In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the erotic thriller was all the rage. It’s a genre that is all but dead now. I mentioned in my Sex Disappearing From Big Screen? article that I had been “seeing the decline of eroticism and sexuality for a few years now at the movies.” Adding, “The mid-budget movie has all but transferred on to television, where sex is more present. It’s not just that, the #MeToo movement has brought about a ton of pressure on directors, in terms of how to depict sex in a non-offensive ways.”
I was very much looking forward to director Adrian Lyne’s adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel '“Deep Water,” starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. The novel follws “a young married couple as their mind game with each other take a dark turn when bodies begin piling up. The couple avoids divorce by allowing each other to take on new lovers.” Sounds about right.
The film was originally scheduled to be theatrically released on on November 13, 2020, but was delayed to August 13, 2021, and then again to a January 2022 date, due to, supposedly, the COVID-19 pandemic. But I had been hearing rumblings of polarizing test screening reactions. This is Adrian Lyne, after all. Now Disney has just entirely pulled the film from its 2022 lineup. Have Netflix or Amazon bought it? The rumor had been that a streamer was willing to buy it off of Disney who were none-too-pleased by the film’s hard R-rating, not to mention its staggering 2 hour and 33 minute runtime.
No doubt, the filmmaker most associated with the erotic thriller genre was Lyne. Between 1987 and 2002 Lyne released “Fatal Attraction,” “9½ Weeks,” “Flashdance,” “Indecent Proposal,” “Lolita” and “Unfaithful” — all featuring erotic sex and dark thrills. However, ever since 2002’s “Unfaithful” Lyne has been M.I.A. What happened? I’m not sure, but 17 years after his last movie, Lyne is back for more.