THRILLINGLY SEXY
Mulholland Drive, Basic Instinct +more Erotic Thrillers
Whatever happened to the erotic thriller? They had their heyday in the U.S. from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s and then started to peter out. Nowadays, a great erotic thriller is occasionally made, though it is usually a foreign film. Here is a list of ten of the all-time greatest.
Body Heat (1981)
A lawyer, Ned Racine (William Hurt), begins a passionate affair with married woman, Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner). Ned hatches a scheme to murder Matty’s husband so they can run away together, but who can you trust in a double-crossing game?
Apartment Zero (1988)
Adrian LeDuc (Colin Firth), a sociopath who runs a failing movie theater, rents out his other bedroom to Jack Carney (Hart Bochner). As Adrian and Jack become closer, Adrian realizes Jack may be an assassin.
Basic Instinct (1992)
Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), is a beautiful, amoral crime novelist. When she becomes a suspect in the brutal murder of a rock musician, detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) begins to investigate her, leading to a seductive cat-and-mouse game between the two.
The Last Seduction (1994)
Femme fatale, Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino), convinces her husband, Clay (Bill Pullman), to sell cocaine. She steals the profits and runs out on him. She takes shelter in a small town where she seduces Mike Swale (Peter Berg) into helping her kill her husband.
Wild Things (1998)
When teenage Kelly (Denise Richards) fails to seduce her guidance counselor (Matt Dillon), she has him arrested for rape. When another victim (Neve Campbell) comes forward, Detective Duquette (Kevin Bacon) realizes this case is more than it appears to be.
Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
This Stanley Kubrik film follows married couple Bill (Tom Cruise) and Alice Hartford (Nicole Kidman). After Alice admits to fantasizing about another man, Bill embarks on a night of sexual discovery at an underground sex club.
Mulholland Drive (2001)
This David Lynch classic follows Rita (Laura Elena Harring), a woman who suffers amnesia after a car crash. She is taken in by Betty (Naomi Watts), an aspiring actress. They team up to piece together Rita’s true identity.
Lust, Caution (2007)
In this Ang Lee film set during World War II, a secret agent (Tang Wei) is hired to seduce and murder an official of the Japanese puppet government in Shanghai (Tony Leung Chiu Wai). Things take a turn when she finds herself falling for her mark.
Stranger by the Lake (2013)
This French movie takes place entirely on a nude beach that is known for gay cruising. Franck (Pierre Deladonchamps), a regular at the beach, becomes enthralled by the mysterious Michel (Christophe Paou). But, Michel may have murdered his previous lover.
The Handmaiden (2016)
In Japanese-occupied Korea, a pickpocket (Kim Tae-ri) is hired by a conman (Ha Jung-woo) to pose as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress (Kim Min-hee), so he can defraud her. When the pickpocket and the heiress fall in love, they turn the tables on the conman.
