Let’s start by clarifying what is does not count. What exactly counts as an erotic thriller? I am so glad you asked. (I will also accept 1998’s Wild Things as an end point, for those of you who prefer a messier climax to your cinematic eras).
Its Golden Age was actually quite a lengthy period, beginning (I would argue) in earnest in 1981 with Bob Rafelson’s remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice and ending in 1996 with the Wachowskis’ Bound. While there have been a few notable additions to the canon over the past two decades ( In the Cut, Unfaithful, Gone Girl, When the Bough Breaks…em… The Boy Next Door) the sweaty heyday of the erotic thriller has been over for some time now. As we all know, the worst thing to happen to mainstream American cinema in the 21st century was the near-total abandonment of that most compelling and enigmatic of subgenres: the erotic thriller.
