"Descent" is a highly original, satisfying Adult feature dealing with madness and having filmmaker Dana Vespoli taking the central role and contributing excellent acting. I was engrossed, more so than in watching any recent XXX movie.
The well-read auteur opens with a quote from the German poet Rilke, to paraphrase: "Only lament still learns". She portrays Dana Christie, a housewife on her own with hubby John and her son out of town, disturbed when a mysterious video is left on her doorstep in an envelope marked "Watch me".
The DVD shows her sleeping. Two cops (Alec Knight and Danny Wylde) arrive to investigate the mystery of who broke in to tape her, but after brief questioning they attack her, raping Dana replete with anal sex and a d.p. In this porn context she loves it after mere token resistance.
ENDLESS SPOILERS:
After the guys deliver facials, she comes out of a trance, having imagined it all -a sexual daydream.
Dana goes to a psychologist, well-played by Mark Davis (having an air of gravitas in his porno middle-age). Then she travels to the home of James Deen, a promising young artist she's negotiating with to show his work in the art gallery she manages. Again she hallucinates, having rough sex with Deen, but then waking up in her car outside his house -he's late for the meeting and wasn't even at home when she thought he was taking advantage of her.
After another visit to the shrink, that night she dreams about sucking cock. Later that day she returns home and is seduced in the bathtub by Karlie Montana, treating her to some sensual Sapphic loving both in the tub and in bed. Coming out of her trance she hears the bath water running but no one's there but her.
Back to headshrinker Davis, who agrees to "fix her". Suddenly he's pawing at Dana, violently choking her, slapping her and treating her to rough sex, blindfolded yet.
Dana next is seen in the hospital, with the psychologist Davis trying to wake her from a coma, attended by her husband (returned from assignment in the Middle East) and friendly cop Wylde. The suspenseful mystery is resolved - she didn't imagine ALL of it -there was a guilty party who abused her and the cops are on the case. But it's a quite downbeat finish.
Vespoli combines strong sexual content with strong acting and the film dovetails with her generally morbid world-view, which fits well into both the porn and thriller genres. She may not be the new Bergman (who could?) but I liked her descent into material he covered so well in classics like "Hour of the Wolf" with Max von Sydow.
The well-read auteur opens with a quote from the German poet Rilke, to paraphrase: "Only lament still learns". She portrays Dana Christie, a housewife on her own with hubby John and her son out of town, disturbed when a mysterious video is left on her doorstep in an envelope marked "Watch me".
The DVD shows her sleeping. Two cops (Alec Knight and Danny Wylde) arrive to investigate the mystery of who broke in to tape her, but after brief questioning they attack her, raping Dana replete with anal sex and a d.p. In this porn context she loves it after mere token resistance.
ENDLESS SPOILERS:
After the guys deliver facials, she comes out of a trance, having imagined it all -a sexual daydream.
Dana goes to a psychologist, well-played by Mark Davis (having an air of gravitas in his porno middle-age). Then she travels to the home of James Deen, a promising young artist she's negotiating with to show his work in the art gallery she manages. Again she hallucinates, having rough sex with Deen, but then waking up in her car outside his house -he's late for the meeting and wasn't even at home when she thought he was taking advantage of her.
After another visit to the shrink, that night she dreams about sucking cock. Later that day she returns home and is seduced in the bathtub by Karlie Montana, treating her to some sensual Sapphic loving both in the tub and in bed. Coming out of her trance she hears the bath water running but no one's there but her.
Back to headshrinker Davis, who agrees to "fix her". Suddenly he's pawing at Dana, violently choking her, slapping her and treating her to rough sex, blindfolded yet.
Dana next is seen in the hospital, with the psychologist Davis trying to wake her from a coma, attended by her husband (returned from assignment in the Middle East) and friendly cop Wylde. The suspenseful mystery is resolved - she didn't imagine ALL of it -there was a guilty party who abused her and the cops are on the case. But it's a quite downbeat finish.
Vespoli combines strong sexual content with strong acting and the film dovetails with her generally morbid world-view, which fits well into both the porn and thriller genres. She may not be the new Bergman (who could?) but I liked her descent into material he covered so well in classics like "Hour of the Wolf" with Max von Sydow.