History YMMV / BasicInstinct

* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: While this film codified the erotic thriller along with ''Film/FatalAttraction'', nearly thirty years on the titilation has worn off with easy access to internet pornography and [[SexSells increased sexualization of popular culture]], and the ClicheStorm nature of the plot being copied many times since makes Catherine come across not as an ingenious FemmeFatale but an incredibly unsubtle manipulator and DevilInPlainSight and Nick not as a brooding TragicHero but a gullible lemming. It's co-codifier is actually a lot more [[ValuesResonance Values Resonant]] for dealing with the realistic consequences of infidelity and stalking and its moral ambiguity.

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: So much so that people are often JustHereForGodzilla: Catherine's interrogation, during which she recrosses her legs while wearing an extremely short skirt with no panties. Long-distance gynecology, anyone?

* HollywoodHomely: Brown hair, brown eyes, glasses, sensible, drab-colored clothes (and presumably underwear as well) was supposedly enough to make Beth the plain alternative to the glamorous Catherine, though she was still considered desirable enough to gain the sexual interest of Catherine and Nick, to the point of doing a nice topless scene.

* FetishRetardant: Nick's sagging buttocks provoked laughter from audiences.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While this film codified the erotic thriller along with ''Film/FatalAttraction'', nearly thirty years on the titilation has worn off with easy access to internet pornography and [[SexSells increased sexualization of popular culture]], and the ClicheStorm nature of the plot being copied many times since makes Catherine come across not as an ingenious FemmeFatale but an incredibly unsubtle manipulator and DevilInPlainSight and Nick not as a brooding TragicHero but a gullible lemming. It's co-codifier is actually a lot more [[ValuesResonance Values Resonant]] for dealing with the realistic consequences of infidelity and stalking and its moral ambiguity.

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: If one looks closely enough at her mentality, Catherine Tramell shows seems to display symptoms of ''all four'' Cluster B Personality Disorders (Antisocial, Borderline, Narcissistic, and Histrionic), even if not fully. Though it should be very obvious to which condition she [[TheSociopath best represents]].

** The idea of a young juvenile Roxy murdering her brothers when she was a teen because she of jealous of her father's attention to them. And the fact she seduced numerous young boys just to kill them later.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While this film codified the erotic thriller along with ''Film/FatalAttraction'', nearly thirty years on the titilation has worn off with easy access to internet pornography and increased sexualization of popular culture, and the ClicheStorm nature of the plot being copied many times since makes Catherine come across not as an ingenious FemmeFatale but an incredibly unsubtle manipulator and DevilInPlainSight and Nick not as a brooding TragicHero but a gullible lemming. It's co-codifier is actually a lot more [[ValuesResonance Values Resonant]] for dealing with the realistic consequences of infidelity and stalking and its moral ambiguity.

* EvilIsSexy: When it's played by Creator/SharonStone, anyway. Roxy also qualifies for this trope.

* HomoeroticSubtext: Between Nick and Gus.

* SignatureScene: As should be obvious by now, the interrogation scene where Catherine crosses her legs and it's clear she's GoingCommando. [[BasicInstinctLegsCrossingParody It's been parodied numerous times]], either playing the fanservice aspects straight again or using it for FanDisservice (like featuring an older woman or an overweight guy instead).

** Hazel Robins, a seemingly sweet old woman who is friends with Catherine, killed her entire family for no good reason.

* TheUntwist: [[spoiler:Catherine was so obviously telegraphed as the killer that most viewers believed it when the evidence began pointing to Beth. The filmmakers stated they had to add the last shot probably revealing Catherine as the real killer specifically to lead people in the right direction.]]

** When Nick and Catherine have sex the first time, she ties him to the bed -- something she usually does with her male partners before murdering them mid-coitus. Nick is frightened but too aroused and restrained to do anything, and it looks as if she's going to kill him right then and there during the act. Sure, she only has sex with him but still.

* TooDumbToLive:
** Nick Curran. You expect a detective to avoid falling for someone they should know is deadly and bad for them. But instead he still falls for her, pushes the people he cares about away from him and is doomed to be killed by the woman he saved from incarceration for her murders.
** Beth. You expect someone [[spoiler: when they're held at gunpoint by the authorities to take their hands out of their pockets. Instead, Beth refuses and still walks toward Nick, who, understandably in an aggerated state, shoots her.]]