We Kill for Love
Directed by Anthony Penta
Unrated
Runtime: 2 hours, 43 minutes
Available On Demand

by M. Lopes da Silva, Staff Writer

The erotic thriller is a genre of contention. Even now people on social media are debating the ethics of depicting sex scenes on film (if you’re confused, it’s ethical to depict sex, just don’t exploit the workers who make those scenes, because actually harming people is indeed unethical). Erotic thrillers, of course, have no qualms about showing sex on screen, and, in fact, generally use sex as both theme and plot device. Films that focus entirely on the erotic and sexual are provocative because sex is provocative, particularly when we are socialized to be uncomfortable or ashamed of human sexuality.

We Kill For Love is prepared to have this conversation with the viewer; clearly a labor of love full of exclusive interviews and juicy thinkpiece quotes, this documentary shines as an informative font about the early history of erotic thrillers. It’s great to hear the behind-the-scenes stories about the creation of these films and how a conjunction of economic depression, video store rentals, and film noir inspired a wave of filmmakers to make these often-disparaged direct-to-video releases. Director Anthony Penta clearly was excited to capture these moments before they could be lost forever, and before the screening at Vidiots stated that he felt this would be the first and last time this story would ever be told.

The film is frequently a breathless video collage of affinities, using editing to clearly illustrate tropes across the films. The “alternate reality of Los Angeles” that shooting in L.A. during the 80s and 90s created isn’t just discussed, it’s feltin the clips that were selected. That’s appreciated.

We Kill For Love’s runtime is an ambitious 163 minutes, which simultaneously feels too long and too short: while a more condensed version might pack more punch, expanding the documentary into a miniseries might better serve the interview footage collected. Frankly, I would have loved to see more rather than less.

Problematically, many of the actors interviewed expressed whorephobia by trying to actively distance their work from pornography, which is a shame. Sex work is not something that anyone needs to be ashamed of – it’s just work – and considering erotic nudity to be sex work is an intrinsically neutral statement. It is neither negative nor positive. Someone who considers sex work to be shameful is projecting their own feelings onto another human being. It’s unfortunate that many of these actors experienced whorephobia from a public trained to attack sex workers, but I wish they had realized that the systems that teach the public to whore-shame are at fault, and it’s better to stand in solidarity against this kind of bigotry instead of letting someone else’s fears turn us against each other.

While exhaustingly researched, We Kill For Love falters when it tentatively pronounces the erotic thriller genre dead. Aside from the Lifetime films mentioned in the documentary, I am pleased to inform you that the low-budget erotic thriller is alive and thriving on the streaming services Passionflix and Tubi. Tubi is important to note because a large proportion of the filmmakers currently creating erotic thrillers on this service are Black. This is an exciting time for the erotic thriller, offering new perspectives to a genre that has been predominantly white for decades, and it’s disappointing that We Kill For Love hasn’t noticed this new generation of filmmakers. Perhaps a sequel will need to be made at some point, after all, and new stories told.

We Kill For Love is a fantastic conversation-starter about the erotic thriller genre, just don’t let it be the closer.