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July 9, 2016 · 11:48 am

Olalla, Part One: A Half-Lingering Terror

by Rich Moreland, July 2016

Olalla is an erotic horror film from Pachamama Films and Decadent Cinema. The movie is written and directed by Amy Hesketh. The dialogue is a combination Spanish and English and comes with the option of closed captioning.

Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story by the same name, Amy’s adaptation weaves Stevenson’s tale into a visual narrative so compelling that I believe it is worthy of academic study.

Though I don’t use a rating system for my reviews, I highly recommend Olalla. The film is available from Vermeerworks and Amazon.

In this first post, we look at Olalla from a back story perspective.

* * *

Robert Louis Stevenson published “Olalla” as a short story in 1885. It’s the first person account of an unnamed English officer wounded in war, most likely Napoleon’s 1807-1814 Peninsular Campaign in Spain. The soldier recuperates at a “residencia” belonging to a once noble family.

Remnants

When he arrives, the officer learns the remnants of the family consist of a mother who is “sunk in sloth and pleasure,” a “very cunning, very loutish” son named Felipe, and a daughter, Olalla, whose presence is felt but not seen.

Upon first encountering Felipe, the soldier finds him to be “a child in intellect [and] stunted in development.” He also describes him as secretive, perhaps being more than he seems. All the while, the daughter remains a mystery.

During his stay, the Englishman notices a portrait of a woman in his bedroom. She appears, by way of her antiquated dress, to be “long since dead.” Nevertheless, she is striking in an ominous way, causing the soldier to remark that “to love such a woman were to seal one’s own sentence of degeneration.”

As time passes, the portrait begins to “cast a dark shadow” on him. He is thankful the woman is “safe in the grave,” then comments, “And yet I had a half-lingering terror that she might not be dead after all, but re-risen in the body of some descendant.”

Reacting to his uneasy feelings, the officer concludes the ‘family blood’ seemed to be “impoverished,” probably from inbreeding, and accounted for the strangeness of Felipe and his mother.

How they are connected to the portrait remains vague, but the soldier’s lengthening stay at the residencia reinforces his growing anxieties.

Bestial Cries

The Englishman eventually meets Olalla and they develop a rudimentary friendship.

The story’s turning point occurs when the soldier cuts his hand opening a casement window. Seeking help he approaches the mother only to have her fall upon him and bite his hand “to the bone.” He fights her off but she pounces again “with bestial cries” similar to those that had previously awakened him in the night. Felipe and Olalla appear and rescue him.

With the Felipe’s assistance, the soldier departs the home to find shelter in a local village. While there, he engages the old padre and asks about Olalla and her family. Not a good idea, apparently, because the village atmosphere becomes toxic for the Englishman. The residents avoid his presence which he attributes to their superstitions. Eventually, he strikes up a conversation with a “gaunt peasant” and learns that a villager died at that “house of Satan” where the family lives, though how and why is unknown. The soldier dismisses the story as more superstition.

Robert Louis Stevenson

The officer and Olalla meet a final time on a pathway that has a crucifix at its summit. Olalla has stopped to pray.

She thought he had gone, she says, and urges him to do so because the longer he stays the closer death stalks him and her family. Olalla knows the locals are aware of his love for her and that is dangerous.

When her prayers are finished, Olalla implores the Englishman to look up at the “Man of Sorrows.” She mentions the “inheritors of sin” and how everyone must endure a past “which is not ours.”

Though he is no Christian, the soldier is struck by her message. All sacrifice is “voluntary,” he laments, and “pain is the choice of the magnanimous,” so it’s “best to suffer all things and do well.”

Moving on, the Englishman heads “down the mountain in silence.” He turns to look back and sees Olalla “still leaning on the crucifix.”

Is this a Vampire Tale?

Victorians loved enigmatic storytelling because it protected sensibilities and forced uncertainty upon the reader. For example, there’s Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. Is it a ghost story about possessed children or just the fertile imagination of a young governess who is a psychological wreck?

On the other hand, when Bram Stoker’s Dracula is published about the same time as James’ work (1897-98) subtleties are put aside. The vague becomes obvious.

We know Dracula’s bites are metaphors for the erotic and necessary to accommodate Victorian temperament, but the rest is pretty straightforward, a fantasy complete with fangs, a sun phobia, no reflections in mirrors, and on and on.

Hollywood has made a fortune on the Stoker model.

With Stevenson’s “Olalla,” we are left with a burning question? Is this a vampire tale or just a story about a deviant family of blood fetishists mixed with religious overtones and village superstition? Challenging, of course, because none of the standard Stoker’s mechanisms are in place and rightly so since Stevenson’s narrative predates Stoker by over a decade.

My inclination is go with the fetish explanation because everybody’s got one of some sort or another. But, of course, that won’t keep you up all night ready to cringe at the least gust of cold wind or that strange creature crawling up the wall of your bedroom.

The Grand-Guignol

As for Amy Hesketh’s adaptation of Stevenson’s Victorian imagination, well, it’s pure Amy which means it’s innovative and terrific.

One more thought, I’m guessing Amy is a fan of Paris’ Theater of Horror, the Grand-Guignol (1897-1962), where amorality, brutality, sex, and insanity crept onto the French stage with just the right infusion of gore. No supernatural here, it’s all realism at work.

As Amy Hesketh fans know well, she relishes whippings, crucifixions, rack torture, and burnings too much to rely exclusively on the supernatural as her literary modus operandi. Realism is her performance art and what stands her tall in the crowd of horror directors and storytellers.

* * *

Having introduced Robert Louis Stevenson, we’re now ready for the next post on this marvelous film. We’ll take a look at the vampire question a little further.

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June 18, 2016 · 11:41 am

A Review of Master of the Mysteries

by Rich Moreland, June 2016

With only a superficial knowledge of the occult, I approached Louis Sahagun’s biography of Manly Palmer Hall as an opportunity to learn something new. I was more than pleasantly rewarded. The updated version of Master of the Mysteries: New Revelations on the Life of Manly Palmer Hall is expertly researched and an easy read with language that dances along through a menagerie of people and wacky goings on.

Especially enlightening is the collection of original source material presented visually within the pages. Letters, flyers advertising Hall’s appearances, photos, drawings, and the like, breathe life into the story.

The Age of Ballyhoo

Master of the Mysteries is a rapidly paced primer for readers who are unfamiliar with spiritualism as it developed in Los Angeles from the 1920s through the post-war period. The offbeat personalities who were intrigued by the mystical and bizarre fill every page. Take for example, the story of Jack Parsons, Pasadena scientist and “secret practitioner of sex magic.” In 1952, he unintentionally self-evaporated in a garage explosion fooling around with “mercuric fulminate.” To add a macabre flavor to the account, Sahagun explains that Parsons, who was interested in conceiving a “‘magical child’ on a black altar” at his house, was a student of Aleister Crowley, the occultist “who called himself ‘Beast 666.’” Manly Hall owned a collection of Crowley’s work, one of many sources for his self-education on ancient religion, reincarnation, and every stop in between.

What makes Master of the Mysteries fascinating is the laundry list of Hollywood/LA types who counted Manly Hall as an acquaintance. Included are Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Glen Ford, Rhonda Fleming, Cecil B. DeMille, and many more. As a young man, Hall’s future took shape when he met Harry Houdini (who copied his tricks from “Asian jugglers and magicians”) in New York. Deciding to move to California, the soon-to-be occult superstar arrived in LA just as The Age of Ballyhoo nurtured the metaphysical beliefs and whimsies that were the stuff of parlor games and lectures during the Victorian Era.

The Southern California climes nurtured all manner of the theatrical, among them Sister Aimee Semple McPherson, whose 1920s evangelical empire came unglued when she staged her own kidnapping to cover a lover’s tryst. As for Manly Palmer Hall, he was perfect for the emerging Southern California pop culture. Young, dynamic, and impressive in physical build and social stature, he became pastor of the “Church of the People,” leader of the Philosophical Research Society, and a Freemason to boot.

In his exploration of Hall’s early years, Sahagun’s narrative is a hodgepodge of seers, predictors, religious salesmen, and hokum truth sayers that dominated the LA landscape in the 1920s and 30s, establishing today’s “Left Coast” moniker that describes the region. Manly Hall was ideal for those between-the-wars decades, a self-made man who became “one of the most celebrated spiritual figures” of his time.

Hallucinations and Mood Swings

Then there are Manley’s marriages, particularly the second one to Marie Bauer (his first wife having offed herself with the tried and true exhaust pipe method). Marie had her own set of loony ideas, particularly her fascination with the mystical Bruton Vault in the Bruton Parish Church in historic Williamsburg, Virginia. In it were the supposed revelations of Sir Francis Bacon and the wacky brunette spent her lifetime rambling on about their secrets. Oh yes, she also claimed to be aware of Hitler’s “deadly” thing, whatever that was. What’s more, Sahagun reveals the U.S. government’s post-war dossier on the delusional Marie who was trying to arrange meetings with J. Edgar Hoover.

The chapter on the love letters between Marie and Manly is revealing. When Hall first met Marie, she was “prone to hallucinations and mood swings.” Ignoring her quirkiness, the distinguished looking Manley found Marie to be “attractive” and “energetic,” though she admitted to failing as a wife and mother (she eventually divorced her husband). In 1950 they married, but turmoil always seemed to rule the household. “Her paranoia and temper kept friends and relatives on edge,” Sahagun tells us, and, not surprisingly, the loving couple slept in separate bedrooms. Marie always insisted Manly was bisexual.

The contrast between Hall and Marie is stunning. Petite and considered a beauty, Marie was the opposite of her husband who was tall, had a penchant for sweets and was plagued with obesity due to thyroid problems. His eyes, according to Marie, were “piercing but cold.” She also claims they never consummated their union. The letters reveal a Marie who sometimes had it together and other times was drifting in her own space without an intellectual compass.

Prone to extensive illness in his final days, Hall died mysteriously at eighty-nine. Marie and others suspected murder, a likely possibility, Sahagun suggests. Marie passed at age 100 and Clarita Woolridge, the nurse with her at the end, remembers that “an awesome invisible presence and a palpable sensation of peace filled the room.” Such was the story of Marie and Manly. Their “presence,” here and in the hereafter, could still inspire the faithful. By the way, Ms. Woolridge entered the seminary as a result of her experience that day.

Speaking of the end, Hall’s death is superbly assigned to Chapter Thirteen, a hint of the author’s subtle humor that floats to the surface every now and then.

The Big Book

Overall, Masters of the Mysteries is the legacy of Manly Palmer Hall and his Philosophical Research Society. For the record, Hall published his own seminal work. Simply referred to as The Big Book, it’s “a gorgeous dreamlike book of mysterious symbols” completed when he was only twenty-eight. Sahagun describes the literary opus as follows: “Hall freely sorts through a tossed salad of spiritual imagery from disparate times and place and discovers common ground and patterns” that drive the universe.

Sprinkle in doses of the Freemasons along with the “fantasies and mythical horror stories” that permeated Hollywood (Walt Disney’s fanciful films are mentioned) and the psychedelic 1960s to spice up an already fascinating story, and Louis Sahagun’s account is a five-star winner.

A mystery on many levels in its own right, Master of the Mysteries is quite literally a page turner.

* * *

Product details as posted on Amazon:

Paperback: 330 pages
Publisher: Process; Enlarged edition (June 14, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1934170631
ISBN-13: 978-1934170632

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May 17, 2016 · 10:24 am

Dead But Dreaming, Part 4: Horror or History?

by Rich Moreland, May 2016

In reviewing Dead But Dreaming, I have taken a limited perspective. The film, however, is rich with unexplored layers of meaning that beg for further interpretation. That’s the true measure of art and a salute to director Jac Avila’s innovative work.

* * *

Crucifixion and Confrontation

Dead But Dreaming is a film of contrasts and parallels in a narrative driven by the ordeals of Aphrodisia and Moire.

They come from distant lands but their appearances are quite different. Moire’s fair complexion and reddish blonde hair is a counterpoint to Aphrodisia’s fiery exotic look framed by her black hair and paradoxically sad eyes.

As we’ve seen, both are sexually assaulted while bound. Aphrodisia responds with anger; whereas, a stoic Moire endures her trauma.

On the other hand, both victims are visually eroticized when they are punished. Their differences lie in their humiliation, Moire’s being public, Aphrodisia’s the fate of a slave.

The story’s three crucifixions are also contrasting. Aphrodisia suffers a slave’s death on a cross; Moire is the victim of political persecution while Nahara faces an interrogation with a religious overtone (notice the wound in her side inflicted by a wooden crucifix). Does vampirism feed off Christian mythology and is that what frightens the priest Ferenc so much?

Though Moire is resigned to her fate, Aphrodisia and Nahara are angry. Nahara pulls at the chains securing her to a box-like metal frame in an underground cavern compliments of Ferenc’s mission to stamp out evil.

Speaking of the priest, he and Nahara trade confrontational stares throughout the film in a reminder of Dr. Van Helsing’s pursuit of Dracula in the Bram Stoker novel. In effect, they are mythological parallels in contrasting poses.

Who is Varna?

Varna, dressed in civilian clothes, meets Moire on the street with a less than astonished, “You’re dead.” Moire’s now eternal state does not appear to surprise the former nun-in-training because she can no longer dismiss the supernatural.

Moire is concerned for Varna.

When I was dead but dreaming, Moire says, “I heard you,” referring to Varna’s promise to carry on her mission, and “I don’t want you to take my place.”

Varna is warned. Stay out of the revolution because the whipping post awaits, and seek the church as a shield from Nahara, who has a talent for turning those who pray into prey.

Wasted words because Varna is the independent woman celebrated by feminism. She makes her own decisions but will be forever hounded just as feminists have always suffered society’s condemnation.

As the film winds down, Varna is seduced by Aphrodisia and ends up in the lair where earlier the vampires feasted on a local woman.

Rather than taste Varna’s virginity, Asa releases her in a nod to the next installment of Dead But Dreaming.

“She will lead us to Nahara,” he says to Aphrodisia.

Unexpectedly, Varna shows up at the stable and wants to join Moire, who was anticipating Nahara’s arrival. The viewer learns that the Lamia was killed by Ferenc. But she cannot die, Moire says matter-of-factly, and we know what that means . . .

As they ride away, the Irish traveler warns Varna, “She will find us someday.” It’s a cat and mouse game playing out in vampire land.

So who is Varna?

Throughout the film, this novice nun cannot look away, cannot confine herself to the safety of her cultural box because she sees perspectives beyond her own personal vision. She is the observer.

Simply put, Varna is us.

Budgets

Finally, Dead has endearing touches that make the film a pleasure.

Director Jac Avila cautions us to not go too far in willfully suspending our disbelief. Granted we are dealing with an indie film that suffers expected budgetary constraints that limit retakes. The upside of that inadvertently breaks the theatrical “fourth wall” by letting the viewer in on the game.

Here are a few really cool examples.

Though the sacrificial virgin in beginning (10,000 years ago) keeps her mouth closed, her metal braces are still visible. A close-up Moire’s feet at the whipping post reveals her pedicure. And in a vampire attack on a La Paz street, Aphrodisia loses one of her fake nails.

I love this stuff because nobody can waste a dollar in the indie business. If anything, it’s an artistic challenge Hollywood cannot appreciate.

Blue

I’m left with only one question. Why do the vampires have blue eyes?

Is blue a dreaming state because it is peaceful? Or, is “vampire blue” sad and depressing?

I’ve got a theory. In the Bram Stoker tradition, vampires are condemned to come out at night and, of course, can never again inhale the light of day. So the undead must carry the blue sky in their eyes as a cruel joke; their dilated black pupils push aside the ever present, but forbidden, daytime to see at night.

Another take on the color suggests the “eternal light” of Church doctrine must always be vigilant. Hence the blue crucifix hanging on the church wall and the street scenes shot in a blue hue.

That First Bloody Bite

In closing, my congratulations to the entire production team of Dead. The cinematography is impressive and captures costumes and settings that are authentic representations of La Paz in 1805.

Dead’s pace is lively and the intercutting supremely done to bring the story together. Only once did I think the movie strained itself. The extended scene between Demetrius and Chrysis in Antioch tended to drag with a somewhat flat dialogue delivery. But in the overall scheme of things, that’s minor.

The Irish traveler descends the path with Nahara not far behind

Incidentally, the opening credits offer a clever indication that this film has a tale to tell. The motif is about travelers who are descending into something we do not yet know. Moire rides her horse down a path and is followed by the mysterious Nahara. When the scene shifts to Asa’s first appearance, he is going down a hill.

Set up the viewer with a suggestion and Dead But Dreaming readies the audience for that first deliciously irresistible bloody bite into a terrific story.

Horror or History?

As I mentioned in the first post on this movie, I am venturing into new territory with this analysis. After repeated viewings, I’m reluctant to call Dead a horror film. It is more of a historical drama armed with a political message wrapped in a supernatural fantasy. Though I agree with Eric Antione who characterizes the movie as a “gothic adventure story,” I think it goes deeper than that. Much like Maleficarum, another Amy Hesketh film about victimization, Dead condemns a society that condemns women.

Speaking of Maleficarum, two young women are tortured under the sadistic auspices of the Church because they don’t fit in. Amy and Mila Joy are innocent victims whipped, racked, and bloodied in realistic scenes. Yet, Maleficarum is not gratuitous violence. The film depicts the abuses society brings on those who drift away from the norm. Watch it with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in mind because Jac Avila’s script and Miller’s story are based on real accounts.

The dungeons of Maleficarum offer Amy and Mila with their nudity and their punishments as treats for the sadomasochistic crowd. Dead dances around the edges of that arena with the same erotic S/M theme that permeates Maleficarum. Does that position both films in a special genre of horror, history, and softcore porn? Perhaps, but that may be a stretch (no rack pun intended), so check out both films and decide for yourself.

What I do believe is what Dead But Dreaming does so well, replay the female oppression theme of Maleficarum with a more forceful feminist message.

* * *

I hope to review another Amy Hesketh production. She is a breath of fresh air unknown to many film fans.

For my tastes, any performer who comments on her nudity with, “My body is my instrument so I’m going to use it,” is quietly telling us she is more than attractively packaged female flesh.

Amy Hesketh is smart, talented, and lusts after each scene she shoots.

Congrats on a great movie and here’s betting that there’s a Dead II in the works.

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May 15, 2016 · 12:25 pm

Dead But Dreaming, Part 3: Ordeal

by Rich Moreland, May 2016

The iconic scenes in Dead But Dreaming focus on the ordeal of the Irish traveler.

Kudos are extended to Amy Hesketh for her expression of Moire’s suffering.

* * *

Public Humiliation

The Irish traveler is arrested and sentenced, though we see no trial. She will be scourged and garrotted, the Spanish practice of death by strangulation.

Before her punishment, Moire is brutally raped by the guards in an intense scene played beautifully by Amy Hesketh.

To intensify her humiliation, Moire will be chained to a whipping post in a pre-death ritual carried out on a public stage. The scene is political, of course, Moire is sentenced for crimes against the state and the authorities are present. More important, however, is the sadomasochism that reinforces the prevailing vampirism of the film.

Moire is brought out in flimsy white cloth that is stripped away once she is secured to the post. During the punishment, the executioner takes a break for water and offers some to the prisoner, a show of compassion in a macabre setting. It’s a precursor for her next drink after nightfall.

Incidentally, BDSMers will love the real marks on the victim’s body. In fact, the fake blood is unnecessary.

Real marks and a salute to Amy Hesketh’s courage in the pursuit of her art.

Among the onlookers are Ferenc and Varna, who weeps at the scene. Nahara in her familiar cloak and hood, drifts about, setting her sights on another vampire lover once the state’s duties are completed.

Moire looks painfully at Varna and Ferenc in the crowd.

The Irish traveler is left suspended at the post until dusk, reminding the viewer of Aphrodisia’s abandonment when the onlookers at her punishment drift away.

During the course of the narrative, both women are similarly brutalized, establishing parallels that are vital to the story.

Most importantly, each lives on in an alternative universe, telling Varna that superstition is its own reality.

Inside You

Slipping by the guard after dark, Nahara visits Moire in her cell. She is there to help but not in the way the Irish traveler expects.

Caressing a beaten and weak Moire, Nahara persuades her to relax whereupon she bites Moire’s shoulder just behind her neck. Apologizing, the vampire says, “I need your blood.”

As a parallel to Moire, Aphrodisia also provides nourishment for Asa after his staff gouges the holes in her chest. These vampires consume the sexual power of their kin.

Nahara explains she can’t stop the execution and in a moment of dark humor a smiling Moire thanks Nahara for keeping her company, “even if I was only your dinner . . . Or, am I breakfast?”

Nahara keeps the wit going with, “You have an odd sense of humor.”

She’s Irish, Moire jokes, and wants to know if Nahara is French, a clever reference to 1803 when the Irish planned to assist the French against the English during the Napoleonic Wars.

Enough of the smiles, it’s back to work.

Moire licks Nahara's blood from her hands as the feeding ritual is completed.

Moire licks Nahara’s blood from her fingers as the feeding ritual is completed.

Encouraging Moire to feed, Nahara rips open her own wrist with her teeth. “Drink as much as you can,” Nahara says.

Moire’s first drink of the day was a brief glimpse at survival that gets her to this moment. Now her second drink begins the transformation. Reborn a vampire, Moire can now face death without fear.

“You have me inside you,” Nahara assures her.

This line is steeped in meaning. Will there be a sadomasochistic sexual relationship between Moire and Nahara like Asa’s has with Aphrodisia? Does the statement imply that all vampires are bisexual?

Does it mean that Nahara now controls Moire?

Or, is it a satirical reference to the Christian belief in the living God?

Crimes Against the State

The next day the crowd returns and a naked Moire is paraded out once again. Her arms are extended and tied to posts on the raised platform where she was punished the day before. Her ankles are chained together to create a visual crucifixion.

The death sentence is read. The Viceroy of Peru has sanctioned the execution.

The executioner puts the noose around Moire’s throat and slowly ends her life with one brutal twist following another. In a nice touch, blood spurts from Moire’s mouth. Vampire’s morning after, anyone?

In this emotionally draining scene, Ferenc consoles his niece. His words are futile, of course, because Varna will take up Moire’s struggle, just as the next feminist generation replaces the former. However, she will fall under suspicion. Once a woman leaves the convent and acts on her own, she is marked. Varna has yet to suffer the lash’s retribution, but the feeling is she will someday.

Say Good-bye

Later Varna visits her uncle who is studying a book about vampires. He asks about Moire’s execution because he has no memory of it which he blames on the presence of a Lamia.

His niece relates that Nahara came up to her while she prayed before Moire’s corpse, still bound in its death climax.

“I have a pact with your friend,” Nahara says. “Now say good-bye and go.”

Ferenc suspects Nahara is a Lamia and translates her name into “light.” It’s Christianity turned on its head.

Varna dismisses his superstitions.

A scene shift to Asa’s lair informs the viewer the battle over Moire is underway. Nahara made the Irish traveler into “one of us . . . a little sister,” Asa tells Aphrodisia. “It will be easy to make her come to us.” A new pawn in a vampire world of adversaries is ready for use.

Asa gently touches Aphrodisia, once a little sister herself

In a quick shift back to the execution site, Varna informs Nahara she is leaving because she knows Moire can’t hear her.

In a pivotal moment, Nahara drops her guard. Preparing Varna for what may become her own fate, the Lamia whispers, Moire “can hear you.”

The Irish traveler is “dead but dreaming,” suspended in a vampire purgatory.

* * *

The scourging and execution segments of Dead But Dreaming may be over-the-top for some viewers, but this is Amy Hesketh’s artistic style, her performance art.

We may want to turn away, but when Amy offers herself as the vicitm of a sexualized brutality, we can’t deny our urge to look. Gazing into our own soul, we are forced to revisit our personal perspectives on good and evil. Is that not what film is about?

A reminder for those who willfully suspend their disbelief in this intense moment, it's just a movie and a good one at that!

A reminder for those who are swept up in the realism of Moire’s fate, it’s a movie of course, and that requires several days and many takes, as we see here.

* * *

For more reviews of Dead But Dreaming and to learn more about Amy Hesketh, visit her website and her blog.

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May 13, 2016 · 9:27 am

Dead But Dreaming, Part 2: Lamia

by Rich Moreland, May 2016

Joining Amy Hesketh in Dead But Dreaming is Bolivian Veronica Paintoux who began her career with Pachamama Films in the early 1990s and La Paz native Mila Joya is who has shot for the studio since 2010. She stars with Amy in Maleficarum, a film directed by Jac Avila.

These three provocative women, along with Claudia Moscoso as Varna, infuse feminism into the vampire landscape, giving Dead But Dreaming an empowered pro-woman statement.

Claudio Moscoso

* * *

Throughout recorded history, women have been captured, fought over, enslaved, and seduced for reproductive purposes. The result? Sexual commodification has always been at the core of being female.

Patriarchal attitudes have dominated all cultures with the Church in the Middle Ages western civilization’s strongest example. But women have fought back and in modern times this struggle has given rise to feminism.

In Dead But Dreaming, writer/director Jac Avila explores the feminist image as it is shaped through the recalcitrant female. She may appear submissive and trapped by her circumstances, but she is of her own mind.

Womanly Condition

Until the viewer meets Varna, the feminist tone of the narrative floats along under the radar. There are hints, of course, but the novice nun brings the issue front and center. Her uncle, Ferenc, is the local priest and when they meet in the church courtyard he mentions his suspicions.

There is a female vampire, a lamia, loose in the community. “The demon takes a beautiful shape to seduce young men,” he says.

Uncle and niece

The attempted sacrifice of a young virgin centuries ago visually intercuts their conversation because it reflects Varna’s circumstances. She is a modern sacrifice because her “womanly condition” demands that she choose between being a bride of Christ or man. To her, they are “sad choices.” The doubting nun-in-waiting wants a third option, to pursue her studies and write.

Ferenc admits with some pride that Varna has a “talent for deep thought,” not something the sexist church attitude concedes lightly. He does, however, want her to know about the tale of Lilith. This is the root of the female vampire and a lesson in obedience for all women.

Later when Varna meets the Irish traveler, another element is added to the feminist theme: rebellion against authority, something that Church and society believes should never clutter the female mind.

The replacement sacrifice

Time Portal

The scene shifts back to the virgin sacrifice. Suddenly her place is taken by a mysterious woman who materializes out of a stone portal.

After a stake is driven through the victim’s heart, the chieftain (Jac Avila) drinks her blood. When he extracts the stake, the fiend rises and returns the favor. Thus the tribal leader is reborn as Asa who will become part of the vampire family feud that infuses the narrative.

The undead victim, now known as Nahara, flees to the time portal only to find there is no escape. Once clad in white, the seminude and bloodied Nahara has gone from purity to evil. Like Eve driven from the Garden, she must wander.

To underscore the pre-Christian birth of vampires, Nahara later appears before Ferenc standing in front of a stone cross. It has no adverse effect on her, Bram Stoker notwithstanding. In Dead But Dreaming, vampires sweep away the oppressive church dogma. Through asserting the female voice, today’s modern feminists do likewise in a male-dominated world that still minimizes women.

Breaking the Rules too Easily

Another scene shift takes the viewer to La Paz and Asa’s underground lair.

He stays away from the sun (a concession to Stoker) and carries a staff with a large tooth-like object on its end.

The back story of this segment moves to Antioch in 57 BC where the slave Aphrodisia is blamed for a lost mirror. In the presence of a congenial group of her mistress’s friends, she is flogged and then crucified.

As mentioned previously, Asa is present and turns her into a vampire as she dies on the cross.

In his lair, Asa suggests to Aphrodisia (who is now his personal aphrodisiac) that she still holds a grudge from centuries ago. She retorts that no one helped her, but the vampire lord is disinterested in her complaining. Traveling is on his agenda, he says, which means she’ll have to be put to sleep.

Ahprodisia pleads, “I don’t want to be dead but dreaming so long again.”

It’s an angry comment on the condition of women through the ages. Asa’s patriarchal response is unsympathetic. It’s time for a lesson in obedience.

Pushing her away with his staff, Asa chains Aphrodisia to the wall and flogs her in a scene that BDSMers will love. She breaks the rules too easily, he shouts. Aphrodisia writhes; her raging eyes glare at him with desire. Quick sharp breaths intensify her lust, underscoring that sadomasochism ignites vampire love.

When Asa plunges his pointed staff into the flesh above both of her breasts, their sexual playtime begins. Burning with fury, Aphrodisia’s eyes turn red and bleed as a woman might under those circumstances.

The scene is female rage at oppression and parallels Moire’s jail cell rape we’ll discuss in the next post.

To Be on Top, at least Once

Asa releases Aphrodisia and lays her on the floor then moves on top of her to suck the blood from the piercings he made. In an act of rebellion, Aphrodisia suddenly reverses positions and straddles him by sitting on his chest.

This is one of Dead’s pivotal moments because it was Lilith who demanded to be on top in an assertion of her feminism. Aphrodisia’s statement of sexual control yields a concession. Asa will not put her to sleep and mute her again.

* * *

Next we’ll look at the sad fate of Moire and another of the film’s defining moments, her scourging, execution, and rebirth.

Amy Hesketh in a calm moment before Moire's public humiliation

Still dressed, Amy Hesketh is calm and collected as the set is ready for Moire’s public humiliation. It will be Amy at her most intense in a moving performance.

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May 11, 2016 · 9:05 am

Dead But Dreaming, Part 1: Blood and Desire

by Rich Moreland, May 2016

This is my first attempt to deconstruct a film outside the adult genre. I happened across producer/director/actress Amy Hesketh’s work and decided to give one of her recent films, Dead But Dreaming, a go.

Amy is a ground breaker, portraying the archetypal innocent victim with an honest, understated talent for eroticizing her peril.

I don’t use a rating system for the films I review, but if I did this movie would be a five-star winner. It’s that good.

SPOILER ALERT: If you’d rather not know what happens in this film, stop now and go play on twitter!

Succubi

Dead But Dreaming is a vampire tale. It has a feminist underpinning that slashes religious and political conservatism while skewering the belief that a woman’s place is under the male thumb.

The back story begins with Lilith, Adam’s first wife. A priest named Ferenc explains to his niece, convent novice Varna, that Lilith refused to submit to Adam and was replaced by the more docile Eve.

Jorge Ortiz as The Priest

Actually, the Lilith myth originated in pre-Christian Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) and entered Hebrew text in the sixth century BCE.

In Greek mythology, Lilith becomes the Lamia, eater of children and concubine of Zeus. Later she appears in European folklore as the succubi, the seducer of men. Thus we see female vampires in nineteenth century La Paz feasting on the city’s young lads which is Ferenc’s explanation for the mysterious murders that have come to town.

Incidentally, Bram Stoker’s 1898 novel Dracula weaves into vampire lore the blood, sex, and death theme we see in Dead. The Irish author’s Victorian rendition establishes the vampire tropes we’ve grown accustomed to, such as recoiling from daylight and crucifixes. For its part, Dead gives a subtle nod to Stoker Moire, who is also Irish.

Considering that the Lamia pre-date Christianity, director Jac Avila scraps some of the typical expectations. For example, Nahara can flit around in sunlight and travel as she pleases. What’s more, the vampires of Dead skirt any retribution from Christianity, though Ferenc does manage to impale Nahara with a crucifix to slow her down.

By the way, producer Amy Hesketh pays tribute to Stoker with “blood is about life force and desire.” Her words underscore the erotic theme of Dead played out magnificently with nudity and sadism. Best of all, the film is a collective love affair for the viewer. Actresses Veronica Paintoux, Mila Joya, and especially Amy Hesketh, are irresistible. As simultaneous victims and empowered women, they exude a delicious sexuality that becomes the narrative.

Veronica Paintoux as Nahara

Faraway Lands

Writer/director Jac Avila wraps Dead around the mystical archetype of three. There are a trio of female vampires: Nahara (Paintoux), Aphrodisia (Joya), and Moire (Hesketh) and three historical settings to weave the story.

Each time period is a part of the puzzle the viewer assembles along the way.

The tribal chieftain (Jac Avila) embraces Nahara

The first deals with the tribal “birth” of Nahara, a visitor from a “faraway land” who finds passage through a time portal. Moire will metaphorically do the same in 1805, the far off land being Catholic Ireland.

The second is Antioch in 57 BCE. The characters in this setting are Greek, though the power of the coming Roman Empire is on their doorstep. The second vampire, Aphrodisia, is born out of the Roman tradition of slave crucifixion.

The slave Aphrodisia offers fruit to visitors

When we arrive at the film’s present time, La Paz is a part of Upper Peru. The Bolivian War of Independence is a few years away but the rebels are organizing. The Irish traveler, Moire O’Higgins, who plans to help the freedom fighters build their arsenal, will suffer a scourging and death that links her to Aphrodisia’s Roman punishment.

Amy Hesketh is the Irish Traveler

Speaking of crucifixion, there are three, one for each female vampire.

Finally, the central male vampire, Asa (played by Avila) encompasses three distinct roles. He is the tribal leader in prehistoric times and the visitor who will suck the blood of the slave Aphrodisia while she is on the cross.

Waiting for Asa

Most important, however, is 1805 La Paz where Asa is a vampire lord in pursuit of, and being pursued by, Nahara in what looks like a family feud. Their maneuverings become the central theme of the story.

Finally, as referenced above, the past and present in Dead are interspersed with scenes from the various time periods. As the film moves forward, the intercutting can appear befuddling, but with close attention the sub-narratives skillfully come together.

Mila Joya as Aphrodisia

The next post explores the film’s feminism theme.

* * *

Dead But Dreaming is an indie production from Pachamama Films and distributed through Vermeerworks. It is available for online streaming or DVD purchase.

Producer Amy Hesketh with script in hand and cast member close by

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April 24, 2016 · 4:40 pm

The Meaning of Consent: Samantha Hayes

by Rich Moreland, April 2016

Among the performers who make The Submission of Emma Marx: Exposed a powerhouse film is Samantha Hayes who plays Rebecca. Recently, I had the good fortune to interview her.

One of the topics we discussed was consent. Here are her views.

Photos are courtesy of Samantha Hayes. Credits are watermarked.

* * *

“Stop filming right now! This is rape! This is against my limits. If you continue to film you are contributing to rape! Stop!”

Harsh cries from a TV crime drama? No. Actually it’s sound advice from an adult film star who expressed her feelings to me in just those words.

I asked Samantha Hayes to contribute to my series on consent in adult film. The result is worth everyone’s attention because this sweetie has butt-kicking advice.

Ruin the Footage

From the start, the native Midwesterner knows the female performer is the bread and butter of porn, by far the most important person on the set. “Forget the guy, forget the crew,” she declares, “if the woman is not there, there’s no point [in shooting] unless you’re shooting guy-on-guy content.”

Knowing that, every girl has the responsibility to establish her boundaries because her comfort level is integral to a successful day on set for everybody involved.

Samantha emphasizes that usually talent will discuss individual likes, dislikes, and limits among themselves and the director before filming gets underway. This is especially important if edgier scenes of rough sex or BDSM are on the schedule.

In her case at least, the twenty-year-old involves her agent in the discussion.

“I am fortunate that I have an incredible agent who only works with big name companies and I have never once been on a set where my comfort was not put at the highest priority.”

But she knows what to do should her boundaries be crossed and offers the following.

“If something is not going well on a set, you say ‘cut’ or if it’s BDSM, use your safe word.”

If results are not forthcoming, Samantha is blunt. Just yell with the intention to “completely ruin the footage.” (The opening statement above is her example of how to clear the deck.)

It’s sound advice and here’s why.

“You can’t say you’re being raped on film [in porn] so they will have no choice but to stop,” Samantha says. Smart girl.

Photo courtesy of Eddie Powell and New Sensations

Freak Out on Them

There’s another step Samantha, and all performers actually, recommend.

“From there you call your agent and freak out on them for putting you in a position where your safety and comfort was compromised.” Agents work for their girls; taking care of them is what their job is all about.

To be honest, I’ve talked with agents and getting that dreaded phone call from a disgruntled client can easily ruin their day.

Samantha Hayes is wise beyond years and we will find out a little more about her in a future post. Suffice it to say that she is one of those outspoken and strong women who survive with flying colors in an industry that can grind away the weaker sort.

Scars Last Longer than Money

Giving me her final thoughts on consent, the statuesque beauty gets philosophical.

“Rape and assault are incredibly serious violations that can impact a person’s ability to vocalize that what is happening to her was not consented to beforehand. Being in the sex industry requires a very strong sense of self and comfort with your sexuality. That includes not only what you like, but what you don’t like.”

Obvious, right? Not exactly. There are girls who will go along to get along. That’s why Samantha’s insights are so important.

To reinforce her point, she references the director and crew.

“There are typically at least five people on set—make up, director, PA, sound guy, photographer.” But numbers don’t translate into awareness.

“A director may not be able to tell if you are in pain or need a break, so it’s your job to advocate for yourself.” Samantha insists. “It is your job to vocalize and draw a clear line in what your boundaries are before the scene and to speak up if something is not working for you.”

What Samantha Hayes says next is impressive and courageous because a porn performer can be yesterday’s news in an instant.

“Going through with something that makes you uncomfortable because you need the paycheck or don’t want to ruin your networking opportunities is not a valid excuse, in my opinion, because the scars of a sexual assault will last longer than money and your career and can lead to a vicious downward spiral.”

We get it, Babe, and hope others are listening.

* * *

Want to contact Samantha Hayes? She’s available @SamanthaHayesxo

Short scenes of Samantha are online at http://clips4sale.com/89771

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April 13, 2016 · 9:08 am

Allie Haze: Beautifully Draining

by Rich Moreland, April 2016

Our talk with Allie Haze continues. Here she elaborates on her sexuality and getting into porn.

As in the previous installment of Allie’s interview, photos are courtesy of @teamalliehaze. Credits are watermarked.

* * *

Working as a bartender at the time of the auto accident, Allie Haze recalls those days as “a rough time.”

“I ended up in the hospital for a week. I couldn’t feel my legs.” Not good.

Top off a failed marriage with a serious mishap that bordered on the catastrophic and the wheels of self-analysis start to turn.

Allie remembers thinking, “I’m really upset about what’s happening in my life. I got some crazy stuff going on! Me, getting a DUI? Oh my goodness, this is not who I am!”

It was an epiphany that led to a new, unexpected direction for her future.

“It’s funny, it [was] my wake-up call [because] I ended up here [in the porn business], which is great. It was the ‘Aha’ moment to myself.”

How did that happen?

“I had a weird conversation with a friend of mine who said, ‘Well, you’re super into chicks. Have you ever thought about porn?’” Allie recalls.

Though the suggestion seemed incredulous, the tall brunette did know something about sex films but had never seen any, much less think about performing in one.

The male friend mentioned she’d get paid for putting herself out there on film and that sounded appealing. Allie shrugged and said, “I guess” which turned into the equivalent of “why not?”

“At that point I was thinking it was a job and I can still go to school. I can make my own schedule, so ‘Ok!’ It was making sense.”

Boobs?

From there Allie did a girl/girl shoot for Homegrown Video. The director complimented her performance with “‘You know, you’re really good at this.’”

“‘Good at this?’ I don’t understand. I’m having sex. I’m confused. I didn’t know there was a ‘good at this,’” Allie amusingly remembers.

The director offered that she might consider turning sex on film into a full-time job and asked, “‘Do you know anything about the porn business?’”

Surprised, Allie replied, “‘Wait, you can make a career out this?’ I was so intrigued.”

She inquired about agents then did her online research. “I found all the best agents and interviewed with each of them.”

The seductive lass ended up with OC Modeling but has since become a free agent which means she books her own gigs.

At this point in our interview, Allie pauses to relate a story that summarizes what new girls always ask about the business.

“On the way to interview with these agents, I stopped at a plastic surgeon’s office to get an estimate for boobs,” she begins. A smart move, Allie surmised, because she could tell the agents that she had “an appointment to get my boobs done.”

The response amazed her. Aware that the business was touting the “natural” girl, “They were like, ‘No! Don’t do it!” Allie remembers.

It turned out to be sage advice because like any newbie Allie figured that augmentation was one of the keys to success. She readily admits her “perception of porn” was “something completely different” from its reality.

She’s glad things ended up the way they did. “I thank my lucky stars they told me not to.”

Hook up with Girls

At age twenty-two Allie Haze began her adult career. Her reason for entering porn other than money . . . it was a way to meet girls.

This is where the bartending gig factors into the Allie Haze story. It was a convenient way to scope out other women, but that had its drawbacks. Girls make out with other girls in bars to impress the guys, Allie mentions, not because they actually want to land a chick. Unfortunately, she sometimes misread the situation. In her mind, girls were hitting on her and Allie’s inclination was to invite them to her house.

“They’d come on over,” she says, “then I’d try to have sex with them and scare them away.”

Frustrated, Allie realized the adult film world offered her the perfect solution: the girl/girl shoot. In fact, she looked at porn as “a fun way to hook up with girls,” then clarifies, “I was a lesbian before I became bisexual.”

In June of 2009, the year she entered the business, Allie spread her porn wings and did her first boy/girl. A good move, she declares, that “put me on the map a little more.” A star was born who is today a widely respected veteran.

Candy and Hugs

“All the young girls ask me, ‘How have you been in for so long? How do you do it?’” Allie says.

“I don’t know how to explain it to them. It just happened naturally.”

But it is more than that, really. Allie occupies emotional solid ground as a result of her experiences with the church and its community. She was schooled in responsibility and commitment that benefits a person independently of any moral judgment that might come from a religious upbringing.

Allie reflects her roots when she says, “I always stick with my choices. That’s why I say that my background is a big piece of who I am.”

Allie taking time out of her busy day to chat with me.

As she always does, the future AVN Hall of Famer smiles broadly.

“I always stand strong. If I wasn’t ready to do something or if I didn’t find it appealing at that point in my life, no career move was worth that.”

By the way, Allie is moving her dancing career forward with the same determination characteristic of her porn shoots. Girls in the biz know that dancing complements a resume built in front of the camera and expands a fan base. It’s all about personality and effort.

“I understand that this job [adult entertainment] is more than just a job because what I’m selling is myself.” That’s hard work, “exhausting” is how she puts it and compares herself with a mainstream actress when it comes to the demands of the business.

“What you’re putting out there is you, your heart, your soul. Even at these conventions I’m happy to get all the hugs, all the candy, all the fun stuff all day. I love it.”

“By the time I get home at the end of the day,” Allie declares, “it is exhausting, but totally worth it!”

Pausing for a moment, she concludes, “It’s beautifully draining.”

Now you know how a religious upbringing helps an adult film star maintain her performances, her image, and her fan base.

Allie Haze is the consummate example of what writing in this business has revealed to me. The courage to put one’s sexuality out there for all to see is a rare trait that separates the few from the many. Too often we let our culturally dictated moral views divert us from accepting a fundamental part of our humanity.

* * *

At the Adult Entertainment Expo, everyone, be they performer, studio, or press is harried and hurried. As I mentioned earlier, etiquette, defined as respecting everyone’s personal space and time, allows fifteen minutes for an interview and I always let the performer determine the time he or she gives me.

Allie granted me over a half hour. Moreover, she even helped us find a quiet spot to talk, something she did not have to do. Allie Haze is a special person with a work ethic that is a credit to the adult film industry. But then her fans know that already.

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April 11, 2016 · 9:06 am

Allie Haze: Growing Up Religious

by Rich Moreland, April 2016

At this year’s Adult Entertainment Expo I caught up with one of porn’s most popular veterans, Allie Haze.

Finding a quiet spot away from the convention floor, we put aside press etiquette (the normal trade show interview runs about fifteen minutes) for a longer talk.

At the outset of our conversation, I asked about the consent issue that is prevalent in the biz today. Her remarks are covered in another post on this blog.

For this Allie Haze installment, we’re looking at her life before porn.

All photos are courtesy of Allie’s twitter fan site. Credits are watermarked.

* * *

How I was Raised

A Southern California girl who now lives in Las Vegas, Allie Haze’s adolescence was wrapped up in the church. It’s a subject I wanted to explore because of my own background.

“I grew up really religious,” she begins. “My family worked together to make sure all the kids went to church. It was how I was raised.”

Quite unexpectedly, her commitment to the faith shaped an early marriage.

“In junior high I started going to a missionary Baptist church. Between junior high and high school I was good friends with this guy who I eventually married.”

Her husband was a preacher at eighteen, something that seems an anomaly to most people.

Allie explains that in the missionary branch of the Baptist church, responsibility to administer the faith is divided between two individuals. The pastor is in charge of the congregation, whereas “the preacher gives the message.”

When a young man is called by God, he goes to seminary, which Allie’s future husband did at sixteen. In fact, their church was “also a certified seminary school,” she says, making everything convenient. As his wife-to-be, Allie also attended.

“It was a really cool experience,” the twenty-eight year old says, “because I learned a lot and it’s shaped me into who I was and I would never take that away.”

Not Supposed to Screw Up

That part of her past causes Allie to reflect on how aging gives us a broader perspective on who we become. In her case, it’s about being an adult entertainer.

“Looking back now I’m ten years older than most girls starting out in the business,” she says.

To her, they are so young and are not giving themselves room to grow into adulthood. But Allie is quick to state that her own decisions at that age were not much different.

“We were young,” she begins. “I had my engagement ring my senior year.”

As often happens with teenage love, fate was not to favor the couple.

“It ended up not working out, unfortunately. He got into a bad car accident and the prescription pills . . . It was too much. It changed who he was.”

I didn’t ask for details about the mishap or the drugs, preferring to let Allie stay in her comfort zone.

“Around twenty I decided I needed to get divorced. No matter how much we tried, it just wasn’t going to work.”

It was a difficult resolution because her conservative upbringing dictated that marriage was “the one thing I’m not supposed to screw up. It’s supposed to be in my blood to be a wife,” Allie says.

A sense of failure permeated her thinking. “It was a real big struggle I went through,” she comments.

Give Allie credit for handling this dilemma with grace and open-mindedness. It explains a lot about who she is today. The strength and resiliency she carried at a tender age has served her well in a business that can grind away the hardiest of souls.

However, despite all the stress, the end of the marriage brought opportunity and Allie stepped forward.

“During that time I decided to go back to school to be a firefighter which was originally what I wanted to do. I was halfway through the program when I got into a bad car accident.”

As happened with her ex-husband, an automobile wreck changed the direction of her life and led to the performer we know today.

The next post reveals how Allie Haze’s fondness for girls got her into porn.

* * *

Check out the news about Allie Haze on twitter @teamalliehaze. This is a fan site.

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April 7, 2016 · 5:49 pm

The Resolution of Emma Marx, Part Three: One Precious Moment

by Rich Moreland, April 2016

In this final installment of The Submission of Emma Marx: Exposed, we take a look at the sex scenes and how they play into the story.

There is much more within this film than I have room to cover in three brief posts so watch the movie for yourself. It is an rewarding experience.

Watermarked photos are courtesy of New Sensations/Digital Sin, the others are appropriately credited.

* * *

Sex scenes are the bait that keeps the porn fan fishing.

Often presented formulaically, they drive a film’s reason to be. However, when and where the sexual interludes occur and what meaning is attached to them is not always clear.

A Jacky St. James feature is the exception. Her scripts dictate where the titillation is placed and why the characters are having sex.

Keeping this in mind, Exposed, the final drama of the Emma Marx trilogy, is textbook Jacky. There are five scenes (a deviation from porn’s usual four) and each is effectively worked into the plotline. The result presents sex that operates on more than one level.

Of interest, are the following.

Call the Babysitter?

The Nadia and Ray scene repeats the set up Jacky presented in the initial Emma Marx. Not yet married at the time, they have sex at the film’s beginning. In the next Emma installment, Boundaries, they go at each other once again as the story opens. In Exposed Jacky’s stays with the pattern and Nadia and Ray complete their own personal trilogy.

The couple has progressed to role-playing to keep their marriage interesting, or at least modestly so since their carnality is mired in the middle-class conventionality Nadia holds over Ray. They hinted at a bondage fantasy in Boundaries, now they’re interested in the illicit pickup.

Nadia and Ray have their fantasy while the wedding plays on

Nadia is on a balcony with drink in hand. Background music suggests a social gathering. Ray comes up to her and they chat about the ongoing wedding celebration. Ray tries to put the moves on Nadia and she, insulted, splatters his face with her drink.

The scene quickly shifts to a bedroom all done up appropriately in vanilla white with a touch of gray. Only this time, the shades of their fetish sex seen in Boundaries are tossed aside like so many pillows.

The sex is top-of-the-line Riley Reid and her acting chops kick in when she says, “Wait, do you think we’d better call the babysitter?”

What’s this? A baby?

Ray assures her the sitter is “good all day” and that she, Nadia, is “ruining the fantasy.”

Mom reverts to character, telling her pick-up lover “this is just a one-time thing.” Later Nadia has to remind Ray to stay with the program when baby concerns come up again.

Their sex scene is the perfect transition into the third Emma Marx. Nadia and Ray are suburban bourgeoisie, of course, but deserve some credit for their mutual fantasy . . . though laughing about Ray’s getting off on the “horny girl at the wedding” remains stilted. Unlike Emma, their imaginations are play acting and unconnected to their reality.

Barely a Trace Left

Later Nadia phones Emma to share her sexual escapade as if it were purchased online. “It’s our new thing, just like you guys are playing with your whips and chains,” Nadia says.

Her affectation is cheesiness extraordinaire. Their role-playing romps are little more than larks, here today, something new tomorrow. This latest version plays within the bounds of what is passable as illicit sex. Sadly, throughout the Emma series Nadia never quite grasps that Emma and Frederick have a lifestyle, not “new thing.”

Incidentally, Nadia, dressed in a postcard version of a French maid’s outfit, later skypes Emma. She’s ready for role play night, she announces, but she’s not happy. Nadia doesn’t like the getup, too sleazy. It’s not her, she declares, because she spends all day being his maid anyway. It’s a mask that doesn’t do much for her sexually.

Nadia skypes Emma to decry her maid fantasy

Nadia uses skype to decry her pre-planned maid fantasy

The real difficulty with Nadia is that her fantasies are scripted, not spontaneous. She comments that the outfit is “supposed to be me pretending to be someone else.” But her remark induces Emma to reflect on her relationship with Frederick.

“The truth was I felt more myself as his sub than I ever did as Emma. There was barely a trace of her left anymore.”

Emma’s revelation leads Jacky St. James to reveal the potential shortcoming of fantasy. Sometimes, it only goes one way. Emma admits that at least Ray shares his with Nadia. Mr. Frederick, on the other hand, is another story.

Rebecca to Joelle

Emma broaches the subject with her Dom and learns about Audrina, an uncomfortable episode that damaged his relationship with his former sub.

Two comments on this sex scene. First is Samantha Hayes who plays Rebecca. She is gorgeous with a smutty vigor that is as good as it gets. Second is the disastrous tone of this dalliance which proves sex in porn can carry a message.

Tugging on the collar keeps Rebecca excied Photo by Eddie Powell

Tugging on the collar keeps Rebecca excited
Photo by Eddie Powell

Among other BDSM elements, there is light flogging and a collar and leash. Rebecca is taken to erotic heights while a hogtied Audrina, who set up this scenario, looks on unable to participate.

Frederick has to command Audrina’s attention when she lowers her gaze, telling her to keep watching. She obeys, but sadness overwhelms her as the sex gets heavier. This “gift” she’s given him, which ironically began as her fantasy, has changed their relationship.

Audrina looks on
Photo courtesy of Jacky St. James

In an effort to deter Emma from a similar mistake, Frederick lets her in on why his fantasies are not important to their relationship. As described in Part Two of this analysis, the scene opens up the remarkable talents of cinematographer Eddie Powell. Almost drowned in shadows, it’s shot in their bathroom, Emma submerged in soapy bubbles with Frederick sitting on the edge of the tub.

As the camera pulls away, Frederick, steeped in regret, drops his eyes, explaining that Audrina wanted to return to “a more traditional relationship.” Emma’s face is blanketed with alternating layers of determination and doubt. It’s a lesson in trust, problematic self-esteem, and implied jealousy. Though reality, illustrated by the looming darkness on both sides of the screen, is squeezing them, Emma moves forward with her plan.

The camera looks in from the doorway. Photo courtesy of Jacky St. James

Reality and a plan that is risky
Photo courtesy of Jacky St. James

Ignoring Audrina’s ill-fated mistake, Emma orchestrates the sex scene that she perceives to be her Dom’s fantasy. Joelle is introduced to Frederick and unlike Audrina, Emma will participate in their fun. Within the narrative, the threesome sex carries a transition message as illustrated by the doorway into the rec room that offers up the new play partner.

Joelle waits in the background as Emma’s gift for Frederick

Aidra Fox is Joelle. Like Samantha Hayes, this brunette hottie has superstar written all over her. The show is fantastic with the twenty-year-old sporting a bondage outfit that shouts out the sassy eroticism that is Aidra’s trademark. In this reviewer’s opinion, her energy makes this scene the best of the film.

Michael

As Exposed winds down, Emma needs to reconnect with her real love, her fetish. Finding a new mentor whose compassion guides her reawakening, Emma explores a relationship with him she identifies as “therapeutic.”

“I paid him to dominate me a few hours every week, easing me back into that familiar world”

Among dark shadows, Emma enters a new doorway, the open gate of a bondage cage. Michael, in suit and tie, closes it behind her and binds her arms. Emma is now secure in the world she loves. Various shots of her yielding to his intense BDSM play follow. Emma faces her greatest challenge, conflating a partner she is just getting to know with her lust for the fetish.

“I was determined to overcome the fear of the pain of trusting someone new, no matter how intense the situation or the pain.”

Michael’s tenderness nurtures Emma’s transition at film’s end

Ryan Driller’s warmth and compassion demonstrates why he is the perfect choice for Michael’s role. Pay close attention to their eye contact moment, a deftly placed mechanism to rebuild trust. In fact, psychologists say that holding a gaze with another person releases emotion and becomes a precursor to love.

The pendant and its memory
Photo courtesy of Penny Pax

The film’s defining moment centers on its denouement. Emma removes the pendant with its W and the metaphorical mask it represents. She is now prepared to give herself to Michael, a significant step that moves her from the past into the present. In so many words, Emma’s world is now turned upside down, just as the W now is free to bec0me an M, in all ways that are good.

An older, wiser Emma tells us she is now “the strong courageous woman who is no longer living the socially acceptable existence, but one who has found her truth, [becoming] the person she was always meant to be.”

Using Exposed as her dramatic vehicle, Jacky St. James illustrates that playing roles is part of being human no matter our lifestyle (humorous scenes of Nadia and Ray enjoying their own ephemeral fantasy moments are shown at the end of the film). But when the masks that define our personas are stripped away, the heart is unfettered, no longer a prisoner of its past or shackled in the present. The real self is bared for all to see in its delicious liberation.

As Emma says, “your only thought is of this one precious moment and you’re left beautifully, perfectly, comfortably exposed.”

* * *

A special congrats is due to the pair of actresses whose performances place the Emma Marx series in adult film’s library of legendary cinema.

Riely Reid and Penny Pax own all the bragging rights they can muster!

Also, kudos are in order for two alluring porn princesses, Aidra Fox and Samantha Hayes. Their erotic shows heighten the impact of Exposed.

Aidra
Photo by Eddie Powell

Samantha
Photo by Eddie Powell

Of course, the hardworking crew that forged the Emma Marx trilogy into a porn classic deserves accolades!

Jacky, Paul, and Eddie
Photo by Jeff Koga

* * *

Some of the crew and cast associated with this film can be followed on twitter.

Here are their accounts: @jackystjames, @mreddiepowell, @pennypax, @OfficialAidraF, @RileyReidx3, @SamanthaHayesxo, @ryandriller

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Tagged as Aidra Fox, BDSM, Eddie Powell, Jacky St. James, New Sensations/Digital Sin, Paul Woodcrest, Penny Pax, Richie Calhoun, Riley Reid, Ryan Driller, Samantha Hayes, The Submission of Emma Marx: Exposed, Van Wilde

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