SEX!  If there’s one thing I know about the world is that people have sex.  I’m sure of it.  While the subject is one of the most natural, animalistic things for humans to experience, the matter remains taboo.  The film Basic Instinct focuses on this basic instinct, utilising the taboo to elevate its shock factor to meteoric levels.  Because if there’s one thing shocking to me, it’s sex.  Murder is also relatively shocking. 

Basic Instinct occupies the grimy genre wasteland of the erotic thriller.  It bears striking resemblance to the earlier, Fatal Attraction, rounding out the Michael Douglas terrifying sex adventure double bill.  While Fatal Attraction focuses more on the personal impact of infidelity (especially when the third party is a psychopath), Basic Instinct goes for a whodunit approach.  While both approaches allow the erotic thriller to be equally erotic, Basic Instinct, falls short in the thrilling department. 

Basic Instinct’s femme fatale is played by Sharon Stone who puts in a mesmerising performance.  The role is one that very few actresses could bring depth to while being subtle and captivating.  She manages to create this character who you can believe is so capable of manipulating the other characters of the film; both male and female. 

Stone’s character is an author, a conceit that gives life to many frustrating, yet totally understandable, plot complications.  The murders investigated by Douglas’ detective, Nick Curran are eerily similar to the murders found in Stone’s crime novels but would she be so stupid as to reenact the murder she invented?  Or is she using this exact question as an alibi to trick the police?  It’s these central questions that make the film intriguing and infuriating at the same time.  Though this frustrated reaction isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Douglas’ character makes some very misguided decisions in the film but it only serves to heighten the tension that the film creates.  If Douglas were clear minded and made all the correct decisions, this film would be incredibly boring. 

That being said, the rest of the film does turn out to be a captivating, well directed thriller.  For example there is a phenomenal scene in which Stone’s character is interrogated.  The camera movements alone drag you along for the ride and make the scene exciting and intense.  While you’d expect for an interrogation to be dominated by the policemen involved, that expectation couldn’t have been less met.  You see an array of at least five policemen interrogating her at once yet she is so easily able to disarm them.  The score and the cinematography of the scene make it absolutely enrapturing.  For the most part, this high level of quality can be ascribed to every scene but there are the odd exceptions of dull moments. 

The film is directed by Paul Verhoeven, known for Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers.  Verhoeven is known for use of sensational and gruesome special effects as evidenced in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face in Total Recall or the majority of Robocop.  In comparison, Basic Instinct appears far more tame but that is suitable.  It is its rarity that makes the violence so effective.  That is not to say that Robocop is by any means too violent because it occupies an entirely different genre.  I feel that Verhoeven was going for an eerie tone for the sex scenes of Basic Instinct and the looming threat of horrific violence absolutely creates that mood. 

This is only aided by the film’s unforgettable opening scene.  The film opens with a sensational sex scene that ends with the man tied up with a silk scarf and brutally murdered with an ice pick; not the penetration he was expecting.  The murder itself is fantastically graphic, the pick shearing through the cartilage of the man’s nose, blood spraying across the room.  It’s an unexpected moment to begin with but the extent of the violence is truly shocking.  The effect of putting this scene at the very beginning of the film is that it taints every sex scene later in the film.  It makes you expectant of the same fate every single time even though you’re not entirely sure what the outcome will really be.  This makes the film feel naturally unpredictable which is exactly what both the director and the audience want.  The mere concept of combining sex with murder is genius.  The victim (and murderer) are both literally and emotionally naked, letting their entire guard down; a thematically complex concept that serves to effectively make men feel incredibly uncomfortable.  Though I do feel this effect has been achieved with greater aplomb in other films.  If you’re a man and you really want to feel uncomfortable, check out the film Hard Candy. 

The scene (and its subsequent sex scenes) are only improved by Jerry Goldsmith’s hypnotic score.  In my opinion, the best scores are often times the ones that you don’t notice because they fit the scenes so well.  Basic Instinct’s is certainly in this category.  The sweeping strings aid massively in achieving the aforementioned eerie tone and even aids in misdirection later on in the film, the music manipulating you into expecting one thing and then the opposite occurring. 

However, I would argue that this technique is used a few too many times.  Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice, shame on you, fool me three times and we need to invent a new idiom altogether.  While restraint was clearly exercised regarding the violence, the same cannot be said for ‘cases of Michael Douglas not being murdered mid coitus’.  The first time, it causes a relieved exhalation after holding your breath for a good minute owing to sheer tension but the effect can’t just be recreated ad nauseam.  At some point, the effect totally inverts and the unexpected becomes expected which is remarkably lame. 

While Basic Instinct is clearly an incredibly competently made film, I felt there was something missing.  It is obviously an erotic thriller but I feel that the overuse of the ‘bait and switch’ took away so much of the thriller aspect of the film.  There were thrilling and shocking moments of course, but there were some clear missed opportunities.  If there is one thing I learnt from this film is that there is more than one meaning for the phrase ‘safe sex’.