Dave connects with a particularly eye-catching erotic thriller. Innuendos about floppy discs welcome.

Car chases, explosions, and gratuitous gunplay never really date – but the sight of a guy on a dial-up connection, sat behind a CRT monitor, flirting with an anonymous chatroom user is the cinematic equivalent of rubbing two sticks together in order to heat your cave.

Not that such antiquated cybersexin’ should turn you off HARD DRIVE. If anything, the sparse sets and crude exposition within the opening sequence would be the bromide to your Viagra. Persevere, though, as James Merendino’s film builds from a no-budget flesh-fest into an intricately woven neo-noir. ‘Cult classic’ is an overused term. But Hard Drive is the type of cult classic in waiting that’d give the vast majority of other movies tagged with the moniker a justifiable dose of impostor syndrome.

Will Donovan (Leo Damian) is a thirty-two year old former child star who spends long, monotonous days in his Malibu mansion waiting for a call from his agent. It’s Dana (Christina Fulton), however, who injects some spark into his life – much to the annoyance of his philandering wife Laura (Belinda Waymouth) – and the two of them start crafting a bevy of fetishistic fantasies with the help of Windows 95. Soon, reverie becomes reality – and when Will breaks into Dana’s house to re-enact an online turn-on, an accident leads to tragedy, blackmail, and a host of saucy shenanigans.

Hard Drive would be the last time we’d see lead actor and script progenitor Damian on screen; a fine end to a brief film career that had otherwise seemed to peak at ‘Voice in the Crowd’ in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Joking aside, Damian develops Will as a sympathetic character with a level of depth and nuance. Helmer Merendino, meanwhile, cranks up the intrigue with every passing frame, utilising extended cameos from Matt McCoy and Stella Stevens to great effect – although it’s Nels Cline’s perky, Badalamenti-esque score that makes this prudently produced pic particularly memorable.

The Lynchian flourishes don’t stop there either. Eye-catching art design from the late Holly MacConkey delivers a bold and stylised colour palette to the outlandishly salacious sex scenes. There’s kink, there’s subservience, and there’s awkwardly sexualised mommy issues. If you’re expecting a ninety minute romp of simple, punctual pounding in the missionary position accompanied by an alto sax soundtrack, then brace yourself.

Shot in November 1992 and billed as a ‘techno-thriller’ by Stateside distro Triboro Entertainment Group, Hard Drive hit American rental stores in September ’94 in both R and unrated editions. A British tape followed six months later courtesy of First Independent, who subsequently paired it with Jim Wynorski’s equally nutty Sins of Desire (1993) as a double feature for the sell-through market.

USA ● 1994 ● Erotic Thriller ● 92mins

Leo Damian, Christina Fulton, Matt McCoy ● Dir. James Merendino ● Wri. James Merendino, based on an original idea by Leo Damian

U.S. video art courtesy of VHS Collector