This was lewd, thrilling, throwaway nonsense – right? But most interesting is the genre’s treatment of women, which in most cases was a straightforward updating of the femme fatale – the unchaste evildoers of film noir – but in some instances was a bit more thoughtful.Īt first glance, and indeed for many years after its release, Basic Instinct looked like it belonged in the first camp, with the plot revolving largely around the difficulty had by Michael Douglas in investigating Stone’s trashy novelist for a debauched murder while trying (in pitiful vain) to resist her seductive efforts.
There were various reasons behind the sudden explosion of the erotic thriller: the loosening of censorship restrictions, the proliferation of cable TV and the rise of the video-rental market.
In the six years after Fatal Attraction was released in 1987, we got Sleeping With The Enemy, Poison Ivy, Single White Female, Bitter Moon, Body of Evidence, Sliver, Disclosure and The Last Seduction – plus countless quickly forgotten imitations (Wikipedia lists no less that 207 erotic thrillers in that period).īut the most infamous, most flocked-to – and very probably the best – was Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 forincation-fest, which introduced Sharon Stone as Hollywood’s steam queen. Hollywood tends to work in trends, but rarely as frenzied or short-lived as this. The late 80s and early 90s saw the quickfire rise and fall of one of cinemas most fascinating subgenres: the erotic thriller. Photo credit: Columbia TriStar Basic Instinct (1992) The screenplay’s trump card, though, was less its racy content than its sheer unrepentant spirit: it was appealing to randy teenagers via cheap means, and it didn’t mind admitting it. Looking back now, of course, Cruel Intentions is about as openly adolescent as they come (“How are things down under?” our pervy protagonist asks Blair on her return from Australia).
It’s real turn-on was a screenplay that ran the full gamut from suggestive to risqué to laugh-out-loud outrageous.įor the army of enraptured 12-year-olds who got their hands on a VHS copy, this bawdy verboseness lent the film a sophisticated, adult sensibility. Depending on your age, it appealed as either thrillingly grown-up drama or hilariously guilty-pleasure trash.īut while the film’s promotional material featured its stars in skimpy outfits and the picnic-scene kiss between Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair became an early (and much-parodied) viral sensation, the film’s raunchiest moments were all verbal ones. If the template’s central attraction lay in the playful contrast between the teen-movie genre and the scholarly source material, then Cruel Intentions mined this for all it was worth: lowering the tone, upping the vulgarity, and telling its steamy story with gleefully frivolous tone. And Dangerous Liaisons became the most excitedly whispered-about pulpy teen sex drama of the decade – the one where Buffy the Vampire Slayer seduces her step-brother with the never-to-be-forgotten offer: “You can put it anywhere”. Twelfth Night became She’s the Man, A Midsummer Night’s Dream became Get Over It, Pygmalion became She’s All That and The Taming of the Shrew became 10 Things I Hate About You. The success of the teen-centred Emma adaption inspired a frenzied craze for remaking celebrated centuries-old classics as cheeky modern high-school romps. When it comes to the millennial generation’s defining coming-of-age movies, Clueless has a lot to answer for.
Photo credit: Archive Photos - Getty Images Cruel Intentions (1999)