Phantom Love (Wicked) Review

Cast: Stephanie Swift, Kylie Ireland, Kimi Lixx, T.J. Hart, Nikita Denise, Mia Smiles, Steven St. Croix, Dillon Day, Dale DaBone and Evan Stone in sex roles; Anthony Crane in a non-sex role.

Director: Jim Enright

Production date: 7/18/01

Length: 87 min.

Extras: A 22-min. behind-the-scenes featurette, audio bios for all performers (except Dale DaBone), feature slide show with 33 photos, behind-the-scenes slide show with 20 photos, slide shows for each actress (18–33 photos each), eight trailers and various Wicked promotional materials.

Audio/visual quality: The visual quality is generally appealing. Close-up footage is almost too ample, but the pans and wider shots provide some balance. The art direction is beautiful, with attractive sets and gorgeous costumes that hark back several centuries. During the day scenes, natural sunlight splashes across the performers' bodies; during the night scenes, the lighting is subdued yet adequate. The main visual flaw is a black horizontal bar that masks the bottom of the screen (about 5% of the vertical) in a couple of places.

The music is pretty good and in keeping with the tone of the movie. The audio is usually well-balanced; however, much of Dale DaBone's whispered dialog is lost during his scene with Kylie. There is also a small amount of dubbing.

Disc problems: The disc runs somewhat roughly in my Apple DVD Player (version 2.2.1). Little skips occur in several places, but the primary issue is excessive drive noise, which comes and goes intermittently throughout the feature. My player also consistently freezes at a point halfway through Evan Stone's biography.

First impression: This is a cute story about a few things that go hump in the night.

Scene highlights: The plot is brief and lighthearted. Basically, porn producer Steven St. Croix ("Marks") slashes his location costs by renting a haunted estate. Co-producer Stephanie Swift ("Boyd") stays with him for one uneasy night (or is that an "easy" night?) among the horny spirits.

Kimi Lixx, a ghost who died a virgin, notices their arrival and runs to inform her companions. She first encounters Kylie Ireland and Dillon Day ("Darius"), two apparitions whose lust has endured the test of time. Kimi sits down to watch. After oral with rimming and a blowjob with handwork, Kylie and Dillon make the bed squeak like a banshee. She enjoys a good bounce on his specter scepter, followed by missionary action for pussy and patootie. Luckily for us, Dillon and Kylie are the type of ghosts who can be seen in mirrors. The armoire reflects them from the side while we simultaneously enjoy a direct angle, which is a nifty visual effect. In the end, Dillon's ghost goo stripes Kylie's body from breast to inner thigh.

Stephanie is none too pleased about sharing accommodations with Steven. She cusses him out as they settle into their adjacent twin beds. But before Stepanie and Steven can catch any zzz's, two lascivious lady spirits attack them with xxx's instead. Nikita Denise's kisses go to Stephanie, while Mia Smile's blowjob goes to Steven. Some of the camera angles are wide enough to show all four performers at the same time, which is excellent. Everyone puts a lot of enthusiasm into their oral play—Mia deepthroats Steven, Steven sucks and rims Mia, Nikita tonguefucks and nibbles Stephanie, and Stephanie practically devours Nikita (her jaw is visibly working). The lesbian pair proceed to 69, and Stephanie later bangs Nikita's ghostly gong with a big anal dong. Meanwhile, Mia is still looking plenty lively in vaginal doggie and missionary. The camera operator, intent on capturing Nikita's climax, just barely pans in time to nab Steven's ejaculation onto Mia's stomach.

Kylie proves that she is a very friendly ghost when she encounters porn star Dale DaBone ("Biff Stiff") in a bedroom. Her serving wench "costume" impresses and confuses Dale, who mistakes her for his co-star. She stays perfectly in character, encouraging him with lines like "I want you to do what pleases you" and "Have your way with me!" The action includes a blowjob (again, lots of handwork), oral with finger penetration, vaginal missionary and reverse cowgirl. Always a true gentleman, Dale diddles Kylie's clit while his cock explores her netherworld. The generous facial coats her tongue and encircles her mouth, giving new meaning to the phrase "white as a ghost."

The library is haunted by an invisible Evan Stone, who has fun teasing Stephanie and T.J. Hart ("Julia," the actress who's supposed to film a scene with "Biff"). Evan gently exhales into their ears and brushes their skin with his fingertips until the two women are extremely aroused. T.J. fingers Stephanie's vagina while Evan provides unseen assistance at her clit. Stephanie then tongues T.J.'s twat while Evan attends to her nipple. Eventually Evan becomes embodied enough to fill a condom and then fills each lady's pussy in turn. T.J. maintains excellent eye contact and gets a bit quivery with excitement. A 2-on-1 blowjob releases a double facial of spook spunk.

Meanwhile, Kimi has realized that after three centuries of abstinence, ghosts just wanna have fun. Steven is busy inspecting the dungeon, and Kimi decides he's close enough to true love. He initially protests her advances, but his heart melts when she kneels and insists, "You will tell me if I'm doing it properly, won't you?" All those years of observation have served her well—she does indeed appear to be doing it properly, including vigorous deepthroating. Steven returns the favor with sensuous tonguework and nice strong suction on her clit. They start the sex in reverse cowgirl—a rather odd choice for a woman's first penetration, and something that'll challenge many viewers to suspend their disbelief. The second position, vaginal missionary, seems more natural. Kimi's pleasing soft yelps let us know she's approaching a phantasm orgasm. Steven gets so excited that his first spurt flies all the way to the wall behind Kimi's head; the remainder rains down on her chest and belly.

The behind-the-scenes featurette includes footage of various crew members goofing around, and it's amusing enough to watch once. Bonus question: There are also at least three Easter eggs among the extras; can you find them?

Thumbs up: I wanted to check out this DVD specifically because Kimi considers it to be one of her three best movies. Although Stephanie and Kylie are technically the stars (with two scenes a piece and some good dialog), Kimi does put the icing on the cake. She delivers her lines with confidence, and Kimi's facial reaction shots during Kylie and Dillon's scene are sweetly humorous. Best of all, Kimi smiles a lot during her sex scene, confirming that yes, adult actresses really do enjoy their jobs sometimes.

Thumbs down: Okay, I admit I initially laughed at Anthony Crane's portrayal of the narcoleptic elderly butler. For a minute or two, that is. The comedy does start to wear a little thin by the time the first sex scene begins (which occurs eight minutes into the movie). I think the intro might have benefitted from tighter editing.

Also, I don't know what has happened, but the authoring on this disc falls below Wicked's usual high standards. It's not awful, but the little glitches (the skips, the recurring black bar, the drive noise) are not quite what I've come to expect from this studio.

Themes: Straight, lesbian, three-way, group (orgy), oral, deepthroating, anal, rimming (male to female, female to female), voyeurism, facials, toy (dildo).

Condom use: Yes, consistently. Also, be forewarned that Evan's condom magically changes colors when he switches from T.J. to Stephanie.

Juice-o-meter: Medium.

Final analysis: Phantom Love is good-humored feature that offers pleasant entertainment. There's nothing "grave" about it; it's just a fun movie to "pass away" an hour and a half. (Yeah, yeah, I know—even the ghosts are groaning at those...)

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Special thanks to astroknight, reviewer extraordinaire, for his screenshots. Read his review of Phantom Love here.