FATAL INSTINCT

US, 1993, 90 minutes, Colour.
Armand Assante, Sean Young, Sherilyn Fenn, Kate Nelligan, Christopher Mc Donald, James Remar, Tony Randall.
Directed by Carl Reiner.

Fatal Instinct is a spoof of such popular sex and violence thrillers as Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. It also draws on the conventions of such films as Double Indemnity and especially Sleeping With the Enemy and Cape Fear. The film was directed by Carl Reiner - who directed Steve Martin in the entertaining pastiche of old films and stars, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. A former collaborator with Mel Brooks, Reiner has a zany sense of humour as well as a penchant for parodies drawing attention to the silliness of movie conventions and their styles.

Armand Assante is not exactly a comic actor - but he puts all his energies into doing a parody of the dumb policeman. Kate Nelligan is intense as his unfaithful wife, Sean Young parodies Sharon Stone as the femme fatale (and even has a death sequence similar to her murder in No Way Out). Sherilyn Fenn acts against typecasting (Two Moon Junction, Boxing Helena) as the faithful secretary. Christopher Mc Donald is the mechanic used by the wife for murdering her husband, James Reimer does a take-off of Robert de Niro in Cape Fear, Tony Randall is a judge (and Eartha Kitt appears momentarily also as a judge).

Such spoofs are hit and miss - there are many opportunities here, some of them well staged, but audience response would depend on mood at the time, as well as knowledge of the films parodied.

1.The popularity of the films as targets of this spoof? The popularity of parody?

2.Sex thrillers, film noir, the history of the genre, the conventions - and their being used as well as sent up?

3.The California settings, suburbia, the courts? The style of the photography echoing the thrillers? The rousing score?

4.The title, the characters and plot lines drawn from Basic Instinct (icepicks), Fatal Attraction (the pet and the carnival, the boiling sequence..., the final bath sequence? The plot line of Sleeping With the Enemy, Cape Fear? The parody of No Way Out? Double Indemnity? Audience knowledge of the films?

5.Armande Assante as Ned Ravine: the tone of his voice-over, content, self-deprecating jokes, deadpan and silly, the initial discussion at the carnival, the stocking robber, the chase in the dodgem car, his being a lawyer and defending the criminal in court, the family with stockings on? His relationship with Lana, ignorance of her affairs? The encounters with Lola, smoking, the broken chair...? Encountering her, the seduction? Laura and her faithful service to him? His personality, behaviour - and the comic parody?

6.Sean Young as Lola, the parody of Sharon Stone and Glenn Close? The mystery woman, the femme fatale, her clothes, paper sticking to her shoes? Seductive behaviour? The night at her home? Following Ned, the court, spying on Lana? The final confrontation and her being Lana's twin sister and the exaggerated plot line? Stalking Ned in his home - her death? The killing of Lana?

7.Lana and Frank, the Double Indemnity plot, the farcical aspects of Ned's ignorance of the affair, the fixing of the car? In bed? Urging him onto the train, on the train, shooting Shady? Arrest, in court? Her buying back her gun, killing Frank? The final confrontation and the struggle with Lola, Laura killing both women?

8.Laura and her flashbacks, the plot of Sleeping With the Enemy? The collage of the trying on of hats? At work in the court, in the office? The happy ending?

9.Shady and his tattoos, in jail, release, stalking Ned, under the car, death in the train? Trying on the hats? The parody of Cape Fear?

10.Laura's husband, the flashbacks to his obsessive tidiness, her escape, his catching up, death?

11.The parody of police and police work, the eccentric judges? The recess like the schoolyard? The auctioning of the evidence, the sports commentators for the trial as if it were a sports event?

12.The film drawing attention to aspects of film-making, silly dialogue, odd situations? The entertainment value of spoofs? Highlighting audience awareness of particular kinds of films?