Starting with its poor title, "Twilight Moans" is a lost in time porn video that is well worth discovering. I happened upon it while researching the works of screenwriter Raven Touchstone, and it has an excellent script early in her career, well- directed by journeyman Scotty Fox.
Premise is an interesting and at times serious one: Rick Savage is cast against type as a sort of Pied Piper (that's how Raven has another character refer to him at one point), traveling from retirement home to retirement home to rejuvenate the inhabitants. In particular, these octogenarians (and older) haven't had sex for ages and until his appearance on the scene have given up on such youthful pursuits.
Opening scenes have the cast in heavy makeup as old coots, most of them unrecognizable as we get to know them. Talk of magic rejuvenation results in the group of old-timers dancing around a May Pole and emerging young again -cue the humping.
Sounds simple, but what Touchstone and Fox realize, a fact not understood by definitely a majority of current porn consumers, is that storyline and characterizations enhance the eroticism of sexual representation on screen. Sure there are those so- called avant garde audiences who respond to pure abstraction, as in the work of Andrew Blake or in the soft-core world stylists like the oddly famous (in his old age) Jesus Franco, but on a regular basis dramatization is key -and I DON'T include the so- called porn parodies.
Another reason for the obscurity of "Moans" is its less than marquee name cast. Except for Trinity Loren, not a superstar but with a loyal following (including myself) there is no obvious hook to obtain and watch the video. Checking current DVD availability from Western Visuals it is incorrectly marketed as a parody (of "The Twilight Zone") because of its title punning, but actual video is not.
Besides Loren, there are sympathetic performances from the entire cast, including Greg Derek (who is not aged much in the makeup realm, perhaps a mistake during production) and co-star Lori Marr. One cast member playing Maxwell is a holdout - the taciturn guy doesn't dance around the May Pole and mocks the others' suggestibility, but a happy ending where he is converted to youth (or is this a more subtle theme regarding our society's worship of youth?) is excellent. During the end credits, Fox cannot resist throwing in an odd and morbid bit of black humor which I found clashing with what's gone before, but which is avoidable just like those silly bloopers appended to so many films. Perhaps this feature-length (but short: 68 minutes) was meant to be humorous and mocking, like much of Fox's work, but I found it moving.
Premise is an interesting and at times serious one: Rick Savage is cast against type as a sort of Pied Piper (that's how Raven has another character refer to him at one point), traveling from retirement home to retirement home to rejuvenate the inhabitants. In particular, these octogenarians (and older) haven't had sex for ages and until his appearance on the scene have given up on such youthful pursuits.
Opening scenes have the cast in heavy makeup as old coots, most of them unrecognizable as we get to know them. Talk of magic rejuvenation results in the group of old-timers dancing around a May Pole and emerging young again -cue the humping.
Sounds simple, but what Touchstone and Fox realize, a fact not understood by definitely a majority of current porn consumers, is that storyline and characterizations enhance the eroticism of sexual representation on screen. Sure there are those so- called avant garde audiences who respond to pure abstraction, as in the work of Andrew Blake or in the soft-core world stylists like the oddly famous (in his old age) Jesus Franco, but on a regular basis dramatization is key -and I DON'T include the so- called porn parodies.
Another reason for the obscurity of "Moans" is its less than marquee name cast. Except for Trinity Loren, not a superstar but with a loyal following (including myself) there is no obvious hook to obtain and watch the video. Checking current DVD availability from Western Visuals it is incorrectly marketed as a parody (of "The Twilight Zone") because of its title punning, but actual video is not.
Besides Loren, there are sympathetic performances from the entire cast, including Greg Derek (who is not aged much in the makeup realm, perhaps a mistake during production) and co-star Lori Marr. One cast member playing Maxwell is a holdout - the taciturn guy doesn't dance around the May Pole and mocks the others' suggestibility, but a happy ending where he is converted to youth (or is this a more subtle theme regarding our society's worship of youth?) is excellent. During the end credits, Fox cannot resist throwing in an odd and morbid bit of black humor which I found clashing with what's gone before, but which is avoidable just like those silly bloopers appended to so many films. Perhaps this feature-length (but short: 68 minutes) was meant to be humorous and mocking, like much of Fox's work, but I found it moving.