Pornogothic Review

Running Time: 87 min.

Production Date: 3 / 26 / 1998

Director: Jonathan Morgan

Cast: Serenity, Asia Carrera, Shanna McCullough, Stephanie Swift, Sydnee Steele, Rebecca Lord, Missy, Katie Gold, Azlea, Brad Armstrong, Jonathan Morgan, Alex Sanders, Dave Cummings, Ian Daniels, John West, Steve Hatcher, and Mickey G. in sexual roles and Michael Raven and George “Fozzi” Kaplan in non-sex roles

Initial Expectations: I’ve heard great things about this feature, and it has a great cast and director which helps to reinforce the expectations for a great feature.

Initial Reaction: Wow. It’s features like this that make me think Jonathan Morgan is one of the best directors out there.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who wants a well done plot with their porn and isn’t afraid of a darker feel

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody who doesn’t want a plot or who wants a happy plot, or who wants more extreme sex

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very clear and well balanced. The video is fairly dark, but also clear right out to the edge of the screen. It’s a dark movie and the darkness of the video matches the movie very well.

Music: The music does a great job of rounding out Pornogothic. It occasionally has a hard edge in the sex scenes, and it does dominate some of the scenes. The music is very well done, and often includes lyrics in both the sex scenes and the non-sex portions.

Menus: The main menu has a nice bit of animation that shows some care about the overall DVD. The chapter menu is pretty basic, allowing you to choose a scene based on a small clip of the scene.

The Feature: Brad Armstrong is a cop on a downslide. His wife died, he drinks on the job, isn’t afraid to murder, and he has to pay the girl he’s currently fucking by the hour. Things go from bad to worse when he starts investigating a series of murders and the girl he shoots in front of a club full of witnesses walks away from the morgue. He knows it’s related to the club called Pornogothic, but things start to get really weird on him when he finds out that vampires are real, and they’re heavily involved with his case.

Brad Armstrong starts off the first sex scene just where most guys would like to be, in bed and on top of Stephanie Swift. They energetically work through the missionary, as well as some reverse cowgirl and pile driver variations. Brad finishes things off by doing a push up over Stephanie while fucking her face, which finally results in a healthy load of guy goo to coat Stephanie’s neck and face. It’s a very well done scene, that’s both artistic and hot. Stephanie and Brad appear to be really into each other here and put enough energy into it that I think combined they might have lost the body weight of an average midget. It’s also fairly artistic since the action is all cut together to match the music. This merges everything together extremely well and makes it feel very complete rather than just pasted together like some lesser scenes feel.

Vamp Asia Carrera comforts Katie Gold in the bathroom after Katie has a fight with her boyfriend. Unlike most guys’ bathrooms, where we’re happy to just have toilet paper and a clean seat, here the girls also have a conveniently located chair so Katie can lay back and let Asia lick her pussy. Asia stands against the wall so Katie can reciprocate, and then finishes off Katie with a nice kiss and bite on the neck. It’s another great scene, but unfortunately way too short. This scene felt like it was just getting going when it ended.

Shanna McCullough rides John West’s face in a freight elevator to start off the next scene. She skips the blowjob and has him go directly to fucking her from behind. They move into missionary next before finishing things up with a great facial. Shanna really comes off as a trooper here, as she takes a good blast to the eye and then repeatedly opens her eyes. Although it’s a limited and dark scene, there’s some good heat to it also. Shanna stays nicely in control of the scene, and shows that a woman doesn’t have to look like she’s barely old enough to drive to be an extremely sexual person. That comes across here very well and helps turn this into another well above average scene.

Serenity finally gets her turn in a scene when she plays with her food, namely Rebecca Lord and Alex Sanders. The girls work together to warm Alex up before letting Alex fuck Rebecca as she lays back on a garbage can. Serenity plays with Rebecca a little bit as Alex fucks her, and then lets Alex take her from behind as Rebecca squats next to her and plays with herself. Serenity finishes things up by taking Alex’s under achieving ball blast on her face as Rebecca waits and is denied a gooey party favor. It’s a fairly hot scene, but it’s overly dark and the fog is a little over done in places. Listening to the commentary, it was freezing out when the scene was shot, so I’m actually fairly impressed with how well the cast did in this scene with those types of conditions.

Almost the entire cast, including Shanna McCullough, Asia Carrera, Missy, Stephanie Swift, Sydnee Steele, Azlea, Mickey G., Jonathan Morgan, Steve Hatcher, and Ian Daniels, have an orgy next. It’s a very short scene, which is very unfortunate with the talent involved here. The entire scene only lasts about five minutes so you only get a few glimpses of any of the stars before it’s over. I really wish that this scene would have been about three times as long. At that length this would have been a very hot scene when one looks at the talent involved here. As is, it’s an easily forgettable and easily skipped scene.

Serenity finds her way to Brad Armstrong’s apartment for the next scene. After a little talking, they find their way into the bedroom where Brad starts things out licking Serenity’s pussy. He lets her lay back as he starts fucking her missionary style. They move on to doggie before Serenity sucks and tea-bags Brad until he pops on her face and neck. Not surprisingly, it’s a very hot scene that has great chemistry as well. Serenity does a great job here, and even lets Brad play with her ass very lightly.

Serenity finishes things out with “Grandpa” Dave Cummins in a diner after leaving Brad’s place. She climbs onto the lunch counter and lets Dave lick her pussy as she stands on the counter before laying down for him to eat her a little more and then fuck her missionary style. At his age, it’s not surprising that Dave can only manage one position, and finishes off Serenity with another facial. It’s another short scene, but there’s actually some decent heat here as well. I don’t blame Dave for being ecstatic about nailing Serenity at his age, and Serenity’s reactions make it clear that either she’s one of the best actresses out there, which I think she is, that Dave really knows what he’s doing, or both.

Pornogothic shows why Jonathan Morgan is one of the most talented directors out there. In addition to doing fun comedies like his recent XXX Training, he shines at darker material as well. The story here comes along nicely as the movie goes along, but does have a couple minor stumbling points where it looks like it wasn’t really sure which way it wanted to go. The sex is much the same way, with the main stumbling block there being the orgy scene. Pornogothic is a very well done feature that shows a lot of talent from a lot of the people involved.

For other perspectives on this DVD, please check out reviews from Diville and reviewer.

Extras: Audio bios are included for Serenity, Shanna McCullough, Asia Carrera, Missy, Katie Gold, Stephanie Swift, Sydnee Steele, Azlea, Rebecca Lord, Brad Armstrong, and Mickey G. It’s the standard Wicked audio bio with a few nice stills of the star, some decent personal information, and a link to the star’s scene. The photo gallery lasts a bit under two minutes with five seconds per slightly above average looking framed photo. Trailers are included for Pornogothic, Sex Safari, Flashpoint, and Double Feature!. There’s also the Wicked Casino, Wicked’s company profile, web links, and a listing of Wicked’s Avn award winners and nominees.

The main extra, however, is an audio commentary with Jonathan Morgan and leading lady Serenity. As usual, Jonathan and Serenity have great chemistry together and play very well off each other. They talk about many of the behind the scenes aspects, as well as sexual things. Not surprisingly, there’s quite a bit of joking around also, that helps to make this a very well done as well as very fun commentary.

Themes: Straight, lesbian, group, orgy, and spanking

Raincoat Factor: Medium-low. Although easily skipped, there’s a lot of non-sex sequences and they frequently go on at least as long as the sex scenes.

Overall: Currently, Pornogothic can be found online for between $21 and $32 with several stores offering it near the low end. It’s well worth the money and shows that some people don’t think of their work as “just porn”. Pornogothic has some great sex scenes that fit into a very well done framework. It also has a very nice transfer, as well as some well done extras.

Note to Wicked: It’s great to see that you were putting in so much effort to make even your early DVDs some of the best out there.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

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