Mad Love (1989) / Laying the Ghost (1991)

Whether or not certain fans of each medium would like to admit it, horror and adult films do share a certain kinship. Despite the massive popularity of both genres, both are still maligned and ghettoized by many in the more mainstream sectors of the entertainment industry, horror even sometimes dismissed as mere pornography by the more imbecilicly inclined (which of course leads to idiotic terms like “torture porn” and “gorno”) and both have many conventions dedicated solely to each respective genre attended by millions of loyal fans worldwide. The two are often paired together for the purposes of parody but when both genres cross-pollinate in a more serious manner the results can be masterful with the right people involved. Films like Though the Looking Glass (1976) and Stephen Sayadian's Nightdreams (1981) are prime examples of hybrids from the golden age or “porno chic” era and on the more European side of things Jess Franco's hardcore take on his Female Vampire (1973) scenario Doriana Gray (1976) and Jean Rollin's Phantasmes (1975) took the adult film into more fantastique directions. After turning his attention to directing in the late 80's, John Leslie quickly solidified himself as a genre specialist and would constantly fuse hardcore with more oddball, oftentimes horror based material which he did for the first time with Mad Love and again with Laying the Ghost, two very strange forays into the pornographic paranormal.

Taking a fairly typical haunted house set-up, 1989's Mad Love quickly reveals itself to be far from typical after married couple Jeff and Elizabeth Reynolds move into a large San Francisco mansion to house sit while the mysterious elderly owner is away. Their first night in the house, Elizabeth is awoken and startled by two copulating strangers, though she dismisses it as a dream, however the next day she realizes it was no dream as she finds herself visited all though the house by it's long departed past guests determined to initiate her into their postmortem ceremonies. Again, not exactly a typical haunted house affair and Leslie does a few clever things to toss even more curve balls along the way, particularity the way in which the opening scene, which at the outset seems to have nothing to do with anything, eventually comes full circle making the film seem as if the story is taking place in some sort of cursed time loop. The way Leslie reintroduces the owner of the house late in the film is brilliant as well making the narrative all the more elliptical. The film was Leslie's first real chance to show off his unorthodox approach to hardcore, firstly with the look of the house itself which is full of odd decorations but working within the realm of a ghost story allowed Leslie to play around with dream logic, the final third of the film having the excellent lead actress Kendal Marx tossed into a web of sexual delirium.

Similarly plotted is 1991's Laying the Ghost which once again focuses on new inhabitants of a house, Stanley (Joey Silvera) and Kate along with Kate's sister Mandy (Savannah) who have their bedrooms visited by two ghostly figures (Peter North and T.T. Boy) on their first night in their new home. Determined to put an end to their visits, they enlist the services of paranormal expert Dr. Laura Rhodes and her assistant Andrew who inform them that their visitors are the spirits of Captain Johnathan Parker and his brother, two pirates who died in a shipwreck near the house hundreds of years ago who return to the site of their deaths in search of their true loves. An exceptionally strange film even by the standards Leslie set for himself, Laying the Ghost is Leslie at his most eccentric. Whereas Mad Love was played entirely straight, Leslie's approach with Laying the Ghost is one of frivolity which renders the film even more bizarre than Mad Love. In a lot of ways, Leslie treats the film like sitcom, even going so far as to adding canned audience laughter whenever North and Boy appear on screen. Silvera has a habit of shouting his dialogue at the top of his lungs throughout the entire film and Tom Byron, in the role of Dr. Rhodes assistant Andrew, sports a hilariously exaggerated surfer accent. Despite all the absurdity on display, Leslie once again manages to tie everything together nicely and even has Bryon and Savanna develop a rather endearing romance.

While Mad Love, like most of Leslie's films from this period, was scored by Leslie's go-to collaborator Bill Heid, Laying the Ghost differs in that it was scored by Double Vision, who's name should be familiar to fans of this type of film as they worked with the previously mentioned Stephen Sayadian, AKA Rinse Dream the same year providing memorable scores for Nightdreams 2 and 3 (1991) and Party Doll a Go-Go! (1991), the later being their finest work. The score for Laying the Ghost might not be on the same level as their work with Sayadian, but it's nevertheless interesting to see Leslie working with someone other than Heid around this time. 1991 was also the same year Savannah worked with Gregory Dark, another outside the box trailblazer in the adult realm appearing in New Wave Hookers 2. She only worked with Leslie one more time in Angels (1992), Leslie's twist on an It's a Wonderful Life (1946) type of story. Of course, her tragic suicide at the age of 24 is well documented. Leslie would return to the super natural once again years later with perhaps his most avant-garde work, Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995), even bringing back the canned laughter and new house set-up, making a perfect triple bill with Mad Love and Laying the Ghost, the two earlier films showcasing Leslie's penchant for well crafted and increasingly peculiar narratives.