Voyeur

Porn auteur Chuck Vincent, who passed away due to an AIDS-related illness in the late '80s, was best known for lighthearted frolics such as JACK & JILL and GAMES WOMEN PLAY though he'd occasionally attempt something in a more serious vein. With ROOMMATES and IN LOVE he delivered two of the finest X-rated soap operas ever made, but his latter-day THE VOYEUR (like his massively underrated 1978 VISIONS) is altogether darker still.

Unemployed photographer Robert Bullock (in a career best performance) finds himself hired by mysterious businessman Jack Wrangler to spy on wealthy man eater Sheri St. Clair, this much to the chagrin of his girlfriend Taija Rae. Expecting Wrangler to be no more than St. Clair's betrayed paramour, Bullock happily sets about capturing the woman's sexual indiscretions on videotape, only to stumble across a far more disquieting plot of which he himself might be the targeted victim.

Well-written by Rick Marx (one of the very best scribes in the XXX industry, though that may not exactly be high praise) and moodily photographed by Larry Revene, this unsung gem of a movie must surely be considered one of the greatest surprises of Vincent's oeuvre. As Bullock descends into a hell (of his own making ?) no punches are pulled, making some of the ensuing sex scenes disturbing rather than arousing, a daring but praiseworthy gamble and one too rarely attempted in current day carnal cinema. This is a serious film with explicit sex in it. Vincent remade it (kind of) as the R-rated IF LOOKS COULD KILL with violent outbursts replacing most of the sexual twists and turns. Unsurprisingly, it couldn't hold a candle to its adult original despite demure turns from porn alumni St. Clair (reprising her role with diminished effect), Veronica Hart and Jamie Gillis.