The Erotic Thrillers That Followed Basic Instinct’s Success

The Erotic Thrillers That Followed Basic Instinct’s Success

Yup, the early 90s were probably the golden age of erotic thrillers, at least in quantity, just as the early 80s were the golden age of youthploitation films, and the late 90s comprised the Age of Tarantino Clones.

They missed one of the better ones, China Moon, which starred Ed Harris and Madeleine Stowe.

Of course the very best of the modern erotic thrillers, Body Heat, had already re-introduced the genre more than a decade before Basic Instinct came along.

I say "re-introduced" because this sort of film was popular in the forties, albeit absent color and nudity. In those days it was Lauren Bacall, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck or Mary Astor who was luring some unwitting schmuck into doing her evil bidding. In my mind, it was always Jack Carson or Fred MacMurray getting duped, although I'm sure that's just my imagination. There must have been other patsies as well. (Yeah, I know Bogart was in a lot of these films, but he was never really fooled, even when he played along. He was always too aloof and jaded to believe anyone.)