Due to its title and the period it was released, this movie has gotten lumped together with about 10 million "erotic thrillers" that were clogging video stores all during the 90's and are still clogging late night cable stations today. Technically, this could be called an erotic thriller I guess, but it was made early in the genre (pre-"Basic Instinct" even) when these movie still had a semblance of a story rather than just being one gratuitously long softcore sex scene after another, and when they still had acting well above the level of hardcore porn. This movie is about a wealthy but suicidal young man (Zach Galligan) whose wife (Krista Erickson) is plotting with her lover (Luca Bercovi) to murder him. The plot is interrupted though when his never-do-well but nevertheless very loyal older brother shows up after being released from prison and also starts bedding the femme fatale wife.
This movie in many ways resembles a film noir more than an erotic thriller. It's not like the original noir films, of course. Nor is it like the self-conscious bigger-budgeted "neo-noirs" that were popular at that time in Hollywood (i.e. "The Grifters", "After Dark, My Sweet"), but it's kind of a 90's direct-to-video version of a noir film, with the same low-budget and downbeat atmosphere those films had. Plotwise it really resembles the noir classic"Out of the Past" with the older brother being kind of like the Robert Mitchum character, ensnared by a woman who he knows is no good, but is unable to resist nevertheless.
The acting is pretty decent, although Galligan of "Gremlins" fame is kind of weak link. Krista Erickson, most famous for playing the original "mean girl" in the 70's summer-camp classic "Little Darlings", is all grown up here and really sexy and effective as the hard-as-nails wife. (In one memorable scene she has passionate sex with one lover after he has just killed another of her lovers and the body is lying in a pool of blood on the floor by the bed). The unknown actor playing the older brother is also pretty good, as is Luca Bercovi in a smaller role. Sheila Kelley, another sexy and underrated actress from the 80's and 90's, has a small role as Galligan's new love interest. This is one of the very few movies of its kind that is genuinely erotic AND thrilling. I'd recommend it.
This movie in many ways resembles a film noir more than an erotic thriller. It's not like the original noir films, of course. Nor is it like the self-conscious bigger-budgeted "neo-noirs" that were popular at that time in Hollywood (i.e. "The Grifters", "After Dark, My Sweet"), but it's kind of a 90's direct-to-video version of a noir film, with the same low-budget and downbeat atmosphere those films had. Plotwise it really resembles the noir classic"Out of the Past" with the older brother being kind of like the Robert Mitchum character, ensnared by a woman who he knows is no good, but is unable to resist nevertheless.
The acting is pretty decent, although Galligan of "Gremlins" fame is kind of weak link. Krista Erickson, most famous for playing the original "mean girl" in the 70's summer-camp classic "Little Darlings", is all grown up here and really sexy and effective as the hard-as-nails wife. (In one memorable scene she has passionate sex with one lover after he has just killed another of her lovers and the body is lying in a pool of blood on the floor by the bed). The unknown actor playing the older brother is also pretty good, as is Luca Bercovi in a smaller role. Sheila Kelley, another sexy and underrated actress from the 80's and 90's, has a small role as Galligan's new love interest. This is one of the very few movies of its kind that is genuinely erotic AND thrilling. I'd recommend it.