16 October: Snapdragon

 

Whither the erotic thriller?

During the 1980s and the 1990s, the erotic thriller (today’s Cinematic Void 31 Days of Voidoween movie challenge topic if ya haven’t guessed already) was as ubiquitous on cable TV and the shelves of the nation’s videostores as mullets on an NHL team.

The erotic thriller was where the nation’s youth went to experience the thrill of seeing the likes of Shannon Tweed and Tanya Roberts in their birthday suits. The soft-lit, Vaseline-lensed sex scenes were often counter-balanced with violent scenes graphic enough to keep your average slasher movie fan interested. Indeed, those of us old enough to remember the monthly HBO guide can recall going through the pages and circling anything containing “graphic violence, adult situations, and nudity.” Theses were the hallmarks of the erotic thriller!

My choice, Snapdragon, was released in 1993, right in the middle of the genre's heyday. It’s got all the markers of a good erotic thriller: nudity, sex scenes, murders, nudity, cheating boyfriends, nudity, “exotic” locales (if you consider L.A.’s Chinatown exoitc), nudity, and nudity.

Starring Pamela Anderson (in her first feature film role), Steven Bauer, and Chelsea Field, Snapdragon at first concerns the investigation of two murders with the same m.o. (both men were killed in bed during the throes of passion) by Sgt. Peckham (Field). Cool, you think, a female cop chasing after a female serial killer. Then, sadly, Peckham asks her police psychologist boyfriend, David Hoogstratton (Bauer) to help profile the murderer. Before you can say “Florence Nightingale Effect,” Hoogstratton is on the make with Felicity (Anderson), a beautiful amnesiac who keeps having these dreams about murdering her lovers. Weird, huh?

You probably think you know what happens next. And it does. Oh, it does. But there is also a twist that happily gives this by-the-numbers picture an ambiguous ending. Pamela Anderson was fresh off her 1990 Playboy layout and had recurring roles on Home Improvement and Baywatch. She does a nice job here as Felicity, though I maintain that the picture would have been helped if she had had more to do opposite Chelsea Field. 

If this has piqued your interest, and you want to learn more about this “lost” genre, do yourself a favor and read "Sex & Death on the Cheap: the Lost World of the Erotic Thriller" by Anthony Penta in Diabolique Magazine. (Part 1 Part 2 Part 3) It is an excellently researched and written essay that will have you wanting more.

Ah, the erotic thriller! Ah, humanity!