Mortal PassionsGreed inflames the hearts of the corrupt. Mortal Passions is an erotic crime thriller that takes inspiration from many, many other movies (better movies) that came before it. This is the quintessential cheapy-VHS era type of movie that snuck its way into video rental stores to collect dust, save for those who might have been enticed by the provocative cover of a naked (yet obscured) woman in the throes of passion. Yes, there is sex here, albeit it is framed around the manipulations of a cocktail waitress named Emily (Krista Errickson), who plots to have her husband, Todd (Zach Galligan), killed after he inherits a fortune. An implausible and unlikely plot follows.
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There is something strange watching Mortal Passions today on a high-definition television, since it becomes achingly evident that this was made with low production values, and it shows even more as a result. Yet despite this, the key players in it include some accomplished actors (or actors waiting to become more accomplished). Zach Galligan had made a name for himself with Gremlins as a likable everyman, which is (for the most part) what his Todd is here. Todd is, however, also a deeply depressed man who throws himself into renovating his family's mansion, which was left to him--a kind of coping therapy following a failed suicide attempt. This gets revealed in the film's prologue, framed as a pair of psychiatric sessions with Emily and Todd (independently) and their therapist (who has a strangely folksy sign outside of his practice) named Dr. Terrence Powers (David Warner). Todd suspects that Emily is cheating on him. (Spoilers: he's super right!) Emily, on the other hand, claims that Todd has abused her, pointing to a bruise on her wrist, and states that Todd is violent. At the start of Mortal Passions, this is a great way to suggest something deeper lurking beneath Todd's moroseness. In action, however, there is nothing of the sort, and it very quickly becomes evident how Emily got that bruise: via rough sex with her secret lover, a barfly and gullible dope named Darcy (Luca Bercovici). So it turns out that Todd's suspicions were on the money, and for the entirety of the film, Emily is nothing but untrustworthy. The specter of the question as to why, then, Emily thwarted Todd's suicide attempt remains unanswered. Perhaps she's meant to be more conflicted than she appears, which is an assessment of her that comes pretty much exclusively from Krista Errickson's surprisingly deft performance of this altogether rote femme fatale. (As a bit of trivia, Errickson's acting career may not have reached the heights of some of her costars, but she can take credit for helping to facilitate the release of a journalist taken hostage by the Taliban in the late 2000s. No, really!) And then there's Todd's overprotective and excessively violent brother (it was the Eighties) named Berke (Michael Bowen), who comes back home in the middle of the night, inadvertently saving Todd from having his head blown off by Emily and Darcy while he sleeps. Despite Berke's benevolence toward his brother, it's clear that he looks down on him as weak (he says as much near the end of of Mortal Passions). It's implied that Todd was the sole beneficiary following the passing of their parents, but Todd is more than willing to share the wealth with Berke, who still has a room in the house, despite being presented as a nomadic loner. Combine that with his former romance with Emily (conveniently introduced just to facilitate the plot...and another sex scene later), and you have all of the trappings (and the clichés) of a sordid tale of lust and greed. (The kind you've probably seen before, if you've ever seen Double Indemnity, Body Heat, and many, many more movies just like it.)
Regardless of its lack of polish, there is a certain charm to Mortal Passions (and not for the less savory reasons you might be thinking). It's unfortunate that Galligan only went on to do low-budget flicks like this after Gremlins, yet actors like Bowen successfully leveraged the semi-bullying aggressiveness of his acting persona into many more high-profile productions, including supporting roles in Magnolia and "Breaking Bad". One wonders what the pitch to Warner must have been for his involvement in this picture, although he was no stranger to cheapy thrillers and horror movies. (He and Galligan would work together in Waxwork.) It's a pity that Mortal Passions never really surprises its audience--save perhaps for a steamy interlude between Emily and Berke at the most inappropriate of times, while Darcy's cold, dead corpse lies shot on the floor next to the bed where they rekindle their romance. Conversely, we never see Todd get unhinged at all. He gets mad at Dr. Powers (rightly so) for letting Emily "sabotage" his therapy sessions. (Really, a psychiatrist like Powers should understand the conflict of interest here, and should not be seeing both of them.) Emily is easily the most interesting character in the film, but that's not saying much. She is a sociopath, and this is conveyed not just in her depravity, but in the way that she always seems to act like nothing's her fault, no matter what the consequences--that she's been the long-suffering one. And yet she always has an easy lie at every turn. The closest thing we get to seeing how Todd and Emily's relationship even began in the first place happens after Darcy's ex-girlfriend, a bimbo named Adele (Sheila Kelley), shows up looking for him. She repeatedly (and hilariously awkwardly) tries to ask Todd to sleep with her (she likes him because he's handy, young, and rich, and says so), so you begin to wonder if Todd's going to make the same obvious mistake that he must have made with Emily before. Heck, she even blackmails him shortly after they dig up the corpse of Darcy from under Todd's patio, where Berke buried him, and--get this--neither of them go to the police about it! (Not so much surprising as it is weird and unlikely.) Perhaps this is Todd's saving grace--that he resists making the same mistake twice--but this does leave the film feeling like it falls a little flat at the end, as does the inevitable confrontation between Todd, Berke, and Emily. So for a movie that lauds itself on being full of "hot" passions, it turns out to be surprising tepid throughout.
Recommended for: Fans of those cheesy, Eighties-era "erotic thrillers", albeit one with less titillation than the sub-genre usually elicits, and with a few actors giving it more than these kind of movies usually warrant. Mortal Passions will forever remain far from a classic, but it makes for a passable riff on similar movies like it from yesteryear, albeit with some amateur production values.
Regardless of its lack of polish, there is a certain charm to Mortal Passions (and not for the less savory reasons you might be thinking). It's unfortunate that Galligan only went on to do low-budget flicks like this after Gremlins, yet actors like Bowen successfully leveraged the semi-bullying aggressiveness of his acting persona into many more high-profile productions, including supporting roles in Magnolia and "Breaking Bad". One wonders what the pitch to Warner must have been for his involvement in this picture, although he was no stranger to cheapy thrillers and horror movies. (He and Galligan would work together in Waxwork.) It's a pity that Mortal Passions never really surprises its audience--save perhaps for a steamy interlude between Emily and Berke at the most inappropriate of times, while Darcy's cold, dead corpse lies shot on the floor next to the bed where they rekindle their romance. Conversely, we never see Todd get unhinged at all. He gets mad at Dr. Powers (rightly so) for letting Emily "sabotage" his therapy sessions. (Really, a psychiatrist like Powers should understand the conflict of interest here, and should not be seeing both of them.) Emily is easily the most interesting character in the film, but that's not saying much. She is a sociopath, and this is conveyed not just in her depravity, but in the way that she always seems to act like nothing's her fault, no matter what the consequences--that she's been the long-suffering one. And yet she always has an easy lie at every turn. The closest thing we get to seeing how Todd and Emily's relationship even began in the first place happens after Darcy's ex-girlfriend, a bimbo named Adele (Sheila Kelley), shows up looking for him. She repeatedly (and hilariously awkwardly) tries to ask Todd to sleep with her (she likes him because he's handy, young, and rich, and says so), so you begin to wonder if Todd's going to make the same obvious mistake that he must have made with Emily before. Heck, she even blackmails him shortly after they dig up the corpse of Darcy from under Todd's patio, where Berke buried him, and--get this--neither of them go to the police about it! (Not so much surprising as it is weird and unlikely.) Perhaps this is Todd's saving grace--that he resists making the same mistake twice--but this does leave the film feeling like it falls a little flat at the end, as does the inevitable confrontation between Todd, Berke, and Emily. So for a movie that lauds itself on being full of "hot" passions, it turns out to be surprising tepid throughout.
Recommended for: Fans of those cheesy, Eighties-era "erotic thrillers", albeit one with less titillation than the sub-genre usually elicits, and with a few actors giving it more than these kind of movies usually warrant. Mortal Passions will forever remain far from a classic, but it makes for a passable riff on similar movies like it from yesteryear, albeit with some amateur production values.