Hot Target (1985)

Hot Target is a 1985 erotic thriller from New Zealand (despite several American cast members it actually appears to be an Anglo-New Zealand production).

Christine Webber (Simone Griffeth) is an American woman married to hard-driving wealthy business tycoon Clive Webber (Bryan Marshall). The marriage is not exactly a happy one. Clive cares about making money and destroying business rivals and that’s about all he cares for.

Taking her dogs for a walk in the park Christine meets an American named Greg Standford (Steve Marachuk). He’s pretty obviously coming on to her.

As the days pass they keep meeting in the park and he gets more insistent. He discovers who she is and her telephone number and he discovers where she lives. Maybe the alarm bells should have been ringing for her but she’s very bored and so of course they begin having an affair.

The alarm bells really should start ringing when she finds out that he’s a thief but the sex is so good and she just can’t help herself. I guess it’s the sexy bad boy rebel thing.

If she was thinking clearly she might have figured out that if Greg is a thief that might explain why he’s so interested in getting to know a rich man’s wife. Because Greg intends to rob Clive Webber.

There are several things that make this brilliant scheme of Greg’s a bad idea. If you’re a thief then mixing business with pleasure is risky. Greg might be a skilful thief but he’s arrogant and reckless. Christine might be a willing bed partner but she’s not very discreet. There’s also the fact that Clive is not completely stupid. And then there’s Ben. Ben is Clive’s personal assistant. Christine describes him as Clive’s loyal Doberman and that’s what he is. Ben doesn’t approve of Christine to start with and he’s the sort of guy who’s going to notice if his boss’s wife is behaving as if she’s having an affair.

So pretty obviously this is likely to end badly for all concerned.

The acting is OK. Simone Griffeth and Steve Marachuk do have some chemistry. Marachuk is reasonably convincing as a sexy bad boy. Simone Griffeth is adequate as an actress although one suspects that her casting had more to do with her willingness to take her clothes off, which she does very frequently. Bryan Marshall is fine as the cold controlling Clive Webber.

This is one of only two feature films directed by Dennis C. Lewiston He does a competent if uninspired job. He also wrote the screenplay, which is best described also as competent if not terribly inspired. I imagine he was aiming for something like Body Heat.

It’s not hard to predict where the story is going although there are some twists at the end.

The New Zealand locations help.

You really need to think of this as the 80s equivalent of a B-movie. It was picked up by Crown International and it’s the sort of movies destined for the drive-in market or the straight-to-video market back in those days. If you accept all that and if you accept that it’s not going to be Body Heat then it’s a perfectly acceptable second-tier slightly neo noirish erotic thriller.

What this movie mostly has going for it is that Simone Griffeth gets naked a lot and there are plenty of steamy sex scenes.

This movie pops up in a few budget DVD sets including the Mill Creek Drive-In Cult Classics 32 Movie Collection. The transfer is unfortunately fullframe. Image quality is acceptable. I believe there’s a better release from Scorpion Releasing but I’m not sure that I personally would bother hunting it down. If you buy the Drive-In Cult Classics collection (and you should buy it) then it’s worth giving this one a spin. It’s moderately entertaining.