Matty gets hot under the collar with a Mundhra / Austin / Axis masterpiece. 

According to legend, following the disastrous reception of Tropical Heat (1993), Jag Mundhra was deemed unemployable. Both longtime distributor Prism Entertainment and frequent collaborator Ashok Amritraj – whose personal and professional relationship with the helmer was already rocked by a lawsuit, filed by Mundhra after he was bumped from directing Illicit Behavior (1992) – severed ties with him, and even past producers Roger Corman, Promark and Trimark refused to return phone calls. Left with no other choice, Mundhra elected to establish his own company to spearhead his own productions. While setting it up, the erotic thriller auteur was offered a lifeline by fellow jiggle flick specialists, Axis Films International. Their previous union, The Other Woman (1992), had been a video and cable success. Thus, Axis’ initial idea was to make a follow-up of sorts, ‘The Other Man’ – though the resulting film is more commonly known as SEXUAL MALICE (1994) [1].  

Like its predecessor, Sexual Malice is buoyed by a studious, observational sensibility whereupon we’re encouraged to watch at something of a distance, lending the film a mannered, glacial atmosphere. However, as the plot unfolds – which, a la The Other Woman, hinges on infidelity and deception – Sexual Malice outs itself as a showier and more stylised experience. The final Mundhra joint lensed by James Mathers – a former child star turned cinematographer whose work with the director includes Last Call (1991), Legal Tender (1991), L.A. Goddess (1993), Wild Cactus (1993), and the epochal Night Eyes (1990) – the film is soaked with inky shadows and spiked with splashes of blue and red. It’s a deliberate, noir-ish look conducive to Sexual Malice’s evolution from a chilly relationship drama to a gripping thriller about power and desire; a metamorphosis Mundhra achieves with greater authority than he did in the good but comparatively inferior Other Woman. 

The key to Sexual Malice is its brilliant script. Despite being a perpetually interesting filmmaker in terms of form, tone and aesthetic, several of Mundhra’s finest offerings as a dramatist – Wild Cactus, Improper Conduct (1994), this – sport a common denominator: 

They’re written by Carl Austin.

The Scorsese and Schrader of DTV shag-a-thons, Mundhra and Austin fit hand in glove. They bring out the best in one another. Mundhra imbues Austin’s cavalcade of multi-layered characters with the requisite pomp and ceremony; Austin provides Mundhra – an extravagant talent prone to going rogue with looser material – the solid narrative footing for his flights of fancy.        

Presented mostly in flashback, Sexual Malice tells the compelling story of Christine (Diana Barton, Axis’ Body of Influence (1993)); a dejected housewife tangled in a web of — what else? – seduction and murder. Heightened by Axis mainstay Ashley Irwin’s emotive score, Austin’s dialogue bubbles with tension and is delivered by richly shaded people propelled by thought-provoking motivations. Christine, for instance, is clearly in love with her older, college professor husband, Richard (Edward Albert), but, like India Allen’s Alex in the similarly minded Wild Cactus, is left cold by his lack of affection. Richard, meanwhile, is a wounded animal; a ball of stress acutely aware his marriage is in free-fall. Of course, as Sexual Malice progresses, Richard’s anguish reveals itself to be of his own design and substantially more sinister in root than the seven year itch. And when Christine is prompted to have an affair by her friend, Nicole (Samantha Phillips), her horizontal dancing with a mysterious, hunky stripper, Quinn, leads to Sexual Malice’s ensemble colliding in several unexpected ways, as Austin and Mundhra muse upon the nature of control, influence, wants, and needs. 

Featuring several of Mundhra’s grandest and fruitiest sex scenes – under a pier; a fervid rogering in a boutique store’s changing room; the obligatory bit of lesbian lust; and a kinky quasi-homage to the iconic oner in Last Call – Sexual Malice also harbours a trio of the director’s stalwarts among its cast: Kathy Shower, Matt Roe, and Doug Jeffery as the aforementioned Quinn. Representing his first Mundhra assignment and, indeed, his actual screen debut, Jeffrey – a teenage entrepreneur who’d toured the world as the host/emcee of The Chippendales prior to chasing an acting career – is a touch wooden in terms of range (expectedly so considering his greenness). Nevertheless, he manages to imbue his increasingly nasty, libidinous stud-muffin with a primal magnetism. Happily, Jeffery quickly improved as an actor. He’d go on to appear in Axis’ Animal Instincts II (1995) and would submit standout performances in Mundhra’s Irresistible Impulse, Tainted Love (1996), Shades of Gray (1997), and Monsoon (1999).

Sexual Malice was released on VHS in the U.S. by A-Pix Entertainment on 16th March 1994 – the busiest year of Axis’ existence. The other Axis romps issued on U.S. cassette during 1994 were: Mirror Images II (1994) (February, via Academy); Seduce Me: The Pamela Principle 2 (1994) (August, via A-Pix); Animal Instincts 2 (1994) (August, via Academy); and Stranger By Night (1994) (November, via A-Pix). In the U.K., Sexual Malice landed on tape through 20:20 Vision on 29th November 1995.

[1] Like the other directors on Axis’ roster – Edward Holzman et al – Mundhra’s tenure with them came to an end when Gregory Dark, the shingle’s co-founder and key creative force, started taking a more hands-on approach. Per Garroni, Dark simply wanted to direct everything himself.