Death and romance go hand in hand in the so-called 'eroticized thriller' genre, popularized by both the classic Sharon Stone and Brian De Palma films of the '80s and '90s. These movies usually link seduction with violence, relying on crime and serial killer tropes with an extra layer of sensuality and mystery that combines the masculine with the feminine to a fascinating effect. The conventions of these psychological thrillers can be traced back to the 1940s film noir, but the steamy thriller as we know it peaked at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.
Update June 23, 2023: This article has been updated with even more steamy thrillers for your viewing pleasure.
These thrillers usually deal with themes of deception, marriage, revenge, adultery, and, of course, sensuality, but they also ask more profound questions about desire, moral corruption, and power. And while many of these films have problematic relations with their women, they have also given us some of the most iconic scorned women, femme fatales, and glamorous murderers in film history. Whether viewers are watching with a significant other or just a glass of wine, or having a serial killer binge on Valentine's Day or any other day, these are some of the most exciting and steamiest thrillers ever made.
10 Stranger By The Lake
Combining elements of Hitchcock, Kenneth Anger, and Brian De Palma, Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake is a thriller about cruising, desire, and death. The film takes place in a serene lake that doubles as a gay cruising spot in the south of France. In the blistering heat of high summer, Franck strips off and cruises for other men to be with, and he becomes friends with a middle-aged melancholic named Henri. However, when the mysterious Michel arrives at the lake, Franck falls head over heels for a man who might be hiding a dark secret.
Stranger By The Lake won the Queer Palm Award at Cannes in 2014, and Guiraudie rightfully won Best Director, as this is a masterful exploration of queer desire and the dangers of anonymous eroticism wrapped in a suspenseful and tense thriller.
9 Body Heat
Kathleen Turner made her spectacular cinematic film debut when she appeared opposite William Hurt in Lawrence Kasdan's taut 1981 neo-noir erotic thriller Body Heat, an unforgettable '80s masterpiece that is jam-packed full of deception, murder, twists & turns, and some seriously sizzling scenes. Turner portrays the ruthless vixen Matty Walker, who begins a passionate affair with an inept small-time Florida lawyer (Hurt) and concocts a lethal plan to murder her wealthy husband in order to keep her riches and lavish lifestyle.
Kasdan drew inspiration for the engrossing crime thriller from Billy Wilder's 1944 film noir Double Indemnity, with the director wanting the picture to have "the intricate structure of a dream, the density of a good novel, and the texture of recognizable people in extraordinary circumstances." Body Heat had moviegoers flocking to theaters to witness the red-hot chemistry between Turner and Hurt, and it helped establish the actress as one of Hollywood's most buzzed-about stars and an ultimate femme fatale.
8 In The Cut
Directed by Jane Campion, In the Cut is a 2003 psychological thriller with a killer cast, including Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Kevin Bacon. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Susanna Moore about an English teacher who becomes involved with a detective investigating a series of murders in her neighborhood. In The Cut received negative reviews from critics upon release due to either its explicit content, the 9/11 political subtext, or the film's non-linear narrative. It has been re-examined in recent years and lauded as a feminist thriller thanks to its subversion of male-gaze conventions and its complex depiction of female pleasure. Writing for Thrillist, Jourdain Searles said the film is:
A story about women being hunted, from their vantage point for once. Shots depicting Frannie being watched mainly serve to highlight how women have to navigate the world under the gaze of men. Frannie is always looking over her shoulder, constantly assessing her surroundings. She knows she is being watched, yet continues to pursue pleasure on her own terms. In the end, once Frannie has faced her worst fears, In the Cut rewards that bravery.
Jane Campion's take on the erotic thriller was ahead of her time and has grown to become a seminal film of the 2000s.
7 Fatal Attraction
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When Fatal Attraction was released in 1987, it was such a cultural phenomenon that it became the highest-grossing film of that year and paved the way for many psychological thrillers to come. Directed by Adrian Lyne, the film tells the story of Dan Gallagher, a married attorney who meets a woman called Alex Forrest (Glenn Close). They become involved in a weekend affair, but when Alex is not ready for the romance to end, she becomes obsessed with Dan and threatens to destroy his marriage.
Although it veers into the slasher genre at times, the film is a sultry and exciting thriller that viewers became obsessed with after just a few minutes. It is entertaining, artful, and led by a couple of outstanding performances by Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. At the 60th Academy Awards, it received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress.
6 Angel Heart
Adapted from William Hjortsberg's novel Falling Angel, the 1987 neo-noir psychological thriller Angel Heart stars Mickey Rourke as a tough New York City P.I. who is hired to investigate the disappearance of a musician down in New Orleans by a mysterious stranger (Robert De Niro). On his quest to discover the truth, Harry Angel crosses paths with the emotionally disturbed young woman Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet) and immediately feels an intense connection with the potential lead.
Angel Heart was famously given an X rating due to the intense sex scene between Rourke and Bonet's character, and director Alan Parker was forced to edit the steamy moment in order to amend the rating to R. Bonet's appearance in the sensual film caused quite an uproar because of the nature of their love scene (which ends in the pair bathed in blood) and the fact that she and Rourke briefly appear nude, as she had first gained prominence on the family-oriented sitcom The Cosby Show. When addressing the controversy upon the film's release, Bonet told The Los Angeles Times, "It’s nothing that hasn’t been done before or that hasn’t been seen before.”
5 The Handmaiden
Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden is a sensual and visually sumptuous tale about betrayal, jealousy, and power. In 1930s Korea, Sookee is hired as a handmaiden to Japanese heiress Hideko, but she is secretly trying to help a swindler seduce the woman so that they can steal her fortune. However, Sookee and Hideko develop a romantic relationship that complicates the con. Park Chan-wook artfully navigates a budding sexuality between a young con artist and the woman she has been paid to dupe.
The Handmaiden is a true testament to Chan-wook's attention to detail and his ability to create delicate but thrilling scenarios. With shocking twists, exquisite set designs, and amazing performances, The Handmaiden is a timeless thriller that balances sexuality and tenderness effortlessly. It is certain to be remembered as one of the best salacious thrillers ever made.
4 Unfaithful
Adrian Lyne directed the 2002 erotic thriller Unfaithful, in which Richard Gere and Diane Lane portray an affluent New York City couple whose marriage begins to unravel after the wife embarks on a passionate-yet-dangerous affair with a handsome stranger. Lane's on-screen counterpart Connie Sumner gives in to her desires and begins a sultry romance with an exciting man, and her infatuation with him eventually threatens to completely consume her and destroy her marriage to her husband Edward.
Based on Claude Chabrol's The Unfaithful Wife, Lyne specifically wanted the Sumners to have a loving relationship in order to better build the tension, having once expressed, "I wanted two people who were perfectly happy. I loved the idea of the totally arbitrary nature of infidelity." While Unfaithful earned a mixed-bag response from critics, Lane's compelling performance as the guilt-ridden Connie was lauded, and the actress went on to receive both an Oscar and Golden Globe Award nomination.
3 Crash
David Cronenberg's adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel Crash is a bizarre and ingenious take on the titillating psychological thriller. Starring James Spader, Holly Hunter, and Rosanna Arquette, Crash tells the story of a film producer who becomes entangled with a strange group of people who are sexually aroused by car crashes. As such, it's the most extreme and interesting of Cronenberg's studies on sexuality, audaciously examining the implications of the novel's bizarre premise.
By juxtaposing images of car crashes with steamy love scenes, Cronenberg compares sex to violence and suggests that sensuality might be more connected to sadism/power dynamics than we might think. Crash is a challenging film at times, but it is also wholly original, daring, and formally impressive. The film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, and director Martin Scorsese ranked it as the eighth-best film of the decade.
2 Dressed to Kill
One simply cannot discuss this genre without bringing up Brian De Palma, an idiosyncratic director who mastered the genre with films like Body Double and Femme Fatale. Dressed To Kill, though, is the best display of De Palma's camp and ridiculous take on the steamy thriller. A mysterious blonde woman brutally murders an exhibitionist housewife and begins to stalk the call girl who witnessed the crime. Michael Caine, Nancy Allen, and Angie Dickinson deliver professional performances that might seem jarring with the flamboyant tone of the film but which end up creating something completely unique.
Borrowing from gore and B-movies, Dressed to Kill features De Palma's trademark editing and split-screen in iconic scenes like an extended sexualized chase around New York’s Metropolitan Museum. The film was criticized for its depiction of trans characters as killers, but it also became a cult classic among queer audiences in recent years, with Out Magazine calling it a "gay movie landmark." So, if you watch with a critical eye, Dressed to Kill is a great film, with innovative formal gestures and a thrilling plot.
1 Eyes Wide Shut
Leave it to Stanley Kubrick to perfect the steamy thriller, as the precise cinematography, lavish set designs, and mysterious plot of his Eyes Wide Shut takes the genre to whole new heights. Set in New York at Christmastime, the film tells the story of a wealthy doctor (Tom Cruise) who is sent into an emotional tailspin when his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) tells him that she has fantasized about sleeping with other men. Both Cruise and Kidman provide galvanizing and emotionally complex performances as a strange married pair, which is interesting considering that the couple was also going through a divorce in real life.
Using sensuous lighting and 35mm film stock, Kubrick’s study of infidelity and conspiracy feels like a dream at times, but this helps to reinforce the breakdown that the characters are undergoing. Eyes Wide Shut has one of the most impressively choreographed scenes of all time, as naked bodies move around a room as if the masked orgy was the holiest of religious ceremonies. Yet, in spite of its icy formalism and detached score, the film is still a stirring and sensual examination of jealousy, masculinity, and sexual insecurity, making it a tale for the ages.