aka The Corporation; Flash Frame
Crew
Director/Producer – Andrew Stevens, Screenplay – Karen Kelly, Photography – Gary Graver, Music – Terry Plumeri, Computer Effects Design – Susan Hayes, Production Design – Helen Harwell. Production Company – Royal Oaks Entertainment.
Cast
Ian Ziering (Darrin Danver), Katherine Kelly Lang (Deb Danver), Marc Riffon (Doug), Rainer Grant (Angie Nelson), Kim Morgan Greene (Meg), Dee Wallace Stone (Sissy Bonner), Larry Manetti (Larry Bonner), Andrew Stevens (Tom Moore), Kin Shriner (Jimmy Eicher), Griffin Drew (Kim Laughton)
Plot
Darrin Danver moves to Las Vegas with his wife Deb to take up a job with a computer game company. As they settle in, they begin to find the unquestioning loyalty of the company employees and their wives peculiar. Darrin uncovers evidence that indicates that his predecessor’s death of a heart attack might have been murder. Gradually, he discovers that the company has managed to encode subliminal brainwashing messages inside a computer game that they are now about to release nationwide.
Subliminal Seduction is a film directed by Andrew Stevens. Stevens, the son of Stella Stevens, started out as an actor, appearing in films like The Fury (1978), The Seduction (1982), Night Eyes (1990) and Red Blooded American Girl (1991). In the 1990s, Stevens founded the Royal Oaks production company and has become a prolific producer, usually of action films and erotica.
Most of the films that Stevens has produced come down the low-budget end of the scale and he often works in conjunction with people like Roger Corman and Fred Olen Ray. Stevens has directed a number of these films himself, including The Terror Within II (1990), Night Eyes 3 (1993), Illicit Dreams (1994), Virtual Combat (1995) and Crash Dive (1996).
The film’s central idea of a series of mindlessly perfect housewives is strongly reminiscent of The Stepford Wives (1975). The basic idea is at least passably presented – even so, Stevens still contrives to make it a B movie. There is a standard conspiracy cover-up plot, although it is such a generic plot that it is never made clear why the company is trying to brainwash people.
Subliminal Seduction is a B movie through and through. The nearest Andrew Stevens can find to a star name is Ian Ziering, about the one regular from Beverly Hills 90210 (1990-2000) who failed to carve out his own career until being rediscovered a few years later with the bad movie hit of Sharknado (2013) and sequels. Characteristically, Stevens throws in numerous gratuitous softcore erotic scenes. The action is at least competently conducted.