Erotic thriller

Director Brian De Palma's earliest, heavily stylistic films (one example being Dressed to Kill) are particularly reminiscent of Hitchcock's tense thrillers.

The erotic thriller is a film and literary subgenre which consists of a thriller, that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as its main elements, with an element of eroticism. The genre became popular, especially in the United States, from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, before declining in marketability.

In some films, the development of a sexual relationship (or even a one-night stand) is often used to create tension in the storyline, especially if the people involved should not be having sexual relations, such as in Out of Sight (1998), where a U.S. Marshal has sex with the criminal she is pursuing.

Notable erotic thriller films

1980s

• Dressed to Kill (1980)
• Body Heat (1981)
• Cat People (1982)
• Crimes of Passion (1984)
• Body Double (1984)
• Blue Velvet (1986)
• Angel Heart (1987)
• Fatal Attraction (1987)
• Sea of Love (1989)

1990s

• Internal Affairs (1990)
• Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
• Basic Instinct (1992)
• Blown Away (1992)
• Poison Ivy (1992)
• Single White Female (1992)
• Body of Evidence (1993)
• Boxing Helena (1993)
• The Crush (1993)
• Sliver (1993)
• Color of Night (1994)
• The Last Seduction (1994)
• Devil In a Blue Dress (1995)
• Jade (1995)
• Bound (1996)
• Crash (1996)
• Wild Things (1998)
• Eyes Wide Shut (1999; although partly marketed as such, this film's status as an "erotic thriller" has been challenged. See Eyes Wide Shut genre and marketing)

2000s

• Quills (2000)
• Unfaithful (2002)
• Killing Me Softly (2002)
• Swimming Pool (2003)
• In the Cut (2003)
• Murder (2004)
• Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
• Lust, Caution (2007)
• Chloe (2009; theatrically released by Sony Pictures Classics on March 26, 2010)

2010s

• Black Swan (2010)
• The Housemaid (2010)
• Love Crime (2010)
• American Horror Story (2011–present)
• Passion (2012)
• Jism 2 (2012)
• Hate Story (2012)
• The Canyons (2013)
• Plush (2013)
• Enemy (2013)
• In Secret (2014)
• Ragini MMS 2 (2014)
• Addicted (2014)
• The Boy Next Door (2015)
• Knock Knock (2015)