Last year Retromedia produced a trio of films (Model For Murder, Deadly Pickup, and The Love Machine) in which they switched from their usual output of sci-fi comedies and attempted (with varying degrees of success) to do more films in the vein of the erotic thrillers which were more typical among softcore films in the 1990’s. This film represents their latest attempt, and I must say right off the bat that it is a major improvement.

Minor spoilers ahead.

Directed by Dean McKendrick and written by newcomer Suzanne Cabot, this film stars Kira Noir as Katy Fletcher. She’s a bored “trophy wife,” married to a rich businessman named Harris Fletcher (Damian Raven) who is constantly working, either away from home or at the office, leaving Katy sexually frustrated. One night, while out drinking at a bar with a friend (Carla – played by Madeleine Wade), she is approached by a man named Mark (Kyle Knies), who buys her a drink and begins aggressively flirting with her. At Carla’s urging, Katy quickly agrees to go home with Mark, and they have sex. As far as Katy is concerned, this is just meant to be a one night stand. But the next day Katy gets a visit at home from Harris’ secretary Jen (Megan Medellin), who shows Katy a folder full of pictures of Katy and Mark together. Jen demands $6000 cash from Katy, in exchange for not showing the pictures to Harris.

It turns out that this is an ongoing scam that Jen and Mark have been perpetrating together for some time, in which Jen uses her contacts at her job to blackmail some of Harris’ rich clients and business partners. And now they’ve set their sights on Katy as their latest victim. Katy rushes to get the money by selling one of her diamond necklaces that Harris had given her previously. But when it’s time to pay up, Jen demands even more, but this time it’s for herself, as she doesn’t plan to share with Mark. But when Mark finds out that Jen has been holding out on him, and that she’s been “cheating” on him by having an affair with Harris, he devises his own plan and goes to see Katy again. Mark tells Katy that he is a victim of Jen’s too, and implies that Jen plans on killing them both to cover her tracks, and so the only way to defend themselves is for Katy to kill Jen. He gives her a gun and keys to his and Jen’s apartment, and Katy heads over to do the deed. . .

That’s all I’ll say about the plot, you’ll have to watch the film yourself to see how this ends. But I’ll just say that there’s a few more “twists” before it’s over.

Story-wise, this is one of the best films that Retromedia has done in ages. It’s very engaging and suspenseful. I don’t know where Suzanne Cabot has come from (her IMDB page currently only lists one other Retromedia film which hasn’t been released yet), but if this is her first script she’s off to a great start, and Retromedia would do well to keep her around.

As far as acting goes, Kira Noir really stands out here. As the lead character, she gets the most screen-time, so this film pretty much stands on her shoulders, and she rises to the occasion, showing a range of emotions as she convincingly plays this conflicted character. And, yes, I am going to bring up the fact that she is Black, because I have advocated for the inclusion of more Black actors in softcore film for years, so I’m very happy that Retromedia chose to cast her as the lead, making this (I’m pretty positive, anyone can correct me if I’m wrong) the very first softcore feature film starring a Black woman. It’s about damn time, and a step in the right direction, which is why I’m particularly pleased that Kira does such a good job.

Megan Medellin shows a lot of talent as Jen. I would love to see her brought back in future softcore films. The rest of the cast, which includes Jay Smooth as Adam, a Jeweler whom Katy goes to in order to sell one of her necklaces to get the ransom money for Jen, also performs well. A slight exception is Kyle Knies, who does fine for the most part, but didn’t look quite as convincing as he should have in the scenes where he’s supposed to be “menacing.”

Dean McKenrick does his usual great job in the director’s chair, especially when it comes to the most important thing about softcore films. Y’all know what I’m talkin’ about. That’s right…let’s get to THE SEX SCENES!

Kira has three full sex scenes, one with Kyle, one with Megan, and one with Jay. All are hot, but the lesbian scene stands out as probably my favorite sex scene in this film. Megan has two other scenes, one with Kyle, and one with Damian, in which the latter is probably my 2nd favorite sex scene in the film.

In addition to those 5, there are two non-sex nude solo scenes. The film opens with a nice slow scene of Karlie Montana taking a shower. We later learn that she is meant to be one of Jen and Mark’s previous blackmail victims. And there’s a scene where Kira Noir masturbates on a bed while wearing lingerie. They’re good scenes, well-shot, but I would have preferred if they were 2 more full sex scenes instead. That’s the only thing that keeps me from giving this film a full 5-STAR rating.

Maybe I’m being nitpicky on that, but it’s my blog. So I’m giving it 4 AND A HALF STARS

Jason Majercik is selling this Unrated DVD for $19.99. Email him at quinn_nash@hotmail.com for his softcore inventory list.