Waves of Lust

Using the potentially claustrophobic atmosphere aboard a yacht to develop a thriller has almost become a movie cliche by now. Most people would probably regard the Australian film Dead Calm as the originator of this idea, but there are a few films that did the same idea before. Ondata di piacere in one of them (an even earlier one is Top Sensation by Ottavio Alessi), and - just as Dead Calm - it also featured a homicidal maniac (John Steiner).

However, there are differences: the title already suggests sexual content and the film delivers, but 'piacere' is not really the right word to describe what's going on. The sex is not exactly playful, especially towards the later stages of the film when Steiner's behaviour becomes increasingly nasty. So, this is less of a horror film than Dead Calm and more of a sex&crime thriller.

Many people will find this shocking and frightening (if not downright offensive), but if we look beyond that we find a film that has been very well put together.