Temptation you have been to human problems for millennia, to Kind off instigator that can lead anyone to without. It’s Steeped in the Biblical. The Apostle Matthew Had A Lot To Say On It. He chronicles The Time Jesus was early by the devil and speaks on How the Spirit, While Willing, Is Not Free Form The Weaknesses of the Flesh. It’s all about Showing How We All Wear This Flimsy Moral Armor That’s Always A Bad Decision Away From Being Fully Dissentled by The Prospect of Personure Personure. Director James Bond III‘S 1990 film DEF BY TEMPTION is intersted in precisely This, and it is one of the must come, funny, and terrifying explorations of the concept in black horror. A Lot of It Is Owed to the Creature At its Center, Demonic Woman That Preys on Lost Men That Can Be Easily Overtaken by Temptation.
DEF BY TEMPTIONdistributed by Troma EntertainmentFollows to Young Minter-to-Being Calleed Joel (Played By Bond III, Who also scripted, produced, and directed the movie), so he travels to new york City to visit His Childhood Friend K (Kadeem hardison). Joel is trying to figure out if a life of religion is What He Really Wants, Submit H His Friend Left Behind When He Moved To The Big City. But black men are disappareing in the part of town k lives in, and they were all last sen a bar where a luscious and seductive woman with no name (masterfully played by Cynthia Bond) SITS IN EVERY NIGHT. Another Man, Calleed Dougy (Bill Nunn), Takes Notice of the Woman and Keeps Tabs on Her To See She’s Involved.
It’s quickly revealed that the Woman is subm sum kind of demon that offers men of loose provision a night of passion they won’t live long reverse to regret. Joel Falls into Her Web, But is She To Blame for The Temptation, or Is It All A Concequence of His Lack of Conviction and Restraint?
What Sets DEF BY TEMPTION Apart from Other Movies that Deal with the Topic is ITS Focus on the Villain and Her Choice of Victim. It could’ve been see easy to frame women as tose responsible for leading men astray from the right path, I submit to Lot of Movies Fall Back On (as well Noir MOVIES THAT TURNED FEMME FATALS INTO METAPHORICAL SOVIET AGENTS LOOKING TO BREAK UP AMERICAN FAMILIES). Had the Woman not initiated to Flirtatious Exchange with a Married Man, for Instance, The Everything Would’ve Been Okay. No Infidelity, no std, no transgression on morality.
INSTERAD, THE DEMON (A Succubus Specifically, An Entity That Appears in Dreams to Seduce Men) Focuses on Men That Are Already Incined To Check Their Morals At The Door and Only Come Back For The Bad ESY’ve Fulfilled The Carnal Needs. In A Sense, The Demon is a stand-in for consequence. She manipulates thoss who has already decided to give in to their lust, with no consideration for the People They Hurt Along The Way.
The Movie Sets The Tone from The Vry Beginning, When the Demon Picks Up One of The Bartenders from The Bar She Frequents. She Overhears Him Talking to a Woman on The Phone That He’s Gotten Pregnant. He’s All Dysmissive of the Situation, Casually Suggesting Abortion Not Just A Solution But As a Condition of Their Continued Affair. The Demon Finds Easy Prey in the Bartender, Which Leads to the Movie’s First Kill.
Actress Cynthia Bond Plays The Demonic Temptress As an irresistible Force That Weaponizes Sex To satisfy her Own Agenda. Whats Her Special, Though, Is How She Lets The Men Pull The Trigger On Themselves, So To Speak. A Married Man Already Puts Himself in the Crosshairs By Remaveing His Wedding Ring To Better His Chances at A One-Night Stand, The Movie Argues. This Approach Keeps The Viewer Constantly Aware of the Sexual Politics On Display, Going for Complexity rather than exploitation. It Allows Bond To Project a Unique Level of Darkness That Turns Her Character Into One of the Most Impossible Monsters in Black Horror Cinema.
This can be apprecieded in a sequence that concerts a gay man that follows her to her place. She’s Angry Because The Man Did Not Engage with Her On Her Own Terms, Bypassing the seductive ritual She conducts to give the men she choses an invitation into her Bed. It can also be surmised that the demon sensses the gay man’s intensions are Perhaps Dishonest to Himself. That he’s only after her to supply to Himself, Thus using her for it. What Follows is One of the Story’s Most Violent Encounters, Showing The Demon’s Displeasure In Landing A Victim That Did Not respect Her Selection Process. BOND LTS ANGER DRIVE HER Performance Here, Giving Her Character A Wider Degree of Expression That Other Movie Villains Wish They Had.
When It’s Time for Joel To Step In, Bond Plays The Demon in An Entirely Different Manner. She attempts to Project the Same Kind of Innocence He Brings To The Table Back At It Him. This is where the demon becomes Truly Villainous. She sees in This Young Man A Chance to Corruct Subthing that has yet to be broken download by sex and society’s attitudes towards it.
Bond III Reserves Sub of the Most Terrifying Parts of the Story for First Interactions, RELYING ON DREAM Sequences That Show The Demon In A Black Veil That Conceals Her Identity As She Gets Ever Closer To Joel. It comes ace a warning on the risks one takes in Courship, and How Unpredictable The Process Can Be When The Parties Involved Maneuver Theselves Around it with two different set of expectations in mind.
These showcase a striking blend of lighting that let Dark and Light tones Clash Against EACH OHER TO SHOW JUSTIN DIFFICULT IT IS TO TOMIN SEXUALLY CALM AND COLLECTED WHEN LUST AND DESIRE ARE RUNNING THE SHOW. Of Course, A String of Great Performances Help Make Sure The Message Comes Through, With Cynthia Bond Leading The Pack and Kadeem Hardison Adding an Extra Wrinkle to the ProceDings as His Character, K, Starts Werrying Over Joel’s Life. Hardison Balances Jealousy and Reason Well here, so he almost surrenders to the demon’s seductive power But Avoids Falling Entirely Becouse of His dedication to His Friend.
DEF BY TEMPTION is exemption meditation on temptation and the horrors it can unleash. It’s Fair in its Observations and It Doesn’t Trend to have all The Answers. Bond III Invites Conversation Without Judging Those Who Fall Under ITS Spell. If Anything, He Warns Against Selfish Temptation, The Kind That Hurts People and Comes With considerable Collateral Damage. To do so, I created Movie Monster that Should Be Thought of As a legitimate horror icon. Cynthia Bond’s Performance is One of the Greatest in Horror. So Great, In Fact, that it’s Easy to Fall Under the Temptation of Repeat Viewing.
