Twilight Spool

Lisa Boyle stars in a film that gestures vaguely at having a plot, then shrugs and takes off its clothes. On the Edge (1994) is all soft focus and sex on every surface. If you’re here for narrative, look elsewhere. If you’re here for Lisa Boyle, welcome home.

Before porn was everywhere, it was impossible to find. From clunky BBS downloads to secret VHS tapes, this post traces how a generation of teens discovered desire in the analog era. Softcore wasn’t just titillating. It was a rite of passage.

A bored housewife. A mulleted artist. A fire escape. Carnal Crimes (1991) serves up late-night thrills with voyeurism, jazz sax, Julie Strain, and a whole lot of window-side masturbation. Not high art, but who cares? It’s high on skin.

Before the internet, some of us came of age under the glow of late-night cable TV, waiting for a glimpse of something forbidden. These softcore thrillers weren’t high art (or even low), but they were formative, erotic, and oddly comforting.

Twilight Spool welcomes Cal Bishop, our new in-house reviewer with a suspiciously familiar tone. He’ll be handling reviews, retrospectives, and the occasional hot take, especially when plausible deniability is needed.