Psycho in the Digital Age: Erotica, Watergate and Mass Surveillance

Sliver is a naughty little erotic thriller from 1993 written by Joe Eszterhas, squeezed in between Basic Instinct and Showgirls. Released to horrendous reviews and unfortunately time has not been any kinder. A wickedly underrated ambitious little fucker which has been dumped on the endless pile of forgotten about '90s mainstream sexploitation. Naturally, it has been picked back off the pile by this Psycho-Schradist and raised to the skies like an Olympic gold medal. It got away from your clutches once and as long as Jacob Kelly remains on planet Earth, it will not happen again. Pardon, the overused expression but there is more to this film than that which meets the eye. An all too fitting expression considering the content.

On sexy stupidity alone there is enough here to satisfy your simplest of needs. For starters, this is Eszterhas's reunion with Goddess Sharon Stone. That alone warrants a single viewing. Who wouldn't want to see Miss Stone riding men into submission whilst Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy blares on in the background? If that is not yourself, then I simply cannot trust you as a fellow human being. This is not a matter of orientation but artistic appreciation. Gazing upon this divine deity in the act is an experience comparable only to first laying eyes on the Mona Lisa or Sistine Chapel.

The Great Pyramid of Giza. The Colossus of Rhodes. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Lighthouse of Alexandria. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. King Kong. These are the 8 wonders of the world. In reality, there is an additional one and I am firmly proposing that Sharon Stone be considered the 9th wonder of the world. To say that she is one of God's finest creations would be to do her an injustice. Put correctly, she is God.

How can I put this any better? To witness this baddie in action is to see "attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion" and "C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate". Referring to this woman as a 'damsel in distress' would be extremely foolish and could well end up being your last move. If you make the mistake of thinking she is, that is because she wants you to think that. Truth is she's always in control, the option to strike, her choice. In Sliver, she gets to play with this persona more so than before. We're told early on that she divorced her husband after years despite problems. Knew this would be relevant. This is a girl who waits. She pretends she's powerless and weak. Then she Gone Girl's you. Patience is her weapon, you never know whether she's affected because all of a sudden, she's back in control and always was. An entrancing snake, the moment you interlock eyes, you're already dead.

She scoffs at the 'manic pixie dream girl'. She's not here to teach young boys lessons. Her mission: Seduce. Humiliate. Kill. In that exact order. Knowing this agenda will get you nowhere. Nobody can resist her tricks. You may be a player in the game but know that it is her game. She's the queen and you're nothing but a pathetic pawn, given occasional attention but sacrificed in an instant if the situation arises. If you feel your manhood threatened, take comfort in that you never stood a chance.

No matter my efforts, the words to describe the power of this actresses screen presence do not exist. You watch and you know. That's all that matters. Every glance at the camera is aimed directly at your soul and she never misses her shots. Every shot a kill. She puts Leon: The Professional to shame.

For lack of a better expression, she pulls another Basic Instinct in Sliver. By this we're talking expansion of public nudity kinks. In this infamous and indecent scene, she daringly exposes parts of her mouth-watering flesh whilst on a date at a public restaurant. It's total tease. Worthy to send any disciplined man or woman in to disconcerted delirium. Fellow daters on an ill-conceived night of romance can only watch, appalled as they catch glimpses of these perfect structures. Men with gold struck eyes given free tickets to see pinky-peach sights as bold as The Great Temple of Ramesses II. Women shaking their heads with disapproval as though the antichrist has made his presence known. These men will later be disciplined and their crimes punished. Audiences will be reminded, even though they didn't need to be, that we are dealing with a celestial being.

Humorously, Stone's date for the evening is William Baldwin or 'Baby Baldwin', as I took to calling on account of him being Alec Baldwin's younger brother. Another suitable nickname would be 'B-Tec Baldwin'. Although, I've never been a huge fan of such a phrase, always comes off on the elitist side but 'Lidl' or 'Aldi' Baldwin doesn't exactly have the same ring to it, does it? Perhaps, 'B-Movie Baldwin' will do in this case. Despite Sliver being a Paramount production, it certainly does have that feel. Especially, considering it's director Phillip Noyce is best known for his actioners and thrillers, which blatantly rip off the likes of James Bond, Jason Bourne and Seven. Do not take that as a diss, I happen to really like them! In particular, I liked his honest reasons for signing up for Sliver. At the time, he remarked, "I liked the script a lot. or at least, I liked the idea of jumping on the Joe Eszterhas bandwagon"

Of all Eszterhas's scripts, this could one of the most wide reaching and brave. Whether you could call it intellectual or successful is another thing. Mostly, I'm compelled by the audacity of the project. Sure, it may fall short of its targets but there's something so unavoidably funny about attempting what the film does. At the bare minimum it will leave you curious and hungry for more. On a basic level, it's a reworking of Psycho with a modern techno twist borrowing elements of JG Ballard's High Rise. A group of young aspiring professionals suddenly clustered together and a society beginning to form in a near parody of sitcoms. The mysterious owner of the high rise is a perverted Norman Bates type, who with the fresh facelift has moved beyond peepholes and in to CCTV. Instead of Bernard Herrmann's haunting classical score, we have Howard Shore's electronic sounds creating a neat nineties package.

An obvious issue with Sliver is that much of it was ruined by cuts in post-production. There were fights involved to escape the dreaded NC-17 rating. If only they had been braver and not taken a pair of scissors to this one. Even I can't deny the effect of the sensors ruins a lot of the proceedings. Results in only about two steamy sex scenes (luckily steamier than most), a pacing problem and sabotaging of the Norman Bates angle. Irritatingly, the identity of the killer had to be changed because the original ending apparently didn't make sense with the cuts. Where it annoys me is how it sacrifices that Psycho update. Becomes blatant too because you can tell they were working towards having a Mrs Bates influence with a dominating mother backstory. All that topples with the changed direction, leading me to one simple demand, "Paramount release the NC-17 original cut!"

Unexpectedly, I can get over the reduced sex because firstly Sharon Stones in them making them a delicacy and secondly, while it wasn't showing sex, this one had a few ideas up its sleeve. Throughout the late '80s, there was growing talk of the increased CCTV installation and by the '90s this fascist dystopian police state was becoming more of a reality. As usual, crime and threat to public safety was touched on as a fear mongering tool to sway the masses into complying with the installation of these cameras on every street corner. Eszterhas jumps on this knowing full well how hand in hand sex and surveillance go.

When it first settles in that's what the film was going to be about and they have these people walking along followed by a CCTV camera, I was thinking that's a great way to subtly introduce the technological side of the movie. One of those moments of clever framing and mise-en-scene where you click on to it and are like, "right I see where you're going with this. Tried to sneak that by me did you?". Disappointingly, the dialogue becomes too obvious and on the nose. An older man gets all sleazy and pervy rambling on about his obsession with photography. Ruins the integrity of the scene. Then again, these kinds of films are not exactly known for their subtlety and it's hard to remain annoyed. Therefore, it's not necessarily a bad choice and one that can be forgiven.

Now for arguably the most humorous aspect of the film, Sliver is intended as an allegory for Watergate. Recording and watching is explored in the sexual sense with the entire high rise being fitted with microphones and cameras. The guests are being spied on from the high tower like it's The Truman Show. You could imagine the architect from The Matrix walking in at any moment. If you think me calling the high rise an embodiment of Richard Nixon's dirty tricks department to be reaching, pay close attention because there is a reference in there.

In Eszterhas's hands, watching and recording our opponents is a power anyone could be seduced by. The desire to observe without punishment too strong to resist. If it's there without penalty, we shall take it. A human instinct that extends beyond the illusion of ordered society. That horny screenwriter gets some mileage out of this ridiculous analogy. Sliver operates at the perfect level of dumb and intellectual –the ultimate goal of any erotica.

Is it inevitable that the film seems to predict the mass surveillance of the post-911 Bush administration? Was Eszterhas trying to warn us something? Not too long in the distant future our civil liberties were going to be exploited by the president and his puppet, Tony Blair. Another one pushed again through fearmongering this time with a perceived foreign threat. Where were those bloody Weapons of Mass Destruction, Bush? When is Tony Blair going the Hague? Those wanting to know exactly what would come next should watch the rest of this thrilling series. Red Road, World Trade Centre, United 93, The Dark Knight, Zero Dark Thirty and The Ghost Writer are all belting sequels to Sliver. Except remember Sliver did come first and was way hornier than the follow ups.

Anyone who caught Watcher from earlier this year would be wise to seek Sliver for how this game should be done. Ok, I'll play along for the fans of Watcher, the movie started on the right path by combining Rear Window and Lost in Translation However, right when it was about to get real interesting it stops. I refer to the scene when the watched woman and her stalker sit opposite each other on the train. Finally, they talk to each other. The watcher reveals that every night he stares out his window and people watches the flat opposite. A ritualistic act, which had gone unnoticed until the protagonist gazed back. Firmly believe they could have taken this further.

They needed to address how she secretly felt unconscious levels of adoration for the attention. After all, she was lonely out there in a new country, spending afternoons on her jack jones. Also confused why you bring in Karl Glusman, known primarily for playing dickhead boyfriends in Gaspar Noe flicks, and don't have him kicking off more. He's Mr Dickhead boyfriend, if he comes out looking better in a toxic relationship something has clearly gone wrong. You have that persona there and you don't use it. Crazy. She definitely should have been rattling him more by returning the watchers gaze and playing up to it. That would have gripping.

In fact, that's the great failure of the movie, it's called Watcher and whilst reasonably well made by young talent, it doesn't have the balls to suggest that may not refer to just the villain. Another tame outing in modern times. They simply bore me. Want that shit sizzling like it's been on the stove for hours, going back and forth like Hannibal Lector and Clarice Starling. Otherwise, it just don't appeal to me or hold my attention at all. Lacks the essential mischievous edge. This is where I respect Sliver, Sharon Stone loses herself in the watching. She's the real watcher.

I'll round this off by saying, dumb forgotten about erotic thriller Sliver, teaches us many things. Notably, if a guy has not just one but a spread of Nine Inch Nails's The Broken EP posters across his walls, then girlies maybe he shouldn't be trusted. He is a freak and one to avoid. Most importantly, with its post-Watergate parable it teaches us that we must hold not only our government accountable but ourselves too and maybe something about how Sharon Stone is really hot.

Bonus Points:

-Sharon Stone. Full fucking stop.

-Massive Attack's Unfinished Sympathy and Howard Shore's electronic score

-Updating Psycho for the '90s

-Eszterhas putting a Watergate analogy in the body of a Ballardian high rise

-Turning timely fears of mass surveillance in to a dumb erotic thriller

Overall Score: 4/5