Directed by Anthony Penta
A documentary that goes in search of the forgotten world of the direct-to-video erotic thriller, an American film genre that once dominated late night cable television and the shelves of neighborhood video stores.
USA USA 
Having just made a variation of an “erotic thriller” with SUITABLE FLESH, it was fun to watch this and see how many of the tropes we nailed when it comes to the archetypes and cliches one would expect from this sub-genre that spawned from the erotica of the 80’s and the VHS boom.
Even at almost 3 hours, this elevated video essay with some great interviews to break up the commentary and clips moves by at a speedy clip for a doc focused on the art of the slow dissolve within movies.
If you grew up in the 80’s and experienced puberty to young adulthood in the 90’s, you may recognize a LOT of these clips.
Wasn’t sure about the framing device but it grew on me (maybe it was just the fact that the doc is so long the guy “investigating” felt like an old friend by the end).
The similar title sequence using refrigerator magnets was gold.
We Kill for Love is the ideal mate for Videoheaven. Whereas Videoheaven traces the rise and fall of the video store, this chronicles the subgenre that flourished because of it and proved even more short-lived. It also plays like the ultimate Mr. Skin companion, cataloging these up-all-night flix. Expect a deluge of sexy titles, handily compiled in the closing credits. We now live in a world where OnlyFans and Pornhub have replaced Penthouse, Playboy, and the softcore erotic films themselves, but as someone notes in the slightly wistful final chapter, the genre still has a home on Lifetime.
I wish it could be twice as long.
Huge props to the filmmaker for putting together such a great documentary. A lot of passion and hard work has gone in, you can tell, and it’s appreciated. My watch list has grown by literally hundreds of movies after watching this, I need to watch them all asap.
This made me feel the same way Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched made me feel. Comprehensive folk horror doc check, now we have a comprehensive look at the forgotten Erotic Thriller. A complete lesson on a specific movie genre. I love that. I mean not just a genre but it’s place in history and how it came to be. All together in one place filled with people who are passionate about the subject and the people who were the faces of the era telling their story. All told using clips from over 300 movies.
Also I love the presentation with the purple blue lights during the interviews and the cool animations sprinkled throughout. I will absolutely watch this again. That last segment about how it all came to an end was my favorite.
The Projection Booth Podcast just had the director on to talk about this movie and how it came to be and it was really interesting I highly recommend.
Deep, well-informed genre analysis from all angles: social/cultural, psychological, historical, artistic, technological, industrial. Would watch one of these about any hyper-specific movie subgenre but the DTV erotic thriller is the perfect subject for all these analytical lines to coalesce.
“I'm not a complicated man. I like cinema. In particular, I like to see people fucking on film. But, I don't want to win an Oscar and I don't want to re-invent the wheel. I like simple pleasures, like butter in my ass and lollipops in my mouth. That's just me. That's just something that I enjoy. Call me crazy, call me a pervert.” — Floyd Gondolli
I've made variations on this joke for over a decade now: "on a long enough timeline, every movie will eventually be reclaimed" (see: the career of Michael Bay for a perfect example*). Now, I'm not saying there isn't merit to analyzing '90s DTV erotic thrillers as a boom that took over many a…
Loved this.
The actors were all gorgeous, but their names are forgotten, their faces obscure.
If you're familiar with the horror documentaries In Search of Darkness, this is a similar style but for erotic thrillers. After adding so many to my watchlist, I decided to come out of review retirement one last time to spread the word of this great documentary and to make a list of every erotic thriller featured. Enjoy!
They say that any trope you see in an erotic thriller you will see in the film that started the erotic thriller, Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill: mirrors, incompetent cops, disguise as a sex worker to gain information, the dissatisfied housewife that leaves to discover sex and danger, and…
This is one of the most Letterboxd films I've ever seen. How Letterboxd is it you ask? It's so Letterboxd that at one point someone that I follow on this platform appeared on screen being interviewed. This person had the best quote in the movie as well. Is it too long? No, but I had to watch it across two sittings. I've decided this is a good documentary because my partner watched nearly all of it with me. She doesn't like to watch any thing that I select but this captured her attention. She also watched Final Destination:Bloodlines with me which is weird because she doesn't like gore & didn't realize it was part of a franchise. Something is changing, maybe…
The run time is too long and excessive but the documentary is still good because it does take a deep look into the rise and fall of these movies, the clichés, and the issues with them.
I have never seen many of those movies but the look of them just by watching this documentary is so good. I would love for the genre to be back but it does need to redeem itself. It was like all style and no substance. 😭😭😭
Holy shit the part where the director was straight faced talking about how he was tired of seeing erotic thrillers where people have sex with no motivation so he wanted to go deeper and give them reasons to, so they come up with the blob with the eye in the jar controlling people, I was crying laughing.
Half these directors reminded me of the scenes in Boogie Nights where they wanted to make art out of the porn so people would cum but keep watching til then end because they had to know what happened.
This was entertaining as an examination of a time and an unintentionally hilarious study on how filmmakers will always convince themselves they're doing something important, but most of these movies look absolutely unwatchable and justifiable thrown into the ether of forgottenness
