Pornogothic Review

Reviewed by Diville  on  10/21/2000

Starring: Serenity, Asia Carrera, Shanna McCullough, Missy, Katie Gold, Stephanie Swift, Syndee Steele, Azlea Ansitia, Rebecca Lord, Brad Armstrong, Alex Sanders, John West, Mickey G., Ian Daniels, Dave Cummings, Steve Hatcher, and Jonathan Morgan

Directed By: Jonathan Morgan

At the time I'm writing this, Halloween is just over a week away, and I'm thinking to myself that Pornogothic isn't such a bad gift for the forward thinking adult trick or treater. If you haven't gotten around to reading this until the winter or summer, then you can also feel comfortable knowing that Christmas and Independence Day aren't such bad occasions to watch it either. In fact, any excuse you can conjure is as good as any to watch well made porn.

Pornogothic is one of those rare movies that balance plot with sex, and actually pays attention to the details. Keep in mind that this is still porn, and it's restrained by a pornographic budget. Don't expect top notch Hollywood production values, but as porn goes, it's better than most anything else you'll find. Those production values are still pretty good. Jonathan Morgan controls his class clown tendencies and delivers a movie that is more than just sexy. At it's best, it's impressive adult movie making; at it's worst, it's merely interesting porn. Either way, your money is well spent.

It is rare enough that you find an adult movie with an actual plot, and it's even more rare that you find one with two. Pornographic follows two primary characters. First, there is Brad Armstrong who plays a lonely police detective who turns crooked after his wife is found dead and drained of all her blood. And there's also Serenity as a reluctant vampire who must battle through the typical existential angst that all good vampires experience. Of course, their paths must eventually cross...with sexy results. As detective and vampire stories go, there's nothing new here outside the hardcore sex. You've probably seen both stories told much better on the X-Files. But you're not going to find Scully taking a facial from Mulder. As Morgan points out on the DVD's commentary track, this is the last movie Wicked Pictures made before they went the all condoms all the time route, so we seen Serenity take it on the face in all three of her scenes.

But there's more sex here than what Serenity brings, even though she alone is enough to garner my praise. There are seven sex scenes in all, and each one makes sense. Porn plots rarely find the room for their sexual encounters to occur naturally, so you often find in lesser movies scenes where the hero's secretary gets it on with the postman, or some other such inane detour. Pornogothic delivers lots of sex within the context of it's story. That may not be such a good thing for the pure raincoater, but it is for the rest of us.

As Armstrong is called upon to investigate a murder similar to his wife's he follows the clues to a club called Pornogothic. In addition to the shallow goth types out for a pretentious good time, the club also harbors a clan of sexy female vampires led by Shanna McCullough. Most of the film's sex takes place inside or near this club. Vampires are nothing new to pornography; there's something innately erotic about them. Morgan doesn't do much to break with tradition, though, as it's not enough to simply bite a victim's neck, but these porno vampire starlets must always fuck their victims first. I'm not complaining, especially when Asia Carrera sets out to capture cute Katie Gold in her fanged mouth.

The more Armstrong investigates the more he's drawn into this sexual underworld. And the more of the outside world Serenity discovers, the more she longs to live beyond Pornogothic's walls. This isn't the kind of plot that's going to break down the barriers between adult and mainstream movies, but it's more than enough to hang the sex on. Let's face it, if we're looking for good scary movies, there's a whole section at your local video store that will do the job better. This isn't scary so much as it is moody and sexy. But, it is entertaining. Pornogothic uses top notch talent, but offers more than them just fucking each other.

There are extras here, as well--photo galleries, trailers, animated chapter menus, biographies, web links, etc. The best among them, however, is the audio commentary given by Morgan and Serenity. As you might suspect, these two never take themselves too seriously. They have fun watching the movie and teasing each other as they do so. And even though they're not listed as official extras, Pornogothic uses original music throughout the movie, and the songs you hear during the sex scenes are actually pretty good; I wouldn't leave the room if I heard them on the radio.

Pornogothic can be melodramatic at times, but it never loses it's focus. It's a sex movie, and so there's lots of sex. There just happens to be good movie making present, as well.