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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > Thriller > Erotica > They’re Playing With Fire (1984; Starz/Anchor Bay)

They’re Playing With Fire (1984; Starz/Anchor Bay)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C     Extras: D     Film: C

 

 

Sybil Danning was trying to set herself up as the next action heroine or big sex star, but that never took hold, but she found herself in cult works like co-writer/director Howard Avedis’ They’re Playing With Fire (1984) where she is unhappily married to one man (Andrew Prine) yet decides to have a sexual affair with a teenager (Eric Brown) who she may only want to use at first.

 

There is money involved, as well as misery, but the film really goes all over the place when a serial killer is on the loose.  At least it does not fall apart like Hot Fuzz, but this was at the end of a long cycle of less-than-softcore skin flicks passed off in the mainstream and as independent productions before VHS, Beta and Cable killed that market.  It is also the end of a freer sense of sexuality without pretense or stupidity before some censorship crazy people went wild.  The film is uneven, but worth seeing once just to see how wacky it is.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 image shows its age, but has its moments, with flesh tones looking only a tad red at times.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is more limited, partly from the generation down of this mix, but also from the low budget.  There are no extras, though Avedis directed semi-exploitive films before like The Fifth Floor and at least he is consistent.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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