The demise of the erotic thriller or (drama romance thriller)genre

This is something i always talk about, at a time when i enjoyed movies like fatal attraction, body double, body heat and basic instinct which is a personal favorite not just for the beauty of sharon stone but for paul verhoeven s effort in this to create the perfect romance thriller film, those voyeuristic erotic movies we used to have back in the day.

I saw lately "to catch a thief" and i felt how many scenes between the two leads showed that sexual tension which is demonstrated later on in the film with a rather funny and opportunistic way.

Do you guys think that alfred hitchcock created the romance thriller genre and eroticism was added to it during the 70s and 80s which made the softcore thriller movies?

Does the internet and access to porn movies etc has made this genre s demise afterall?
Or could we have a rise of hitchcock type of thrillers back, or is it a lack of ideas to create new movies something which havent been previously explored before.

I would like to add that these kinds of movies are the ones being put on tv during my teenage days i grew up watching these on the moviechannel back then, i liked the femme fatale premise and what could bring to the screen of mystery and suspense.

Is the erotic thriller still on a demise and what do u think could make it rise again?

Under the Skin? I don't see the genre being a wave, but good ones showing up every now and than...

Well, I don't know who or what influenced the erotic thriller genre. But, according to Wikipedia, the success of Fatal Attraction launched a string of erotic thrillers in the late 80s. It is possible that Hitchcock had some influence, though. De Palma is heavily influenced by his work, and he has created some of the best films in the genre: Body Double, Dressed To Kill, and Femme Fatale. Unfortunately, his last film, Passion, was not as good. Verhoeven has a new film this year, Elle, which has received positive reviews. It sounds promising.

Nothing is better than a great erotic thriller, but I don't think Hollywood makes a lot of movies aimed at adult audiences anymore. Killer Joe and Gone Girl are two great recent exceptions.

I hope this movie from verhoeven i like his movie the 4th man from 1983 such a great dutch film. I ll check out elle .

Yeah the closest thing to a Drama Sexified Thriller that got alot of publicity recently was 50 Shades Of Grey. I dont know if it bombed, but there was so much bad press Im sure the sequel will.

Adrian Lyne seems to be the last man standing that can master the genre.

Why are you so sure? it's such a niched thing it's understandable why a lot of people are not making them. I think you would have a hard time convincing people to finance one.

Sex scenes in movies just aren't a thing anymore. No more famous people having sex scenes and showing the goods. The last movie I remember doing it was 300: Rise of an Empire. The only reason I remember that one (other than the lovely Eva Green) is because I was shocked that it had it.

Don't get me wrong, we still have sex scenes, but they usually are PG rated or cut away before anything, or they are played for laughs (The Bronze).

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Suspect's Reviews

First, this is a really interesting topic. I'm not sure if the romantic thrillers you mentioned were influenced by Hitchcock...I find it hard to believe that Brian De Palma and Adrian Lyne haven't spent at least a few hours studying Hitchcock, there is a definite influence there minus the subtlety and the softcore erotica, which I think is just a way of making the genre more attractive to the all-important 18-34 demographic, the people who buy the tickets. In this world of the internet where no one really MUST go to a movie theater anymore, the mission to get those movie theater seats filled will never end. I think Adrian Lyne has displayed a real gift, I think Fatal Attraction and Unfaithful have enormous re-watch appeal and I definitely believe Hitchcock is an influence there.

Of course Hitchcock had a lot of influence on the mature thrillers. But am not sure if the thrillers you mentioned would not exist without him. There is a whole genre based on crime fiction (written in paperback novels with yellow covers) that has a lot of similarities with Hitchcock's work. I am referring to giallo's. And they are still being made only they aren't called giallo's.

(Erotic) thrillers were rarely watched for the sex. Maybe sometimes for the beautiful people in it or maybe truly sensual moments. But believe it or not people watch those because of the stories that usually are full of twists and turns. Who can resist a good whodunnit? Would Basic Instincts have worked without that mystery element? I know some people were more impressed with the beaver shot. Still that scene alone would not warrant a visit to the cinema would it? Basic Instinct had a very good plot. The sequel to it did not and most haven't even seen that one. Point is that for most the sex is like a nice bonus. Nobody really likes the simulated sex unless they are done well and they rarely are. Anyway (erotic) thrillers are still being made but much less as mainstream films. That has nothing to do with sex being available on the internet more freely. It has to do with big studious not seeing how they can make profit with them quickly. Besides the thriller genre might not be as active on the large screen. It is highly active on television. What show these days does not contain twists and turns? Take Game of Thrones for example. It might be advertised as a fantasy drama but in the end people are fascinated not knowing what will happen next since the writing for that show has even fans of the books wondering.

Erotic thrillers have not left. They are still being made. But you will have to broaden you look somewhat. The world is getting smaller after all. The mainstream ones will also return one day once they will get over making super hero movies and all those reboots.

Game of Thrones I would call an erotic thriller, cause of the eroticism in it. But doesn't Hollywood feel it has to compete with that though, thinking they got to take the sex and eroticism up a notch, compared to what you can get on Game of Thrones, and HBO, Netflix, etc?

It doesn't work anymore. You need great actors to pull off quality erotic performances and all those actresses are chasing period pieces or supporting roles in blockbusters. No major male actor is willing to take that kind of career risk. If you try and do that with good looking but talentless actresses then it will come off as softcore porn. I do think the explosion (no pun intended) of porn industry affected original erotic thrillers.

But porn movies have been around since the 70s, where as there were a lot of erotic thrillers in the 80s and 90s. So why was there a surge then of them, when porn was nothing new?

Back then one must assume that you don't have access to porn anytime you want or even any role play porn any time you want. Now it is at the tip of your fingers. So porn with role play scenarios is available 24 X 7 and you don't even have to watch the same thing twice because there is so much porn out there.

That's true, but other genres you have access to at the tip of your fingers, just as much as porn though. If you want to watch a car chase for example, you can just google it, and watch so many different car chases from different movies. Yet action movies still sell well nowadays. Why do people go to the theater see an action movie, even though you can just watch all that stuff online for free, but won't go to an erotic thriller?

That's the difference. Lead up to action is just as important as action itself. Same goes with horror. Moreover both those genres are much more socially enjoyable than erotic thriller. People are no longer into watching erotic stuff with a bunch of strangers unless it's based on extremely popular books like fifty shades.

Oh okay. I feel that when it comes to erotic thrillers, a lot of them have good sex scenes if done well, but the actual plot is not very good. But then they have movies where there is a man and woman, who are sexually involved where the plot is great and there is all these twists and turns, but there is hardly any sex scenes. If only erotic thrillers cared just as much about the plot as the sex scenes, than maybe it will have an important lead up?

I was thinking, when it comes erotic thrillers, are there with a homme fatale, instead always a femme? One where a man is the one seducing a woman and uses sex as a weapon to rope her into being a paste?

Paste?