These movies are suspenseful AND steamy.
Between or so 1980 and 2002 , the erotic thriller was one of cinema ’s most permeating genre . mix factor of film noir , psychodrama , and easy lay opera , these virtuoso - driven spectacles represent Hollywood ’s peak lasciviousness , before the neuter superhero era of today sideline motion-picture show build around steamy A - listers getting down and dirty . Hulu’sDeep Water , a raw infidelity drama star former real - life coupleBen Affleck and Ana de Armas , heralds the take of titillating - thriller master Adrian Lyne , who also directedFatal Attraction , Indecent Proposal , andUnfaithful . Could that intend the musical genre will see a second life because cyclosis serve are n’t beholden to big - silver screen megahit trend ? We can only trust . For now , Thrillist has compiled a listing of stirring , sensual , lovably slaphappy thriller to whet your appetence .
Basic Instinct(1992)
Has any movie ever done more for ice - based weapon ? ' 90s bad - boy director Paul Verhoeven pass us this shocking tale of a damaged pig , played with real scumbag glee by Michael Douglas , investigating an icepick - wielding in series orca , but Sharon Stone is the substantial star of this show . Unlike the late - dark premium - overseas telegram schlock that seek to slip its manner , this flesh classic hasa common sense of humor and a Hitchcockian playfulnessto go along with all the nakedness , violence , and bum one - liners .
Body of Evidence(1993)
One of the flash point cultural argumentation about photographic film and television centers around sex scenes , whether or not they ’re necessary , actually sexy , or if there are few of them than there used to be . Whereas the learned person in these sorts of conversations seem to harmonise that a sex scene should , at most , exist in the main to add something to the story , Body of Evidenceseems to exist altogether so that we can watch Willem Dafoe and Madonna go at each other . The movie , a collection of more and more sadomasochistic sexual clash with a sprinkling of game on top , concern potential femme fatale Rebecca Carlson ( Madonna ) , a woman on test for allegedly murdering her loaded lover via autoerotic asphyxiation , who immediately recruit into a sexual relationship with her attorney Frank Dulaney ( Dafoe ) , their steamy encounters — belts , candle wax , handcuffs , you get it — perform a turnaround of their power moral force in the courtroom , Rebecca keep in line the sexuality while playing the shrinking violet in front of the jury . Yes , the picture is unfit . Yes , they ’re both devastatingly hot in it . You ca n’t have everything !
The Canyons(2013)
Infamously crowdfunded by director Paul Schrader ( Taxi Driver ) and writer Bret Easton Ellis ( American Psycho ) , this erotic thriller protests the destruction of the moving picture - go experience by … try the interview ’s longanimity . The Canyonsfollows a couple ( act as by Lindsay Lohan and controversial smut adept James Deen ) as their show - business dream chip away at their souls . To compensate , they score and destroy every half - human left in Hollywood . The Canyonswent directly to VOD in 2013 so , as the dawdler trumpet , people could bask it " from the privacy of your own abode . " Come for the sexual urge , stay for the mesmerizing mundanity .
Cruel Intentions(1999)
In adapting the classical French novelLes Liaisons Dangereusesfor the WB generation , author - theater director Roger Kumble does n’t rend back on any of the book ’s nasty back - stabbing and emotional handling . or else , Cruel Intentionsrevels in the melodramatic tawdriness of it all and features truly urge on leading performance from Sarah Michelle Gellar ( using all the tricks that made her so sympathetic onBuffy the Vampir\e Slayeras connive mean girl Kathryn Merteuil ) , Ryan Phillippe ( as her charmingly vacant step - brother Sebastian Valmont ) , and Reese Witherspoon ( as the virginal Annette Hargrove).“Bittersweet Symphony"has never sounded sweeter .
Dressed to Kill(1980)
First and first of all , any viewing of Brian De Palma’sDressed to Killshould stray on the side of caution because it ’s one of the many films of the twentieth one C that perpetuated false idea about gender and genial illness , making it extremely debatable . As an auteur of the thriller literary genre , though , De Palma is at the top of his game , taking pool stick fromgiallo moviesto add elan and erotism to create the celluloid ( and usher in a whole decade - Charles Frederick Worth of erotic thriller ) . After a gender worker name Liz Blake ( Nancy Allen ) witness the murder of a sexually disappointed house wife who was indulging in an affair ( Angie Dickinson ) , she finds herself both hunting for and hunted by the grampus , making for a titillating mystery of kinky sex and suspense .
Eyes Wide Shut(1999)
Eyes Wide Shutis the best psychotic person - sexual odysessy that ’ll also revive your Christmas spirit . Through Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman ’s titillating tensity , you ’ll see Christmas trees station in the background of multiple scenes by notoriously punctilious director Stanley Kubrick , cementing this deeply Freudian meditation on desire a true " holiday " film . At the same meter , the last scene of marital reconciliation does meet out during a lite - straw shopping head trip . It ’s the most mind - bending , brooding , binge - sate Christmas picture ever made .
Fatal Attraction(1987)
In the yr since its release , Fatal Attractionhas been boiled ( pun intended ) down to its most iconic moments . The poor bunny , for instance . But when you in reality give it a watch , you remember how skillful and sexy Adrian Lyne ’s iconic thriller is . You have intercourse the basic premise : Michael Douglas , the king of this genre , is Dan Gallagher , a lawyer with a great flat and a kind wife ( Anne Archer ) and a cute girl who are looking to move out of the city . When his brood is aside , Dan meet book editor in chief Alex Forrest ( Glenn Close ) with wild hairsbreadth and a cigarette dangling from her lip . They have an insinuation - filled lunch and start an affair . But whereas Dan mean it ’s a brief matter , Alex has other design . What ’s singular is that even after you get it on where thing are cash in one’s chips , the chemistry between Dan and Alex is so acute you sort of get why he keep come back .
Fear(1996)
Fearhas maintain ill fame mostly thanks to one fit : the curler coaster ride . It ’s well-fixed to see why ; this minute add together up how far the ludicrous titillating thriller goes to ratch up both the sexiness and the charge . Fear , about a 20 - something guy ( Mark Wahlberg ) into 16 - twelvemonth - old Nicole ( Reese Witherspoon ) , chronicles their relationship from crush to obsession . You wo n’t be surprised to learn that thing take a potentially fatal twist when Wahlberg ’s David becomes increasingly genitive and abusive , battling Nicole ’s father ( William Petersen ) for laterality in her life . David ’s fixation and next-to-last intrusion sequence are the stuff of nightmares , but they number off as comically melodramatic and ill - fitting in the flick ’s noir timber — all of which makesFeara ridiculously fun tumbler coaster drive .
In the Cut(2003)
Director Jane Campion turns the psychological thriller on its head with this thoughtful and bracing plastic film star Meg Ryan as a cleaning woman who gets caught up in a execution investigation in Manhattan . In a role in the beginning developed for Nicole Kidman , who has a producing credit here , Ryan digs deeply into her lineament ’s oddment and fear . The movie functions as an often perturbing mystery , one with a shocking ending , and as a portrait of a woman bring off her own desire and fight with the demands of the troubled men who circle around her .
Jagged Edge(1985)
A slenderly lesser - known other employment from screenwriter Joe Estervez , the brainiac behindBasic InstinctandShowgirls , Jagged Edgeoffers an alluring commixture of violent mayhem , poorly - advised Romance language , and effectual intrigue . Glenn Close play Teddy Barnes , a refutation attorney enrol to defend a wealthy newspaper publisher ( Jeff Bridges ) accused of bolt down his wife . Soon enough , they ’re riding horses , preparing for a run , and acquit on their own surreptitious affair . Set in the wealthy home of San Francisco ’s elite , the moving picture has a profuse timbre that set it asunder from many of the later effectual thriller of the ' 90s , which often played out in the elbow grease - fill Southern cities of Grisham ’s novel .
Law of Desire(1987)
A few of Pedro Almodóvar ’s movies could be labeled titillating thrillers : Tie Me Up ! bond Me Down!,Live Flesh , Bad Education . None of them follow the literary genre ’s American expression , but they ’re all lustful and thorny in that signature Almodóvarian way . For the purposes of this list , firing upLaw of Desire , the Spanish director ’s third collaboration with Antonio Banderas , his preferent leading man . Banderas plays a gay novice who occupy a fierce liking to a successful pic music director ( Eusebio Poncela ) already mire in a complicated kinship with a fickle humankind ( Miguel Molina).Desireis a comedy that veers into pitch - black-market waters as its passionate sexual love triangle turns deadly .
The Piano Teacher(2001)
Fair warning : It ’s perhaps not quite precise to describeThe Piano Teacher , director Michael Haneke ’s bailiwick of revilement and alienation asterisk Isabelle Huppert , as an " erotic thiller . " With its cautiously staged long takes , unrelenting stress on the moral force of ascendancy , and flare-up of classical music , the celluloid has few of the gauzy , sweaty pleasure typically associated with the genre . or else , the story of tortured piano professor Erika Kohut ( Huppert ) unfolds in a double-dyed series of confrontation that show how the violence of her home life-time with her roughshod female parent ( Annie Girardot ) inform the unsettling human relationship she enter on with a undimmed novel pupil ( Benoît Magimel ) , one who shows a especial interest in her . In his clearly redoubtable way , Haneke sophisticate the tongue as the movie builds to its shocking conclusion , which Huppert brings to life with devastating restraint and emotional clarity .
Poison Ivy(1992)
This dead calibrate bit of former ' 90s sleaze come from director Katt Shea . Bizarre sexual tension floods the blind in this story of a beautiful and scandalous wayward adolescent , played by Drew Barrymore , who befriends a sour , rich , compulsive prevaricator named Sylvie ( Sara Gilbert ) . Sylvie invites her new pal , who goes by Ivy , into her home with her mad mother ( Cheryl Ladd ) and leering founding father ( Tom Skerrit ) . Of course , Ivy goes ahead and seduces Sylvie ’s daddy , but it ’s the unspoken tenseness between the two little girl that give the movie its heat as we see Ivy through Sylvie ’s intoxicating gaze .
Single White Female(1992)
Today , the term " Single White Female " might be more ubiquitous than the 1992 film itself . Starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Lee , Single White Femaleis a camp fun thriller that gets to the heart of the staying superpower of that musical phrase . Fonda plays Allie , a software architect , who , after breaking off her booking , need a roommate . In comes Hedy ( Jason Lee ) , and the two become close rapidly , but Hedy becomes excessively protective of Allie and when she start dressing like her — all bets are off . I hate to callSingle White Femalea “ hoyden , ” but in its ' 90s thriller way ( everlasting with inauspicious auburn bowl haircut ) , it ’s a total blast .
Unfaithful(2002)
After making germinal erotic thriller of the ' eighty and ' 90 like9 ½ WeeksandFatal Attraction , Adrian Lyne return to the musical style in the early ' 00s when it had fallen out of its corner federal agency heyday . To bring some sauciness back to the blockbuster , he remade the 1969 French filmThe Unfaithful Wifewith Richard Gere and Diane Lane . It be the unsafe turn of events that unfold when a suburban housewife let her yearning forsomething moreget the best of her and indulges in an affair with a untried stranger . With jealousy , lust , and Lane in a Golden Globe - nominated part that ’s full of physicality and powerful glances , what more could you want in an erotic thriller ?
The Voyeurs(2021)
There are scarcely any new titillating thriller in the 20202s , but this late film from Michael Mohan intends to bring in the genre back . take cues from Hitchcock and genre classics like Brian De Palma’sBody Double , the moving picture peers behind the blinds and into one alluring couple ’s sexual activity living when another young twain , played by Justice Smith and Sydney Sweeney , movement into the building across the elbow room . Obsession and intrigue , obviously , watch over . With tantalizing sequences and a fair percentage of mind - bogglingtwists , the music genre film make bold to make a Peeping Tom out of you .
Wild Things(1998)
If you , like many , watchedWild Thingsat an impressionable years , it still might be one of the sexiest movies you ’ve ever seen , despite its magnitude of problems . In Florida ( of track ) , a perpetual bachelor gamy school pleader ( played by a VERY sexy Matt Dillon ) is incriminate of dishonour two student ( Denise Richards and Neve Campbell ) . The history is far more complicated and twisty than that assumption , which includes many a consensual sexual activity scene , threesomes galore , and , if you slo - mo in just the right way , Kevin Bacon ’s 1st Baron Verulam . It ’s a well - executed erotic thriller that came out right as the musical style gave its last gasp of melodic line .
Image by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
TriStar Pictures
IFC Films
Filmways Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Screen Gems Pathé Distribution
Lauren Films
New Line Cinema
20th Century Fox
