Erotic thrillers have come a long way in seducing us with voluptuous body and spine-chilling crime. It is not entirely a genre, but a story telling device which goes by themes of obsession, lust, desire, deception, revenge and murder. At the centre of these movies, we see vicious crimes, cheating girls, femme fatal and lengthy police probes. It goes without saying that erotic thrillers have not always been kind to women. Brutalised and downgraded, women are treated mostly as sex objects who are ambitious and not hesitant to deceive men for money. The brutal stereotyping notwithstanding, the femme fatal of the erotic thriller never ceases to thrill us. We have cobbled up seven thriller movies that offer an ample screen time of seduction, female skin and crime.

7. Body Heat (1981)

This is Kathleen Turner first major character, and her femme fatal left us buzzing for more such roles. She put up a performance in the role that defined the latter part of her career. It is one of the best neo-noirs ever seen which also stars William Hurt and Richard Crenna, and features Ted Danson, J A Preston and Mickey Rourke. Turner is all carnal, seductive and determined as she cajoles her love into murdering her rich husband for money.

6. Dressed to Kill (1980)

An ultimate worshipper of female flesh, Brian De Palma loves to present women always in their baby suit. Dressed to Kill offers an enormous amount of unclothed skin, and the opening scene of Angie Dickinson’s bare breasts reinforces how deftly Brian De Palma handles sleaze in the movies. The movie follows a mysterious blonde who kills Dickinson’s horny housewife and starts stalking the girl who was at the crime scene. Michael Caine and Nancy Allen also chip in with above average showing, making the movie all worth the watch.

5. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

This is the best work Stanley Kubrick has ever put to screen. He spent a marathon 400 days shooting the movie. Eyes Wide Shut is a stuff of legend movie which has so much nudity and writhing female flesh for all of us to gorge on.  As can be expected, the masterpiece from Kubrick is all about obsession and sexual fantasies. Cruise plays a high-society New York City doctor who goes about exploring the sexual under world and orgy parties in New York after his wife (Kidman) says she had a dream of having violent sex with a young naval officer she had seen the summer before.

4. In the Cut (2003) 

An erotic thriller that has grown with age, In the Cut is shown to be an intensely erotic movie that makes well use of the chemistry between Ryan and Ruffalo. Director Jane Campion depicts the fragility of female lust that is specific and treated as deeply erotic. The story takes off as  an erotic thriller when a police officer (Ruffalo) probes a limb found outside Frannie Avery’s (Meg Ryan) apartment. Despite being a flop as commercial movie, the grimy, intensely sexual role Ryan has played became a sensation

3. The Last Seduction

A woman out to win whatever she wishes, Bridget Gregory plays the role of dastardly seductress in The Last Seduction.  Despite marrying a rich doctor (Bill Pullman) and leading a good life in New York, Bridget is unsatisfied and is looking for more pleasures in life. The two decide to pull off a drug deal involving a huge amount of money and come out clean. However, everything is thrown out of loop when her hubby physically attacks her.

2. Swimming Pool (2003)

This poolside mystery by Francois Ozon is about a British novelist who moves to a place for writing a novel. Sarah (Charlotte Rampling) moves away to a country house in France to write a crime novel, but an attractive young woman by the name of Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) gate-crashes her quiet environment. Sarah often gets distracted by Julie’s presence as she often walks in unclothed, sending Sarah into voyeuristic fantasies.

1. The Basic Instinct

A gorgeous suspense thriller with so much nudity and sex on display, Basic Instinct has indeed set a genre of itself for the movie makers. A beautiful crime novelist, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), becomes a suspect when she is linked to the death of a rock star. Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is the detective who investigates the murder even as Catherine seduces him into a steamy affair. The case becomes too complicated to crack as more people fall dead.