Graphic Thrills: American XXX Movie Posters, 1970 to 1985

With catchy titles like Carnal Olympics, Ultra Flesh, Insatiable, Deep Throat, and Dominatrix Without Mercy, the 1970s and early '80s were the golden era of the American hardcore sex film. Picking up where the low-budget stag loops and softcore sexploitation pictures left off, this legendary cycle of adult filmmaking was distinguished by both the overall quality of the movies themselves and also the advertising that promoted them. Real movies made by directors with a vision, performed by passionate actors, backed up with genuine plots, drama, and imagination that hit peaks the industry hasn't seen before or since. This was the age of porno chic.

Theatrical film posters, then and now, seduce the public into taking part in a fantasy world. This first volume of Graphic Thrills proudly assembles 140 of these debauched and innuendo-packed one-sheets between its covers, with glorious unabashed sexuality dripping from every page. These joyous and colourful odes to sultry sin hung in the lobbies and front windows of the porno theaters and grindhouses of yesteryear. Lit by neon and shimmering marquee lights, each come-on promised curious patrons lurid drama, kinky excitement, easy love, and a myriad of exotic fantasies come true.

In Graphic Thrills, the epoch of the American XXX movie poster and the no-holes-barred erotica it promised is laid bare and exposed. A writer for New York's infamous Screw magazine and creator of the underground trash film 'zine Cinema Sewer, author Robin Bougie probes the history of these classic films, interviews the people who made them, and provides candid in-depth reviews.

It's time to drop your defences, turn on, and prepare to play dirty... get ready for Graphic Thrills!