Making an erotic thriller was a career goal in the ’90s. And the dream seemed just within my grasp in the summer of 1999. During the film school’s trip to Hollywood, editing instructor Julian Semilian (editor on Death Wish 2) had set up a pitch meeting at Pierre David’s production company. David was best known for producing David Cronenberg’s Scanners, The Brood and Videodrome. Jody Hill (The Righteous Gemstones and Foot Fist Way) and I had come up with the outline for an erotic thriller. We sat down in a creative executive’s office and were starting our pitch about a sneaky photojournalist, the Russian mob and hookers when he stopped us abruptly. He claimed that Pierre David was shuttering this production business. The erotic thriller market had dried up as a good revenue source. Blockbuster Video wasn’t interested in indie productions. There weren’t enough mom and pop stores to make tape sales profitable. Late night cable channels weren’t licensing them. Adult video companies were coming out with R-rated cuts of their more plot elaborate X-rated films. The creative executive did like our concept, but we showed up 6 years too late. I felt double sadness walking out of the office. Not only had my dream of writing an erotic thriller had died, but the entire genre was vanishing. This is why I’m so thrilled that Skin Max has been putting out double features from the glory days of the erotic thriller. Lap Dancer and Bare Exposure show the nasty side of exotic nightclubs and wet t-shirt contests.
Lap Dancer (1995 – 83 minutes) is about Natalie Baker (20 Dates‘ Elizabeth Wagner) having to take up a side hustle to pay for auto repairs. Natalie has a job at a real company although she’s not quite moving as fast up the corporate ladder as her male counterparts. While at the garage, Natalie runs into her old pal Denise (Prelude to Love‘s Lynn Wolf). She doesn’t have a problem paying to get her car repaired. Why? Because she’s working at a strip club. Natalie drops by the Glitter Dome one night and discovers she has a bit of a knack for luring guys into tipping. She lies to her boyfriend that she’s doing late night work as part of her project manager position. But life at the Glitter Dome isn’t so glittery. Denise is not happy that her friend has become a favorite so fast. Natalie is cutting into her action and her mysterious client is now wanting her to bring Denise over for a late-night gig. Denise’s dual life explodes when the wrong people show up at the wrong job. This ultimately her into the wrong situation with Natalie’s creepy client sitting in the shadows and watching. Lap Dancer ends with a touch of an exotic thriller as we discover the true identity of the creepy client.
Bare Exposure (1993 – 80 minutes) is almost like those tales of a plucky Mickey Rooney and his friends putting on a show to raise money for a friend in need. This movie isn’t quite like your grandparents clean cut entertainment. Instead of being a sick kid, Clancy (Wesley Scott) needs to raise money quick to avoid being put in a hospital by mobsters. He’s run up a large gambling debt. Tammy Parks (Day of the Warrior), Ashlie Rhey (Bikini Drive-In) and Andrea Suzzane (this seems to be her only film) are a trio of friends willing to do anything for Clancy. They are willing to help him fix up a nightclub for a one-night event. Instead of a series of plucky musical numbers, his friends are going to put on a wet t-shirt contest. The trio dress up in swimsuits and roller skate to pass out fliers to promote the event in the beach community. Will the show actually happen since it’s hard to tell if the mobsters are going to give Clancy the extra time. The city doesn’t seem happy about a pop-up gentleman’s club in the neighborhood. Lorne B Green (not the dad on Bonanza) plays a cop who wants to shut down the club. He’d later appear as a director in the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. Bare Exposure is so low budget that you almost imagine this could be a documentary. The nightclub is decorated like a middle child’s 8th birthday party. This film showed what a pack of plucky women willing to pour water on their clothes could do for a friend.
Lap Dancer and Bare Exposure is the perfect double feature since it features those two essentials of late 20th Century nightclub carnality in lap dancing and wet t-shirt contests. Both films have enough creepy characters to qualify as erotic thrillers although the biggest thrill is always the cast not needing much of an excuse to shed their skimpy wardrobe. Both films don’t allow the plots to become so complicated or compelling that you’re distracted by the characters getting frisky. It’s a shame that the erotic thriller genre came to end before Y2K struck. This is the 5th release in Skin Max’s Double Feature DVD series. It would be great if they come out with more of these gems that played late night on pay channels and lurked on the shelves at the Video Bar.
The Video for both films is 1.33:1 full frame. Both movies look like they were shot on film and finished on standard definition video. Their credits look like they were made with a Video Toaster. The Audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 for both films. They are mixed so you can enjoy the characters talking during the prelude to the showering scenes. There are no subtitles.
Trailer Gallery includes Bare Exposure, Illicit Dreams, Lap Dancer, Midnight Confessions and Test Tube Teens From The Year 2000. These films are part of the Skin Max Double Feature DVDs.
Skin Max presents Lap Dancer & Bare Exposure. Directed by Arthur Egeli & Ralph E. Portillo. Screenplays by D. Alvelo, Michael Paul Girard & Jalee Bailey. Starring Elizabeth Wagner, Steve Kesmodel, Lynn Wolf, Denise Noble, James Joseph, Michael Stevens, Holiday Hadley, Amir AboulEla., Tammy Parks, Ashlie Rhey and Andrea Suzzane. Rating: Rated R. Boxset Contents 2 movies on 1 DVD. Release Date: February 21, 2023.
