It's time to board the bus to this exclusive resort called SexWorld, a place where all kinds of sexual fantasies can be realised, and as the passengers take their seats they are settled by the stewardess who makes sure they are comfortable. Once the vehicle drives off to a secret location out in the Californian countryside, the holidaymakers' guide steps up to welcome them to this exciting new experience which should, if the ads are to be believed, satisfy them completely. To put them at ease, he asks them how they heard about the place, though he has a few ground rules to point out to them first...
Michael Crichton's classic sci-fi thriller Westworld was the inspiration for pornographer Anthony Spinelli's SexWorld, though mostly it would seem to be the idea of a resort where technology is used to bring about the visitors' fantasies which appealed; where the 1973 movie had a Western, Roman and Medieval World for its patrons to enjoy before the robot revolt, in this case the scenarios were a lot more personal, with the added bonus that the automated staff didn't slaughter you when they decided they were tired of being used. Thus the basic plot was used to put the characters into various wish-fulfilment exercises all the better to set them in a more relaxed state of mind when they leave.
All very well, but this arrived at the tail end of the seventies "porno chic" wave, when the sex movie had graduated from the stag reels of decades before into a more aspirational style: creative talents like Spinelli wanted their works to be taken seriously as proper films, so they had plot points, themes, and character development, just like a normal Hollywood effort. However, after about ten years of this the public decided they were not going to be fooled and the home video industry began to dominate: what was the point in crafting a clever narrative when the audience was only going to fast forward to the sex scenes? So all those big ideas went for naught, and we have the curiously artificial instant gratification of the internet porn industry instead.
On the other hand, the pornolisation of pop culture meant that movies which would be shown in a mainstream cinema in the twenty-first century began to introduce hardcore elements to their mix, usually in an arthouse effort, but noticeable in what was now being allowed for what would previously have been the province of a dedicated theatre. Whether the likes of Lars von Trier or the Cannes winner Blue is the Warmest Colour were trying to say something about the human condition or whether they were making headlines and profits by adding a bit of unsimulated intercourse (and more) was a moot point, but what was notable was the fact that directors like Spinelli and Radley Metzger would not have seen much wrong with this practice.
Which brings us to SexWorld, blurring the lines between a sex movie and message movie; call it pretentious, but while there was plenty of what you'd expect from seventies porn, Spinelli genuinely seemed to care about his characters. There was comedy where a racist white man (hardcore superstar John Leslie) finds his actual fantasy is a black woman (Desiree West, a rare African-American star of the form) who has a few funny lines and demands he sniff her arse (huh?), while there was also a more serious aspect when a couple whose marriage is in trouble try to save their relationship, but when the husband turns voyeur and sees his wife's horniest dreams are actually pretty violent and demeaning, we suspect the marriage may not recover, a point to ponder that it's probably best we don't know what other people's fantasies are when it comes to sex. All this is achieved by what you assume are androids, leading to a strangely eerie punchline. They say SexWorld was a cut above this era's porn: you might not go that far, but it was interesting for what its aims were other than the obvious. Music by Berry Lipman (with theme song!)
