A Brief History of Sci-Fi Sex Cinema, Part 2: 1990–1999
The 1990s Softcore Explosion
The erotic thriller became hugely popular on home video and cable in the late 1980s and into the 1990s thanks to both big-studio hits like Fatal Attraction (1987) and independent productions like Night Eyes (1990). The voracious demand for new titles to fill video store shelves led to a boom in production of erotic thrillers. Night Eyes director Jag Mundhra directed several other direct to home video films throughout the 1990s including Last Call (1991) starring Shannon Tweed, The Other Woman (1992), and Sexual Malice (1994). Tweed became synonymous with the erotic thriller throughout the decade with her appearances in the second and third Night Eyes films, the Indecent Behavior series (1993, 1994, 1995), and several others. Even Gregory Dark, a successful director of hardcore features, made a number of popular softcore thrillers in the early 1990s including Carnal Crimes (1991), Secret Games (1992), and Animal Instincts (1992) under the name Alexander Hippolyte to cash in on the sudden popularity of these films on home video.
Video stores weren’t the only businesses to reap the benefits of this softcore gold rush: late night programming for cable channels like Showtime and Cinemax had always been a selling point, and now there was an abundance of new titles to keep viewers…
