This week I’m joined by Anthony Penta, director of We Kill for Love, a documentary/film essay about the erotic thriller and its place in the history of cinema. Drawing parallels to film noir and gothic romances, among other genres, Penta traces not only the artistic legacy of We Kill for Love but also the role they played in the early days of home video rentals and pay cable. Hundreds of films melding sex, violence, and sexy violence were produced, yet many of them have all but disappeared, critics dismissing them as little more than softcore pornography and viewers moving on to other forms of titillation. The erotic thriller lives on, but you’ll be a little surprised to see precisely where.
We Kill for Love is available on VOD now. Make sure to rent it after the kiddos have gone to bed, as this is a return to the world of Cinemax After Dark. But I don’t want to leave you thinking it’s lurid: We Kill for Love is a tasteful, informative, and empathetic look back at the genre filled with new interviews with the actors, actresses, producers, and directors of the genre, as well as the critics and academics attempting to impart it with a bit more respectability. I didn’t know I needed a two-and-a-half-hour documentary about erotic thrillers in my life, but I’m glad I have it.
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The 1994 Madeleine Stowe film 'Blink' I think fits in this category, though Wikipedia lists it as "neo-noir".
I think 'erotic thriller's has much more to recommend it as a genre label than 'neo-noir'
Is Vic going to make a return to the Sub-Beacon for a special episode discussing this film?
I feel like movies like Mulholland Drive or even Sin City wouldn’t have been as incredible as they were without the straight to video films of the early 1990s.
I also feel like the erotic thrillers needed early 1980s shows like Miami Vice to sell the storylines of falling in love with the innocent or with the killers. Miami Vice had 4-5 storylines through its run where the cops end up falling in love with a daughter of the villain or with the guilty party themselves.
Also one thing I liked about the lower budget non-Hollywood erotic thrillers was the music it was far less polished and over the top but it made it better.
When you mentioned the music, the first thing that came to me mind was “Relax, don’t do it” in the movie Body Double. I think the band was “Frankie goes to Hollywood”. Speaking of Body Double, for many years I thought the main actor was Bill Maher. Lol.
Great episode! I would recommend another 1992 movie (same year as Basic Instinct) called To Kill For starring Michael Madsen (as badass as always) as a cop investigating a murder of a real estate tycoon. He falls in love with the chief suspect a beautiful hotel owner under psychiatric care.
These movies were priceless from Hollywood (Basic Instinct, Wild Orchid, Jade, …) to the lesser known films (Illusions, Incognito, …). Thank god for the Screenpix channels included in Xfinitys movie package I’ve discovered so many 1970s to early 2000s movies of many genres including the erotic thriller.