A genre of film, like many, we just don’t see anymore. The erotic thriller is famous for using the staples of film noir and found what was sexually explicit about the femme fatale and the lonely man who follows her. The genre had its heyday in the 80s and 90s with directors like David Lynch, Adrian Lyne, and Paul Verhoeven finding ways to shovel in sexually explicit themes to popcorn success. Michael Douglas used to be the king of this genre, making films like Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, Disclosure, and A Perfect Murder.
However, even with its disappearance from theaters, the erotic thriller appears to be primed for a comeback with the recent release of Deep Water starring Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas. From the erotic, sensual auteur himself, Adrian Lyne returns after a nearly 20-year hiatus. But, Deep Water was shuttered to Hulu with little-to-no press engine behind it. The erotic thriller appears to be a genre of the past, at least, for Hollywood. Nevertheless, here’s a look at the best erotic thrillers from the 80s and 90s, ranked.
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10 American Gigolo
Paramount Pictures
The bright pastels of Los Angeles, transfused with a purveyor of noir vibes from writer-director Paul Schrader, make for a unique foray into the world of dark eroticism transposed in American Gigolo. At times, a clear indictment of being a male sex worker but also a look at the sexual politics of those that play freely in their supposed closed relationships and who affairs harm the most. Richard Gere plays the dedicated, lonely man who gets caught in a murder mystery. But mainly, how open sex could sow seeds of distrust and how ambition can get the best of you, Schrader’s film is oozing a delectable sense of horniness from pickup to pickup as Gere’s gigolo realizes desire and trust are not the same things.
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9 Wild Things
Columbia Pictures
A film soaked in the sweaty swamps of Florida where nearly every character soaks up the moisture, Wild Things is a wild, Hollywood sexploitation romp cranked up to near parodic levels of noir that lead to a fun and sexually-charged thrill ride. With an incredibly seedy Matt Dillon performance, even by his standards, paired with the shooting superstardom of a late-90s-era Denise Richards, the two are on an incredibly twisty ride. Wild Things is a rarity and Hollywood conundrum where the level of erotic thrills has never quite been matched again.
8 Body Double
Brian De Palma’s depiction of voyeurism is akin to the classic Rear Window. Both he and Hitchcock have a knack for creating suspense out of the action of simply looking and placing the audience directly in the protagonist’s shoes. In a film rife with 80s sleaze but cracking suspense, De Palma crafted yet another thriller in the vein of Hitchcock. But setting it in the world of Hollywood gave it a gloss and veneer of industry satire while also using the song “R-E-L-A-X” to create an air of suspense and anonymity in a surreal visit to a movie set. Body Double is one of De Palma’s most accomplished, sexually evocative, and thrilling works.
7 Cruel Intentions
A young adult version of the erotic thriller based on the text that inspired Dangerous Liaisons, Cruel Intentions is a mature, psychosexual trip through the halls of Upper East Side aristocrats. Even with the sexually repulsive relationship between Ryan Phillipe and Sarah Michelle Gellar, the film is mature about how teens manipulate and exploit but also find ways to have fun with the nature of sexual exploration. Even as the two twisted siblings have the young virgin (Reese Witherspoon) in their crosshairs, the film finds a heart by the end resolve with an iconic needle drop by The Verve to soundtrack it.
6 Crash
New Line Cinema
When David Cronenberg is at his best, his films unfold like a trance. Deeply hypnotic and disturbing with an atmosphere that has you wrapped from beginning to end, Crash takes human curiosity to its nastiest, transgressive, and unknown spaces. James Spader stars as the badly wounded but sexually evocative TV director who finds the taboo violence of car crashes to rejuvenate his joyless sex life and make amends with his emotionally distant wife. A rarity in the genre of horror/thriller where the scurrility does as much to evoke and provoke feelings across a spectrum that range from sensuality to disgust.
5 Bound
Dino De Laurentiis Company
A film steeped in a lurid sense of stylization and a clear hold on how to craft a set-piece that oozes a cool aesthetic that would define the Wachowski Sisters’ career filmography, Bound is a classically fitting noir with a deep erotic charge. Following the steamy affair that beckons between Gina Gershon and Jennifer Tilly, lovers at first sight, it’s not long before the two scheme on Tilly’s scumbag husband, played with hilarious bravado by Joe Pantoliano. The film sets the course for sexual tension and violence when the schemes go full steam ahead.
4 Fatal Attraction
Adrian Lyne’s career is marked by a superfluously sexual and, at times, soft-core aesthetic. Blurring the lines between commercial filmmaking and sexuality that looks for the style over substance. But, when Lyne is firing, he dives deep into the intense, psycho melodrama that haunts wealthy suburbanites, city deal-makers, and wealthy people who make games of sex. Lyne hit a crescendo with Fatal Attraction, pairing Michael Douglas near the height of his sleaze powers with Glenn Close was a fired-up, sexual thrill ride that gave the film an immediate, iconic status. Married to an all-timer of an ending, Fatal Attraction remains one of the best.
3 Body Heat
Warner Brothers Pictures
A film so sexually charged, it probably wouldn’t be made today. Doused in the sweat and moisture of the misc-en-scene of a swampy Florida town, William Hurt (RIP) finds himself in the erotic trappings of film noir. Played against the always sultry Kathleen Turner, the two start an affair where the passions turn to violence. Especially with the iconic scene of Hurt, so in the throes of wanting Turner, he slams a chair through a window because he can’t be kept from her. That scene punctuates why Body Heat is a staple of the erotic thriller genre.
2 Blue Velvet
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
A director who never throws caution to the wind and uses the art of film to shift dimensions, creating an air wholly his entity, David Lynch’s Blue Velvet blurs the lines of reality. Pairing protagonists that are seemingly the same while also creating tense sequences of raw romantic energy through a lens of voyeurism, Lynch doesn’t mince his set-pieces with subtlety. As a young Kyle MacLachlan gets steeped into the sexually charged world of Frank Booth (a wiry Dennis Hopper) and goes on a surreal odyssey of psycho-sexual violence.
1 Basic Instinct
TriStar Pictures
The Dutch Provocateur Paul Verhoeven always finds the perfect tonal balance between satire, sleaze, provocation, and tension to drive the story forward. With Basic Instinct, he created something instantly iconoclastic. Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone use each other as sexual muses amidst a murder investigation that points to Stone as the killer. But the love and passion between the two create a mystery of manipulation that leads Douglas down a trodden path of reverse enlightenment. Also, making a sweaty meme out of Wayne Knight.
