Vorarephilia

Vorarephilia (also referred to as voraphilia, vore, voreaphilia ,and phagophilia) is the interest or paraphilia in which a person fantasizes about eating another person and/or creature, being eaten him/herself, and/or watching another be eaten. Preferences vary, but the two common categories are being devoured whole and alive (soft vore, which also encompasses many other forms than "Oral Vore"), or being torn, chewed, and killed (hard vore). Both types of "vore" can be commonly found portrayed in stories or cartoonish drawings and acted out in internet role-playing.

Vorarephilia is typically considered an "imaginary fetish", since practicing the fetish is practically impossible.

This paraphilia is sometimes associated with macrophilia and microphilia, which makes it somewhat more plausible, as well as the furry fandom, where predation is more natural in roleplaying.
Oral

Soft vore is a paraphilia where one fantasizes about being swallowed, watching another being swallowed, or swallowing someone or another living creature whole. It is linked to vore, macrophilia, microphilia, unbirthing, and endosomatophilia.

The term for the eater is commonly "pred", short for predator. While hard vore (or shreddy vore) involvetearing, biting, shredding, or chewing, soft vore is oriented towards swallowing the subject whole, often without it being harmed, somewhat like a snake.

In soft vore, prey can be either willing or unwilling. Because of its non-violent nature, soft vore is commonly regarded as more sensual and sexually oriented. In soft vore prey are either digested, suffocated, or simply held in the stomach.

Although soft vore is defined by the prey going down whole, many have their own preferences on whether or not they want to be digested, snuffed or simply held in the stomach. There are many variations of this fetish, such as predator/prey roleplay.

Non-sexual soft vore is often used in a wide variety of cartoons. Most of these are seen as a harmless sight gag or a minor inconvenience for a character such as Jerry from Tom and Jerry cartoons. Other times, this is used as an obstacle to be overcome. These may be based on Native American folklore, such as one story where Coyote enters the stomach of a giant to rescue a number of people who were eaten alive, or the biblical story of Jonah. In the anime series Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki is swallowed whole by a giant snake, but eventually escapes with his characteristic indomitable zeal.
Unbirth

An unbirth is a paraphilia involving the desire to be "swallowed alive" by the female genitalia. Taking the desire to return to the womb to heart, unbirth fans will sometimes link to their new 'mother' via a magically adaptive umbilical cord, and remain happily ensconced for as long as their host permits. This fetish has been linked with the age regression fetish.

Unbirthing is simply a "reverse" birthing from outside into a vagina. This of course in a pure sense can only be into a female. It is sometimes referred to as "Female Genital Vore" -- especially when forced or it results in injury or death. Others think of it as a mutual, erotic and consensual activity with no injury to the sexual partners involved -- in that case it is not considered a form of "Vore". "Male Genital Vore" or Cockvore, of course, can not be a form of true unbirthing.

In fetish fiction, unbirthing often involves a character being transformed into a baby and then returned to the womb, but another common form of unbirthing, known as "total unbirthing", involves an entire adult body being taken into an adult female. It is a popular fantasy with those who enjoy macrophilia and various back-to-the-womb fantasies, but while some sources online insist total unbirthing is possible or has actually happened, it would require such a vast size difference (< 1:20) between the two particpants that it is supremely unlikely. Another form of Unbirthing is called "Partial Unbirthing", or so called "adult heading" -- consisting of just the entire head of an adult being taken into a vagina. It is arguably possible, but even then there is controversy about whether it has ever truly happened and disagreements about whether photos of the practice are Photoshop fakes. Because less than one in a thousand women have a huge "justo major pelvis" (giant pelvis) whose boney opening would allow this, and because extreme vaginal stretching would required, it would have to be an extremely rare sexual activity. There is also the question of oxygen supply for the person inserting their head. Because of the commitment required between partners before starting to do it, and the extensive stretching practice to prepare for it, it could only be a consensual sexual practice, and a "forced" unbirthing would be simply impossible.

Unbirthing has been a surprisingly common subject in mainstream fiction, most typically in horror stories: the anthology film Grim Prairie Tales featured a story about a (seemingly) pregnant woman who turns out to be a serial unbirther, while such popular writers as J.G. Ballard (in the story Mr. F is Mr. F) and Neil Gaiman (in the novel American Gods) both wrote of sinister females who unbirthed unsuspecting men.

It should also be noted that the idea of an "Unbirthday" was featured in Alice in Wonderland; this had nothing to with the returning to the womb, but was instead the practice of celebrating on all the days of the year that aren't your birthday.
Hard Vorarephilia

Hard vore is one object eating another, living object, with destructive, often fatal, results. The object consuming need itself not be living: vacuums, swimming pool drains, et cetera can be quantified as half of a vore scenario. The object being consumed can be animal or human.

Hard vore is regularly portrayed in movies. Movies such as Crocodile 1 and 2, the Jaws series, and Deep Blue Sea all contain examples of hard vore of both men and women.