Inside Out

(various, USA, 1993)

Of all the anthologies available on video, the series Inside Out from Playboy Video productions is surely among the weirdest.

There are three volumes of one-hundred minutes each, but the distributor is maximising profits by splitting each volume into two separate tapes.

I have sampled the tape Daring Games whose centrepiece is a bizarre story of erotic deceit called "The Diaries" written and directed by Lizzie Borden (Love Crimes, 1992), and starring Joe Dallesandro.

All of the episodes mix a few touches of very soft porn with an outlandish narrative twist, usually of a supernatural variety.

Given the fairly basic television production values, this makes the stories seem like average segments from Freddy's Nightmares with a few bare breasts thrown in.

However, "My Better Half", in which a man discovers his sensitive side by making love with the "physical manifestation of his female alter ego", has to be seen to be disbelieved.

MORE anthologies: Aria, The Blues, Fallen Angels, Lumiere and Company, Strangers, Tales from the Darkside Vol.1, Wild Palms

© Adrian Martin January 1994