Erotic thriller
The erotic thriller is a film subgenre defined as a thriller with a thematic basis in illicit romance or sexual fantasy. 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." Most erotic thrillers contain scenes of softcore sex and nudity, though the frequency and explicitness of those scenes can differ from film to film.
Erotic thrillers emerged as a distinct genre in the late 1980s, bolstered by the popular success of Fatal Attraction in 1987 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. The direct-to-video erotic thriller wave from 1985 to 2005 produced over 700 films. By the end of the 1990s, market saturation, audience fatigue, cultural changes and the rise of the Internet led to the decline of the genre's popular appeal and production volume.
Definition
According to British film studies professor Linda Ruth Williams, "Erotic thrillers are noirish stories of sexual intrigue incorporating some form of criminality or duplicity, often as the flimsy framework for onscreen softcore sex".The thriller film genre contains subgenres other than the noir crime film and murder mystery, 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, such as film noir, romance, gothic, 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.
Characteristics of the genre
Femme fatale
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. From "Sharon Stone's icy Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct or Linda Fiorentino's brusque Bridget in The Last Seduction… 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". 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 than a gun or a knife or any kind of weapon." 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".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'". 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". Although these female characters wielded agency and power, they were usually limited to using their bodies and sexuality as weapons. Furthermore, some films saw the male protagonist ultimately triumph over the femme fatale, subduing the threat she represents.
The fall guy
The counterpart to the femme fatale is the "fall guy"—a man who is easily manipulated by the femme fatale. The fall guy is often sexualized himself, 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. 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".Origins
The erotic thriller has been interpreted as a direct descendant of 1940s and 1950s film noir, 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, was itself inspired by the film noir Double Indemnity. "Body Heat star Kathleen Turner argued it was precisely because 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.'"However, looking at erotic thrillers solely through the lens of film noir can be misleading. The erotic thriller also has its roots in the mystery genre, the horror genre, European art cinema and pornography. Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill, another early 1980s erotic film, contains several direct references to Alfred Hitchcock's psychological horror film Psycho. 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". 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".
Other forebears of the erotic thriller include the romance novel, the soap opera, and works of gothic fantasy. Softcore sex films are often romances of some kind, and the genre has a long tradition, particularly in Europe. Directors such as Radley Metzger, Joseph Sarno, and Just Jaeckin 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.
1980s–1990s: Classic period
'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. The next few years saw a flood of titles, including The Fourth Man , Body Double and Jagged Edge. Fatal Attraction in 1987 was seen as the first visible success in the genre, as it was a critical and commercial success. The film was a mixture of psychological thriller action with brief scenes of softcore sex and illicit romance. 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. Hoping to repeat the film's success, Hollywood studios released a spate of erotic thriller films over the next several years, including The Hot Spot, Presumed Innocent, Shattered, Sleeping with the Enemy, A Kiss Before Dying, Consenting Adults, Single White Female, Love Crimes, Unlawful Entry, Poison Ivy, Final Analysis, Malice, The Crush, Dream Lover, The Last Seduction, and Color of Night.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. Though it received mixed reviews, it was a significant box office smash as it grossed $352 million worldwide. Upon this success, Sliver was released the following year with the same screenwriter, Eszterhas, and star, Sharon Stone. Though Sliver fared worse with critics, it also topped the box office and grossed $116 million. Disclosure, directed by Barry Levinson, was met with considerable success in 1994. The film—which concerns a computer specialist who is sexually harassed by his female superior and former lover —grossed $214 million against its $50 million budget.
DTV (direct-to-video) market
This classic period took place amidst the boon of the video rental market and the worldwide cable TV market. 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. The DTV market would often have a symbiotic relationship with the big studio films.Video rental chains like Blockbuster were instrumental in the popularity of the genre. Since Blockbuster did not stock unrated films as part of its family-friendly image, DTV titles were able to meet demand for content that was geared towards adults but did not stray into outright pornography. Gerry Weber, former chief operating officer for Blockbuster, said " erotic thrillers rated at the top" out of all the genres for rentals.
Throughout the 1980s, cable television was similarly expanding and diversifying its appeal to adult audiences. In 1980 Cinemax launched with a 24-hour schedule. Soon after, Showtime followed suit with The Movie Channel. Fearing the negative publicity associated with traditional sexploitation 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".
With smaller budgets than studio films and less high-profile stars, the DTV market became hugely profitable. Between 1985 and 2005, over 700 DTV erotic thrillers were produced. In sheer size alone, the DTV erotic thriller surely demands consideration as one of the largest, specifically American film movements of the 20th century. These "high and low" markets for the erotic thriller overlapped but did not compete, and each fed off the other financially and artistically. 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.
A film that served as a prototypical success and catalyst in this new market was Night Eyes. Shannon Tweed, 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 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. These directors included Gregory Dark, Zalman King, and Jag Mundhra. Though King is mostly associated with erotic romance films, the director had an unmistakable stamp on the genre with his films Two Moon Junction, Wild Orchid, and Red Shoe Diaries, which is also the title of his long-running cable television series consisting of erotic featurettes with female protagonists.
In 1994 the Chicago Tribune reported that erotic thrillers—a term which, Leonard Maltin said, "didn't even exist 15 years ago"—and action films were the two most successful direct-to-video genres. In 1993, the genre was spoofed in the comedy Fatal Instinct.