Beyond the sex itself, for those to whom this applies, what are the emotional themes or other such elements that arouse you in watching adult flicks beyond the skin?
I enjoy seeing pools being cleaned or photocopiers being fixed!
I haven’t seen a porn film with a good ‘theme’ or ‘plot’ for ages, all the stuff me and my wife watch is basically scenes that go straight into the action as most plot driven porn is cheesy but I have seen one film which had an awesome theme and wasn’t at all cheesy, it was a french film set in an old chataux where the master of the house basically shagged his way through all the staff before hosting a massive orgy on his banquet table at the end - it was one of the most awesome porn films I have ever seen and would love to see it again, it had everything - a really, really hot mixed race lady wearing a french maids outfit and even a weird little dwarf who occasionally spied on the action. I miss that video…
The Japanese have some of the best ideas, but unfortunately it’s marred by their maddening pixelated naughty bits. And their other language, of course, which makes it hard to understand what’s going on. And their unending misogyny, though I avoid the worst of those.
My point is, their zany concepts of having real world situations somehow naturally juxtaposed with explicit sex really works for me.
High Explosives, Sheep, sex on active rollercoaster tracks, massive scar tissue, furniture fucking, hammers & saws, garbage bag sex, sacks of wet kittens, and oversized Mao suits.
what?
Nothing, it just seems kinda bland, that’s all.
Yeah, I mean, jeez, step into the 21st century, would ya? 
Pirates. Wasn’t there an award-winning pirate porn flick?
Clowns. It’s hard to find good clown porn.
Clowns and Pirates together? Do I dare imagine?
what?
I like it when a man and a woman have sex in the missionary and/or cowgirl position, preceded by some foreplay, and preferably without constantly cutting to the guy’s face.
I know, I’m all alone in this perversion, judging from what I’ve seen offered from purveyors o’ porn.
Amen to that. Does anybody even make traditional porn any more, where the sorority chicks can’t pay for the pizza so they bang the delivery guy, or the shy guy on his first day on the job scores with the receptionist? It’s a lost art.
Yes.
Blackmail. The student caught cheating gets a chance to escape her fate in exchange for some ‘extra credit’ or the embezzling employee can make things up with some ‘over time’.
Ah, that’s a good one getting closer to what I was asking.
I wasn’t really asking about storylines as much as I was about what aspect of it turns you on erotically and psychologically beyond the skin. Such as: humiliation, domination, struggle, romance, comeuppance, etc. Those types of broad themes.
The benign indifference of the universe does it for me. Hard to find, though.
Hell, I don’t need to watch porn for those. I get enough in real life.
Humor, which is sadly lacking in today’s porn. But also good “take offs” such as the classic Flesh Gordon, Picnoccio (it isn’t his nose that grows), Alice in Wonderland.
Asian chicks taking it in the butt is an emotional theme I enjoy.
Not THAT’s entertainment! Both the theme and your answer, I’m still laughing.
I actually enjoy conversation. Call me weird, but ANY kind anticipatory conversation in prelude to the deed is somehow erotic for me. Heck, even when watching 30 second clips from the freebie sites, I like to hear voices.
If an adult film has to have a theme, it should be an at least moderately plausible intro-setup for the sex. (No more than moderately – we all know we’re not really living in the Porniverse.) This is handled fairly well in Hustler’s Barely Legal series.