Shining Sex
- Year: 1976
- Country of origin: Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland
- Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
- Director: Jesús Franco
- Length: 101 min
Film Synopsis
Shining Sex (1976) follows an exotic dancer working at a resort in southern France who is seduced by a strange couple with hidden motives. As their influence grows, she becomes psychologically and physically controlled to help eliminate individuals who threaten their secret presence. This French-Italian-Swiss-Belgian science fiction thriller blends erotic imagery, alien invasion themes, and psychological manipulation.
Critical Perspective
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Shining Sex is essentially a more carnal version of Franco’s 1965 horror film The Diabolical Dr. Z, in which a malevolent female uses mind control to force a pretty young nightclub performer to commit murders. The difference this time is that traditional horror imagery has been swept aside, leaving a series of slow, narcotically extended trance sequences, mainly erotic in nature, ranging from the faintly ominous to the alarmingly dysfunctional. Often wordless, bordering on abstract, minimal in the extreme, Shining Sex is hallucinatory in a very different way to Franco’s more celebrated work, casting aside the optical tricks of Venus in Furs and the cine-referencial conceits of Succubus and sailing into a mysterious realm between genres, a liminal space bordered by horror, sci-fi, psychedelia and pornography yet beyond the scope of each.
Stephen Thrower, Flowers of Perversion: The Delirious Cinema of Jesús Franco, Volume Two (Strange Attractor Press, 2018)
Shining Sex Blu-ray editions
See which disc extras are included across selected editions.
| Disc Extras | Severin BD-ALL/US/OOP 2020 | Maison Rouge BD-ALL/UK/OOP 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Audio Commentary by Rod Barnett and Robert Monell | ||
| In the Land of Franco, Part 3 - With Stephen Thrower and Actor Antonio Mayans | ||
| Franco at Eurociné - Interview with Eurociné’s Daniel Lesoeur | ||
| Franco-Philia - Interview with Filmmaker Christophe Gans | ||
| Shining Jess - Interview with Stephen Thrower | ||
| Silent Running - Interview with Sound Mixer Gérard Kikoïne | ||
| Outtakes | ||
| Theatrical Trailer |
Edition and Packaging Notes
- Severin’s Blu-ray includes a CD of compiled tracks (“Daniel J. White: In the Land of Franco, Vol. 1”). Part 1 of “In the Land of Franco” is found on Cries of Pleasure (1983), Part 2 is on Night of Open Sex (1983), and Part 4 on Bahía blanca (1984).
- Maison Rouge’s Blu-ray contains no extras.
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Collector’s guide
Compare presentation quality and explore notable disc extras across selected editions.
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In the Land of Franco, Part 3 (12:42) -
Franco at Eurociné (17:39) -
Franco-Philia (29:13) -
Shining Jess (19:14) -
Silent Running (6:26)
| Editions | |
|---|---|
| Extras | Audio Commentary by Rod Barnett and Robert Monell Severin BD |
| In the Land of Franco, Part 3 - With Stephen Thrower and Actor Antonio Mayans Severin BD | |
| Franco at Eurociné - Interview with Eurociné’s Daniel Lesoeur Severin BD | |
| Franco-Philia - Interview with Filmmaker Christophe Gans Severin BD | |
| Shining Jess - Interview with Stephen Thrower Severin BD | |
| Silent Running - Interview with Sound Mixer Gérard Kikoïne Severin BD | |
| Outtakes Severin BD | |
| Theatrical Trailer Severin BD |