We get hot under the collar with twelve essential, erotically-charged thrillers…
Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie are making things steamy with the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Erotic thrillers are experiencing something of a comeback and are arguably more mainstream than ever. Plenty of fare, once consigned to Skinemax cable premieres in the dead of night, are capturing audiences on the big screen or taking pride of place as streaming originals that get millions of eyeballs on them.
Twisted tales of murder, adultery, doomed romance, kinks, peversions and dangerous obsession. You might call some of these films trashy, unless they sit comfortably in arthouse, but the allure for audiences has remained. Here are twelve essential erotically charged thrillers…
The Handmaiden
Park Chan-wook’s recent film No Other Choice showed the veteran director has lost none of his wizardry. Earlier in his career, he’d toyed with twisted romance and turgid, sexually charged moments, usually fused into violent thrillers like Oldboy or Lady Vengeance.
Then he gave unto the world The Handmaiden, loosely based on Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith. One of Park’s most significant additions, aside from relocating it to the WWII era Korea, was to crank up the steaminess to eleven. The twisted Rashomon-esque tale sees a servant, intending to help con a Japanese Heiress, begin an intense, sexually explorative affair. In classic Chan-wook style, certain scenes will live long in the memory. Aside from titilation however, it’s intricately woven, beautifully crafted and engrossing.
The Housemaid
Perhaps one of the surprise hits of the last few years, The Housemaid reversed a recent trend of box office disappointments for Sydney Sweeney. She’s the talk of Tinseltown at the moment, courting adoration as much as controversy and seems to be in everything.
However, The Housemaid managed to buck not only Sweeney’s box office trends, but prove that distinctly steamy grownup cinema has the power to pull in wide audiences. Sweeney’s presence helped, as did the presence of Amanda Seyfried and the chiselled looks of Brandon Sklenar. It’s a classic throwback to schlocky potboiler thrillers of the early ’90s. They often did solid business, backed up with massive numbers on video and cable, but The Housemaid’s success (in the post 50 Shades era) showed there’s widespread appeal here. Seyfried is the MVP, but Sweeney and Sklenar both bring their A-game. It’s trashy, but it’s a lot of fun.
Under the Skin
Jonathan Glazer’s cerebral arthouse horror thriller saw Scarlett Johansson’s otherworldly being stalking men and luring them to their doom. It’s an enveloping and quietly chilling film with Scar-Jo delivering one of her best performances. She bares it all physically, whilst retaining plenty of enigma with her alien performance.
Mica Levi’s score adds to the overall, idiosyncratic tone of the film, an early hit for A24. Glazer is happy to ramp up the ambiguity and keep the audience at arm’s length narratively, whilst grabbing you with atmosphere and stark moments of horror.
Crimes of Passion
The inimitable Ken Russell is a man who makes films that only Ken Russell could make. Diving into lurid erotic cinema among many other genres, Russell’s films merrily skipped into exploitation unafraid of critical derision but rarely less than memorable.
Crimes of Passion, with Kathleen Turner absolutely dazzling, is almost undefinably bonkers. As much as Lair of the White Worm? Perhaps. Whichever is the barmier, it’s fair to say there’s nothing quite like Crimes of Passion. Anthony Perkins’ maniacal performance is a scenery-chewing masterclass. This is a film so tawdry that its cinematographer was called Dick Bush. Also featuring a Rick Wakeman score no less.
Lifeforce
Narratively not unlike Under the Skin, Lifeforce is a classic trashy Cannon spectacle that sees Space Vampires rampaging across London after being brought back from a space mission. One of said vampires is Mathilda May, who spends the majority of the film naked, luring men to a horrific end by draining their life force and leaving only a husk.
That aside, it typifies Cannon’s strengths and weaknesses as well as any of their opuses, but with a score by Henry Mancini, great cinematography and some excellent visual effects (among some, which are less so), this one is a riot.
Payback
It would be remiss of me to cover erotic thrillers and not pay homage to an icon of the dark recesses of post-midnight cable, Joan Severance. Payback is your typical 90s erotic thriller potboiler, with a real injection of style thanks to the late Anthony Hickox. His ability to elevate material with some flair made Hickox (best known for Waxwork and Hellraiser 3) one of the better directors whose career never quite leapt out of the video realm once he’d fallen into the pit.
Severance is joined by video legend C Thomas Howell, who is a vengeful ex-convict looking for revenge against a former prison guard who tormented him. The guard, now blind, doesn’t recognise his former nemesis. Howell’s ex-con then finds himself falling for the guard’s young wife (the mesmerising Severance). Double crossing, fornication and death ensue.
Jill Rips
Speaking of Hickox, a few years after Payback, he made a lurid, sleazily quirky erotic thriller starring (a slightly oddly cast) Dolph Lundgren, who gives one of his best performances. In the recent era of 50 Shades, Saltburn and other films which have made kink cinema mainstream, Jill Rips has kind of grown in stature. If you get a chance, check out the very enjoyable episode of the How Did This Get Made podcast, which covered Jill Rips and really nailed just why it’s an enjoyable, idiosyncratic, oddity.
Lundgren plays a burned-out ex-cop investigating his brother’s death, who is drawn into the world of BDSM and becomes attracted to his late brother’s wife. It’s grimy, with murky cinematography that effectively feels like some kind of deep cable channel, lost film from the 70s (when the film is set). Again, Hickox, working against a low budget and producer interference (and occasionally star), eeks out an impressive amount of creativity, some great blocking. It doesn’t always work, but it’s a film that also feels unique (and certainly in Lundgren’s CV is a total one-off) filled with some colourful characters.
A Snake of June
Grubby, voyeuristic and stylish, Shinya Tsukamoto’s erotic thriller is coloured in a striking monochrome blue. A housewife being stalked is blackmailed after her tormentor takes compromising pictures of her.
In trademark Tsukamoto style, the film is visually striking and dynamic. It’s also an incredibly brisk film, and Asuka Kurosawa is excellent as the wife.
Basic Instinct
One of the biggest hits of the genre back in the 90s, Basic Instinct effectively rejuvenated the erotic thriller and became a pop cultural phenomenon. It vaulted Sharon Stone to superstardom and infamy thanks to the notorious leg-crossing scene.
Paul Verhoeven dials everything up to eleven as you might expect. The mood, the visuals, the overwrought sex scenes and a stunning Jerry Goldsmith score provide ample support to Stone’s incredible performance.
Bound
The Wachowskis broke out with a visually arresting neo-noir that courted plenty of controversy due to (at least at the time) fairly explicit lesbian sex scenes. By today’s standards, they’re fairly tame, but it would be a little harsh to dismiss Bound as little more. The steamy chemistry between Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon adds plenty of energy to this one, but so too does the dynamic camera work on display, in what is largely a chamber piece.
The film is made with such creative verve, yet confident assurance that great things were expected (and at least with The Matrix, delivered) from the directing duo. Joe Pantoliano also swaggers on screen with his atypical aplomb.
Wild Things
A lot was made of the spicy sequences involving rising starlets, Denise Richards and Neve Campbell. Richards, coming off the success of Starship Troopers, whilst Campbell had successfully put her TV persona behind her already with Scream, only to reinforce it further with Wild Things.
It’s a twisting, turning, trashy thriller that’s low on substance but high on style. Richards and Campbell are great, well backed in this sweaty tale of blackmail, scheming and murder by Matt Dillon and Kevin Bacon.
Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick’s final film came after a long hiatus and was backed with plenty of anticipation. A lengthy development and excessive production were one thing, but Kubrick’s death shortly before release and the much vaunted on-screen partnership (of then married, Cruise and Kidman) really did build expectations not just high but very particular.
Inevitably, the response proved mixed, if only because whilst Kubrick was a master of the craft, initial widespread adoration for his films on release was pretty rare. Eyes Wide Shut, like most Kubrick films, hit audiences more slowly with stealth. For many, an indifferent first viewing often gives way to a revelatory second (or sometimes third). Unflinching, relatively explicit (at least for a major A-list led production), but with every sinue breathing atmosphere, ambiguity and precision. Given recent revelations involving certain files, it’s also really prescient.
Honourable Mentions:
Body Heat, Scorned, Body Double, In the Realm of the Senses, Elle, The Piano Teacher, Saltburn, The Last Seduction, Last Tango in Paris, Turkish Delight, and Flickering Myth’s own, Death Among the Pines.
What’s your favourite erotically charged thriller? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Tom Jolliffe
