Basic Instinct

An ice pick stained with blood. A silk scarf tied to a bed post. A fading rock star brutally slain. The clues and the victim, but where is the killer? For Nick Curran (Michael Douglas), a cop on the edge whose best friend is the bottle, what begins as just another murder hunt quickly turns into something much more sinister. Prime suspect is Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a rich and dangerously seductive novelist whose bizarre, fictional killings have a nasty habit of coming true.

Curran's basic instinct tells him to keep his distance but he's drawn to the irresistably sexy Catherine. The closer he gets, the more she manipulates him until finally the detective finds himself hopelessly out of control in a maze of mind games, passion and murder.

Review

The take-no-prisoners sex thriller from 1992 now stands as a milestone in the career of screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, but in the hands of director Paul Verhoeven Basic Instinct is an undeniably stylish and provocative study of obsession. In the role that made her a star (and showed the audience a little more skin than she intended), Sharon Stone plays the cleverly manipulative novelist Catherine Tramell who snares San Francisco detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) with her insatiable sexual appetite during the investigation of her boyfriend's murder. Tramell is the prime suspect, but the plot twists and turns until Curran is trapped in a dangerous cycle of dead ends and unsolved murders, never sure if Tramell is committing the crimes or if it is some other, unknown suspect. With a plot that keeps viewers guessing, Basic Instinct is the work of a director who is clearly in his element. --Jeff Shannon