This was one of a set of direct-to-video exploitation features slickly produced under the auspices of Playboy Enterprises, and despite the unpromising pedigree, TEMPTRESS is slightly better than expected.
Back from a trip to India, photographer Karin Swann (Kim Delaney) declares she's just had an unforgettable spiritual experience--but can't remember how that big statue of the goddess Kali got into her luggage. Karin starts behaving like an insatiable nymphomaniac, and longtime steady Matthew
Christianson (Chris Sarandon) is alarmed, though not so alarmed that he doesn't go back for more. Soon Karin is worshipping the idol at a makeshift altar, and lusty males like Nick (Corbin Bernsen) who disrespect either lady suffer lethal mishaps. Convenient savant, Dr. Samudaya (Ben Cross),
explains to Matthew that while abroad Karin fell under the spell of a Kali cult.
Truly a bitch goddess, Kali entices and destroys with equal passion, and Karin is her gateway into the world. Kali's divine mate Shiva can stop her, but only if he "surrenders." Somehow personifying the two deities in a minimal-effects showdown on which, we're told, the fate of the world rests,
Karin and Matthew dodge each others blades and blows until Matthew remembers Samudaya's advice--and submits to Karin/Shiva. They end up making love, not apocalypse.
That inconclusive finale, lacking even a morning after, takes TEMPTRESS down a few notches on the wheel of karma, confirming the film's raison d'etre of thrusting large, tan breasts at the lens in softcore mystic montage. One might read higher meaning into a plot about a woman seduced by Eastern
religion and saved by a guy named Christianson, but if TEMPTRESS is far from SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS, neither does it approach THE LAST WAVE. Karin's tribal visions are mostly of the centerfold variety except for one nice moment when business-suited denizens of Matthew's law office turn into turbaned
Hindus.
At least delegating nude scenes to anonymous, voluptuous extras takes primary sleaze duty off Delaney, whose own body displays normal human proportions. She, Sarandon, and other players instill a measure of conviction in their acting, but there's one major omission: we never see Karin before her
metamorphosis into Kama Sutra slut. TEMPTRESS was marketed in two versions, one less explicit (no bunny logo on the casstte box) than the other, but both R-rated nonetheless.(Violence, sexual situations, extensive nudity, profanity, adult situations, substance abuse.) leave a comment
