Like a lot of genres, the erotic
thriller had its own grab bag of things that no film of its type
could do without, be it ethically questionable cops, dangerous women,
bored housewives or deadbeat, philandering husbands, but if there's
one thing that no erotic thriller can go without it's voyeurism. It's
perhaps the most common thread that runs throughout both the studio
erotic thrillers and the direct-to-video titles when the genre was at
its peak and the favorite theme of Gregory Dark, the master of the
medium. Throughout every one of Dark's softcore films, various forms
of voyeurism can be found, be they photographic like in Dark's very
first erotic thriller Carnal Crimes (1991), through videotape like in
Secret Games (1992), it's blistering 1993 sequel The Escort, Body of
Influence (1993) and Object of Obsession (1994) and various other
means. If it's a Dark film, someone, somewhere is being watched.
Perhaps they know. Perhaps they orchestrated it. “All you have to
do is watch” claimed the video cover of 1992's Animal Instincts,
the first in what would become Dark's greatest trilogy, the pinnacle
of Dark's work in the genre contained within the three films, the
first two being showcases for Dark's best muse, Shannon Whirry and
the third having the distinction of closing out the erotic thriller
chapter in Dark's career as well as being the most avant-garde of
Dark's softcore films.
The first Animal Instincts film was not
only Shannon Whirry's first film with Dark but it was her first
erotic thriller, taking center stage as Joanna Cole who's marriage
has lost it's romantic spark after her husband's job as a police
officer consumes all his time and energy. Coming home early one
afternoon, David catches Joanna in bed with the TV repairman, though
his reaction is not one of anger, but of lust. Upon the realization
of David's voyeuristic tendencies, their marriage is reinvigorated
with Joanna entertaining a guest each evening while David watches via
video feed in a nearby room. Their operation soon takes a turn for
the dangerous when a rough client turns out to be the henchman for
Lamberti (David Carradine), the gangster owner of a local strip club
with a score to settle with David which threatens to expose everybody
involved.
A great irony regarding Animal
Instincts is that despite being a benchmark title for direct-to-video
erotic thrillers, technically speaking the film doesn't become a
“thriller” until the final third, Dark instead focusing on Joanna
and David's marriage and the added dynamic of voyeurism and here too
Animal Instincts differs from a lot of Dark's other erotic thrillers.
Dark's portrayal of Joanna and David not simply coming to terms with
David's kink, but embracing it, is actually rather healthy and
positive, the nature of the relationship summed up nicely near the
end of the film by the great John Saxon. This is of course in sharp
contrast to the majority of Dark's other erotic thrillers where the
failure to properly handle desire usually ends badly. Naturally, Dark
couldn't help himself and throws a wrench into David and Joanna's
newfound happiness, thus taking the film down a more conventional
thriller route. DTV legend Jan-Michael Vincent is even in on the
action as a corrupt politician. The crime subplot is fairly typical
of the genre but in Dark's hands the sense of danger is heightened
due to the consistently sustained drama and strong characterization.
Animal Instincts is also a rare instance of Dark having a soured
marriage turn back around somewhat. The voyeurism that springboards
the story may be David's but this is Whirry's film and it's Joanna's
story to tell, Whirry essentially narrating the events in Dark's
favorite confessional, interview style which Dark would use as a
framing device for the second and third films.
Whirry, who by 1994 had become Dark's
main softcore muse, returned as a different iteration of Joanna Cole
in Animal Instincts 2. This Joanna is a recent divorcee who in an
attempt to start anew buys an expensive house in fairly well-off
suburban residential area. Joanna instantly catches the eye her
neighbor Steve (Woody Brown), a security contractor with a habit of
installing hidden cameras in his client's bedrooms. He sneaks a
camera in Joanna's air vent, though a hasty job results in Joanna
discovering it. Much to Steve's surprise, Joanna makes herself known
to him through the camera and begins putting on nightly shows,
bringing home various men while Steve watches from his garage. When a
guest gets rough, Steve rushes over in Joanna's defense. The dynamic
is forever altered and Joanna, who soon enters into a relationship
with her photographer boss Eric, tells Steve it's over. Already on
edge and dissatisfied with his marriage, Steve becomes obsessive and
begins to pose a threat to Joanna and anyone around her.
One of the best films in Dark's entire
oeuvre, there's a strong case to be made for Animal Instincts 2 being
the pinnacle of direct-to-video erotic thrillers. Dark was always
head-and-shoulders above the competition but Animal Instincts 2 feels
like the perfect realization of all the ideas that dominated his
softcore work. Like the first film, there's somewhat of an irony to
that because, one, it's a sequel, but also Dark is once again playing
around with convention, making Whirry a single divorcee and giving
the put upon housewife role to the antagonists wife. Unlike the first
film however, Animal Instincts 2 is a full-on thriller, bordering on
psycho horror at points thanks to the brilliantly threatening Brown,
one of the genres finest heavy's, outdoing his own similar
on-the-verge of boiling over performance for Dark the same year in
Secret Games 3, essentially a two versions of the same type of
character. Dark is also back in his usual state of mind on the
subject of marriage, giving Brown some memorably acidic dialogue in a
spiteful monologue on the idea of suburban perfection, leaving room
for the excellent line “You have no idea how bad I want to be”.
Dark is also back to his typical self when it comes to the
consequences of unchecked desire. In sharp contrast to the first film
where voyeurism leads to new life being breathed into a fading
relationship, here what begins as risky fun quickly becomes more and
more twisted, leaving no room for happy resolutions.
By 1996, Dark was entering a new phase
of his career and took a radically different approach to Animal
Instincts: The Seductress. The voyeurism theme remained, however
Joanna Cole became “Joanna Coles” and was played by Wendy
Schumacher instead of Shannon Whirry. The interview cutaway segments
also remained, but this time around Dark added a second narrator,
record producer and expert knife-thrower Alex Savage. Despite having perfect vision, Alex has
managed to fool everyone around him into thinking he's blind, his
“blindness” giving him license to indulge in his voyeuristic
fantasies. Joanna, an exhibitionist author who writes all about her
sexual escapades, catches Alex's attention and the two join forces
with Alex, keeping up his blindness ruse, creating situations where
Joanna can act out and “perform” for Alex.
The last of Dark's softcore films, The
Seductress is a weird outlier for both the Animal Instincts series
and Dark's softcore work as a whole. For starters, it's a stretch
referring to it as an “erotic thriller” as it's really not a
thriller at all. Somewhat like the first film, the thriller aspects
of the story don't kick in until the film's final third and even then
it's regulated to one particular segment which Dark turns
sardonically hilarious thanks to a deliberately over-the-top gangsta
rapper named Stone Chill. For the most part, The Seductress plays out
like an avant-garde erotic drama, Dark putting another twist to the
narration wraparound by adding a second talking head, but its look
and tone are what really make the film unique among Dark's softcore
films. Dark had always purposefully kept his hardcore and softcore
films aesthetically different. On occasion such as in Secret Games or
Mirror Images (1992), Dark would inject a dose of surrealism though
it was noticeably different from the kind found in his adult films.
While not as radical or inaccessible as the likes of Snake Pit (1996)
or Shocking Truth (1996), The Seductress does feel more in-line with
Dark's hardcore work, loaded with brief cutaway edits featuring a
nude Schumacher in a variety of poses holding knives reminiscent of
the sadomasochistic flashes Alain Robbe-Grillet peppered his films
with. The sets and backgrounds during these moments even appear to be
the same Dark used in Flesh, a hardcore feature Dark made the same
year.
Dark admitted by the time he got to The
Seductress he had grown sick of the genre. Dark told Psychotronic
Video in 1997 “I really didn't want to do the film from the girls
point of view, but the company wanted to. I mean, the idea of some
blind guy who's not really blind, that's funny. But the idea of a
girl who likes being an exhibitionist... who cares? We've seen it a
thousand times. I've shot it a thousand times. But a blind guy
pretending he's blind to get away with checkin' shit out, now that's
interesting.” Dark was also vocal about a lack of creative control
in softcore saying “...I'm not going to make a remake of a movie
I've already done. If that's what you want, I'm not interested...
It's just endlessly tiring. Besides, I'm really not much interested
in making softcore films anymore. I'm more interested in the
underbelly of the human mind.” He certainly followed through on
statements like that with the previously mentioned Snake Pit and
Shocking Truth, though it's also somewhat of a curious statement
given most of Dark's softcore work is built around the underbelly of
the human mind. Nevertheless, The Seductress made for a fascinating
swansong to the erotic thriller and the Animal Instincts series for
Dark while the first two stand as the most distinguished
representatives of a sadly moribund type of filmmaking.
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