~~ Erotic Thrillers of the 80s and 90s ~~

why am i debating bruce willis’ dingus on the internet

I guess because it's frowned upon in the workplace.

luv2frown at bruce willis’ dingus with my co-workers

their characters are pretty gross most of the time, probably keeps the good looking quality actors away

Whispers in the Dark ftw

Also used to recommend Fear all the time, then watched it again and was wholly embarrassed to have done so.

fear is an amazing, embarrassing movie

Generally, all the characters in erotic thrillers are gross or messed up... they're like the erotic side of noir.

To find the women appealing, you'd have to have an unhealthy attraction to danger and stupidity. Which is sort of the point with a lot of these movies.

there is not a (real) kathleen turner thread, so

this is great: http://www.vulture.com/2018/08/kathleen-turner-in-conversation.html

Do you have sympathy for actors who choose differently?

Certainly in terms of film, there is intense pressure to repeat successful characters. I’ll give you an example, but you mustn’t include her name. [Very famous Hollywood actress] has played the same role for 20 years. She even looks pretty much the same. She’s probably one of the richest women out there, but I would shoot myself if I were like that, only giving people what they expect.

my guess is Mariska Hargitay (who has only played herself or Olivia Benson in the past twenty years except for two small roles)

https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/erotic-movies-ranked-worst-to-best/

99% thrillers, obv. (why are so many erotic movies thrillers??)

because if you add a thriller element you can say it's a dark exploration of the human psyche etc and so it has an alibi of semi-respectability, while if you make a happy sexy movie there's no fig leaf for the perving?

I've always found it weird too because dark explorations of the human psyche are kind of a turn-off

The Crush got slept on in this poll.

SHOWGIRLS (1995) 23% #127

lol bye

Spoilers.

It's not all that erotic, but I took a second look at The Mean Season last night (1985, Kurt Russell/Mariel Hemingway). I recently posted about how good The Grey Fox was on another thread; the Lightbox guy who introduced it talked a bit about Phillip Borsos's career, how he left Hollywood after The Mean Season because he was fed up, and how the movie was quite good.

It's not. It's okay for the first half, starts to get worse, and then the last 15 minutes are terrible. All through the film, the killer (who's in contact over the phone with journalist Kurt Russell) is shot so you can't see his face; it seems to be tipping you off that he's one of two people close to Russell, either his editor or the photographer who works alongside him, and that he's trying to teach Russell a lesson about journalists who gain fame through grisly crime. Suddenly they decide to show him; all the earlier subterfuge had no point at all. And then the killer (Richard Jordan) tries to do some actual acting, and he's awful. Russell (who I almost always like) and Hemingway aren't much better.

im all for the big reveal being that the killer is random more of that

Has anyone seen Night Train to Venice? I only recently became aware of it - 90’s gothic-erotic thriller involving Neo-Nazis, featuring Hugh Grant, Malcolm McDowell, and Nazi-era German star Kristina Söderbaum. It looks entertainingly batshit but every review I’ve seen basically says “you’d think this would be fun but it’s just awful and boring.”

(xpost) I was fine with the randomness of the killer, I just thought the false build-up was unnecessary.

There used to be multiple copies of these things in every used sale bin for three or four dollars; now whenever I want one, it's some ridiculous price on Amazon or eBay. Three I'm after (they're thrillers--they probably don't fit this thread exactly): Deceived (Goldie Hawn), Eyewitness (Sigourney Weaver/William Hurt), Storyville (James Spader). I saw the first two when they came out, not the third.

Oh man, I just threw away a copy of Eyewitness a few weeks ago. Watching it recently for the first time, I was kind of surprised that such a solid thriller with an A-list cast has been so completely forgotten... yet it falls rather short of greatness, and I'm in the process of forgetting it myself.

Damn. I think it was the film Peter Yates made right after Breaking Away.

Yeah with the writer of Breaking Away as well

Keys to Tulsa is the most Spadery Spaderness that ever Spadered.

Storyville is meh in comparison.

I feel like William Hurt must have made some bargain with the devil because for a while it seemed like he was in every movie.

Actually found Keys to Tulsa cheap, so went ahead and Spadered it. The thing that caught my attention with Storyville is that it's directed by Mark Frost, Lynch's partner on Twin Peaks.

Spader's whole career was just preface to his 12-step guy on Seinfeld.

The latest (or one of the latest) episodes of How Did This Get Made focuses on "Jade," and there is a lot of talk of erotic thrillers. Pretty funny stuff.

Deceived is on Disney+ (under their new “Star” imprint).

Damn, don't get it...Jade is a good example of what I mean. New copies sell on Amazon (Canada) for between $100-$600. Ten years ago, you would have found it any flea market or thrift shop for nothing. '90s erotic thrillers are turning into the 13th Floor Elevators and Chocolate Watchband albums of a different universe.

Apparently (I learned this from the podcast and, later, wiki)

An unrated "director's cut" version featuring additional scenes and more explicit sexual footage with an additional 12 minutes was later released to VHS, though it is now out of print; the theatrical cut was used for the subsequent DVD and Blu-ray editions. The planned unrated versions for DVD, LaserDisc, and Blu-ray were cancelled, due to poor sales of the unrated VHS version.

ty for tip, I greatly enjoyed them trying to decode the plot like The Big Sleep

nb: I have not seen Jade

watched wild things last night. absolutely incredible. i think it's lacking perfect erotic thriller dna but it is a wonderful movie.

The Lat Seduction > Body Heat > Jade > Exotica > Thief of Hearts

*Last

Wild Things is one of those movies you can't quite believe is real while you're watching it, like Road House or Point Break.

("The Lat Seduction" was a planned erotic thriller set in the world of high-end personal trainers, but it was stuck in development.)

i like the last seduction a lot but it was panned by my erotic thriller watch crew. glad i am not alone on that corner.

Love Wild Things, but it is perhaps too ironic in its lurid erotic-thrillerness.

They're releasing an extended director's cut with an additional seven meta-twist endings.

I saw Deceived in high school -- weird to think these things were hits

When we rented Decieved, my dad made me pause it at one point because he was finding it too suspenseful and needed a break (in fairness, I remember it being a bit jumpy in parts). I'll probably watch it again on Disney+ one of these days.

Wild Things is a masterpiece, and I assumed it was just a fluke by writer Stephen Peters, who never had another film produced, or a heavy uncredited rewrite. Until 12 seconds ago, when I read that in 2013, Peters' agent pitched McNaughton on an Amanda Knox-inspired sequel about Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon's kid getting involved in a sex murder while on student exchange with Bill Murray's kid, and they tried to sell it as "Wild Child Things".

So clearly, he's a hard-done-by genius.

hahahah that's amazing

Wild Things is pretty out there but Color of Night is BONKERS

I am now a proud owner of a copy of Wild Things, found a DVD for a buck at AmVets. I made my wife watch it because she'd never seen it and she agreed it was quality pulp. So much fun.

I saw a preview screening of Wild Things with a packed theatre of college students, the perfect venue.

Damn, don't get it...Jade is a good example of what I mean. New copies sell on Amazon (Canada) for between $100-$600. Ten years ago, you would have found it any flea market or thrift shop for nothing. '90s erotic thrillers are turning into the 13th Floor Elevators and Chocolate Watchband albums of a different universe.

There are new DVD copies of Jade on Ebay for $20. Amazon always has a range of crazy listings, for whatever reason - people using it as a placeholder, people taking a flier, people using automated repricing that glitches when supply is low.

I always check eBay, and you're right, things are cheaper there. It's still bad if you're in Canada--$40-50 by the time you pay shipping and exchange. I just wouldn't pay that much for any DVD, least of all a junky thriller. Once this thing ends, I'll back to scouring thrift stores and such, and it'll turn up before long.

sell on Amazon (Canada) for

If they aren't completed listings, they're not selling for that price. It's literally the equivalent of an op shop putting a $200 sticker on a Beatles LP.

Color of the Night: staggeringly, monumentally awful. I really didn't know much going in. "Richard Rush? Oh, he directed The Stunt Man--that's supposed to be pretty good." About half an hour in, I started to wonder if it won any Razzies (not particularly meaningful, except maybe as confirmation of something you're sitting there thinking yourself). It did--worst picture--and had a bunch of other nominations. Including one that gave away the supposed big twist. Not sure how to take the two votes above. I didn't find it Ed Wood funny or anything--I derisively laughed a few times.