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 its a phenomenon thats so quintessentially of the time, that it couldnt pass without mention. And besides, if it werent 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 wasnt on EVERY night. I cant 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 1980s Dressed to Kill and 1984s Body Double as well as 1981s 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 1993s Indecent Proposal and 1994s Disclosure. And thats 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.