Over the past couple of decades quite a few disreputable film genres have been rehabilitated. Even 1970 British sex comedies, once the most despised genre of all, are now available on Blu-Ray, fully restored ad loaded with extras. But there is one film genre that is still regarded as being beyond the pale and totally unworthy of even the smallest respect - 1990s direct-to-video erotic thrillers. You’re still not only allowed to sneer at those - you’re expected to sneer at them.
Shannon Tweed was the queen of the direct-to-video erotic thriller and she’s also regarded as fair game for snarkiness.
Which brings us to Illicit Dreams. Is it really that bad? In my view, no. But it does depend on what you’re expecting from it. We’ll get to that later.
Moira (Shannon Tweed) is married to Daniel Davis (Joe Cortese). He’s a hard-driving rich businessman with powerful political connections. He might wear well-tailored suits but he is really just a slick smooth thug. He treats Moira as a slave. He hits her. He bullies her.
Her friend Melinda (Michelle Johnson) is pushing Moira to divorce Daniel. Melinda means well but it hasn’t occurred to her than Daniel might in fact be genuinely dangerous. Very dangerous.
It’s her dreams that keep Moira going although they also disturb her because they seem so real. She keeps dreaming of a particular man. He’s good-looking and kind and very sexy. She’s never met him, she doesn’t know if he exists, but she loves him.
What Moira doesn’t know is that across town Nick (Andrew Stevens) is having similar dreams, about a woman. The sort of woman he would love to meet. He’s never met her, he doesn’t know if she exists, but he loves her.
The man Moira has been dreaming about is of course Nick. And the woman Nick has been dreaming about is Moira.
Then they meet by accident.
You know that Daniel will find out and that things will get dangerous and nasty. From this point on the movie becomes a fairly straightforward although well-executed erotic thriller. The paranormal elements that make the first half of the movie so interesting get shunted aside. But as an erotic thriller it has some fine suspense and it does get quite tense and exiting towards the end.
And then there’s the ending. I’m not going to risk spoilers by saying any more, except that it left me wanting to hurl a brick at the screen.
Shannon Tweed isn’t the world’s greatest actress but she’s quite good and she’s likeable and sympathetic. Andrew Stevens is a bit dull but he’s OK. Joe Cortese goes way over the top and he’s certainly a memorable and creepy villain.
This was obviously a low-budget movie but it’s slick enough and professional enough and it has a few reasonably effective spooky visual moments.
This is not Citizen Kane. It’s not ground-breaking. It won’t redefine your understanding of cinema. It’s not trying to do any of that. It’s just offering an hour-and-a-half of fairly decent entertainment.
There is some nudity and some sex fairly graphic sex scenes but overall the erotic content is far from excessive.
You might assume that moves such as this, thrillers with added T&A, were aimed mostly at male audiences. Illicit Dreams is however essentially a romance. It’s a paranormal romance. A paranormal steamy romance. Which means that in actuality we’re in serious Chick Flick territory.
Mostly I enjoyed Illicit Dreams, apart from that ending. Recommended, with that caveat.
It’s available on a double-header DVD (paired with another Shannon Tweed flick, Indecent Behavior 4). The transfer is pretty decent. I also highly recommend Shannon Tweed's 1993 movie A Woman Scorned.
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