Desire (1993)

Director:

Rodney McDonald

Writer:

Rodney McDonald (writer)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

A psychopathic serial killer dumps a bottle of the expensive new perfume 'Desire' on each of his female victims...

Plot Keywords:

Serial Killer | Female Nudity | Beauty | Erotica | Sex

Cast

Geri E. Baker	...	Hostess
Rick Brian	...	Photographer
Rod Britt	...	Cop Clerk
Jennifer Burton	...	Cynthia Hoffman
Carrie Chambers	...	Nicole Meyers
Gregg Daniel	...	Police Captain
Joseph Ferreri	...	Hot Dog Vendor
Don Fischer	...	Male Model
Evelyn Furtak	...	Secretary
Melanie Good	...	Kathleen Rodgers
Carrie Hall	...	Receptionist
Mitchell R. Hanon	...	Mr. Arnaud
Kate Hodge	...	Lauren Allen
Hugh B. Holub	...	FBI Agent
Carrie Janisse	...	Female Model
Todd Joseph	...	Kevin
Martin Kemp	...	Gordon Lewis
Robert W. Mann	...	Shopper
Zoe L. Mann	...	Shopper
Robert Miranda	...	Nick Palermo
Glen Naessens	...	Flashback Killer
Andrea Riave	...	Nicoles Roommate
Thomas A. Schuler	...	Laurens Partner
Marcia Shapiro	...	Store Manager
Lee Ann Shaw	...	Baby Nicky
Deborah Shelton	...	Grace Lantel
Mary Stavin	...	Adrienne
Laurel Torczon	...	Shopper
Deborah Worthing	...	Deborah

Also Known As:

Ultimate Desire

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:16 | USA:R

Company:

Westwind Productions Inc.

Soundtrack:

Desire

Cheap erotic thriller that fails on both counts

Lauren Allen (Katie Hodge) is an ex-cop working on corporate espionage for leading perfume designer Grace Lantel (Deborah Shelton). When someone begins murdering women and leaving bottles of Lantel's new perfume, Desire, as a calling card all clues point to competing perfume designer Gordon Lewis (Martin Kemp). Allen joins up with Nick Palermo (Robert Miranda) to investigate.

This is essentially an erotic drama - i.e. a thin mystery plot that is an excuse to have several nude/sex scenes to bring in the dirty mac audience. Every time someone is killed we are "treated" to the victim rubbing the perfume all over their bodies. It's not even that titillating so that only leaves the story to save the film.

However the mystery is nothing special, as with all these things it's secondary to the nudity. It's hard to care who's killing these women and if you do try to work it out you'll be disappointed. As with all erotic dramas the murderer is never the most obvious character and here the ending is absurd in it's unexpectedness and neatness. It's as if the writer just decides that we've all seen enough breasts and he needs to finish up the mystery. However most people watching this probably don't care about the mystery plot and have ...... erm......how can I say this 'finished your involvement' by the halfway mark - if you know what I mean!

It's funny to see Martin Kemp in an erotic drama - espically now he is experiencing a career renewal in the UK, but here he doesn't really need to put on a good performance. All he has to do is act mysterious as redherrings bounce all round him. Hodge is quite good in the lead and tries to lend some depth with a background story of why she quit the force, but even she is called on to bring some nudity to the proceedings to keep the audience interested.

The only good performance is that of Miranda as Nick Palermo the cop investigating the crimes. He doesn't do anything other than the friendly cop routine but he does it well and makes it feel like his character deserves to be in a better crime thriller rather than a shoddy erotic drama.

Overall this doesn't even try to be anything other than a cheap erotic thriller. Two problems - it's not very erotic and it isn't thrilling in the least. If you considering watching this then you should ask yourself why - if you want titillation why not go and buy a top-shelf magazine? If you want a thriller there's bound to be better ones available in even the smallest video store