Gregory Dark

The film opens with Joanna Cole (Shannon Whirry) explaining to a mysterious off-camera listener the events that transpired since she divorced her husband moved to her new house in a well-to-do area (following the events in "Animal Instincts"). Next door neighbours Steve (Woody Brown) and his wife Catherine (Elizabeth Sandifer) are going through a bad patch in their marriage and Steve begins to take a distant, voyeuristic fancy to Joanna, which culminates in his placing a hidden camera in her bedroom. When Joanna discovers the camera she finds herself turned on and begins to put on kinky nightly sex-shows with a string of partners. This drives Steve completely over the edge with lust until he eventually turns full-on psycho. "Animal Instincts 2" is a cleverly staged and directed erotic thriller from Gregory Hippolyte (Greg Dark) that is well shot, beautifully lit by cinematographer Wally Pfister and for the most part is fairly well acted. The story by Daryl Haney is engaging, though a touch predictable and Hippolyte strikes a good balance between the soft-core rompings and the forward momentum thriller elements of the plot. Shannon Whirry is the high point of the film and is again excellent as Joanna – every inch the B-movie queen here. The rest of the cast go about their business in workmanlike fashion, with Woody Brown giving a master class in aggressive cigarette smoking. Of particular note is the beautifully languorous and incredibly haunting score by Marty Irwin. "Animal Instincts 2" is a good wee film, with Gregory Hippolyte again demonstrating that he is the master of this strange little sub-genre.… (meer)

This is a “classic” of the softcore, erotic-thriller genre from director Gregory Dark (Gregory Hippolyte) and starring the sensational and ever-amazing Shannon Whirry. The story is told in flashback by Joanna (Whirry), who outlines via an interview with a journalist, how she was the bored and sexually frustrated wife of an over-worked and upper-paid cop, David (Maxwell Caulfield). Meanwhile strip club owner Lamberti (David Carradine) is under pressure from hypocritical whiter-than-white councillor Fletcher Ross (Jan-Michael Vincent) who is on a political crusade to shut down strip joints as part of his campaign to be elected Mayor. Back in suburbia, Joanna’s frustration gets so bad that she beds the TV repairman, but is caught by David who watches his wife having sex with the stranger and finds himself becoming strangely aroused. As a result of this the pair decide that they will set up some recording equipment and get their kicks recording Joanna getting her freak on with a select clientele of professional men, while David secretly watches in the next room. All is going well until David and Lamberti hatch a plan to blackmail Fletcher Ross by arranging an assignation with Joanna and filming. Needless to say not all goes to plan.

Greg Dark shoots this rather meagre and preposterous story as a hanger on which to hang multiple scenes of Shannon Whirry either parading around in the best of early-90s styled lingerie or having passionate sex with a range of men and in the case of Ingrid (Delia Sheppard), a woman. To be fair he does this really well filming with a high-gloss soft focus sheen, clever camera angles and with a real eye for a beautiful woman – his camera clearly loved every inch of Shannon Whirry. The styling of the film, however, hasn‘t aged well, with the gloss, background music and approach making it very much of its era. It’s pretty well acted throughout all things considered, with David Carradine perfectly sleazy as the club boss and Jan-Michael Vincent even more so as the dirty politician. The great John Saxon appears in a “blink and you’ll miss it” cameo at the end of the film as Joanna’s lawyer trying to explain the case away with a wild story of nymphomania brought on prescription drugs. At the end of the day, however, this is Shannon Whirry’s film – she is raunchy and seductive in equal measure and isn’t afraid of the many nude scenes in the movie, attacking the material with real enthusiasm. Within its own genre “Animal Instincts” is an excellent film – it has a semi-decent story, is cleverly directed, delivers a number of hot thrills, is well-acted with a decent cast and in the great Shannon Whirry has a one of the hottest leading actress of the erotic-thriller genre at the very top of her game.… (meer)

Also known as “Undercover Heat”, this is pretty standard erotic-thriller, B-movie fare. Cindy (Athena Massey) is a policewoman who, in an introductory voice-over, tells us how concerned she is about her womanhood due to how beautiful she is – apparently her beauty is so intimidating to men that she’s never had a date. That doesn’t stop her joining the police and become a well-respected detective. When a prostitute is murdered she is tasked by Sergeant Gold (Tom Tayback) to go undercover in Mrs V’s (Meg Foster) high-class bordello. Gearing herself up in the best hooker outfits she heads off to the brothel where she strikes up a relationship with bouncer Ramone (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and a number of the girls. Things begin to become confused for Cindy in the bordello and she finds herself having to deal with actual clients as she begins to close in on the killer. Gregory (Dark) Hippolyte, whose approach is to keep things reasonably simple and moving in the right direction (in between pauses for cleverly staged soft focus sex romps) directs the film with a fair degree of competence. This, however, isn’t a great thriller by any stretch of the imagination but the premise of undercover cop in a highly compromising situation is well handled. Some of the dialogue is fairly risible – the following voice-over from Cindy as she tries out her newly acquired hooker outfits is priceless: "Hot pants – check! Thigh boots – check! Black lace stockings with matching thong and push up bra – check! Being a cop doesn't scare me; but being a woman does". What!?! The acting is competent enough – Athena Massey carries most of the film and is okay; Tom Tayback is fairly good and Meg 'Scary Eyes' Foster is intimidating and with her strangely hued eyes is actually quite creepy. On the whole “Undercover” is a competent enough little film, with semi-decent acting and a reasonable semblance of plot, which actually keeps you guessing about the identity of the murderer all the way to the end.… (meer)