The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema

A highly original study of a new genre The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema is a bold and original study, and the first of its kind to examine in detail a new genre which has evolved in the 1980s and 1990s in Britain and the United States in tandem with the rise of video - the erotic thriller. The book looks at the relationship between pornography and film noir which the erotic thriller has brought about; straight-to-video film; the role of erotic thriller stars and key directors; and women in contemporary mainstream sex cinema. It discusses video as a distinct and new form of spectatorial pleasure, and goes some way to mapping out what constitutes ‘screen sex’ - and its censorship. In addition, Linda Williams analyses the erotic thriller as a hybrid genre which has been readily combined with other genre forms. She looks at the erotic thriller as woman’s film, erotic thriller comedies, erotic thriller science fiction and horror hybrids, erotic thriller action-adventures, as well as the genre’s influence on other forms, such as the Hong Kong Category III film, European sex-thrillers and art house erotic thrillers.