This movie had crisp visuals, good costumes and a plot you could follow - all of which are desirable in any movie. But the action left a lot to be desired. The characters said their lines and performed their acts but without any real conviction or meaning. To be enjoyable, what the actors do has to be believable - and this simply wasn't. This movie had good looks, but cold acting. Get this movie if that doesn't bother you.
3 Reviews
Almost, but not quite
slake091 January 2011
Pornogothic is a detective story with elements of horror and good costumes.
I have to agree with the previous reviewer that the actors just go through the motions. It's a good story, great production, interesting sets and nice costumes; there just isn't a lot of acting going on.
The version I saw featured several hardcore sex scenes as part of the plot. For it's genre, detective-horror-porn, it's pretty good and deserving of a higher score.
The Gothic in the title mostly comes from the costumes, hairstyles and makeup. They do a good job there, with clothes much better than the average porn movie, and more suitable than anything you would see in an amateur film.
Out of the sex scenes, at least one is memorable because the actor and actress were so different. All of those scenes were fairly well done, with decent camera-work, tastefully enough that it could almost be a decent couples movie.
This one almost lives up to it's promise, but not quite.
I have to agree with the previous reviewer that the actors just go through the motions. It's a good story, great production, interesting sets and nice costumes; there just isn't a lot of acting going on.
The version I saw featured several hardcore sex scenes as part of the plot. For it's genre, detective-horror-porn, it's pretty good and deserving of a higher score.
The Gothic in the title mostly comes from the costumes, hairstyles and makeup. They do a good job there, with clothes much better than the average porn movie, and more suitable than anything you would see in an amateur film.
Out of the sex scenes, at least one is memorable because the actor and actress were so different. All of those scenes were fairly well done, with decent camera-work, tastefully enough that it could almost be a decent couples movie.
This one almost lives up to it's promise, but not quite.
Excellent film noir Adult treatment of vampire theme
lor_24 February 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Brad Armstrong and co-star Serenity's fine performance carry Jonathan Morgan's ambitious "Pornogothic" over the finish line as a fine example of Wicked Pictures quality back in its heyday, in the period around the turn of this century. Label lingers on, but even long-time house directors Morgan and Armstrong no longer live up to this high standard of excellence.
Brad portrays corrupt police lieutenant Blake, tormented (and even hallucinating) by the murder of his wife Jill (Penny Swing in an effective NonSex cameo role) after a year of marriage. Her death eventually ties in with the feature's main vampire plot, as Shanna McCullough, delightfully dressed in goth and fetish gear and given SPFX makeup and androgynous voice at times, as the leader of a vampire cult headquartered at her S&M nightclub named Pornogothic.
Created as a vehicle for contract star Serenity, the intelligently scripted picture does not overemphasize her at all, but her empathetic performance is what helps make the story work. Brad is a self-divided anti-hero in noir tradition, replete with a slightly cryptic scene in a bar where instead of helping the owner after some thug kills another barfly while Brad is in the bathroom, our hero shoots the owner in cold blood and re-stages the crime as a failed robbery, for no apparent reason.
Vampire lore is adhered to scrupulously, with the screenplay carefully stressing in various scenes the admonition that a vampire must be invited in (to a home or place) by the potential victim. At one point Brad thinks he sees a vampire in his car's rear view mirror, but rather than violating the genre's rules, this is just one of his hallucinations.
Surprising plot twists abound, keeping the viewer guessing and fooling me at several key points. Even normal porn expectations are subverted, as in a late in film scene of Serenity going to a diner and paying for her meal with sex, the bald, old man running the place (Dave Cummings) positioned as a NonSex victim for her, but instead he humps her with XXX content as convincingly as any of the familiar porn studs in the cast.
Long list of big-name stars includes Stephanie Swift, sexy in a character role as a tough yet sympathetic hooker for Brad; Asia Carrera as the sexiest of the vamps, and smaller assignments for greats like Rebecca Lord, Sydnee Steele and Missy. In the final analysis, this script is far better than hundreds of mainstream vampire films, directed with skill by Morgan.
Brad portrays corrupt police lieutenant Blake, tormented (and even hallucinating) by the murder of his wife Jill (Penny Swing in an effective NonSex cameo role) after a year of marriage. Her death eventually ties in with the feature's main vampire plot, as Shanna McCullough, delightfully dressed in goth and fetish gear and given SPFX makeup and androgynous voice at times, as the leader of a vampire cult headquartered at her S&M nightclub named Pornogothic.
Created as a vehicle for contract star Serenity, the intelligently scripted picture does not overemphasize her at all, but her empathetic performance is what helps make the story work. Brad is a self-divided anti-hero in noir tradition, replete with a slightly cryptic scene in a bar where instead of helping the owner after some thug kills another barfly while Brad is in the bathroom, our hero shoots the owner in cold blood and re-stages the crime as a failed robbery, for no apparent reason.
Vampire lore is adhered to scrupulously, with the screenplay carefully stressing in various scenes the admonition that a vampire must be invited in (to a home or place) by the potential victim. At one point Brad thinks he sees a vampire in his car's rear view mirror, but rather than violating the genre's rules, this is just one of his hallucinations.
Surprising plot twists abound, keeping the viewer guessing and fooling me at several key points. Even normal porn expectations are subverted, as in a late in film scene of Serenity going to a diner and paying for her meal with sex, the bald, old man running the place (Dave Cummings) positioned as a NonSex victim for her, but instead he humps her with XXX content as convincingly as any of the familiar porn studs in the cast.
Long list of big-name stars includes Stephanie Swift, sexy in a character role as a tough yet sympathetic hooker for Brad; Asia Carrera as the sexiest of the vamps, and smaller assignments for greats like Rebecca Lord, Sydnee Steele and Missy. In the final analysis, this script is far better than hundreds of mainstream vampire films, directed with skill by Morgan.
See also
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