CJ Entertainment/Warner Bros./20th Century Fox
In erotic thrillers, sex and violence are intrinsically linked. Promiscuous women and men (often Michael Douglas or Richard Gere) are punished by violence or death for succumbing to lust. Women are, more often than not, deadly and conniving seductresses, and men are bumbling idiots looking for one thing. And, somehow, everybody’s rich. The movies usually go like this: boy meets extremely hot, mysterious woman, then things start going terribly wrong. Some films play around with the formula to varying degrees of success.
Inherently cheesy by design and designed in the 1980s, an era ridden with cinematic cheese, the genre’s roots come from film noir and the modern thriller. Whether they’re trying to or not, these erotic thrillers exist in an alternate reality in which people are murdered with ice picks while having sex, or by being bashed in the head with their own snow globe. The genre dominated the box office throughout the ’80s and ’90s. But it didn’t stop there. Some of the best erotic thrillers earned Oscar nominations across many categories. Adrian Lyne’s 1987 film Fatal Attraction earned itself six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Glenn Close (she should have won, by the way).
Erotic thrillers are contemporary fantasies that examine relationships and the human condition, but never too deeply—because their lack of depth is what makes them so fun. With last year’s Deep Water and The Batman—which is not an erotic thriller, exactly, but mixed violence and noir in an erotic atmosphere—the genre is making a slow, but sure comeback. From Swimfan to Fatal Attraction, here are the 35 greatest erotic thrillers, and where you can watch them.
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The original Only Murders in the Building. In this film starring Sharon Stone and Billy Baldwin, the residents of a luxurious “sliver” building in New York City sleep with each other and end up dead.
Kathleen Turner plays a fashion designer by day, sex worker by night in this erotic thriller that accidentally veers into the camp category due to its bizarre plot and equally bizarre performances. A vibrator is used as a murder weapon.
In this attempt at a remake of Hitchcock’s 1954 film Dial M for Murder, a Wall Street guy played by Michael Douglas asks the man sleeping with his wife to kill her.
Wild Things is twisted trash, but a ’90s erotic thriller essential. Based in an upscale Miami suburb, teens played by Neve Campbell and Denise Richards falsely accuse their high school guidance counselor of rape. The accusations and the subsequent trial reveal an elaborate scheme to get millions. There’s murder, too. And post-credit scenes, because there is no other way to explain what happens in this movie.
A young woman’s roommate seems perfect, until her jealousy takes a sinister turn. The film is a classic due to dedicated performances from leads Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bridget Fonda.
Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen star in this erotic thriller/noir from director Paul Schrader and writer Bret Easton Ellis. While the film is flawed, Lohan is its light. She delivers one of her career-best performances, indicating that the genre suits her smokey voice and allure.
This so-bad-it-might-be-good film stars Bruce Willis as a New York City psychologist who, after witnessing a patient die by suicide, suffers from psychosomatic color blindness, which has taken away his ability to see the color red (that’s the color of blood!). So, naturally, he travels to Los Angeles, where his trauma continues with even more murders.
Richard Gere, who always gets into so much trouble when he’s in an erotic thriller, plays a psychiatrist who falls for his patient’s irresistible sister and, as a result, becomes a suspect in a murder in which the weapon is a dumbbell.
The Wachowskis’ first feature film about a blesbian affair is as iconic as it is erotic. Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon play the women who fall for each other and concoct a clever plan to leave their male partners and walk away with millions.
Cruel Intentions, which follows wealthy, horny, and incestuous Manhattan teens who place a bet on an innocent peer, is so camp that it is good thanks to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s thunderous, committed performance. Featuring songs from Counting Crows and The Verve, it is also a ’90s time capsule.
In this terrible but enamoring, quintessential early 20th century motion picture, Erika Christensen plays teenage seductress Madison who becomes obsessed with Ben, a swimmer with dreams of going to Stamford and a girlfriend. The pool and emails are characters, too.
Erotic thrillers aren’t safe from Hollywood’s obsession with itself. In this Hollywood movie about Hollywood that pays homage to Hitchcock films like Rear Window, a young actor gets involved in the adult entertainment industry after he accidentally witnesses a woman getting murdered.
Darren Aronofsky’s film about a ballerina whose passion consumes her does not follow the same beats or tropes as an erotic thriller, but is an erotic thriller nonetheless. Natalie Portman’s performance as Nina, a ballerina who develops a rivalry with newcomer Lily (Mila Kunis) but is also enamored with her, won her an Oscar for Best Actress.
David Lynch’s neo-noir mystery film tells the story of an aspiring actress who recently moved to L.A. from the Midwest. She discovers and befriends a woman suffering from amnesia after a car crash, and the two work together to discover her true identity.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays polar opposite doppelgängers whose lives become intertwined in this thriller from director Denis Villeneuve. Gyllenhaal’s dual performances as a professor investigating his lookalike and his sinister counterpart are some of his best to date. If anything, Enemy will have you begging for some sex scenes in Dune: Part Two.
This film, set in 18th century Paris, stars Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer as petty and jealous members of the royal court who plot to humiliate and ruin the lives of their younger romantic rivals.
A Wall Street guy played by Mickey Rourke has an intense, BDSM style affair with an art gallery employee played by Kim Basinger. Adrian Lyne’s original cut was deemed too explicit by MGM, the film’s American distributor, so audiences in the U.S. didn’t get as much kink.
Richard Gere once again cannot get a break in an erotic thriller. Written and directed by Paul Schrader, Gere stars as a high-end gigolo based in Los Angeles who becomes the prime suspect of a murder after a client is killed. When he investigates, he discovers that he’s been framed.
Diane Lane, who has a seemingly perfect life in the suburbs, begins an affair with a young, hot artist with a massive loft in Soho, New York City. Things get violent when her husband, played by Richard Gere, discovers the affair and gets his hands on a snow globe.
20 years after Unfaithful, erotic thriller master Adrian Lyne returned to the genre with this cheesy but fun, water-themed film starring Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck. The story of the co-stars—who very publicly dated after filming, then broke up mere months before Ben got back together with Jennifer Lopez—was bigger than the movie itself, which, if you’re curious, is about a husband who has a little tendency to murder the men his wife has affairs with openly. Snails are involved.
In this third film adaptation of the 1934 novel of the same name, Jessica Lange plays a young wife who begins an affair with a drifter played by Jack Nicholson after he begins working at her diner. Unhappy in her marriage to an older Greek man, they devise a plan to murder him and start a new life together without losing the diner… or getting caught.
This adaptation of Josephine Hart’s novel of the same name stars Juliette Binoche, Miranda Richardson, and Jeremy Irons. Irons plays a British politician who has an affair with his son’s girlfriend and becomes obsessed with her. Honestly, anything with Irons in it counts as an erotic thriller, from Damage to The Lion King to House of Gucci.
Director Jane Campion makes the blend of sexuality and violence appear seamless in this film starring Meg Ryan as a teacher who gets romantically involved with a detective investigating the brutal murders in her Manhattan neighborhood, played by a pre-Hulk Mark Ruffalo.
It doesn’t get any more erotic than French cinema. In this film from writer/director Alain Guiraudie that features unsimulated sex scenes performed by doubles, Franck can’t resist Michel, whom he falls for despite having witnessed him drown someone in the lake.
From Academy Award winning director Ang Lee, this film set in World War II follows a secret agent who falls for her target, whom she is supposed to kill.
In another banger from Adrian Lyne, Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore play high school sweethearts who get the titular indecent proposal from billionaire Robert Redford: one million dollars for one night with Demi. They go forward with the offer and subsequent payment, which tests their marriage.
While investigating the murder of a rock star who was killed with an ice pick while having sex, a detective played by Michael Douglas, the undisputed king of erotic thrillers, finds himself entangled in the world (and vagina) of a suspect, seductive crime novelist Catherine Tramell, played by Sharon Stone.
David Cronenberg’s controversial film is not to be confused with the Oscar-winning ensemble film of the same name or with any film in the Fast & Furious franchise. Helen Hunt stars alongside James Spader, who blesses cinema once again with his inherent eroticism in this film about people who are horny for… you guessed it, car crashes. This is the Crash that should have won best picture.
Linda Florentino plays the femme fatale to end all femme fatales. The OG Amy Dunne steals her husband’s drug money and flees while he’s in the shower, then hides out in a small town where she meets her next conquest, whom she convinces to help her get rid of her husband, permanently.
In Adrian Lyne’s definitive erotic thriller, after a married man (Michael Douglas) ends a brief affair, the scorned woman (Glenn Close) refuses to part ways and seeks revenge in creepy, desperate, and violent ways.
In this poignant erotic thriller from South Korean director Park Chan-wook, a woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but she is secretly involved in an elaborate plot to steal her inheritance. The film is loosely based on the 2002 novel Fingersmith, but changes the setting from Victorian era Britain to Korea under Japanese colonial rule.
David Fincher’s stylish adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel examines the complicated marriage of Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), who were passionately in love until they weren’t. After Amy disappears, evidence suggests that apathetic Nick is behind it. Fincher and the cast take the material seriously, but embrace the absurdity of the genre simultaneously.
After learning that his wife has imagined being with other men, a Manhattan doctor played by Tom Cruise discovers a masked secret society/sex group in Stanley Kubrick’s bizarre but masterful final film. Thanks to a clever screenplay, thoughtful performances, and Kubrick’s stylish but meaningful eye, the film dives deep into themes presented by erotic thrillers that most erotic thrillers never really bother to address despite bringing them up.
Body Heat is the epitome of erotic thrillers because it is the most genuinely erotic and most genuinely thrilling, with a genuinely shocking final twist to top many twists. The film, which stars William Hurt and Kathleen Turner as lovers Ned and Matty, who conspire to murder her husband, also features a pre-Cheers Ted Danson dancing gleefully alone on a dock at night, right before informing his friend Ned that he knows about the murder he committed.
Contributor Carrie is a Brooklyn-based entertainment journalist and critic with bylines in GQ, The Ringer, Vulture, The Cut, and more.
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