Gothic News

Mistress of Seduction
Review by: Amanda By Night

By 1998 erotic thrillers were lucrative in the same way slashers were lucrative in the 80s. Only a few saw any kind of theatrical release, but as video stores tried to meet the supply and demand craze, lots of interesting movies popped up. It’s one of my favorite eras, and one of the most underappreciated, in the history of film. Sure it was a lot of boobs, some bullets and whatever other sensational things the filmmaker could think of, meaning it wasn’t exactly AFI material, but it was damn entertaining, and what more can you ask for on a Saturday night?

Put Mistress on that list of fun, if flawed, thrillers of that period. Kirstin Pierce (credited as Kristine Carlson) is Gina – aka The Mistress of Seduction. I mean, that’s what she calls herself! She’s a phone sex operator whose specialty is her sexy voice and her ability to keep someone on the other line for more than an hour! At three bucks an minute, that’s lucrative! Anyway, she’s married to this no good sumbitch named Jake (Andy Catano), a hoodlum type who just scored a half a mil. Deciding she deserves it more than the man who actually stole it, Gina pilfers the money and heads to parts unknown. She stops in Nowhere Town, USA and here she finds a room for rent and two sexy male roommates. She takes an instant liking to Paul (cutie pie Michael Boisvert) and the two develop a nice relationship, but she’s hesitant to reveal why she’s hiding out. The other roomie is a sleazy small town lawyer named Brian (John David Gregory) who is in the film only to reveal that Paul’s girlfriend had died under mysterious circumstances and to screw any girl they can find to who is willing to take off her shirt for the camera. Is Paul a little more devious than Gina gives him credit for, or is he the perfect pawn in her deadly seduction games?

If this was done in true neo-noir fashion, that question might carry a bit more weight. As it stands, half of Paul’s backstory is lost by the middle of the film. At that point it becomes more about Jake’s attempt to recover the money than it does about small town secrets and mysteries that turn a mean table.

Oh well, Mistress is still a fun watch. It’s ultra-low budget – there is no glitz or glam at all. Well, besides Gina’s short-short skirts, but it is an honest attempt to make a decent thriller. Even if I was shrugging my shoulders in parts and saying, “What the -?” I was still enjoying its spicy offerings.

According to IMDb, Mistress was written and directed by a woman (Ellyn Michaels). Not sure if this is pseudonym, but it may explain why the tawdry sex scenes are a bit restrained. They’re also quite short, which is a nice change from those horrible drawn out Cinemax flicks of late. Kirstin is quite lovely and baths a lot! This character (or the actress) is not ashamed of her body, I’ll tell you that much. The ending is kind of a riot too, playing out as a sweet romantic movie, bulldozing over any intended thriller bits. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a blonde in a mini, and Mistress aimed to please me, and it did.

Read more from the original source: 
Not So Basic Instincts: Mistress of Seduction (1998)