20 Reasons Why Growing Up in the 80s and Early 90s Was Best Time For Cinema

By David Howland /

2. The Rise of Sleaze and the Erotic Thriller

Now this type of film may not have been central to those growing up with cinema in the €˜80s and early €˜90s, but it€™s a phenomenon that€™s so quintessentially of the time, that it couldn€™t pass without mention. And besides, if it weren€™t for these kinds of films, Sharon Stone and Demi Moore would have had nothing to do in this time period. They were also one of the only chances a kid coming of age in the early €˜90s had of seeing a little nudity, because lets face it, Eurotrash wasn€™t on EVERY night. I can€™t claim to be an expert of the genre, but it seemed in that after the Hays code finished in 1968, the aforementioned rock €˜n€™ roll generation had a decade or so of making films about drugs and the like before everything took a turn for the sleazier in the €˜80s, culminating in a slew of such films in the early €˜90s. In the early €˜80s, filmmakers like Brian De Palma got the ball rolling with films like 1980€™s Dressed to Kill and 1984€™s Body Double as well as 1981€™s Body Heat from Lawrence Kasdan. As yuppie culture came and went the production line of thrillers largely concerning sex, wealth, status and murder came into full force in a slightly less secure €˜90s, keeping a number former brat packers employed if nothing else. The time period saw Nine ½ Weeks in 1986 and Fatal Attraction in 1987, followed by Bad Influence with Rob Lowe and James Spader in 1990. Next was Sleeping with the Enemy in 1991 with a bumper year in 1992 which saw the release of Basic Instinct, Single White Female, Poison Ivy and The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, then the Demi Moore double of 1993€™s Indecent Proposal and 1994€™s Disclosure. And that€™s only some of them. Kind of exploitative and not for everybody, but often enjoyable. Kind of trashy in retrospect, sleazy movie-fun, the erotic thriller was certainly of the time.