Erotica Thriller

Erotica Thriller
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— Nina K. Martin, Sexy Thrills: Undressing the Erotic Thriller [8]

^ Martin 2007 , p. 17-18.

^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Juzwiak, Rich (August 13, 2021). "The Lost Art of the Erotic Thriller" . Jezebel . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ Jump up to: a b Andrews 2006 , p. 136.

^ Keesey 2001 , p. 44.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 49.

^ Jump up to: a b Williams 2005 , p. 62.

^ Williams 2005 , pp. 77–78.

^ Martin 2007 , p. 4.

^ McKee 1997 , p. 82.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 23.

^ Martin 2007 , p. 29.

^ Jump up to: a b c Cote, Rachel Vorona (August 29, 2019). " '90s erotic thrillers and the satisfaction of watching women burn the world" . Vox . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ Newland, Christina (December 19, 2017). "The Gruesome Demise of the 90s Erotic Thriller" . Vice . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ Cacioppo, Cristina (July 15, 2021). "Notebook Primer: 90s Erotic Thrillers" . Mubi . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ Williams 2005 , pp. 107–121.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 107.

^ Palmer 1994 , p. 168: "Perhaps the most popular genre in the 1990s, the so-called erotic thriller [...] is a direct descendant of the classic film noir".

^ Jump up to: a b c d Roberts, Soraya (May 24, 2019). "The Erotic Thriller's Little Death" . Longreads . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d Keesey 2001 , p. 46.

^ Martin 2007 , p. 18.

^ Andrews 2006 , p. 15.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 80.

^ Jump up to: a b "30 years ago today, "Fatal Attraction" couldn't be ignored - Entertainment News" . ABC News Radio . September 18, 2017 . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ Although some of these titles may not fall under the precise definition of "erotic thriller", they all fell under the thriller category (psychological or neo-noir), contained sex and/or nudity, with marketing that emphasized these lurid elements.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 163.

^ "Basic Instinct (1992) - Financial Information" . The Numbers . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ "Sliver (1993)" , Rotten Tomatoes

^ Fox, David J. (May 24, 1993). "Stone Gets a 'Sliver' of Box Office but Not a Runaway : Movies: 'Hot Shots!' also opens strongly but the blockbuster hopes are now on Memorial Day weekend" . Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ "Disclosure" . Box Office Mojo . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ Williams 2005 , p. 7.

^ Andrews 2006 , p. 77.

^ Andrews 2006 , p. 83.

^ Willmore, Alison (April 8, 2022). "Erotic Thrillers Owe Everything to Home Viewers" . Vulture . Archived from the original on April 12, 2022 . Retrieved April 21, 2022 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d Liebenson, Donald (March 20, 2017). " "The Sexpendables": How Basic Instinct Birthed a Schlocky, Sexy Cottage Industry" . Vanity Fair . Retrieved November 29, 2021 .

^ Williams 2005 , p. 65.

^ Jump up to: a b Andrews 2006 , p. 82.

^ Andrews 2006 , p. 84.

^ Mair 1988 , p. 109.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 6.

^ Jump up to: a b Williams 2005 , p. 69.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 14.

^ Williams 2005 , pp. 2, 264.

^ Martin 2007 , p. 137.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 250.

^ "Filmmaker Gregory Dark, his "Fallen Angels," and the other side of Hollywood" . Nightflight . February 9, 2016. Archived from the original on February 16, 2016 . Retrieved June 5, 2016 .

^ Jump up to: a b Andrews 2006 , p. 110.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 312.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 390.

^ Alvarez, Max J. (December 30, 1994). "Big Names Look For Bright Lights In Videoland" . Chicago Tribune . Archived from the original on May 11, 2011.

^ "Jade" . Box Office Mojo . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Karagiannidou 2006 , p. 8.

^ Jump up to: a b Barber, Nicholas (June 3, 2021). "Basic Instinct defined the erotic thriller – and killed it" . BBC . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Clarke, Cath (January 21, 2010). "The double life of Atom Egoyan" . The Guardian .

^ Johnson, Brian D. (May 27, 1996). "Cronenberg Film Controversy" . Maclean's .

^ Nelson, Carrie (March 13, 2012). "Visi(bi)lity: Biphobia Bingo! A Look at Basic Instinct" . Bitch Media . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Chamings, Andrew (January 12, 2021). "From 'Basic Instinct' to 'Showgirls': The rise and fall of the erotic thriller" . SF Gate . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Bradshaw, Peter (September 9, 1999). "Eyes Wide Shut" . The Guardian . Retrieved December 12, 2021 .

^ O'Callaghan, Paul (April 10, 2019). "Eyes Wide Shut, 20 years on: how does Stanley Kubrick's last testament stand up?" . British Film Institute . Retrieved December 12, 2021 .

^ Bray, Catherine, "Who killed the erotic thriller? | Inside Cinema" , BBC — via YouTube . Retrieved 30 November 2021.

^ Jump up to: a b Davis, Allison P. (April 5, 2022). "The Erotic Thriller Is Still the Best Way to Talk About Sex" . Vulture . Archived from the original on April 5, 2022 . Retrieved April 21, 2022 .

^ Jump up to: a b Otterson, Joe (August 19, 2022). "Streamers Get Steamy as They Lust After Sex-Drenched Fare to Seduce Subscribers" . Variety . Retrieved August 23, 2022 . Ironically, the embrace of more explicit fare comes after cable moved away from such content in the internet age.

^ Jump up to: a b c d Lee, Chris (February 4, 2022). "Hollywood Has No Idea What to Do With the Erotic Thriller" . Vulture . Retrieved June 26, 2022 .

^ Jump up to: a b c d e Newland, Christina (November 4, 2021). "Why Hollywood is shunning sex" . BBC . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Jump up to: a b Williams 2005 , p. 323.

^ Williams 2005 , p. 71.

^ Andrews 2006 , p. 151.

^ Matzer, Marla (April 16, 1997). "Direct-to-Video Family Films Are Hitting Home" . Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on May 16, 2012.

^ Andrews 2006 , p. 152.

^ Jump up to: a b c Helmore, Edward (June 16, 2019). "The end of erotica? How Hollywood fell out of love with sex" . The Guardian . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Female directors in the genre include Katt Shea ( Poison Ivy ), Karen Arthur ( Lady Beware ), Lizzie Borden ( Love Crimes ), Sondra Locke ( Impulse ), Donna Deitch ( Criminal Passion ), and Jennifer Lynch ( Boxing Helena ).

^ Bender, Abbey (October 2, 2019). "Let women make erotic thrillers" . The Outline . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Jump up to: a b Hornaday, Ann (June 7, 2019). "Sex is disappearing from the big screen, and it's making movies less pleasurable" . The Washington Post . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Hellerman, Jason (April 15, 2022). "Erotic Thrillers Are Back, and Hollywood Has No Idea What to Do with Them" . NoFilmSchool.com . Retrieved June 9, 2022 .

^ Kenigsberg, Ben (January 23, 2014). "Sex and danger are entwined in the erotic thriller Stranger By The Lake" . The A.V. Club . Retrieved December 12, 2021 .

^ Jump up to: a b Bender, Abbey (May 13, 2017). "Where have all the erotic thrillers gone?" . The Washington Post . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Schilling, Dave (September 7, 2016). "Basic instincts: how the erotic thriller went black to the future" . The Guardian . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Fifty Shades Darker , Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 30 November 2021.

^ Latif, Leila (October 19, 2021). "I May Destroy You and how it represents the future of TV" . BBC . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

^ Stanford, Eleanor (April 17, 2020). " 'Normal People' Takes Sex Seriously" . The New York Times . ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved November 30, 2021 .

The erotic thriller is a film subgenre defined as a thriller with a thematic basis in illicit romance or erotic fantasy . [1] Though exact definitions of the erotic thriller can vary, it is generally agreed "bodily danger and pleasure must remain in close proximity and equally important to the plot." [2] Most erotic thrillers contain scenes of softcore sex and nudity, though the frequency and explicitness of those scenes can differ from film to film. [3]

Erotic thrillers emerged as a distinct genre in the late 1980s, bolstered by the popular success of Fatal Attraction in 1987 [4] [5] and continuing into the early 1990s . Studio films of this "classic period", such as Paul Verhoeven 's Basic Instinct , were box office successes, helmed by big-name directors, and starred high-profile actors. The popularity of the genre spawned a lucrative cottage industry for the burgeoning home video and cable television markets. [6] By the end of the 1990s, cultural changes and the rise of the Internet led to the decline of the genre's popular appeal and production volume. [7]

According to British film studies professor Linda Ruth Williams , "Erotic thrillers are noir ish stories of sexual intrigue incorporating some form of criminality or duplicity, often as the flimsy framework for onscreen softcore sex". [2]

The predominating syntax that shapes these films combines romanticized, "erotic" appeal with a dangerous "thriller" narrative – a "pleasure/danger" principle.
The thriller film genre contains subgenres other than the noir crime film and murder mystery, [9] including the psychological thriller, or suspense stories of illicit romance and sexual obsession. Thus, the erotic thriller participates in several genres and film styles at once, [10] such as film noir , romance , and the thriller , taking narrative and stylistic elements from each. Because the erotic thriller combines various genres, pinning down the exact formula for an erotic thriller can be difficult. Though academics and writers on the subject encapsulate the erotic thriller film differently, the overlapping of the suspense thriller, romance, and softcore sex film is the unique domain of the erotic thriller. [11]

The character type of the femme fatale —an alluring, mysterious, and seductive woman—is common to many erotic thriller films. Villainous, even deadly, femme fatales manipulate and entrap the male characters, at times being in complete control of the men. [12] From " Sharon Stone 's icy Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct or Linda Fiorentino 's brusque Bridget in The Last Seduction …[these archetypes] tend to be cheerfully promiscuous…These women actively reject domesticity in all its forms, sniping about 'hating rugrats' and holding intimidatingly high-powered careers as stockbrokers and novelists". [2] The most blatant depiction of the femme fatale is the character of Rebecca Carlson, played by Madonna in 1993's Body of Evidence . On trial for the murder of her lover, Rebecca is described by a prosecutor as "no [different] than a gun or a knife or any kind of weapon." [2] In erotic thrillers, power dynamics are subverted as femme fatales "turn men into pliable playthings, and the punchline of almost all of these films revolves around one idea: Men are basically stupid; blinded by sex, and helpless in the face of it". [13]

The femme fatale of erotic thrillers took shape against "the backdrop of what German sexologist/sociologist Volkmar Sigusch deemed the 'neosexual revolution,' 'a tremendous cultural and social transformation of sexuality during the 1980s and 1990s'". [2] Feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s resulted in greater socioeconomic opportunities for women of the 1980s; thus, the femme fatales in erotic thrillers "flagrantly embody male anxieties over women's burgeoning financial and professional independence". [12] Although these female characters wielded agency and power, they were usually limited to using their bodies and sexuality as weapons. [2] Furthermore, some films saw the male protagonist ultimately triumph over the femme fatale, subduing the threat she represents. [2] [14]

The counterpart to the femme fatale is the "fall guy"—a man who is easily manipulated by the femme fatale. [15] The fall guy is often sexualized himself, [16] with some films featuring full-frontal male nudity in addition to female nudity, as in the films American Gigolo , Color of Night , and Wild Things . [2] The fall guy, usually working in a white-collar occupation, sees the femme fatale as "a portal or chaperone…to go from a world of normality into the world of noir or the erotic thriller". [2]

The erotic thriller is a direct descendant of 1940s and 1950s film noir , [17] a thriller genre exemplified by stylish crime films and mysteries that explores the dark underworld of post-World War II America. 1981's Body Heat , one of the first films of the erotic thriller's classic period, [2] was itself inspired by the film noir Double Indemnity (1944). [18] " Body Heat star Kathleen Turner argued it was precisely because [cast and crew] were working in an old-Hollywood framework that they were able to get away with the sexual explicitness that would set the tone for the ensuing decade: 'Film noir has a formality and shape to it. Its very familiar form allowed people to accept more readily the daring content that we were presenting.'" [2]
The erotic thriller also has its roots in the mystery genre, the horror genre, and pornography . [19] Brian De Palma 's Dressed to Kill (1980), another early 1980s erotic film, contains several direct references to Alfred Hitchcock 's psychological horror film Psycho (1960). Though the R-ratings , theatrical releases, and notable actors differentiate erotic thrillers from pornography, both erotic thrillers and pornography "feature sex scenes occurring at regular intervals, and in low-budget erotic thrillers, the plot, as in porn, may be mainly a pretext for the sex". [19] It is this proximity to pornography that is one of the reason's for the erotic thriller's "popular success–and probably one reason for its critical neglect as a genre". [19]

Other forebears of the erotic thriller include the romance novel , the soap opera , and works of gothic fantasy . [20] Softcore sex films are often romances of some kind, and the genre has a long tradition, particularly in Europe. Directors such as Radley Metzger ( Theresa and Isabelle 1968), Joseph Sarno ( Inga 1968), and Just Jaeckin ( Emmanuelle 1974) were influential pioneers of the softcore-romance film. Their "middlebrow sexploitation " films put stories of female desire at the center, and helped pave the way for softcore's reemergence in the 1990s. [21]

William Friedkin 's Cruising and the aforementioned Dressed to Kill and Body Heat arguably ushered in the Golden Age of the erotic thriller at the beginning of the 1980s. [22] [2] The next few years saw a flood of titles, including Body Double (1984), Jagged Edge (1985), and 9½ Weeks (1986). Fatal Attraction in 1987 was seen as the first visible success in the genre, as it was a critical [23] and commercial success. The film was a mixture of psychological thriller action with brief scenes of softcore sex and illicit romance. [3] Spending eight weeks in the No. 1 spot at the box office, Fatal Attraction grossed more than $320 million worldwide, making it the biggest film of that year. [23] Hoping to repeat the film's success, Hollywood studios released a spate of erotic thriller films [24] over the next several years, including The Hot Spot (1990), Presumed Innocent (1990), Shattered (1991), Sleeping with the Enemy (1991), A Kiss Before Dying (1991), Consenting Adults (1992), Single White Female (1992), Love Crimes (1992), Unlawful Entry (1992), Poison Ivy (1992), Final Analysis (1992), Malice (1993), The Crush (1993), Indecent Proposal (1993), The Last Seduction (1994), and Color of Night (1994).

Basic Instinct , directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas , was released to great success and controversy in 1992. Featuring overt sexuality and violence, including a plot depicting a bisexual woman as a murderous psychopath , the film is seen as the apotheosis of the genre. [25] Though it received mixed reviews, it was a significant box office smash as it grossed $352 million worldwide. [26] Sliver attempted to duplicate this success—with the same screenwriter, Eszterhas, and star, Sharon Stone —the following year. Though Sliver fared even worse with critics, [27] it also opened at No. 1 at the box office. [28] Disclosure , directed by Barry Levinson , was met with considerable success in 1994. The film—which concerns a computer specialist (played by Michael Douglas , his then third film of the genre) who is sexually harassed by his female superior and former lover (played by Demi Moore )—grossed $214 million against its $50 million budget. [29]

This classic period took place amidst the boon of the video rental market [30] and the worldwide cable TV market. [31] Over the course of the 1980s, these two new markets, together called direct-to-video , or DTV, would become a lucrative, non-theatrical alternative for producers of low-budget, R-rated films. [32] The DTV market would often have a symbiotic relationship with the big studio films. [33]

Video rental chains like Blockbuster were instrumental in the popularity of the genre. [6] Since Blockbuster did not stock unrated films as part of its family-friendly image, [34] DTV titles were able to meet demand for content that was geared towards adults but did not stray into outright pornography. [35] Gerry Weber, former chief operating officer for Blockbuster, said "[DTV] erotic thrillers rated at the top" out of all the genres for rentals. [34]

Throughout the 1980s, cable television was similarly expanding and diversifying its appeal to adult audiences. In 1980 Cinemax (owned by HBO ) launched with a 24-hour schedule. [36] Soon after, Showtime followed suit with The Movie Channel . [36] Fearing the negative publicity associated with traditional sexploitation [37] these late-night, premium cable channels actively sought and developed adult programming that could be, in the words of one HBO programmer, "spicy but not obscene". [38]

With smaller budgets than studio films and less high-profile stars, the DTV market became hugely profitable. [39] These "high and low" markets for the erotic thriller overlapped but did not compete, [40] and each fed off the other financially and artistically. [41] The "blockbuster" erotic thrillers boosted sales for small players, who sold films to DTV markets by underscoring the similarities between their films and works by the majors. [40]

A film that served as a prototypical success and catalyst in this new market was Night Eyes (1990). [42] [43] Shannon Tweed , [34] Tanya Roberts , Andrew Stevens , Joan Severance , Tané McClure , Martin Hewitt , Jan-Michael Vincent , and Shannon Whirry became notable actors in DTV films. Axis Films International and Prism Entertainment [34] were the most prominent production companies. The former produced over 30 DTV erotic thriller titles, using a rotating stable of filmmakers over a period of ten years. [44] These directors included Gregory Dark , [45] Zalman King , [46] and Jag Mundhra . [47] Though King is mostly associated with erotic romance films, [48] the director had an unmistakable stamp on the genre with his films Two Moon Junction (1988), Wild Orchid (1
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