With its twisted sense of right and wrong, DARK SECRETS takes the position that any form of sexual perversion is morally superior to fatally stabbing a lover in the back.
Ambitious reporter Claire Reynolds (Monique Parent) goes undercover as a lingerie model to get an exclusive story on media mogul-sex club magnate Justin Deville (Justin Carroll). Of all the mannequins working for Justin's photographer-procurer, only Claire possesses a perfect blend of carnality
and innocence--Justin regards her as marriage material.
After finding photos that could link Justin to a woman's murder, Claire slowly falls under the spell of Justin's erotic black magic. At his mansion, Justin blackmails a senator with an incriminating videotape. Meanwhile, at his pleasure palace, Justin introduces Claire to sensualists like Mauri
(Julie Strain) who seduces her.
To test his potential wife's loyalty, Justin arranges for a TV producer to offer Claire a high-profile job in exchange for her feeding him juicy tidbits from Justin's shady empire. Conflicted, Claire takes the bait, not realizing that the murder photos were faked. So Claire gets her on-camera gig
but not her man, and a saddened Justin continues searching for that perfect combination of schoolgirl and whore who is worthy of being his mate.
While this movie's anti-puritanical stand may be unassailable from one perspective, its artistic integrity, screenplay, and array of terrible acting are not. Never has sex been so explicitly reenacted in a non-X-rated excursion, yet seemed so unarousing and silly. Does anyone want to see a
gruesomely overdeveloped naked woman being covered with Saran Wrap?
DARK SECRETS portrays Claire's exposure to back room dirty-doings in terms of Victorian melodrama, but instead of being harassed by a mustache-twirling villain, she's chased by horny hedonists. Of course, Claire's Big "O" is reserved for Justin, whom we're supposed to admire for his erotic
openness, while we condemn Claire for selling him out. However, let's give this woman a break. After all, she suspected her fiance of murder; it's not her fault he only turned out to be guilty of hypocrisy, blackmail, and a God-complex. (Violence, extreme profanity, extensive nudity, adult
situations, sexual situations, substance abuse.) leave a comment