Black Past (1989)

Although unfortunately some of the fanfare tends to come from the cult of irony, the more light shone on shot-on-video movies the better as such works represent an important part in evolution of filmmaking. It's been documented countless times, but the fact remains that not only did the video revolution make it easier for everyone to watch films in their own homes, but the accessibility of video cameras made it easier to make their own films. Of course, given that the majority of SOV movies were amateur productions the quality of the majority of SOV movies can be rather shoddy, yet despite the quality, the one trait all SOV films had was sincerity. That combined with the amateur effect made the movies feel all the more personal and gave the SOV aesthetic an odd mystique. While a good chunk of the biggest SOV titles like Boardinghouse (1982), Sledgehammer (1983), Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984) and Woodchipper Massacre (1988) were American productions, Europe had its own movement, the leader of which was Germany's Olaf Ittenbach. Ittenbach quickly gained notoriety among underground horror fans due to the extreme gore quotient of his films, chief among them the infamous The Burning Moon (1992) and later Premutos: The Fallen Angel (1997) but it was Ittenbach's first feature Black Past that put his name on the map, a crucial title for both splatter horror and SOV films.

After moving into a new house with his father and two nagging sisters, Thommy (Ittenbach), an aimless and angsty teenager discovers a mirror chained up in a box in the attic that belonged to the previous owner of the house who went on a murderous rampage. Thommy hangs the mirror in his room only to discover the sinister forces it houses when his girlfriend Petra walks into oncoming traffic after being put into a daze by the mirror. After reading the diary he found with the mirror, Thommy finds himself under the mirror's spell, transforming him into deadly demonic entity.

A labor of love in every sense of the term with Ittenbach writing, directing, acting, co-producing and doing the effects, Black Past stands head and shoulders above most shot-on-video features in every department. What's more, Ittenbach's previous film work consisted of shorts which he freely admits were excuses for showcases his effects work and like most SOV flicks, Black Past was shot mostly on weekends. Although the cursed house set-up is a familiar one, Ittenbach keeps things fresh and even takes the film into territories that most SOV features would never attempt to go. There is a sincere attempt at drama throughout the entire film revolving around Thommy and his constant feuding with his father and sisters. Despite Thommy's deadbeat nature, Ittenbach himself has a certain charm about him and his family's constant harping on him about everything does make his anger seem a bit more justified. Even the moments that are an obvious attempt at padding out the run time, one of the most common occurrences during SOV movies, like scenes of Thommy wandering aimlessly in stores have an endearing factor to them because of Ittenbach's emphasis on giving the film a semblance of emotion. Obviously due to the format the film does run into some of the technical issues inherent in all video movies, but again Ittenbach manages to minimize them and thanks to his ingenuity even gives moments of the film as genuine sense of style and atmosphere, particularly during the third act when the film becomes a massive bloodbath.

Being an Ittenbach film, the biggest selling point is of course going to be the gore with all the effects created by Ittenbach himself. What may surprise many given Ittenbach's reputation is how he takes his time with it. There are splashes of violence in the opening of the film and sprinkled throughout in the form of hallucination and dream scenes but Ittenbach saves the big showcase for the films previously mentioned third act which consists of one big gore set piece after another. Not only is the gore plentiful (and rather mean spirited with one particularly savage bit involving one of Thommy's sisters) but more importantly, it's innovative with Ittenbach coming up with some pretty astonishing and original ways of filling the screen with as much blood as possible. It's also crucial to point out that the effects were 100% practical which, given the resources Ittenbach was working with, make them all the more admirable. Perhaps the most impressive would be Thommy's transformation into his fully demonic form, though there is a showstopping hallucination/dream that Ittenbach would improve upon with the infamous Hell segment in his follow-up film The Burning Moon, his most well known work. Ittenbach's effects skills would eventually find him work on other films, but it all began with Black Past, a remarkably assured film for a homegrown debut and really an important entry in the German horror canon.

Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995)

The 90's were very much a transitional period for film, American film in particular. By and large, the 90's were the last decade of diversity in terms of budget. While the decade had its share of massive blockbusters, those types of films didn't have the stranglehold they have over the modern film industry, leaving room for middle budget films to breath along with the plethora of films to come out of the 90's indie boom. The adult film industry was also going through something similar throughout the 90's. Although plotless gonzo movies had gobbled up the majority of the market since the video revolution in the 80's, there were still a select few left in the adult world at the dawn of the 90's still intent on producing something out of the ordinary, one of which was John Leslie. The actor turned director had been on a hot streak since 1988, churning out some of the best adult films in early 90's, culminating in his jump from VCA to Evil Angel with his masterpiece Dog Walker (1994). Leslie followed up Dog Walker with a transitional film of his own, Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story, his most bizarre and difficult work and a film that marked the end of an era of consistently fascinating and original narrative based features for Leslie while also signifying the path he would take until his passing in 2010.

Unlike Dog Walker which began on a somewhat traditional note before going into more stranger territory, with Fresh Meat Leslie tosses anything resembling traditional narrative out the window the moment the opening credits end. Leslie does the film somewhat of a narrative set-up around Danny (Joey Silvera) and his wife Julia (Krysti Lynn) along with their “pet” human moving into their new house, where the realtor informs them of a former resident of the house known as “The Butcher” who killed his wife before hanging himself in a meat locker. Anything that happens after is left up to interpretation as the film plays out like a hardcore predecessor to David Lynch's Inland Empire (2006) with Leslie directing Silvera, brilliantly perplexed from beginning to end, into one random scenario and sexual encounter after another, shifting perspectives and making any attempt at possible explanation the more futile as the film goes along. The film also finds itself at the end of the loose trilogy of Leslie films centered around the supernatural with the real estate angle returning from both Mad Love (1989) and Laying the Ghost (1991) while the sitcom style laugh track, lunatic sense of humor and various other eccentricities present in Laying the Ghost return in Fresh Meat, by far the most surreal and inaccessible of the three. Leslie takes the film into even more outlandish territory by breaking the fourth wall and showing the actual shooting of a scene featuring Jamie Gillis as a detective arresting actors who can't remember their lines.

The film also marked a stylistic transition for Leslie too. Leslie had shot the majority of his features on video, though managed to shoot three on 35mm, Chameleons (1992), Anything That Moves (1992) and Dog Walker. Despite the limitations of the medium, Leslie always managed to side-step the shortcomings and delivered some of the most stylish adult features of the time. Fresh Meat greatly differs in that it was lensed on a much more low quality of video giving the film an incredibly raw and personal feel very much like the gonzo movies Leslie would soon devote the rest of his career to and due to the opaque nature of the films plot, the sex scenes do tend to take up even more of an already extended amount of time, though much like Dog Walker, the drawn out nature and hallucinatory feel of the the scenarios begin to emit a hypnotic aura ensuring that anyone watching the film is put in the same dazed and confused headspace as Silvera. There are also several instances of black and white 8mm film spiced into the movie adding to the already rough tone. Leslie does inject many scenes with his unique sense of style though and the films costume design features a big focus on striking leather and PVC wear giving the film one foot in the fetish realm. Leslie does also push the boundaries in the bodily fluids department during an unforgettably odd sequence involving Silvera and his “pet”, a plot point played completely strait.

Either a creative choice or due to the economy of the adult industry of the time (and to this day by and large), following Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story Leslie's output consists of nearly all gonzo work. Ironically, Fresh Meat would go on to become a long running series, lasting a whopping 29 entries, although none are related to A Ghost Story. Leslie would also go on to create the first person Voyeur series which produced 36 entries. Other Leslie gonzo series include the cheekily titled Don't Make Me Beg, Ass Trap, Big Tit Crackers, Gobble the Goop and Crack Her Jack. Worlds removed from the likes of Leslie's earlier titles like The Catwoman (1988), Second Skin (1989), Chameleons and Anything That Movies. Interestingly, Leslie's career trajectory somewhat mirrors that of fellow adult legend José Bénazéraf who took a similar approach later in his career in the 80's. Leslie did direct the visually intriguing Drop Sex (1997) after A Ghost Story and managed to make one last narrative feature Brianna Love: Her Fine Sexy Self  (2007) (where he made a return in front of the camera as well) but Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story marked the end of era for Leslie and to a certain extent the adult industry as a whole with the film being one of the most original and surreal works to come out of the realm of adult film.

Dog Walker (1994)

One of the most legendary companies in adult film, VCA released many a classic throughout the 80's and 90's. From 1988 to 1994, VCA was the home of actor turned director John Leslie, releasing many of his finest directorial efforts. VCA was also the distributor for the films of Stephen Sayadian (Rinse Dream), having released Cafe Flesh (1982), Nightdreams 2 and 3 (1991) and Party Doll a Go-Go! (1991) as well as the main distributor for Gregory Dark until 1995, so clearly VCA we open to releasing films that strayed from the norms and conventions of adult films. Several of Leslie's films during this period do just that. With outlandish plots that often strayed into surreal and horror territory, films like The Catwoman (1988), Mad Love (1989), The Chameleon (1989), Curse of the Catwoman (1991), Laying the Ghost (1991) and Chameleons (1992) are all decidedly different from standard adult fare. Even Leslie's more straightforward films like Goin' Down Slow (1988), Second Skin (1989), The Tease (1990), Anything that Moves (1992) and Bad Habits (1994) have far more thought put into them than other narrative based hardcore features. Nevertheless, when Leslie proposed his idea for 1994's Dog Walker, it proved to be far too out there for VCA, leading Leslie to secure financing from Evil Angel to shoot and release Dog Walker, his magum opus and one of the best films of the 90's.

Dog Walker is a film very much in the vein of films like Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981) or David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997) in the way it goes about its business. Much like Zulawski and Lynch's films, the way Leslie has the elliptical narrative play out defies any attempt to neatly summarize it. The films centerpiece is Tito (Steven St. Croix), a gangster who runs afoul of the organization he's working for after demanding immediate payment for a diamond robbery. Shortly afterward Tito is accosted in an alleyway by a mysterious man (Leslie, credited as the “Fortune Teller”) who claims Tito's life going to become a living hell. Prior to that moment the film had been set-up like a fairly typical mob/crime story, but following the Fortune Teller's warning to Tito the films tone is drastically altered. The cliché way of describing Dog Walker would be “dreamlike” but a more accurate description would be that the film is taking place in the time period in-between wakefulness and sleep. The setting of the film resembles Los Angeles circa 1994, but something is always slightly eschewed as Tito tries to adjust to his new life with the sword of Damocles hovering over his head. Leslie never quite lets it be known until the very end if all of Tito's encounters throughout the film are happening in reality or some form of fantasy, even the sex scenes begin to take on a hallucinatory quality much like the film as a whole the further it goes on.

In a way Dog Walker feels like the film Leslie was building up towards since he made the transition from acting to directing. While Leslie already had a consistent track record of great films, Dog Walker feels like the culmination, fusing the crime and thriller aspects of films like Goin' Down Slow and Second Skin with the more otherworldly and strange elements of the Catwoman and Chameleon films as well as the supernaturally plotted Mad Love and Laying the Ghost. Leslie had shown his penchant for bizarre films fairly early on in his directorial career, but what sets Dog Walker apart from his previous films is the sheer inexplicably, for instance the multiple instances of Leslie cutting away from the LA setting to scenes taking place in the country with a western theme, or Tito's meetings with his mysterious boss played by Jamie Gillis which feel oddly intimidating, again very evocative of Lynch. Dog Walker is also Leslie's most explicitly noir inspired work, not simply in style with it's dimly lit shady, smokey alleys and seedy city streets but most importantly in the way the titular “dog walker” (Christina Angel) Tito keeps encountering is presented. Like so much of the film, exactly what she is or what she represents is rather ambiguous until the very end, though like so many femme fatales in the classic noir fashion, she has the aura of a specter of death and what Leslie does with her and Tito near the end of the film is quite fascinating.

Reflecting upon the film, Evil Angel head and longtime friend of Leslie's John Stagliano recalled that the title of the film and what it might entail was the first thing that made VCA nervous, despite nothing resembling their concerns being in the film. VCA were also uncomfortable with the violence and fight scenes in the film which was somewhat more understandable to do the various legal issues VCA president Russ Hampshire faced over the years. Leslie himself produced the film under his “John Leslie Productions” banner while Staglinao financed the film with Leslie paying him back residuals and Evil Angel became Leslie's main distributor until his death in 2010. Dog Walker was also shot on film and at the 1995 AVN Awards, coincidentally hosted by St. Croix, Leslie won in both the film and video categories for best director for Dog Walker and Bad Habits, his final movie for VCA. The film also racked up two more awards from AVN, best screenplay and cinematography and it was awarded best film at the XRCO Awards where Leslie nabbed another best director win. Leslie was to make one more narrative feature the following year with Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995) before taking the gonzo route which again, makes Dog Walker seem like an apex of sorts. The film is hands down Leslie's masterpiece and a film that set a new benchmark for its genre.

Anything That Moves (1992) / Bad Habits (1994)

When John Leslie made the transition from acting to directing in the late 80's, making history as one of the first adult performers to do so, he began a remarkable streak of consistency that lasted from 1988 until 1995 when, either by design or the economic demands of the adult industry, his focus turned from narrative features to plotless gonzo videos. Proving himself to be a genre aficionado, Leslie's output from that period could be divided into three categories. Firstly there were the lighter, more comedic efforts like Nightshift Nurses (1988), Top it Off (1990), Hot Scalding (1990) and Slick Honey (1991). Where Leslie really hit his stride however, was with several oddities that often crossed over into the surreal, bordering on the horror and fantastique genres with films like The Catwoman (1988) and its companion Curse of the Catwoman (1991), Mad Love (1989) and Laying the Ghost (1991), The Chameleon (1989) and Chameleons (1992), Dog Walker (1994) and Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995). Leslie also proved to be very adept at crime based narratives early in his career with his second feature Goin' Down Slow (1988) and his love of noir was apparent in many of the previously mentioned titles and he would deliver two of his strongest films in this arena, 1992's Anything That Moves and 1994's Bad Habits, the later even marking a pivotal turning point in Leslie's career.

Told mostly through flashback via police interrogation, Anything That Moves centers around Lucky (Selena Steele), a streetwise stripper being questioned about the death of Joey, the abusive boyfriend of her best friend, fellow stripper Ronnie (Tracy Wynn). One of Leslie's most character driven films, Anything That Moves also happens to be one of the most involving thanks in part to how strongly the characters are developed and most importantly, the way in which Leslie has the story play out, cleverly placing certain things in the story out of linear order and constantly having the audience question how reliable a narrator Lucky is. By far though the films biggest strength is the friendship between Lucky and Ronnie, wonderfully portrayed by both Steele and Wynn with the former giving her finest performance for Leslie as the no-nonsense Lucky, almost a big sister to the more naive and trusting Wynn. It's really an endearing story that makes all the various twists pack more of a punch and gives the film something that barley any other film in its genre would even think of, heart. It's also notable in that, despite the story being grounded in reality, Leslie just can't help himself and serves up a few odd moments along the way, most notably a man just hanging out in the background of a sex scene playing solitaire (not a double entendre, he's literally just playing cards) and in a especially hilarious and random bit, a gang of rather large black henchwoman give Joey a nice beating.

Slightly smaller in scale but by no means less ambitious, quite the opposite in fact, is Bad Habits which focuses on Sean Grant (Deidre Holland), a successful novelist prone to nightly encounters with complete strangers. In an attempt to get a handle on her compulsion, Sean seeks help from therapist Dr. Fisher (Randy Spears), a con man who attempts to squeeze more money out of Sean utilizing the theory of past life regression with the aid of Jack (Mark Davis), a ex-con Fisher is threatening with blackmail. Although essentially telling three stories in one, Bad Habits is a remarkably focused film with each storyline effortlessly spring-boarding into the next before reaching a nicely wrapped up conclusion. Interestingly, considering his penchant for the unusual, Leslie only spends a short amount of time with the actual past life regression idea, though it does serve as a segue to a dreamy, soft-focus sex scene. Previously outshined by Ashlyn Genre in Chameleons, here Holland really gets to show off and it's her performance that really pushes the film to the upper echelons of Leslie's filmography as well as Spears who is delightfully scummy as Fisher. Like most of Leslie's shot-on-video output the film sidesteps all of the shortcomings of the format and is one of Leslie's most stylish with a brilliantly surreal scene taking place inside a tunnel early on. Bill Heid also delivers one of his best scores for Leslie with some wild free jazz moments that recall Chet Baker's work on José Bénazéraf's early films.

Anything That Moves has the distinction of being one of three films from this period that was shot on 35mm, which at that point was becoming a rarity in the adult industry. According to AVN, some of the film had to be re-shot after the sprinkler system accidentally went off where the film was being shot. The film was the eighth Leslie film to feature Selena Steele who actually made her debut in The Chameleon and would feature in Leslie's Hate to See You Go (1988), The Tease (1990), Playin' Dirty (1991), Oh, What a Night (1991) as well as Curse of the Catwoman and Slick Honey. Bad Habits is notable for being the last feature Leslie made for VCA who had produced and distributed all of Leslie's movies up to that point. Much like Gregory Dark did around the same time, Leslie would make the move to Evil Angel. At the 1995 AVN Awards, Leslie would take home both best director trophies in the “video” and “film” categories for Bad Habits and Dog Walker respectively. During his acceptance speech for Bad Habits Leslie joked that whenever VCA president Russ Hampshire was away on vacation they'd try “breakin' his balls” but nevertheless they made a good video. A great video, in fact and ultimately an important one as it signified a new beginning for Leslie who was about to realize his magnum opus.

Second Skin (1989)

Along with being two of the most legendary figures and best actors from the golden age of the adult industry, having appeared together in films like Fiona on Fire (1978), Dracula Sucks (1978), and The Ecstasy Girls (1979), John Leslie and Jamie Gillis were also the best of friends. As wonderfully documented by The Rialto Report, Leslie and Gillis had a friendship of well over 30 years with Leslie's annual Easter egg hunt at his home being one of Gillis' favorite times of year. The two also had a great working relationship and not long after Leslie made the transition from acting to directing, Gillis would serve as the assistant director on many Leslie's features including some of his best like Chameleons (1992), Anything That Moves (1992), Bad Habits (1994), Dog Walker (1994) and Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995). Gillis would make appearances in a few of those titles as well such as during the memorable opening scene of Curse of the Catwoman (1991) and his role in the aforementioned Dog Walker is rather substantial. Excellent casting was always one of the defining characteristics of Leslie's films and for 1989's Second Skin, one his earliest directorial efforts not to mention one of his most brilliantly crafted works, Leslie tagged his best friend Gillis for the leading role in what would become one of his finest and most villainous, yet strangely underseen performances.

While attending a dinner party at his friend Ross' house, Allen and his wife Suzanne are introduced to Vincent Dante (Gillis), an old colleague of Ross' along with Veronica (Ona Zee), Vincent's girlfriend and Johnny (Joey Silvera) and Gabe, two of Vincent's associates. Already a somewhat tense evening due to Johnny and Gabe's belligerent attitudes, things quickly take a turn for the worse during dinner when Allen takes issue with a snide comment from Johnny regarding Allen's chosen profession with Johnny pulling a gun on Allen in response, forcing Vincent to admit that he, along with Johnny and Gabe are diamond smugglers and that Ross previously worked for him and agreed to let Vincent hide out for the night. Vincent proceeds to hold the entire household hostage while various tensions, sexual and others, arise throughout the night.

With its crime scenario, enclosed setting, mounting sense of dread, smoldering eroticism and jazz score, Second Skin feels very much like a hardcore variation of one of José Bénazéraf's early black and white films, in particular La nuit la plus longue (1965) or Sexus. Whether it was intentional or not, Leslie channels Bénazéraf in more ways than one throughout Second Skin, especially as it relates to the characters. While Gillis and his two goons are clearly the defined villains, very few of the other characters could be described as classically “likable” making the hostage situation all the more tense and interesting with Leslie sustaining the moodiness throughout, ala Bénazéraf. Much like Goin' Down Slow (1988), Leslie's second feature, there are long stretches in Second Skin where Leslie seems to eschew the demands of the medium in which he's working, setting aside the sex to focus solely on the characters, Gillis of course taking center stage. Vincent Dante is certainty one of the more despicable personalities Gillis ever portrayed, yet because it's Gillis in the role there's an undeniable charm to Vincent even while he's gleefully tormenting the entire household. While Gillis is the biggest selling point of the film, the supporting cast are all terrific, Ona Zee especially as Vincent's long suffering alcoholic mistress who really delivers in the one of the films more uncomfortable moments. The film is also notable for the bizarre way Leslie wraps the film up, with a surreal twist that feels out of left field even for Leslie.

It's interesting that Gillis stars in a film such as Second Skin, a 1989 plot-driven feature as that was the same year Gillis revolutionized the adult industry with one of the first videos in what would become known as the “gonzo” genre, On the Prowl (1989). As Gillis related to AVN “I'd been in the business already for many years and I just said oh my god, they're so boring, these stupid movies with their stupid scripts. So I said let's just take a girl and bring her out and find somebody who wants to fuck her and is excited about it. I literally brought girls out to the public, and whoever came along, that's what we shot. Now that to me was fun because it meant that we didn't know exactly what was going to happen. I always liked reality. I hated the old moans and groans type of porn.” Interestingly enough, Leslie too would eventually bow out of narrative features after 1995 and focus almost entirely on plotless gonzo features as the economics of the adult industry dictated. Perhaps Gillis found the script for Second Skin at a much higher quality than most, which it most certainty is and the same could be said for all of Leslie's features from this period. Second Skin though stands out a bit more, a masterfully realized work from two of the industry's heaviest hitters.

The Chameleon (1989) / Chameleons (1992)

In a lot of ways, John Leslie could be considered the Jess Franco of hardcore. Although Franco was no stranger to adult films, having dabbled in it himself numerous times, that's not what makes the two auteurs similar. Both were exhaustively prolific directors, often churning out multiple films in one year and like so many filmmakers of the auteurist type, both utilized their regular troupe of actors, crew members and score composers. Most importantly though, what really draws Leslie and Franco together is the way both kept returning to the same type of material, always putting a fresh spin on it with “parallel” films. Franco was particularly adept at making films with storylines that were nearly incidental to films he'd made prior without the new films being sequels. Leslie was very much the same way with many films from his 1988 to 1995 hot streak exploring many of the same ideas such as the loose trilogy of Mad Love (1989), Laying the Ghost (1991) and Fresh Meat: A Ghost Story (1995) all putting an XXX twist on new homeowners encountering supernatural entities whereas the The Catwoman (1988) and Curse of the Catwoman (1991) center on women discovering their inner feline, metaphorically and literally. Two of Leslie's most bizarrely plotted films, The Chameleon and its companion film Chameleons follow in the same mold, with the later being one of Leslie's finest works all around.

One of Leslie's most outlandish concepts, at the heart of The Chameleon is the love between Diana (Tori Welles) and Marc (Tom Byron), a couple who's relationship has become strained due to Diana's ability to inexplicably morph into the body of anyone she desires, affording her the luxury of endless sexual partners, much to the chagrin of Marc. Like so many of Leslie's features from this period, the one word that best describes The Chameleon is “clever”. For starters, the main concept is ingenious for an adult film in that it gives way to featuring several different performers in various sex scenes while continuing to tell a story. What's more though, the idea of being a “chameleon” gives way to many a metaphor which Leslie ponders on quite a bit. While it's made very clear early on that Dianna does have to ability to literally shape-shift into other people, her desire to become someone else is much more than just out of a purely sexual need as despite the confidence Welles radiates throughout the film, Diana is also filled with self-doubt and loathing and Leslie even peppers the film with scenes of Dianna speaking to a therapist. Leslie is also heavily invested in the dynamics of Dianna and Marc's relationship and it's sure to surprise many just how invested the film is in presenting their relationship, the terrific performances from Welles and Byron easily selling that aspect of the film with everything building to a mind-warping surprise at the end of the film.

Leslie would return to the world of chameleons in 1992 with Chameleons (awkwardly subtitled “Not the Sequel”), this time focusing on a chameleon couple, Claudine (Deidre Holland) and Reynaldo (Rocco Siffredi) who's life is turned upside down after an encounter between Claudine and Casey (Ashlyn Gere) at a swingers club which leads Casey to crave the chameleon experience no matter the cost. A crown jewel in Leslie's filmography, Chameleons greatly expands upon the chameleon mythology established in the earlier film, adding the caveat of the life being drained out of the person who's identity is being assumed. A much more intimate and insular film than the original Chameleon, dealing with a handful of central characters taking place in limited settings, there is a strange claustrophobic and almost sickly atmosphere to the film with the already berserk plot featuring almost zero skepticism from any of the characters regarding their situations, but also with Leslie giving no clear indication as to who is supposed to be a “good” or “bad” character. Most of the characters are presented as looking out for only themselves, with the second half of the film becoming a series of head games between Gere and Holland with both constantly switching the roles of potential villain. The cleverness of the first film is multiplied tenfold with the storyline taking some wonderfully sly directions, a benefit of the small cast, and just like the first Chameleon, the film builds to a brilliantly bewildering final twist that trumps the finale of the original film.

Both films feature typically excellent scores from Bill Heid, Leslie's right hand man for music during this period, the soundtrack for the first Chameleon being one of Heid's very best for Leslie done in Heid's signature jazz style with a touch of lounge. Chameleons was the third collaboration between Leslie and Ashlyn Gere who had previously appeared in Leslie's excellent The Tease (1990) and later in Bad (1992). Excellent as the entire cast of Chameleons is, with Siffredi and Holland doing some of their finest work, all ultimately end up in the shadow of the force of nature that is Gere who owns the entire film with her forceful performance and imposing presence. It's also interesting to see Siffredi in a role that required quite a bit of sensitivity considering some of the things he would become known for later in his career. Siffredi was also becoming a Leslie regular around this time having already appeared in Curse of the Catwoman (1991) and would feature again in Leslie's fourth wall breaking The Rehearsal (1993). Chameleons is also notable for having been one of three Leslie features lensed on 35mm film which was becoming more of a rarity for adult films during this era, though it's a distinction the film deserves as it along with the first Chameleon feature, like so many of Leslie titles, represent adult filmmaking at its most original and unique.

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.