Erotic Thrillers • Criterion Channel Teaser

Coming to the Criterion Channel April 1! Sleekly stylish, deliriously plotted, and unabashedly steamy, the erotic thrillers of the 1980s and ’90s are both the ultimate guilty pleasure and an illuminating reflection of an era’s changing attitudes toward sex on-screen. As the ’70s came to a close, with studio filmmaking in decline, home video and cable on the rise, and new X-rated movies ushering in an era of “porno chic,” Hollywood studios and independent filmmakers began pushing boundaries to cash in and create popular films that could never have been made before. Often dismissed as disreputable byproducts of the video-store era, these carnal classics can now be seen as rich cultural texts, laden with tantalizing ideas about gender, the relationship between sex and violence, and the cinematic gaze. Encompassing masterful genre deconstructions by directors such as Brian De Palma (BODY DOUBLE), Paul Schrader (THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS), and the Wachowskis (Bound*) as well as lesser-known titles now ripe for reappraisal (COLOR OF NIGHT, DREAM LOVER, FLESHTONE), these late-night cable staples are journeys into our collective fears and fantasies.