The Psychosexuals (1997) / The Psychosexuals 2 (1998)

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.

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.

Shocking Truth (1996) / Shocking Truth 2 (1997)

Throughout the 90's when Gregory Dark was pulling double duty in both the hard and softcore worlds, a conscious decision was made to keep the two separate with the “Gregory Dark” moniker reserved strictly for the adult films whereas the erotic thrillers were typically singed with “Gregory Hippolyte” or a variation on said name. Primarily done for marketing purposes, it made sense as Dark's adult films and erotic thrillers are two very different animals, though there are instances where certain parallels can be drawn, the concept of the interview, or interrogation, being a constant obsession of Dark's. Several of Dark's erotic thrillers like Carnal Crimes (1991), Secret Games 2: The Escort (1993) and the Animal Instincts trilogy (1992-1996) all feature their protagonists narrating their tales to an interviewer or breaking the fourth wall and confessing to camera while Body of Influence (1993) approached the confessional angle through a psychoanalytical lens. Dark had previously incorporated interview cutaways in both The Devil in Miss Jones 3 and 4 (1985), though he would bring back the interview in a hardcore context in a big way beginning with Snake Pit (1996), which psychoanalyzed its performers before and after their respective scenes. Dark would once again step into the role of grand interrogator in the Shocking Truth videos, with the interviews coming to the forefront in two of Dark's most challenging and ahead of their time video experiments.

Unlike Snake Pit which, although being one of Dark's most inaccessible and abstract works, did have somewhat of a reoccurring, albeit obscure, thread running through it, with Shocking Truth Dark dispenses with narrative entirely, his focus being squarely on the interviews and sex. Dark's line of questioning is similar to the ones he asked in Snake Pit, the headline question of the former “Do you think you're a slut?” being central to Shocking Truth as well and existential topics like fear and death are broached often. Dark goes even further than he did in Snake Pit however, getting the performers to open up about their families, asking what makes them feel shame and occasionally throwing in a hilariously crass question. Like Snake Pit, Shocking Truth is especially fascinating due to how the performers respond to the questions, some playing it coy and trying to avoid answering honestly while others really got what Dark was attempting and hold nothing back with their answers, getting uncomfortably personal at times. Like Roxanne Hall in Snake Pit, it's Chloe who steals the show in both her interview and subsequent scene and gives the most revealing and worrying response to one of Dark's questions, saying “It's not the darkness outside the scares me, it's the darkness inside that scares me.” Speaking to Psychotronic Video, Dark commented on that particular scene, saying “And her interview is so strange because she's so self-abusive... and she further portrays that self-abusive nature in the sex scene... It was really sort of unpleasant.”

Shocking Truth 2 takes the same approach with a new line of similarly themed questions for a new group of performers and is as equally interesting as the first when it comes to the performer's various responses to Dark's questions. This time around however, Dark opted to shoot the second half of the interviews immediately after the sex scenes have concluded, making the film even more loaded given some of the topics being discussed with many of the interviewees going to some fairly distressing places. While not without style, the production design in second film is dialed back a bit when compared to the first, which had the girls being interviewed on an electric chair, heavy blue lighting at points reminiscent of Dario Argento's Inferno (1980) and a strong voodoo influence with Dark once again dressing up his performers in skeleton and devil costumes. Dark even spliced in footage from voodoo heavy Melvins “Bar-X the Rocking M” video he directed while also taking a visual cue from the album art of Stag, the Melvins album which “Bar-X the Rocking M” appears. The second film does take off where the first one left off in terms of Dark's trademark unorthodox approach to the actual sex which by 1997 had become more intense and deliberately un-erotic, with many scenes veering off into the surreal with performers in animal masks and both films feature adult starlet Star Chandler as a nude Satan-esque character, painted red head-to-toe occasionally wandering into scenes to bark orders at the performers.

Although Dark's videos did consistently good business, Dark speculated on how viewers would react to Shocking Truth, stating in the same Psychotronic piece “But, lets face it, when people rent porno, they want to jerk off, right? Now all of a sudden I'm dealing with a lot of issues, a lot of questions, a lot of commentaries on what we see as sexual and don't see as sexual, and how the starlets relate to what we consider standard morality. And I think this format makes some viewers uncomfortable... When viewers are exposed to questions “What is sin?” or “Where will you go when you die?”, they begin to have thoughts about these things. And I think that's sort of this antithesis of porn in general. But, see, there's such a distinct level of mediocrity in the whole porn market that, in order for me to push the envelope of pornography as it currently exists, I've got to go to these different places.” Dark would continue to go to different places for a few more years before bowing out of hardcore in 1998 to focus on music videos, but his continued ability to find inventive ways of subverting a medium even after what it had become far into the 90's made Dark the last of his kind, with the Shocking Truth films being stand out titles from a period of immense creativity for Dark.