Michael Raven was riding mighty high when he shot "Watchers", a typically intricate, bombastic porn film belonging to an era when auteurs overreached rather than simply going through the motions as so many do today. It turned me off, but I encourage a fan to write about it at length.
Its four industry awards are long forgotten, as more erotic and basic porn has followed in its wake -closer to what the audience wants. Story postulates a mysterious cult led by Mr. Marcus, with an evil force at work in the world, focusing on our resourceful heroine Mary (Sydnee Steele), who has been having sexual nightmare visions.
A detective Paul (DIllion in a flat performance) tries to help her, with an ex-cop Damien played by Mike Horner a chief suspect (being named Damien in a horror film is a dead giveaway). Horner later explains that there is a war going on over Mary's soul. The showdown comes at a club (named Crushed Velvet) party where Mary is under Marcus's control,
That party is the setting for some extreme sex, notably the well-cast Bridgette Kerkove in a threesome getting a huge dildo shoved up her posterior. Predictably there's an orgy there with Steele as the centerpiece.
Randy Spears is instrumental in sorting things out and saving the day, and there are some okay plot twists en route to an open ending. One stumbling block to my enjoyment was the miscasting of Sydnee Steele as the heroine. She was a genuine superstar at the turning of the millennium, but is ugly compared to subsequent porn stars and more suitably cast as a villain than good guy. Feature overall has an interesting cinematic look but is unsatisfactory as an alternative to real horror movies.
