Director – Jay Andrews [Jim Wynorski], Screenplay – Sean O’Bannon, Story – Noble Henry [Jim Wynorski], Producers – Don Key & Alison Semenza, Photography – Andre Rossotto, Music – Chuck Cirino, Production Design – Darcy Wennes. Production Company – Phoenician Entertainment/Media Film SPA/Polsat.
Cast
Kari Wuhrer (Ann Stewart), Barbara Crampton (Nicole Garrett), Jeff Trachta (Scott Garrett), Melissa Stone (Darla Garrett), Seth Jones (David Garrett), Jay Richardson (Mr. Slider), Larry Poindexter (Chris Stewart), Peggy Trantini (Karina), John Weller (Travis), Melissa Brasselle (Angela), Michael Cavanaugh (McMillan), Betheny Zolt (Janelle)
Plot
In Los Angeles, Chris Stewart does everything he can to land the big contract, including letting his wife Ann sleep with the client – only to be passed over for promotion in favour of an outsider Nicole Garrett. In upset, Chris kills himself by driving his car off a bridge. Ann is distraught especially to learn that Chris was never in consideration for the job and was only being used by the boss Mr Slider. She takes revenge by sneaking into Slider’s house and setting an explosion to blow him and the house up. Next she sneaks into the Garrett house and kills the housemaid Karina. She then calls the Garretts saying she is from the agency and gets herself hired a the maid. She does such a good job that Nicole’s husband Scott asks her to move in permanently. There Ann proceeds to befriend Nicole’s daughter Darla and encourage her rebellious streak and to seduce both Jeff and the son David, all while plotting to kill Nicole.
The 1990s cable markets and video shelves were rife with Psycho-Thrillers that were inspired by the success of Fatal Attraction (1987) and then a series of erotic psycho-thrillers building on the success of Basic Instinct (1992). By the early 2000s, producers like Pierre David had tuned the cable psycho-thriller into something quite sophisticated.
Thy Neighbor’s Wife/Poison was one of these copycat erotic thrillers. It was a production from Phoenician Entertainment, a subsidiary of Franchise Entertainment, headed by former actor Andrew Stevens, which put out a string of mostly low-budget action films in the late 1990s/early 2000s. Hiding behind the pseudonym of Jay Andrews is regular B-budget director Jim Wynorski, who had previously employed Stevens as an actor and made seven films with Stevens as producer under the Phoenician label. (See below for Jim Wynorski’s other genre films).
Thy Neighbor’s Wife/Poison is essentially an erotic thriller version of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), a Fatal Attraction-inspired theatrical release in which Rebecca De Mornay’s husband kills himself over sexual harassment charges brought by Annabella Sciorra whereupon Rebecca goes undercover as Annabella’s nanny and wreaks vengeance against her family. Thy Neighbor’s Wife is plotted according to the formula that Pierre David had in place by now – there are quite a number of similarities to the David film The Perfect Nanny (2000) – stranger enters the house seeking revenge for a wrong, befriends, seduces and kills their way through the household, while poisoning each member’s affections and turning them against the target.
A vengeful Kari Wuhrer
Not too far beneath the psycho-thriller element, Thy Neighbor’s Wife is a typical Jim Wynorski film and it is not long into the show before he is back to his favourite preoccupation and getting a pneumatically-inflated woman (Peggy Trantini) undressed for gratuitous shower scenes. On the other hand, this is not as much of an erotic thriller as you expect it to be. In her supposed erotic scenes with husband Jeff Trachta, Barbara Crampton (who has done nudity elsewhere) is clearly using a body double. Elsewhere, the film cuts away and does not depict Trachta’s tumble with Kari Wuhrer at all, although Kari does get it all off (briefly) for her scenes later with the son Seth Jones.
Thy Neighbor’s Wife/Poison neither works much as either a thriller or an erotic film. The thriller aspect is formulaic and predictable, while the erotic element is too tame. The plot twists that come are unexceptional, while the film seems to falter at the ending and drags things out beyond the death of its target, when a showdown between Kari Wuhrer and Barbara Crampton felt like it should have been the logical climax of the film.
Certainly, the film does have Kari Wuhrer, who was a modest star of cable/video films during this period (and frequently in an undressed state). Wuhrer has a pixieishness that can suggest either innocence of mischief and employs it quite capably here. There is also a good performance from Barbara Crampton who does the whole black widow career woman thing quite well.
Jim Wynorski’s other genre films are:- The Lost Empire (1983), Chopping Mall (1986), Deathstalker II (1987), Not Of This Earth (1988), The Return of Swamp Thing (1989), Transylvania Twist (1989), The Haunting of Morella (1990), Sorority House Massacre II (1990), Sorority House Massacre 3/Hard to Die/Tower of Terror (1990), 976-Evil II (1991), Scream Queen Hot Tub Party (1991), Munchie (1992), Ghoulies IV (1993), Dinosaur Island (1994), Munchie Strikes Back (1994), Sorceress (1995), The Wasp Woman (1995), Vampirella (1996), The Pandora Project (1998), Storm Trooper (1998), The Bare Wench Project (1999), Desert Thunder (1999), Bare Wench Project 2: Scared Topless (2000), Crash Point Zero/Extreme Limits (2000), Raptor (2001), The Bare Wench Project 3: Nymphs of Mystery Mountain (2002), Gale Force (2002), Project Viper (2002), Bare Wench Project Uncensored (2003), Cheerleader Massacre (2003), More Mercy (2003), The Curse of the Komodo (2004), Gargoyle (2004), The Thing Below (2004), Alabama Jones and the Busty Crusade (2005), Bare Wench: The Final Chapter (2005), Komodo vs Cobra (2005), Sub Zero (2005), The Witches of Breastwick (2005), The Witches of Breastwick 2 (2005), A.I. Assault/Shockwave (2006), Cry of the Winged Serpent (2006), Bone Eater (2007), The Breastford Wives (2007), House on Hooter Hill (2007), Cleavegefield (2009), Fire From Below (2009), Vampire in Vegas (2009), Monster Cruise (2010), Dinocroc vs Supergator (2010), The Hills Have Thighs (2010), Camel Spiders (2011), Gila (2012), Piranhaconda (2012), Hypnotika (2013), Scared Topless (2013), Sexually Bugged (2014), Shark Babes (2014), Water Wars (2014), Scared Topless (2015), A Doggone Christmas (2016), Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre (2016), Cobragator (2018), Attack of the 50 Foot CamGirl (2022), Bigfoot or Bust (2022), Giantess Battle Attack (2022) and Killbots (2023).
