Speaking to The Rialto Report in 2017,
Gregory Dark was asked if he ever had trouble consistently conjuring
up the type of bizarre, surrealistic imagery that defined his adult
features. Dark responded in the negative, stating “I never run of
ideas of strange images or strange things, it's just ever present
with me. Just odd ideas that are not necessarily connected but these
ideas just never end in my head.” It's easy to take Dark at his
word as not only was he prolific but his ability to subvert the
expectations of adult film time and time again was unparalleled,
especially during the 90's. With the last Rinse Dream video having
been released in 1993 and John Leslie taking the gonzo route from
1995 until his passing in 2010, Dark was a man on an island in the
second half of the 90's in terms of unorthodox adult fare. The series
of films made by Dark from 1996 to 1998 saw Dark further pushing the
limits of adult films, but around the same time Dark's plate was
becoming increasingly full, with Dark becoming an in-demand music
video director which was soon to become a full-time gig. Dark did
however deliver two more mind-warping hardcore videos before bowing
out entirely in the form of The Psychosexuals and its sequel, both of
which further Dark's 90's experimentation while also feeling like a
logical stopping point.
Coming after abstractions like Snake
Pit (1996), fourth wall-breaking psychological profiles of adult
performers like Shocking Truth (1996) and a grotesque rant like
Living on the Edge (1997), The Psychosexuals is a curious work in
that Dark takes bits and pieces of his previous few films and reworks
them in The Psychosexuals, resulting in a film that, while certainly
identifiable as a Gregory Dark film, does things just a bit
differently. Dark doesn't seem all that interested in telling a story
per say, but the film does have a narrative thread, Dark framing the
sex around a Total Recall (1990)-esque scenario surrounding William
X, a mysterious business man type testing a virtual reality headset
that can project any sexual fantasy as realistically as possible. A
rather ingenious way of plotting an adult film, and Dark does bring
this idea full circle, having X override the system and become stuck
in his fantasy world, though Snake Pit again comes to mind with
things becoming obscured rather quickly, Dark's music video
experimentation being applied right from the opening credits.
Although the virtual reality concept could have provided Dark the
chance to be interactive and break the fourth wall yet again, Dark
was wise not to repeat himself and indeed the tone of The
Psychosexuals, while still being intense as ever with certain moments
sure to give a shudder to normie viewers, is noticeably different
than the films that came before, the film even containing two of
Dark's most random yet hysterically funny bits of dialogue.
The Psychosexuals 2 can lay claim to be
Dark's most abstract film. A mighty big statement, not just with the
likes of Snake Pit and Shocking Truth in mind but also New Wave
Hookers 4 (1995) and The Devil in Miss Jones 5: The Inferno (1995) as
well. Unlike the first film, Dark has no time for anything close to a
story and while the film might not contain the elaborate production
design of his past films, the sheer amount of post-production
experimentation with the visuals and editing make the film Dark's
most avant-garde and experimental. While not technically “about”
anything really, the films focus is the various sexual exploits of a
nameless voyeur, Dark repeatedly cutting back to said voyeur in a
bondage mask, Dark yet again manages to take the most base formula
for an adult video and produce something totally alien. 99.9% of the
film is presented in first person, including the sex, Dark showing
off his technical trickery even in one of his most threadbare yet
oddly stylish in its own way productions, with all the hallucinatory
post-production image altering resembling some of the same techniques
used by Jess Franco in his later digital films. Like the first film,
The Psychosexuals 2 strikes a slightly different tone than the rest
of Dark's later 90's self-produced works and sees Dark experimenting
even more with the styles he was playing around with in music videos,
though the slight discomfort that Dark's adult films have the
potential to produce is ever present.
Along with the heavy music video
workload, by 1998 Dark was becoming increasingly frustrated with the
adult industry. Although Dark told Psychotronic Video in 1997 that he
enjoyed making the films he was doing at the time, Dark was also a
longstanding critic of his chosen industry, feeling that too many
hardcore directors were content with being boring. Dark is quoted in the Psychotronic piece saying “And as far as straightforward
porn... quite frankly, I've never watched anyone's pornography except
my own... I just don't know what other people do. I shoot porn
according to what I consider professional filmmaking... I try to use
odd cutting styles, counterpoints of images, flashing, musical video
kind of stuff. See, I don't make porno films just to make money,
because I don't make that many porno films. I try to do films I
really want to do. And if I stop liking them, then I don't want to do
anymore.” That last sentence proved to be prophetic as both
Psychosexuals films stand as Dark's last two hardcore titles. Given
how late in the game they came, it's unlikely that either will be
viewed in the same light as New Wave Hookers (1985), but both films,
really all of Dark's adult work from the mid-to-late 90's, showcase a
singular talent pushing things as far as he possibly could and really
do signify the end of an era.
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