History Film / WildThings

* ParodyRetcon: The movie is generally seen as a GuiltyPleasure if nothing else, but the sheer volume of [[SoBadItsGood unintentional hilarity]] has lead some to hypothesize that it may have been a StealthParody of erotic thrillers all along. It was directed by an indie filmmaker with a history of making clever movies, and it gives a juicy (and funny) supporting role to a well-known comedian (Creator/BillMurray), so the hypothesis isn't unreasonable.

''Wild Things'' is a 1998 erotic thriller film directed by John [=McNaughton=] and starring Matt Dillon, Creator/KevinBacon, Denise Richards, Neve Campbell and Creator/BillMurray. In some countries the film was released as ''Sex Crimes''.

* EvilTeacher: Sam Lombardo, who rapes one of his students when he gets the chance. [[spoiler:Before it's revealed that he's a different kind of bad, as they were working together to con the girl's rich mom out of millions of dollars. Sam's not a rapist, just a lying sleazeball.]]

* WouldntHitAGirl: [[spoiler:Sam has problems with hurting women. He's noticeably pissed off at Ray for going off-plan by murdering Kelly, despite professing that it's just because it wasn't part of what they agreed on. The film's credit's sequence reveals that Sam is also horrified at having to remove some of Suzie's teeth to provide physical evidence for her staged murder, which she needs to do herself as a result.]]

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: Double Subverted. [[spoiler:When he and Suzie are on the sailboat at the end, Sam is GenreSavvy enough to expect the drink to be poisoned, but is dissuaded when Suzie assures him that she would be an idiot to try something like that, since she can't pilot the boat, and they're all out in the middle of nowhere. It is in fact poisoned, and Suzie is perfectly capable of piloting it by herself. Still, this is not what kills Sam - Suzie then releases one of the booms to knock him into the water to drown.]]

'''''Wild Things''''' is a 1998 erotic thriller film directed by John [=McNaughton=] and starring Matt Dillon, Creator/KevinBacon, Denise Richards, Neve Campbell and Creator/BillMurray. In some countries the film was released as ''Sex Crimes''.

'''Because this movie massively depends on a wide assortment of unexpected plot twists, many of the examples are spoiler-tagged. Highlight at your own risk.'''

!This movie contains examples of:

** Zig-zagged to all hell with [[spoiler:Sam Lombardo]].
** Averted with [[spoiler:Ray, whose only motivations during the entire thing are greed and sadism, never lust]].

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: A theme of the entire film.

* [[spoiler:DirtyCop:]] Ray is revealed as one of these. [[spoiler:He was corrupt, beat hookers, murdered anyone he didn't like, and got Suzie sent to prison just for the hell of it.]]

* [[spoiler:FalseRapeAccusation]]: What triggers the plot.

** Plot of first film: Rich girl Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) flirts with Sam Lombardo (Mat Dillon), her guidance councellor, until at last he invites her into his house in private. Afterwards, she runs off in tears, then accuses him of rape. He claims she's lying, and given her earlier behavior, it looks like it'll be impossible to prove her case. Suddenly, another victim, Suzie (Neve Campbell) is found and is willing to testify. Then [[spoiler: Suzie cracks on the stand and admits she's lying, making the audience think that both girls are working together to screw Sam over. Sam gets off the hook, then successfully sues Sandra Van Ryan, Kelly's mom. Then it turns out that the girls were both working with Sam to trick the mom into doing something stupid so that he could sue her and they could split the money three ways. Then Sam has to kill Suzie because she was acting like a total spazz and might have spilled the beans. Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon), a cop who has been investigating this whole thing, assaults Kelly, who shoots him in the shoulder, forcing him to shoot and kill her. It later turns he murdered her in cold-blood, and shot himself in the shoulder. His superiors are suspicious of him, as something similar happened with him awhile ago, and fire him. Then it turns out that he and Sam were working together to frame Kelly for Suzie's murder, and split the money two ways - except Ray decided to kill Kelly and pretend it was self-defense. Then it turns out that Sam and Suzie were working together to [[FakingTheDead fake Suzie's murder]] and betray Ray because Ray had killed one of Suzie's friends before the movie even started. Then it turns out that Suzie never had any intention of sharing the money with Sam, and kills him. She also has genius-level intelligence. Then it turns out that Ken Bowden (Bill Murray), was working with Suzie all this time. Then it turns out that the whole thing was just an excuse to film a movie with Denise Richards and Neve Campbell making out... twice]].
** Every film in Wild Things series strives to go [[SerialEscalation escalate]] to make each plot twenty times more convoluted and confusing than the previous film's. Chances are, if you are the protagonist, the antagonist, the victim, a background character... hell, if you're ''in the film'', you are in on the scheme and may be weaving some [[GambitRoulette incredibly complex plans]] of your own. If there are two things that "Wild Things" is known for, it's the incredibly sexy lesbian scenes, and this trope.

* HatesBeingTouched: Suzie.
* IdentificationByDentalRecords: Police find some teeth by the beach and use Suzie Toller's dental records to identify them as hers and confirm her death. Later it's revealed that she knocked out her own teeth to [[FakingTheDead fake her death]]

* ThePerfectCrime: Murderer of two (indirectly causing one), Suzie rides off into the sunset with $8.5 million dollars.

* WouldntHitAGirl: [[spoiler:The film's credit's sequence reveals that Sam is clearly horrified at having to remove some of Suzie's teeth to provide physical evidence for her staged murder, which she needs to do herself as a result.]]

* ThePerfectCrime: Murderer of three, Suzie rides off into the sunset with $8.5 million dollars.

* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Suzie commits three murders and retires to the Carribean with $8.5 million dollars.]]

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:Suzie's death]].

** Plot of first film: Rich girl Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) flirts with Sam Lombardo (Mat Dillon), her guidance councellor, until at last he invites her into his house in private. Afterwards, she runs off in tears, then accuses him of rape. He claims she's lying, and given her earlier behavior, it looks like it'll be impossible to prove her case. Suddenly, another victim, Suzie (Neve Campbell) is found and is willing to testify. Then [[spoiler: Suzie cracks on the stand and admits she's lying, making the audience think that both girls are working together to screw Sam over. Sam gets off the hook, then successfully sues Sandra Van Ryan, Kelly's mom. Then it turns out that the girls were both working with Sam to trick the mom into doing something stupid so that he could sue her and they could split the money three ways. Then Sam has to kill Suzie because she was acting like a total spazz and might have spilled the beans. Ray Duquette (Kevin Bacon), a cop who has been investigating this whole thing, assaults Kelly, who shoots him in the shoulder, forcing him to shoot and kill her. It later turns he murdered her in cold-blood, and shot himself in the shoulder. His superiors are suspicious of him, as something similar happened with him awhile ago, and fire him. Then it turns out that he and Sam were working together to frame Kelly for Suzie's murder, and split the money two ways - except Ray decided to kill Kelly and pretend it was self-defense. Then it turns out that Sam and Suzie were working together to fake Suzie's murder and betray Ray because Ray had killed one of Suzie's friends before the movie even started. Then it turns out that Suzie never had any intention of sharing the money with Sam, and kills him. She also has genius-level intelligence. Then it turns out that Ken Bowden (Bill Murray), was working with Suzie all this time. Then it turns out that the whole thing was just an excuse to film a movie with Denise Richards and Neve Campbell making out... twice]].

* IdentificationByDentalRecords: Police find some teeth by the beach and use Suzie Toller's dental records to identify them as hers and confirm her death. Later it's revealed that she knocked out her own teeth to fake her death.

* WouldntHitAGirl: [[spoiler:The film's credit's sequence reveals that Sam is clearly horrified at having to remove some of Suzie's teeth to provide physical evidence for her staged murder, which she needs to do herself as a result. His dissaproval of Ray killing Kelly rather than framing her, as they agreed, is also clearly more on moral grounds than the fact that it diverted from the plan.]]

* {{Fanservice}}: A ''lot'' of it. Kevin Bacon's penis, Denise Richards' breasts, two lesbian make-outs, and even Kelly's HotMom is seen nude, riding the poolboy.

* CreativeClosingCredits: Interspersed within the credits are a series of short scenes that tie the rest of the movie together, including a final one that [[spoiler:ties BillMurray's character with Neve Campbell's]].

!! This movie contains examples of:

'''''Wild Things''''' is a 1998 erotic thriller film directed by John [=McNaughton=] and starring Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, Denise Richards, Neve Campbell and Bill Murray. In some countries the film was released as ''Sex Crimes''.

Because this movie massively depends on a wide assortment of unexpected plot twists, many of the examples are spoiler-tagged. Highlight at your own risk.

* DawsonCasting: Denise Richards was 27, Neve Campbell 25, both playing high school girls. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by some of the sexual content, which might be Squick-y if it featured actual high schoolers.

* ThreateningShark: [[spoiler:In an early version of the script (see WhatCouldHaveBeen, below), Suzie kills Ray by not only shooting him with a spear gun, but by then tossing him in the water and throwing in a bucketful of chum after him. This attracts a school of sharks, who rip Ray apart in a feeding frenzy.]]

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Wild-Things.html This version of the script]] provides some additional backstory for many of the characters, in particular giving both Sam and Kelly more reason to get involved in the conspiracy. Unfortunately, this backstory was cut from the final version of the film.

* WouldntHitAGirl: [[spoiler:The film's credit's sequence reveals Sam is clearly horrified at having to remove some of Suzie's teeth to provide physical evidence for her staged murder, which she needs to do herself as a result. His annoyance with Ray killing Kelly rather than framing her as they agreed is also clearly more on moral grounds than the deviation itself]].

The straight-to-video sequels (''Wild Things 2'' and ''Wild Things: Diamond In The Rough'') were panned and generally ignored. The oddest thing about them is that they copy the first film's outline -- rape accusation, threesome, then tons of betrayal -- to the point where they're just shy of being remakes. A fourth has recently come out (subtitled ''Foursome'', natch), and [[DevelopmentHell there's been talk for years]] of a film called ''Backstabbers'' which would reunite the original ''Wild Things'' cast.

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: [[spoiler:In an early version of the script (see WhatCouldHaveBeen, below), Suzie kills Ray by not only shooting him with a spear gun, but by then tossing him in the water and throwing in a bucketful of chum after him. This attracts a school of sharks, who rip Ray apart in a feeding frenzy.]]

YMMV, I thought she was compromised by the fact she found Lombardo attractive, and therefore dismissed parts of the rape case based on that. (Lampshaded by Ray, when she criticises Sandra Van Ryan for trying to ruin Lombardo's life, and Ray retorts 'You wouldn't go after a guy you thought raped your daughter?')

* GambitRoulette: [[spoiler: Suzie's plot had to take months, if not years, to set up. And by the end, a high school drop-out has gotten three people murdered and ended up with millions of dollars.]]
** Slightly justified by interviews [[spoiler:with residents of her trailer park that imply she is LexLuthor intelligent.]]