Title: Dangerous Obsession

Also known as:
Mortal Sins (Alternative title)
Divine Obsessions (Alternative title)
God's Payroll (Alternative title)

Year: 1989

Genre: Thriller / Crime / Mystery

Language: English

Runtime: 83 min

Director: Yuri Sivo

Writer: Allen Blumberg

IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100189/

When a televangelist is murdered, a detective is hired by the Church to protect it and the owner's daughter - a woman he's instantly attracted to. Being hired means more than just another job, he's now entering a world of crime, deceit and sin. While at home, he's having personal problems with the relationship with his wife.

Our thoughts:
Knowing what to expect when you sit down to watch an erotic thriller is the key to be able to enjoy it. There's something very specific about erotic thrillers (TV thrillers especially) that really puts them in their own category. Not in a good way, but sometimes it can be charming too. You know, in that shitty-entertainment-way. "Dangerous Obsession", a random new release by Troma, does not fit in the latter. I don't know why this was released by Troma now, it seems like its time has passed and would fit better on their Youtube channel only. But, I guess with some bigger titles released around it, they decided to throw it out there. I'm all for physical releases, you all should know, but I'm not sure what the reasoning behind putting this out now was. Maybe it was to get people like me to review it!?

After the death of a televangelist, the detective is dragged into the scummy world of crime when he's hired by the owner of a Church to protect it and the owner's daughter. The "gist of it" ends there. It's all you need to know. There's some stuff about the detective's personal life that they attempt to put weight into, but really... who cares? It's all about a detective who gets into situations that'll either consist of sex or corruption. As for the daughter, that's where his love interest comes in. Even though he already has a wife.

You can't really give a shit about the detective because he's an asshole. He could have used a couple of "save the cat" moments early on for us to care, but instead he's egocentric and not in the cool, charming way. Just in a way that makes it hard to care about him. At all. So what the movie has to offer beyond that is really just a few brief nude shots, and that doesn't saves it. Storywise the movie isn't horrible - it is an erotic thriller after all. There's deceit, there's sex, there's awkward dialog. It's okay for what it is, and maybe if I didn't have to think over my opinion for a review I'd have less of a problem with the characters. I mean, what did I expect!?

The director has essentially done nothing since this movie of many alternative titles (to attempt re-distributing it to a new audience?). I'm curious what put this director in the director's chair, and what his ambition was. That's more interesting than the actual movie.

Just looking at the cover you should know what "Dangerous Obsession" is aiming to be. And that's what it is. It's weak, pretty boring, not sexy enough and has a terrible lead (several of the other characters are more interesting), but if you have watched erotic thrillers before then it should be familiar territory. I don't like the movie, not at all, but going into it expecting anything more would be stupid. You don't have to like it (you most likely won't), but I couldn't hate these movies.

Positive things:
- It could have been worse. I've seen enough to know that.

Negative things:
- We have no reason to like the lead.
- It's an erotic thriller, what do you expect?

Gore: 0.5/5
Nudity: 1.5/5
Story: 1.5/5
Effects: 1/5
Comedy: 1/5

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