Dark Secrets (2016)

Stormy Daniels fleshes out the characters and provides an interesting story instead of the usual "thriller" for this Wicked Pictures release, but unfortunately director Jonathan Morgan drops the ball with some poor casting and lackluster direction/production values. Too bad Stormy didn't direct it herself during her lengthy tenure as one of Wicked's best helmers.

Wicked contract star Asa Akira has the lead role, introduced in a suspenseful opener straight out of the classic Julia Roberts hit "Sleeping with the Enemy", as she riles up her husband Damon Dice, then has sex with him, and slinks off to escape to a new life while he's sleeping.

The creativity of Stormy's screenplay is that Asa disappears from the picture for a lengthy period, as we get to know a group of unrelated (to her) characters who will figure prominently in the denoument. Principal among these is account Michael Vegas, who lives happly with a lesbian roommate Kleio Valentien. Kleio has a year-long relationship with fellow lesbian (and mutli-tattooed like her) Katrina Jade, and Stormy only gradually unfolds the relationships between all of them.

Kleio works as a waitress at a cafe, and here Morgan falters miserably. He stages many NonSex scenes that advance the plot at that cafe, but the set is severely under-decorated and phony looking, and worse yet, the same exact (and distinctive-looking) extras appear in the cafe every scene. Of course, porn and even mainstream cinema is shot with economical use of locations, but some effort at variation is a necessity.

On the run from hubby, Akira gets a job at the cafe, and eventually falls in love with Vegas, leading to a contrived climax and violent showdown with Dice. Morgan clumsily stages the action scenes and rushes the finale, ruining whatever Stormy has built up gradually in her writing.

I liked mos of the performance except for Vegas, who literally keeps looking away from the actor/actress he is speaking too, seeming to be reading cue cards. Also, Dice is an untalented porn stud, overdoing his meanie villain right from the outset, played with zero nuance and lacking only a mustache to furl and unfurl as Dastardly Damon.