Combining traditional noir with esoteric horror themes, Rolfe Kanefsky’s latest thriller is a unique hall of funhouse mirrors that mixes the director’s signature dark humor with a nightmarish landscape that feels new for the prolific director.
Steven Man is Mickey Lewis, a down and out artist type who gets into a “cart accident” at the grocery store with the gorgeous Katrina Webb (Katherine Randolph) and she offers him a job painting her house. Of course, her invite is so laced with honey-burnished sexuality, Mickey would be a fool to pass it up. She’s unhappily married to Arthur (Steven Bauer) and as in any noir; Katrina becomes the femme fatale offering sex for murder.
To go past this thread bare synopsis would do One in the Gun harm because the surface is all anyone should know before going into Kanefsky’s arcane trip into a world lodged somewhere between ours and hell. The first half of Gun is immersed in uniquely shot flashbacks while the latter half is presented with a desert setting so desolate your throat will dry up just staring at it. What is currently happening, what has happened and what lies ahead is played out as one big puzzle for the viewer to dissect.
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I saw most of Party Line waaaaay back in the early 90s when it was first running on late night cable. I didn’t remember much except that Leif Garret wore a wedding dress (!) and people spoke on the phone to each other. Not much to go on, but since I’ve been walking down this lane of fragmented Cinemax memories, I decided to pick up a copy and give it a go.
Do you know why people like horror movies? Not just because they are scary. They can also be kind of taboo breaking, featuring lots of stuff like blood and/or naked women. I love that. It’s kind of gratifying, even if not always on a sexual level. Breaking taboos is neat. You can have lots of naked flesh and maybe chicks kissing each other and stuff. All I can tell you Penthouse was that it was so unexpected when I bought my ticket today to see The Stepfather, but here’s what happened…
You may know filmmaker Darin Scott primarily as a writer and producer. He got started with the wonderful little 80s horror anthology Offspring (starring Vincent Price) and then moved around the various genres, producing some really cool films such as Stepfather II, Menace II Society and an underrated fave, Tales from the Hood (another one he also wrote). Mr. Scott seems to be spreading his directing wings lately. He recently completed a psychological thriller called Something Wicked (starring Brittany Murphy) and has just unveiled his newest horror opus Dark House at Shriekfest this past weekend to a sold out audience. And it was amazing
Paula Barbieri. Wow. What a flashback. This pretty lady only made a few films, mostly erotic thrillers, and Night Eyes 4 was her last appearance. Don’t quote me or anything, but I’m pretty sure she used a body double in the sex scenes. She is also an underwhelming actress, so I wonder why anyone would hire her for this genre.
Oh wait, she was dating OJ Simpson circa the infamous murder of his ex-wife and an unsuspecting waiter who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I won’t go into details here because if you aren’t aware of the case, then you must have been living under a rock. I do remember Paula getting some coverage after the event based solely on her notorious taste in lovers. I read she split from Simpson the day of the murders, which you know probably pissed him off. She did end up reuniting and staying with OJ through the trial and they broke up shortly after his acquittal. I’m just glad she got out of there, otherwise who would have starred in Night Eyes 4? It just wouldn’t have been the same.
By 1998 erotic thrillers were lucrative in the same way slashers were lucrative in the 80s. Only a few saw any kind of theatrical release, but as video stores tried to meet the supply and demand craze, lots of interesting movies popped up. It’s one of my favorite eras, and one of the most underappreciated, in the history of film. Sure it was a lot of boobs, some bullets and whatever other sensational things the filmmaker could think of, meaning it wasn’t exactly AFI material, but it was damn entertaining, and what more can you ask for on a Saturday night?
In retrospect, Tease is just that. A big ol’ Tease. Playing more like a Lifetime murder mystery than a sexy erotic thriller, there’s just enough T&A to push it more into late night Cinemax than early evening Lifetime. But when all is said and done, this movie just wants to take you to the brink, making you believe something is going to happen, only to pull back, kiss you on the cheek and say goodnight.
After veering briefly into Gregory Dark-land, I got to go back home again and see another in the always enjoyable Night Eyes series. Now I’m up to part three and like the two before it, I’m finding there’s a lot to be said about Andrew Stevens take on sleaze. Um, I mean erotica!
Last week, the makers behind what is sure to be one of this summer’s biggest hits, Terminator: Salvation, called upon a few journalists (yeah, that’s right, I’m a journalist – Nyah! Nyah!) for a gathering to view clips from the upcoming film. Salvation’s director, McG was in attendance (with a couple of his producers) and in-between the excerpts, the one-name maverick spun tales about the harrowing world of filmmaking and how this film came to be. He also made fun of his moniker, which was kind of awesome.
With rabid anticipation of the My Bloody Valentine remake (in 3D no less!), I thought I’d celebrate the history of Hollywood reconstruction. Love them or hate them, remakes are all the rage these days. Some of the choices make sense (The Fly, although you won’t find this movie on my list. Sorry Mr. Cronenberg!) while others just leave us scratching out heads (Psycho, anyone?) but there are actually quite a few worthy re-imaginings out there. They might not blow the original out of the water, but they make for a nice counterpart. Here is the short list of titles in a remake world gone wild.
Porn filmmaker Gregory Dark went semi-legit in the early 90s at the beginning of the erotic thriller craze. Even for the genre, his “softcore” work was pretty hardcore back then. Now it all seems a bit quaint – but just a bit. He could give Seduction Cinema a run for its money any day! Unlike Andrew Stevens, Dark (often working under the name Gregory Hippolyte as he did here) concentrated less on story and more on nudity. I’m sure most won’t find fault him for that way of thinking, but his films ended up a lot less entertaining for me. I know, I’m weird.
I know, I know. We’ve all been waiting for it… an erotic thriller about child molestation. Now what could be hotter than that? Strangely, Play Nice is just such a film in the subgenre dealing with that very unsavory topic… and somehow manages to make it entertaining.
Shannon Tweed was already a Playboy Playmate of the Year (1982) and had racked up an impressive list of acting credits as long as your arm when erotic thrillers came knocking on her door in the early 90s. And it was these films, including the sequel to the salacious flick Night Eyes that really put her on the map. She had already appeared in a handful of these types of movies before Night Eyes II, but there was just something so good about the pairing of her and Andrew Stevens. There was also something to the fact that she was a beautiful woman who did nudity and could actually act. Shannon definitely brought up the bar in any production she graced, making her a bit of a Claudia Jennings to the world of the erotic thriller.
Ah, Tanya Roberts. She burned up the screen in the 80s on Charlie’s Angel’s and as a Bond Girl in A View to a Kill. I won’t even get into Beastmaster… That’s just too much!
Although no one would consider this early 80s thriller a classic, The Seduction does have some interesting and glossy qualities to it. Andrew Stevens’ character is fairly well drawn for a popcorn thriller and eerily close to the kind of obsessive fan famous folks have had to accustom themselves to. In fact, The Seduction’s voyeuristic theme still holds a candle about the warped ability to turn one’s fantasies into a dangerous reality.
