Verdict
Summary
It’s mind porn, but nothing else, which ends up feeling entirely empty and devoid of a heart and soul. It’s cast is both totally shiny but dreadfully dull, fit enough to grace the covers of smutty, disposable erotic romance novels, but certainly not capable of selling this trashy material to an audience with at least half a brain and a semblance of a spirit. Originally released in very short segments, but compiled into a feature film, which runs less than 90 minutes, but ends up feeling much longer.
Plot:
A woman goes to Italy to track down her ex-husband, who has become a human sex trafficker.
Review:
Emily (Nicole Mattox) and Luke (Eric Guilmette) are the perfect young married couple, living a cute life in Los Angeles, but a horrible car crash shatters their coexistence. Emily comes out of a coma, only to find that Luke has vanished and left her divorce papers without any explanation. Time passes, and she figures out (it’s mentioned in passing that she’s some kind of investigative journalist) that Luke relocated to Italy, and she tracks him down to a small village where she hears that he runs some kind of “dungeon” in the underground scene. Looking as pretty as she does and willing to plunge head first into the underground sex culture, Emily submits herself to a trial where she can join the dungeon harem where a “master” can completely and entirely command an inductee to undergo torture and sadomasochistic rituals while being observed by others, namely Luke, who now goes by another name: Lucian. Lucian doesn’t deny that that he was once Luke, but he’s cold and distant towards Emily, who is desperate for answers, and he makes sure he’s her “master” so that he can put her through the trials and not someone else. She fails her first test of wills, but with her next few tests (which involve humiliation and pain), Emily shows the cabal of masters that she’s going to make a great inductee into the “dungeon,” which she soon realizes is a test ground for sex slaves to be sold into the human trafficking underground throughout Europe and beyond. How did Luke / Lucian become enmeshed within such a sordid world, and will he make a way for her to escape such a grim fate? Emily is about to find out …
From prolific exploitation filmmaker Charles Band, who always seems willing to try new formats (he’s filmed in 3D, made sex movies, has utilized and embraced AI, etc.), and here he does something different again, and that is to experiment with the short form shot-for-social media / online serialized short form content, which ends up feeling like a glossy romance / erotic novel come to life, but it completely skimps on the sex and nudity, only offering teases in a way that should enrage its core audience, but perhaps titillate and drive younger viewers (which might be the demographic, I dunno) out of their minds. It’s mind porn, but nothing else, which ends up feeling entirely empty and devoid of a heart and soul. It’s cast is both totally shiny but dreadfully dull, fit enough to grace the covers of smutty, disposable erotic romance novels, but certainly not capable of selling this trashy material to an audience with at least half a brain and a semblance of a spirit. Originally released in very short segments, but compiled into a feature film, which runs less than 90 minutes, but ends up feeling much longer.
Full Moon brings Dungeons of Ecstasy to Blu-ray (#412 on the spine for the hardcore collectors), and the digital transfer is sharp and crisp, without any grain or depth. It comes with a trailer and bonus trailers.
