The 31 Most Seductive Erotic Thrillers
'Basic Instinct' (1992)
The Joe Eszterhas-scripted murder mystery marks the point where the erotic thriller genre peaked (and where its decline began). Michael Douglas is a detective with a hair-trigger temper who falls for murder suspect Sharon Stone, who has a fetish for silk scarves and icepicks. Her sexually uninhibited performance here made her a star and even made her character into a minor folk-heroine. Before the film's release, gay and lesbian activists were upset about her evil bisexual character, but Stone so runs away with the movie (she's the smartest, most in-control person in it) that all objections seemed moot.
'American Gigolo' (1980)
A decade before he played the john in "Pretty Woman," Richard Gere was the Los Angeles prostitute, a luxury-lifestyle hustler who gets framed for murder. Lauren Hutton is on hand as the client who could save him, at the risk of her marriage to a rising politician. Paul Schrader's film doesn't exactly moralize, but it does show that even the easy life comes with a price.
'Angel Heart' (1987)
Mickey Rourke was coming off of "9 1/2 Weeks," while Lisa Bonet was coming off "The Cosby Show." Their sexual fireworks together were deemed scandalous at the time, though today, they're more absurd than anything else. He's a detective on a missing-persons case, and she's a voodoo priestess. (Robert De Niro is on hand, too, as Rourke's client, a devilish fellow with long fingernails.) Director Alan Parker's movie, a figurative descent into hell, is pretty silly on a plot level, but you can't fault it for an overabundance of sultry style.
'Bad Influence' (1990)
James Spader has made a career out of playing kinky creeps, but here, he's a naif who falls under the spell of Rob Lowe, the bad influence of the title. Soon, Spader is embroiled in a late-night world of thrills, chills, murder, and sex tapes. Lowe is a sport for exploiting his own then-recent sex-tape scandal, and his gleefully villainous performance provides the movie with what juice and seedy verve it has to offer.
'Bad Timing' (1980)
Theresa Russell (probably best known these days for playing Denise RIchards's slatternly mom in "Wild Things") had a long run in the '80s and early '90s as an erotic thriller star, starting with this film, directed by her husband, Nicolas Roeg. Here, she's an American in Vienna whose torrid affair with a professor (Art Garfunkel, of all people) is just one of her erotic adventures, which may have led to her poisoning by a jealous lover. Or she may just be suicidal. In a typically arty and opaque work by Roeg ("Performance," "Don't Look Now"), it's often hard to tell.
'Blue Velvet' (1986)
David Lynch's dreamy vision of the rot beneath complacent suburban placidity is also a murder mystery and the story of college-boy Kyle MacLachlan's discovery of his own dark, fetishistic, sadomasochistic desires. Isabella Rossellini's haunted damsel in distress and Dennis Hopper's gas-huffing villain are unforgettable, while Dean Stockwell's painted, lip-synching monster is from another realm altogether.
'Body Double' (1984)
Brian De Palma expressed his fondness for Alfred Hitchcock in numerous homages that bordered on outright theft. Here, his hero (Craig Wasson) is an actor who suffers from claustrophobia (instead of acrophobia, like Jimmy Stewart in Hitchcock's "Vertigo"), and whose voyeurism leads to him witnessing a murder in a neighbor's house (as in Hitchcock's "Rear Window"). Along the way, he meets a sex-film actress played by Melanie Griffith (daughter of Tippi Hedren, star of Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Marnie"). Still, for all its borrowing from the master, the finished product's technical mastery and sheer nastiness is pure De Palma.
'Body Heat' (1981)
Imagine 1944's "Double Indemnity" if it had been made in the era after Production Code censorship was abolished, and you'll have some idea of just how brazen Kathleen Turner's star-making performance is here. William Hurt, who usually plays smart guys, does an expert turn as the fool whom Turner leads around by his genitals (literally, in one scene), entangling him in a plot to murder her husband.
'Bound' (1996)
Before the Wachowski siblings were known for mega-budget special-effects action extravaganzas (the "Matrix" trilogy, "Speed Racer," the forthcoming "Jupiter Ascending"), they made this simple, low-budget thriller. Think of it as a lesbian "Body Heat," with Gina Gershon (fresh from "Showgirls") and Jennifer Tilly as lovers scheming against her man, mobster Joe Pantoliano. Nothing particularly new here except for the characters' sexual orientation, but the execution is skillful. And the Wachowskis' fondness for feisty heroines is readily apparent.
'China Moon' (1994)
Ed Harris is a detective who falls for wealthy, unhappily married Madeleine Stowe. Nothing new here, but there's much to admire in the craftsmanship on display, particularly from cinematographer John Bailey, this time sitting in the director's chair.
'The Color of Night' (1994)
Here's another Hitchcock homage, involving a hero with an unusual phobia, a knife-wielding killer, and a tormented cross-dresser. Bruce Willis stars as a shrink who takes over a slain colleague's therapy group in order to solve his murder. At the same time, he becomes involved with an uninhibited mystery woman (Jane March). The result is fairly preposterous but fun if you're in the right mood.
'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover' (1989)
Peter Greenaway's visually sumptuous (and occasionally, visually disgusting) movie can be read as a highbrow parable about the clash between capitalism and culture, but it's also an old-school revenge drama about a woman (Helen Mirren) whose thuggish husband (Michael Gambon) catches her having an affair. This very explicit film was one of the first movies to earn an NC-17 rating, which only went on to prove that nobody really wants more NC-17 movies (not the studios, not theaters, not newspapers that run movie ads, not the home video business, and not audiences). Everyone likes sexy, violent thrillers, but only if they're no harder than an R rating.
'The Crush' (1993)
Alicia Silverstone, then known only for her jailbait roles in Aerosmith music videos, became a movie star as the jailbait-girl-from-hell in this "Fatal Attraction"-like thriller. Here, she tempts grown-up Cary Elwes, then reacts violently when he tries to resist.
'Dressed to Kill' (1980)
Here's another Brian De Palma homage to Hitchcock, particularly "Psycho," with its cross-dressing killer. Angie Dickinson gives the most erotically uninhibited performance of her career (though she did have De Palma use a body double), with Nancy Allen and Michael Caine along for the ride.
'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999)
Stanley Kubrick's final film is more about fantasizing than follow-through, but there's a certain morbid fascination in watching the then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman explore forbidden desires. Of course, Cruise's character takes it way too far and gets in way over his head in what appears to be a murderous conspiracy among a group of kinky, wealthy hedonists, but that, too, turns out to be a big tease. For all the flesh on display, Kubrick is really trying to achieve some emotional intimacy, with the couple's feelings stripped bare.
'Fatal Attraction' (1987)
After his "9 1/2 Weeks," director Adrian Lyne became known for hot-button-pushing films about erotic danger. Here, happily married dad Michael Douglas has what he thinks will be a consequence-free weekend fling with colleague Glenn Close, only to have her start stalking him and his family. The movie finally broke Close out of nice-girl parts and showed off her full range; it began Douglas's reign as cinema's emblem of white-male privilege under siege, and it launched the modern erotic thriller as we know it. (It also launched a million uncomfortable conversations between men and women about adultery and its consequences.)
'Femme Fatale' (2002)
Brian De Palma loyalists swear that this movie, starring Rebecca Romijn as a jewel thief in France who assumes a dead woman's identity, is an underrated masterpiece. Others are simply confused by the convoluted, almost dream-like plot. (Among the confused seems to be co-star Antonio Banderas.) As the femme fatale of the title, Romijn generates plenty of sparks and smoke, if not actual fire.
'In the Realm of the Senses' (1976)
This Japanese erotic thriller was considered bold, explicit, and shocking for its time, especially given the way the lovers' relationship takes a grotesquely violent turn. In retrospect, it seems a precursor to recent gruesome erotic thrillers by the likes of Japan's Takashi Miike ("Audition") and South Korea's Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy").
'The Last Seduction' (1994)
Linda Fiorentino should have become a bigger star after this performance, as the most unapologetic femme fatale ever. Peter Berg is the hapless insurance company sap she uses and discards.
'The Living End' (1992)
Gregg Araki launched his art-house career directing this gritty lovers-on-the-lam thriller, inspired by Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" and by the early years of the AIDS epidemic. Here, the gun-wielding outlaw lovers are both men, one of them HIV-positive. Which kind of ups the stakes for the couple, desperately grasping at life in the face of doom.
'Lust, Caution' (2007)
Director Ang Lee's follow-up to "Brokeback Mountain" was this explicitly violent and sexual thriller (it's rated NC-17) about a Chinese actress (Wei Tang) recruited as a spy in a plot targeting a Japanese official in occupied Shanghai during World War II. Their complicated power relations play out in the bedroom. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai ("In the Mood for Love") is strong as the cruel Mr. Yee, but the movie belongs to the luminous Wei Tang, as the woman who takes her playacting too far.
'Original Sin' (2001)
Well, as Elvis Costello sang, "There's no such thing as an original sin." (Indeed, this film is a remake of Francois Truffaut's "Mississippi Mermaid.") Here, Antonio Banderas weds mail-order bride Angelina Jolie, only to learn that she's a con woman with a sadistic lover (Thomas Jane) on the side. For some viewers, this film provoked more giggles than gasps, but still, it's Banderas and Jolie cavorting in the tropical heat.
'Play Misty for Me' (1971)
Sixteen years before "Fatal Attraction," Clint Eastwood made this thriller about a radio DJ whose fling (Jessica Walter) becomes homicidally obsessed with him. Poor Donna Mills is on hand as Clint's new girlfriend, who becomes a target of Walter's jealous rage. You can tell it's an Eastwood film by all the jazz montages and picturesque shots of his beloved Carmel, California.
'Poison Ivy' (1992)
Drew Barrymore, in her (mercifully brief) Lolita phase, stars as a tattooed teen temptress who insinuates her way into the family of a galpal (Sara Gilbert). Having materialized out of nowhere, like a projection of Gilbert's own Oedipal fantasies, she proceeds to wreck the family in entirely predictable ways. Overheated but not artless.
'The Postman Always Rings Twice' (1981)
Imagine if the 1945 movie based on the James M. Cain novel had had a David Mamet script and the freedom from censorship of a modern-day movie, and you'll have some idea of what this update starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange was going for. Certainly, there's nothing left to the imagination in the display of brute carnality between Nicholson's drifter and Lange's diner hostess. Still, most people prefer the John Garfield-Lana Turner version, even if their carnality was only implied.
'Sea of Love' (1989)
After his career hit the doldrums in the 1980s, Al Pacino enjoyed a comeback that continues to this day, thanks to this film. He's a New York police detective investigating a killer who strikes via the personal ads, and of course, he makes the mistake of sleeping with his main suspect (Ellen Barkin, in the role that finally made her a star). Harold Becker's direction isn't exactly artful, but it's satisfying and well-crafted.
'Single White Female' (1992)
If Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction" was the fling from hell, Jennifer Jason Leigh is the roommate from hell. Once she moves in with Bridget Fonda, she tries to steal her wardrobe, her hairstyle, and even her man. Also her stiletto heels, which become lethal weapons in Leigh's hands. This film (essentially remade four years ago as "The Roommate") is pretty ridiculous, but it has some weight, thanks to Leigh's willingness to throw herself completely into the character.
'Swimming Pool' (2003)
In Francois Ozon's largely psychological thriller, the ageless Charlotte Rampling plays a mystery novelist seeking inspiration in France. Her stay is disrupted by a promiscuous houseguest (Ludivine Sagnier). Rampling is alternately disgusted and voyeuristically fascinated by the young woman's sexual activity, but when both women find themselves attracted to the same man, someone ends up dead, and Rampling must unleash her own still-considerable erotic charms in order to get out of trouble.
'Swoon' (1992)
The Leopold and Loeb case, involving two men who killed a boy just to see if they could get away with it, has been dramatized in a number of movies, including Hitchcock's "Rope" and "Compulsion" with Orson Welles, but this is the first modern telling, and the first that could frankly depict the gay relationship between Leopold and Loeb. Tom Kalin's film is an arty black-and-white experiment, but there's no shortage of eroticism.
'Unfaithful' (2002)
Adrian Lyne's last hurrah as a director (to date, at least) was this remake of a French thriller. Diane Lane is the suburban housewife who cheats on hubby Richard Gere with a hunky, exotic hipster (Olivier Martinez). Halfway through, the movie shifts gears and becomes a crime drama, but the theme of guilt and recriminations remains a constant throughout. Lane's raw, emotionally transparent performance is the glue that holds the film together, and it revitalized her career.
'Wild Things' (1998)
Matt Dillon, Denise Richards, and Neve Campbell comprise cinema's most notorious threesome in this convoluted tale of a high school teacher, a teenage heiress, a punkish outcast, and a complicated insurance scam involving multiple plot twists and character surprises. Suffice it to say that no one is who he or she seems and everyone in this sultry Florida town seems to be panting after everyone else. Bonus points for finding a part for Bill Murray, as an ambulance-chasing lawyer.
