“Paul Verhoeven, director of the first ‘Basic Instinct’ (which scored $353 million worldwide) as well as the widely ridiculed ‘Showgirls’ (now regarded as something of a camp classic), attributes the genre's demise to the current American political climate.
"‘Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States,’ said the Dutch native. ‘Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends.’"
Let me clue you in, Paul: People didn’t go to see “Showgirls” because it was a derivative piece of tripe with a bad script, bad acting, bad directing, and bad editing. Other than that, the film was absolutely fabulous. Regardless, another holier-than-though elitist that most readers have never heard of agreed with Verhoeven’s sentiments:
“Scribe Nicholas Meyer, who was an uncredited writer on 1987's seminal sex-fueled cautionary tale ‘Fatal Attraction,’ agrees, noting that the genre's downfall coincides with the ascent of the conservative political movement.
“‘We're in a big puritanical mode,’ he said. ‘Now, it's like the McCarthy era, except it's not 'Are you a communist?' but 'Have you ever put sex in a movie?'"
However, speaking from a more objective and less “woe is me” viewpoint were movie producers. Mark Damon – with previous hits of “9 ½ Weeks” and “Wild Orchid” to his credit – placed the blame for the fall of the erotic thriller on the writers: “‘I didn't find any scripts that were worth producing. The genre had exhausted itself.’" And, JC Spink had another view:
“For producer JC Spink, the genre's demise has little to do with politics, scripts or willing talent and everything to do with the Internet, which became ubiquitous in American homes around the same time studio executives were suffering through such debacles as ‘Body of Evidence,’ ‘Showgirls’ and ‘Jade.’
“‘Why pay $10 to see something at the movies that you can see for free on the Internet?’ Spink asked. ‘I think the genre is suffering because sex is more pervasive in our society now than it was 10 years ago, from Vanity Fair ads to reality TV. I mean, there's porn stars on reality TV.’"
