Dark Passion (1998) User Reviews

Looking for a mindless erotic thriller? You could do worse than this

[kifaru · 5/10 · 16 May 2001]

Kudos from the outset to the writer and director for keeping this one in familiar territory. The plot is pretty simple: young out-of-work stud finds job at posh mansion owned by wealthy jerk with lonely wife. Add adultery, murder and a couple of red herrings, shake gently, roll the credits.

The women are, of course, the attraction here. All handle their respective roles well. In point of fact, they could each have pulled off the other roles. In any event, they are the stars, and the cameraman knows it.

The men are, as men usually are in these movies, slightly dense and pretty much self-serving. The hubby isn't happy being married and chases after the maid. The stud not only goes running after the wife, and eventually the daughter from the hubby's previous marriage, but has a very entertaining fantasy in which all three women jump in bed with him (Yeah, that was germane to the plot). Neither man sees the swerves and dangers right in front of them. Oh well, why spoil a good ride.

In short, "Vipers" is a basic tale of lust, greed and double-cross. It leans toward film noir, but lacks the dark texture. The scenery is great, especially Shayna Ryan. It is worth a look if you're in the mood for escapist entertainment that doesn't tax the brain cells.

Great movie......Michelle von Flotow's best movie yet, A+

[Smooth B · 10/10 · 5 August 2000]

This goes on my B-movie Top 20 List. Michelle von Flotow burns up the screen in "Dark Passion", which by the way I'm seeing again when it comes on later tonight on the Movie Channel at 11:15. (cheap plug!)

Anyway, Blake Morgan (I think that's the guy's name, don't pay too much attention to the guys in these films) gets a job as a gardener for a professional and his "good looking and half his age" wife, played by Michelle von Flotow. Talk about your mid-life crisis....wow! Anyway, she's the typical movie wife of a doctor-lawyer type: beautiful, but can't get laid to save her life. This is where Blake comes in.

The "new" wife has a stepdaughter who is about the same age, played by the voluptuous Shayna Ryan. Of course, she resents Michelle being the "new girl" in her father's life and has labeled her a gold-digger, marrying him to get her grubby little hands on his money. Blake keeps to his job, not bothering anyone....until the wife finds out the old man has been messing around with the extra-horny housekeeper!

Michelle pounces and purrs, doing anything to get Blake's attention. He soon falls victim for her charms and they begin an affair. These two have many sex scenes during the movie, but a couple of them are placed in a way that makes no sense in terms of the storyline.....oh well, they're still doing it.

Eventually, Shayna's character, who at first wanted Blake for her own personal plaything, finds out. That's when the big ball starts rolling. There's a plot twist and some scattered shooting toward the end, but for the sake of those 5 guys out there that will stick around that long, I'll save that for you to find out who's partners with who, and who gets hit with the stray bullets.

The story takes a back seat during the meaty part of the flick, which it should so we can get the maximum amount of naked flesh. There's a great four-way between the three main women and Blake....that is a must-see.

In short, the women are hot, the story is okay, and the sex scenes are plentiful.....great flick, and not a total waste of 90 minutes. This is definitely the best movie I've ever seen Michelle von Flotow in. I've seen Shayna Ryan in better flicks, but her character is somewhat limited to only certain parts of the movie. Overall, it's great B-movie fare.

Beware the edited version.

[babeulous · 8 April 2001]

There's a version of this movie ("Dark Passion") in the video stores with the sex scenes cut down to a few seconds each. Basically, they fade out as soon as they get started. The picture is rather pointless without them.

This is how it should be

[augustian · 8/10 · 16 July 2012]

This has got to be one of the best erotic thrillers ever made. The three leading ladies, especially Michelle Von Flotow set the screen ablaze with their sex scenes. Forget the plot - that's just an excuse to join the sex scenes together. Alright then, if you must know, a bored rich housewife (Flotow) is neglected by her accountant husband who would rather pore over his figures than paw her figure. Go figure! Into this mix comes the hunky caretaker who takes care of her every need, and how! Add to this a sexy daughter and a maid who is having an affair with the husband and you have the ingredients for some hot action.

This is probably director Eric Gibson's best work. The film starts off with the husband (Morgan Daniel) and Rosa the maid (Taimie Lynn Hannum) engaged in alfresco sex and from then on never lets up, except for the plot and we can forget that. The best scene in my opinion is the one in which Burke Morgan and Michelle Von Flotow first get together. It is actually a very tender scene with appropriately soft music. There is also a foursome scene with the caretaker and all three leading ladies. On the downside, the use of saxophone music in some scenes was too heavy-handed and the final scene was over too quickly. Apart from those two minor faults, this film is definitely recommended. This review was for the UK version which runs for 92 minutes.

VERY NICE

[bazdol · 23 April 2001]

An excellent soft core film with a good screenplay, good production values, photography and other things that make this film close to a mainstream production. Blake and Michelle do an excellent acting job; he is one of the few male soft core actors that I can stand (Bobby Johnston is another).

It deserves to be on VHS or better yet, on DVD.

Trite formula

[carloi-1 · 2 May 2004]

This movie follows a predictable formula of sex scenes loosely connected by a trivial story. It's a shame because some of the actresses are quite attractive and talented. For instance Michelle von Flotow is quite beautiful and shows emotion well although she could learn how to walk .

One scene will illustrate what I mean. Ms Flotow invites the "hero" to dinner and kisses him lightly when he leaves. She gazes wistfully at him from a balcony, he notices, turns around grabs a ladder from somewhere, climbs up to balcony and proceeds to kiss her passionately and carries her off to bed!

Shades of the three musketeers!

The many sex scenes are so similar they could have been made by computer.

Good cable stuff..

[Slick-62 · 28 April 2000]

This is a movie that shows why a made-for-cable flick works. It has good-looking actors and more importantly, HOT actresses!! The plot isn't likely to fool or surprise anyone even remotely into movies, but for what it's worth, here's the summary- Morgan gets a job as a caretaker/gardener at Michelle von Flotow's place and he of course gets into an affair with her, unbeknownst to her surgeon husband. The jerk husband has a daughter from his first marriage, played by Shayna Ryan, who runs back from college and doesn't have much to do except a couple of hot love scenes. Also, ex-Playboy playmate Taimie Hannum's here, playing Rosa, the maid. She's a bonafied hottie, and gets to show off her incredibly sexy body in two hot love scenes with the surgeon guy!! Anyway, Michelle apparently gets threatening letters from a mysterious source, and convinced that it's from her husband, tries to get Morgan to kill him. That's as far as the story goes, but who cares? All anyone cares about is the sex and there's plenty of it, especially between von Flotow and Burke Morgan. These two have about six very, very hot and passionate scenes that burn up the screen! They have real chemistry between them. There's also a HOT foursome sex scene with all the women and Burke Morgan!! There's more than enough love scenes here to keep fans of such movies happy.