Dead Sexy: A Column on Erotic Thrillers David Cronenberg’s glacial and oddly moving fetish thriller Crash turns 25 this year. But has its depiction of futurism and kink become dated, or does this erotic thriller still shock? “Slow down, slow down, not so fast,” a man moans. Not during sex—he’s in a car, and his […]Read More
What do fictional serial killer Patrick Bateman and I have in common, aside from an encyclopaedic knowledge of the musical ‘Les Misérables’? Our favourite film is Body Double. Despite its schlocky veneer, make no mistake: Body Double is a carefully crafted masterpiece that parodies and pays homage in equal measure. Sure, in American Psycho the […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Column on Erotic Thrillers How do you solve a problem like Paul Schrader? It’s difficult to think of a director with a filmography as varied in quality as Paul Schrader’s. Having penned the scripts for Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ and directed many celebrated films from First Reformed to […]Read More
The three most-liked reviews of Captives on the film social network Letterboxd are pretty similar in their brazen horniness for Tim Roth. “this was absolute garbage but i want tim roth to spit in my mouth” reads the first. “MY BODY IS LITERALLY A HOLE FOR TIM ROTH I WANT HIM TO CHOKE ME!” reads […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers Just like its ornithological counterpart The Goldfinch, Francis Lawrence’s Red Sparrow was a film pronounced dead on arrival. I didn’t have Letterboxd when Red Sparrow was released, nor was I yet au fait with the beast that is ‘film twitter’. I watched it at an empty screening […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers Contrary to popular belief, I prefer erotic thriller maestro Adrian Lyne’s Lolita adaptation to the one made 35 years prior by Stanley Kubrick. But do either do Nabokov’s novel justice? Calling Lolita controversial feels like the understatement of the century. Many will know Lolita‘s famed storyline, but […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers The pleasure and pain of a striptease is structured around the anticipation of a reveal. Item by item, the dancer sheds their clothing until their body is bare: a vulnerable corporeality that titilates and disarms the watcher. Exotica, Atom Egoyan’s 1995 masterpiece, structures itself as such, gently […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers The depiction of twins in cinema is often horrifying—and no, I’m not talking about the 1988 movie starring Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Come play with us,” whisper the Grady twins in The Shining, a ghostly apparition designed to terrify the young Danny Torrance. In Brian De […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers When two passenger airlines crashed into the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001, life changed irreversibly for Americans—and we don’t need reminding of the ongoing global impact that these attacks had too. But domestically, an estimated 422,000 New Yorkers suffered from PTSD. Along with the trauma of […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers “Be David Caruso in Jade.” This is the advice Seth Rogen’s character gives to Steve Carrell’s character about how (not to) pull women in the 2005 sex-comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin. With this advice from a hapless, sex-crazed stoner in tow, Steve Carrell goes on, excruciatingly awkwardly, to […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers It’s difficult to find an erotic thriller that hasn’t suffered some form of controversy or mockery. Perhaps Cruising, though, is the film to undergo the biggest transformation over the years. Vilified upon release in 1980 by critics, audiences and LGBT communities alike, in recent years it has […]Read More
Dead Sexy: A Fortnightly Column on Erotic Thrillers When you type ‘Basic Instinct’ into Google Images, the exact same picture fills the results. A beautiful blonde woman reclining into a chair, a knowing smile stretched across her lips. A pristine white polo neck; white brick walls; a soft hue of blue light. Why this repeated […]Read More
“I never feel guilty about enjoying films that are generally dismissed as trash.” – Slavoj Žižek You can picture the scene. A darkened bedroom; slivers of moonlight penetrate through the blinds, casting horizontal shadows across a dumbstruck, excited man. Perhaps a single lampshade is providing a low, neon glow. There’s a woman: sexy but mostly […]Read More
