Borden's Revenge, Ashley and Leslie are making out in Ashley's room, and their orgasmic moans are disturbing the other girls in the lounge. Leslie leaves and Ashley goes to take a shower. In the shower, she is attacked by Lizzie and hacked to death. Her screams are interpreted by the other girls as she and Leslie enjoying a second round.
- Discussed trope in Murder, She Said. Inspector Craddock suggests to Miss Marple that what she saw might have been two honeymooners getting amorous. Miss Marple derisively replies that she might be a spinster, but she knows the difference between horseplay and murder.
- Inverted in Ruthless People. Earl Mott has a camera set up to record Sam Stone murdering his wife. Instead the police chief turns up for some Auto Erotica with a prostitute, and he promises to pay her extra if she makes it loud. Earl assumes from the screams that Sam is butchering his wife and rushes off to throw up, so fails to realise what he's actually taping. The leads to the inevitable comic misunderstandings.
- Rush Hour 3 sees Lee and Carter sneak into a secret Triad casino looking for information, with Lee being led into an upstairs suite by a Dragon Lady promising him information... before then trying to assassinate him. Carter only catches a glimpse of Lee and an attractive woman heading into a bedroom together, and when he gets a moment to put his ear up to the door, he's assuming based off their noises that they're having some wild sex, rather than his partner literally fighting for his life.
Literature
- Inverted in The Last Wish, where Dandelion hears Yennefer moaning among the ruins (that she caused) and worries she and Geralt must be terribly hurt. Turns out, they just couldn't wait to celebrate their Relationship Upgrade and are merrily having sex then and there.
- Tales of the Otori: Across the Nightingale Floor: Kaede kills Iida Sadamu when he attempts to rape her. The narration notes that his screams of pain are indistinguishable from cries of pleasure which is presumably why the guards don't rush in to attack her.
Live-Action Television
- 1000 Ways to Die: In "Domin-A-Dead", a man hires a dominatrix, who makes him wear a latex suit and ball gag. Unbeknownst to either of them, the man has a severe latex allergy, and the dominatrix mistakes his cries for help as groans of pleasure. By the time she figures out what is happening, it is too late.
- Lampshaded in the Angel episode "Waiting in the Wings" when some of the heroes are searching a building and hear some noises.
Gunn: Hear that? Sounds like someone's in pain.Fred: Either that or someone's in fun...
- The penultimate scene of The Horror of Party Beach has an ...interesting moment when the heroine, who has injured her leg, is helped to a nearby car, leaving our good friends at MST3K only able to say, "Um... wow."
- In an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dick was Bound and Gagged (long story) and called Mary's office for help. Judith picks up the phone and responds thusly to Dick's muffled cries for help:
Judith: [Deadpan voice] Oh, yeah. [Muffled cry for help] Oh, baby. [Muffled cry for help] I'm hot now. [Muffled cry for help] Do me. [Muffled cry for help] Do me all night. [Muffled cry for help] I know it's you, Dick. [Hangs up].
- There was also a very dark usage of this in Jonathan Creek, in which a videotape is found showing what appears to be a young woman having a screaming orgasm. Turns out the camera had tipped onto its side, and what everyone was seeing was her getting impaled against a tree by a large garden fork.
- My Wife and Kids: Inverted in "Michael's Garden". Kady hears Michael and Jay having sex and assumes her mother is in danger. This causes her to call the police much to Michael's amusement and Jay's embarrassment.
- The Punisher (2017): The first episode has Frank killing the last member of the Kitchen Irish involved in his family's murder by strangling him in an airport toilet stall. Two other guys outside of the stall hear the commotion and assume they are just two guys having sex.
- A Tales from the Darkside episode, "Black Widows", involved a mother forbidding a suitor from marrying her daughter until he fattened up. On their wedding day, it's revealed that this is because they're spider people that prey on humans, and she wants her daughter to have a nice meal. The sounds of the bride, overcome by her instincts, devouring her screaming groom is overheard by a visiting priest in the living and is mistaken for a very loud consummation. He's half right, as she gives birth to a daughter afterwards.
- Played for Laughs in Get Smart: While undercover, Smart has to pretend he is torturing a woman, but the first set of sound effects he plays in order to sell this is a bit too pornographic. (The second set sounds properly awful.)
Video Games
- Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh: When Therese is being murdered in the bathroom of the S&M club, a few of the other patrons hear her screams. They think she's having sex with someone so decide to ignore her, as she's apparently known to use the bathroom for hookups (having previously done so with the protagonist).
Visual Novels
- Inverted with Amanda in one scene of Daughter for Dessert. The protagonist picks the lock on her bedroom door because he thinks she’s in pain (or some kind of distress). She’s actually masturbating.
- Inverted with Johanna in Double Homework. The protagonist is passing by her room when he notices crying sounds coming from her room. If he chooses to investigate, he finds that she’s actually moaning while pleasuring herself... while watching a clip of him skiing.
Web Original
- In To Boldly Flee, Film Brain overhears The Nostalgia Chick shrieking in fear/pain as Mechakara assimilates her. He chalks it up to them having sex, as does everyone else (except for Obscurus Lupa).
Western Animation
- Blue Eye Samurai. In "Peculiarities", the title character Mizu enters a brothel to get information but refuses every girl in the place (Mizu is actually a woman in disguise). Meanwhile Princess Akemi is posing as a high-class courtesan so she can enter the brothel and assassinate Mizu. She enters Mizu's room declaring that no man can turn her down, and on hearing the subsequent ruckus (because she tried to stab Mizu) a prostitute comments, "She's good."
- Inverted in Sealab 2021 when Dr. Quinn is taken away for questioning by Bizarro Debbie. After the sounds of torture give way to sounds of obvious intercourse, Murphy loudly proclaims "Good lord, she's killing him!"
