Sydney Sweeney and Justice Smith star in the saucy, silly, and extremely messed up erotic thriller The Voyeurs, which is perfect for a new generation of fans. Viewers have long been starved of truly absurd, yet sexy erotic thrillers that have an intoxicating blend of attractive people doing stupid and dangerous things for the absolute thrill of it. In The Voyeurs, writer-director Michael Mohan takes all the lessons of the truly wild erotic thrillers of the 1990s and brings them into the modern age. With a dose of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Brian De Palma’s Body Double, The Voyeurs perfectly captures all there is to love about the genre.
In The Voyeurs, a young couple, Pippa and Thomas (Sweeney and Smith), move into their first apartment together in Montreal, Canada. They are eager to spend the remaining years of their 20s having fun, embracing their relationship, and going about their way in their respective careers before they become more responsible adults with marriage and maybe children. Pippa and Thomas do love each other, but Pippa seems to be longing for that extra spice in their relationship. She is young and beautiful and seemingly regretful of not having her own wild college stories. However, her insatiable appetite might finally get filled when she and Thomas notice that their large curtainless windows allow them to see into the homes of their neighbors, who also have large windows with curtains that remain perpetually open. (Seriously, have none of these folks seen Netflix's You? Don’t make the same mistakes as Beck!)
Mohan assembled quite the team to pull off a stellar job executing this film. With some exquisite camera direction and cinematography, courtesy of Elisha Christian, The Voyeurs truly taps into that intoxicating need to watch someone. With the clever use of mirrors, reflections, windows, cameras and extremely competent framing, The Voyeurs gives viewers the sensation of both being the titular voyeur and of being watched. Will Bates ratchets up the tension with a perfectly timed score that hits all the right notes to get the blood pumping or have one holding their breath in anticipation of what happens next. To top it all off, Mohan’s story is truly wild, never taking the expected route, while still relishing in the absurdity of it all.
This film could have easily been botched with bad dialogue delivery, an audacious score, or subpar directing and writing but Mohan and the filmmaking team approach the story with utter seriousness. Although silly at times, that is simply the nature of the narrative and the twist and turns that will have one wondering what just happened. There is a sense of respect in this homage to the film noir and erotic thrillers that came before that also suffered the slings and arrows of being called salacious, sleazy, and outright stupid. However, Mohan taps into what audiences and fans of this subgenre of drama crave, which is unadulterated madness.
Sweeney and Smith, as well as Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Ben Hardy, play each of their roles perfectly. Sweeney and Smith bring a sense of guilelessness to their roles that leave the audience sympathetic to these seemingly straight-laced people seeking excitement. Whereas Bordizzo and Hardy effortlessly portray the sexy and alluring neighbors that just beg to be watched. Sweeney and Smith are what this film needs as their respective fanbases from their HBO shows Euphoria and Generation are exactly who this film will appeal to. Bordizzo and Hardy will probably find a bigger respective audience as this should bring more attention to their work, and quite honestly their immense talent. The entire ensemble carries the narrative with a commitment that it deserves, with each performance acutely aware of the nature of the story, and yet offering up characters who are far more dimensional than they first appear to be. Especially Bordizzo who is very deserving of praise as she is truly remarkable as the spied upon neighbor with a few surprises up her sleeve.
All in all, The Voyeurs is successful in what it sets out to do. It’s sexy, silly, and super messy. For those who thrived on the era of Basic Instinct, Bound, Wild Things and Body Double, Mohan offers a modern interpretation that demonstrates how to respectfully pay homage to a wildly underappreciated and laughed at genre. It will perfectly cater to folks in their 20s, but older audiences will get a kick out of it, too. The Voyeurs is a stylish and sleek erotic thriller that demands to be seen.
The Voyeurs is streaming on Amazon Prime Video as of Friday, September 10, 2021. It is 121 minutes long and is rated R for strong sexual content, nudity including brief graphic nudity, language and some disturbing images.
