Living on the Edge (1997)

Speaking to The Railto Report in 2017, Gregory Dark commented on the misleading reputation his adult films have for being sadistic and violent, stating “I think that people, because of the intensity of the scenes and how odd they were and how non-erotic in places they were and how, peculiar so to speak, you would think they were violent but they're much less violent than anything, you know, that I've seen over the last few years. But yet they're stranger than anything I've seen over the last few years.” Indeed, Dark's surrealist sex films always had an unusual intensity to them, quickly gaining a reputation for upping the raunch factor in the sex scenes to the point of being un-erotic, with performers often wearing bizarre costumes and/or animal masks. Dark's total disregard for adult video conventions reached its apex in the 90's with films like Snake Pit (1996) and Shocking Truth (1996) where he began injecting an unnerving psychology to his films, breaking the fourth wall to interview performers before and after sex scenes. Always an incendiary director in one way or another, Dark's later 90's titles have a sinister disposition to them and Dark's film with the biggest attitude problem came in 1997 in the form of the bizarre and spiteful Living on the Edge, where it seems as if Dark's intention was not to arouse viewers, but rather to repulse them.

Opening with a nameless man ranting about what's reality and fantasy to an individual in a donkey costume, Living on the Edge is yet another one of Dark's subversions of the plotless adult video. Not once does Dark attempt to craft a narrative, but just like Shocking Truth, Dark's approach puts the film worlds away from gonzo. If the film has a centerpiece, it's the nameless man who's sole purpose is to berate the performers to their sex scenes, wherein Dark goes out of his way to remove even the slightest trace of eroticism. Just as he did in Shocking Truth, Dark presents the sex devoid of any context or fantasy scenario, though nothing about Dark's imagery is rooted in reality. Although the man in the donkey costume doesn't partake in any of the actual sex, he just wanders in and out of scenes at random like Star Chandler's devil character in the Shocking Truth videos, there is a pretty strong donkey fixation throughout, with several grotesque looking donkey masks being worn at points during the scenes, the nameless man ordering a performer before one such moment to “Dance for the jackass gods!” Despite the rawness of the sex and the overall harsh tone of the film, Living on the Edge never gets quite as grimy as Snake Pit gets in spots but its also not quite as slick and detailed as the first Shocking Truth, Dark once again balances his production value with some of the more unsanitary moments of the film.

Despite being a niche filmmaker in an already fairly niche market, Dark's films had always done good numbers and even got good reviews from AVN, the industry's top trade publication who dubbed Living on the Edge a winner in their brief review of the film, though others at the time felt Dark had finally taken the weird sex a bit too far, some even proving Dark right by misremembering scenes in the film being violent. As strange as it might sound for an adult video reviewer to get offended by anything, the breakdown of the film by the Cyberspace Adult Video Review website come across as just that, with the reviewer puzzled by many of Dark's decisions, even claiming film is too mean to its female performers. Dark himself commented on his reputation, telling Psychotronic Video in 1997 “I suppose you could say I'm somewhat megalomaniacal about my films. I tell the sex stars exactly what to do. I tell the cameraman every move... the performers think I'm heavy-handed. I shoot very, very hard scenes. And I do that to push the envelope of these people's minds." It's worth pointing out that even with all the infamy, some of the biggest adult names of the 80's and 90's worked with Dark numerous times with zero complaints, even Roxanne Hall, who took a break from the industry following Snake Pit, after supposedly being “broken” by her scene, still worked for Dark again in a Melvins video, submerging herself in a bathtub full of worms.

Dark explained his unorthodox approach to adult films in the same Psychotronic piece saying “I just find the whole act of sex to be very peculiar... visually. Even the sounds they make... that's what I try to capitalize on, those moments of oddness... What if the girls were really beautiful and the guys were wearing... duck costumes. How would that be sexy? Or would it be sexy? Maybe if you made it really nasty, that would be sexy? Or would it be nasty and weird? I mean, what exactly would that imply?... There's a lot of things you could do that are kind of disgusting... And what I'm basically trying to do is is explore new directions. How can you discover a new way of finding and exploring of the dark side of sexuality? I mean, this is the kind of question I keep posing to myself... But the films which result aren't always going to be completely erotic because you need to uncover stuff.” Although Dark was nearing the end of his hardcore run, Dark nonetheless continued to find new directions to explore before fully devoting himself to directing music videos. Those accustomed to Dark's warped style of hardcore should find the barbed, albeit noticeably more bitter, tone and deviancy of Living on the Edge to be genuine Dark. Everyone else will be repulsed and possibly genuinely unsettled, much to Dark's delight.