Verhängnisvolle Freundschaft

My review was written in May 1989 after watching the film on Republic Pictures video cassette.

Direct-to-video feature "Thrilled to Death" is a suspenser presenting an interesting situation of everyday peril, but faltering in a limp final reel.

Initial surprise is the solid performance of two porn stars, Krista Lane (here credited as Rebecca Lynn) and Rick Savage (credited as Rick Maris).

Central premise is an innocent young couple, Blake Bahner and Lane, who unwittingly fall in with a sinister couple (Savage and lovely Canadian thesp Christine Moore) while Bahner is researching a novel at a club for swingers.

They get involved in drugs, sex and murder and become amateur investigators. Final reel bogs down in endless exposition, including a dull airport phone conversation when action footage would have sufficed.

Except for this glaring lapse, director Chuck Vincent develops the melodramatic situations well, capturing and sustaining one's interest.

In the supporting cast, Christina Veronica impresses in her portrayal of an adult film actress, giving Bahner inside stuff in an interview. Inside joke is she's a straight thesp, while porn vet Lane as Bahner's wife is cast as the innocent type, quite convincing and sympathetic in a change-of-pace assignment. Guest stars Al Goldstein and Gloria Leonard play themselves, given a scene each to state their points of view.

Tech credits are okay.

A mystery writer and his wife are terrorized by a swinger couple.

Made in 1980 by porn director Chuck Vincent, this movie stars a bunch of porn actors and even Al Goldstein. It's directed like porn from the early 80s, so it's sort of after it's time.

Very early 80s. Badly acted. And sine it's not hard core, it sort of sucks. You cant put porn stars in a non porn movie and expect anything good to come out of it.

So net net is this is not a good movie. the only really interesting thing about the film are some of the street scenes. Nice to see what NYC looked like back then (although the cars all look like they were from the 70s!).