Erotic cinema is back in a big way—why? The answer is threefold. The most obvious reason? ‘Tis the season. Winter blues and seasonal depression are rampant, and the easiest way to remedy the acute loneliness, even for just two hours, is to lock in on a raunchy movie.
The second reason speaks to a more widespread cultural issue: an increasingly sexless society. Prudish behavior and sensual censorship has been on the rise for a while, exacerbated by Gen Z’s sexual recession. It’s no surprise that an internet porn addicted generation leans towards celibacy, especially considering their formative years were spent in a stifling post-#MeToo, mid-pandemic era. That’s likely why they’re nostalgic for the 90s and Y2K trends—a time period blessed with Girls Gone Wild and Britney Spears music videos. For a blip in the late 1980s to the early 2000s, ‘Sex Sells’ was paramount, with Adrian Lyne directing 9 ½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction, and An Indecent Proposal back to back.
The culture is starving for something to make them tingle, which brings me to the last causation for the renaissance of erotic cinema—Halina Reijn’s upcoming film Babygirl. If you read our review on the Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson psychosexual drama, you know it will, if anything, satisfy those lonesome-fuelled lascivious urges.
To ring in the renaissance, we’ve curated a list of erotic thrillers to watch before or after catching the Christmas Day release of Babygirl. Caution: These selections aren’t for the general public. Despite the earlier mention, no Adrian Lyne films made the cut, nor did Basic Instinct. The titles listed below are for the real sickos—those seeking a cinematic experience as close to pornography as the MPAA will allow. Bon Spectacle.
CRASH (1996)
Even if your tastes are more missionary than masochistic, Cronenberg’s 1996 cult classic has a way of, let’s say, revving the engine. The average, neurotypical person doesn’t wake up fantasizing about fender benders, but Crash doesn’t care about your vanilla tendencies. It takes symphorophilia—getting turned on by car accidents—and unapologetically crashes it into the mainstream. Suddenly, the idea of leather seats and shattered windshields becomes less horrifying and more… intriguing.
SANCTUARY (2022)
If you thought Margaret Qualley was hot in The Substance, wait until you see her wielding a riding crop. The overlooked 2022 film, Sanctuary, has Qualley playing Rebecca, a dominatrix who isn’t about to let her Roman Roy-adjacent client (Christopher Abbott) end their arrangement just because he’s about to become CEO of Daddy’s company. When Rebecca learns this might be their final session, she doesn’t take it lying down—though plenty of other people do. Fiery chaos, power plays, and enough sexual tension to light a cig ensue.
NYMPHOMANIAC (2013)
Hear me out. Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac is the kind of two-parter that’ll either leave you genuinely turned on or so uncomfortable that you can’t help but feel a little aroused. Either way, it’s a win-win scenario. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Stacy Martin as Joe and Young Joe, respectively, perform some of the hottest and nastiest simulated (or not-so-simulated) sex scenes on film. Watching and enjoying Nymphomaniac is the kind of experience that reshapes your fantasies in ways you might not want to admit out loud.
IN THE CUT (2003)
The audience that first viewed Jane Campion’s In the Cut in 2003 couldn’t handle themes of sexual liberation mixed with brutality. The critics hated it, mostly they hated seeing Meg Ryan do full frontal in a way that didn’t pander to the male gaze. Viewers today, with a slightly more developed palette for sex scenes, can now sit back and enjoy the voyeuristic exploration of female pleasure featuring a rugged and slightly predatory Mark Ruffalo.
THE HANDMAIDEN (2016)
This one is mostly to throw the lesbians a bone, but truly you can’t talk about erotic thrillers anymore without mentioning The Handmaiden. Park Chan-Wook’s 2016 film is a sumptuous, twisted sapphic fantasy wrapped in a web of deceit, double-crosses, and enough steamy tension to fog up your screen. It gives the genre’s overused trope of the ‘forbidden’ romance a much needed refresh—a subversive and undeniably queer love story.
THE DREAMERS (2003)
A true “I bet it smells crazy in there” movie. The Dreamers is more than just long, drawn-out explicit sex scenes—though there are plenty to go around. Bernardo Bertolucci’s vision combines youthful sensual exploration with a backdrop of political turmoil, making it feel both intimate and timeless. Louis Garrel, Michael Pitt, and Eva Green are naked a lot, and the 1960’s Paris setting does little for the plot, but since it is Bertolucci, it’s arthouse.
SECRETARY (2002)
Secretary walked so Babygirl could do a backflip and run. Both films are more concerned with exploring the boundaries of control, intimacy, and submission than simply being an erotic thriller. The real power behind the 2002 ‘rom-com’ is the ability to arouse without any nudity. Though submission and dominance are central themes, there are no ‘traditional’ sex scenes between the leads James Spader and Maggie Gyllenhaal. The art of suggestion and subtlety are just as effective as a simulated BJ.
SHAME (2011)
Okay, hear me out again. If you want to craft a clinical and detached story about unchecked sex addiction, having a disgustingly cut Michael Fassbender at the helm may invite misinterpretations. Director Steve McQueen was obviously portraying sex—in the protagonist’s case—as an act of compulsion and isolation, not about arousal. Nonetheless, there’s something alluring about self-destructive need for sex, the visceral connection between physical and emotional need. Just me? Okay then.
EYES WIDE SHUT (1999)
Eyes Wide Shut is the definitive psychosexual work of cinema. Featuring the two biggest movie stars in the world—who just so happened to be a married couple—tackling taboo subjects and explicit themes was unprecedented when it was released. Kubrick contextualized desire in the blurred lines of reality, raising questions about whether true intimacy is possible when one’s fantasies remain unspoken. The film may be more intriguing than arousing, but its legacy in erotica lies in its ability to provoke and unsettle. Forever linking the fall of Scientology’s King and Queen with the disillusionment of Alice (Nicole Kidman) and Bill’s (Tom Cruise) marriage will remain a cultural benchmark for decades to come.