Why Verity Is The Kind Of Erotic Thriller Hollywood Stopped Making

Published Sep 30, 2026, 1:20 PM EDT

Sky Blanton is a Movie Contributor at ScreenRant with professional experience covering movies, television, and pop culture. Her published work spans news, interviews, features, and opinion pieces, with a focus on film, franchise storytelling, and the entertainment industry.

She earned her bachelor's degree in Communications with a concentration in Professional Writing and a minor in Business Writing from Southern New Hampshire University.

Verity would have had plenty of company in the 1990s. Back then, a thriller with mainstream stars, an affair, and good reason to distrust all characters involved was a familiar prospect at the box office. Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct made enormous hits out of people letting desire wreck their judgment. You could see the bad decisions coming and still want to watch them happen. Today, putting Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, and Josh Hartnett in that kind of movie feels considerably less run-of-the-mill.

Johnson plays Lowen, a writer hired to finish a series of books for Hathaway’s Verity Crawford after a serious accident. The job takes her into Verity’s home, where she discovers a disturbing manuscript and grows close to Verity’s husband, Jeremy, played by Hartnett. Lowen has to decide what to believe about their marriage while falling for someone who has a personal stake in her conclusions. It’s a job that requires some professional distance, and she’s rapidly losing hers.

That conflict is what makes Verity such a promising fit for an erotic thriller. Wanting Jeremy gives Lowen a reason to overlook something she should question, or accept something she shouldn’t. The suspense depends on how badly she wants to believe him. Hollywood once built a reliable business around that uncomfortable relationship between attraction and trust. Verity arrives at a moment when filmmakers are testing whether audiences will turn up for it again.

Erotic Thrillers Were A Hollywood Staple

You didn’t have to see Basic Instinct to know about Sharon Stone’s interrogation scene. The arguments, protests, and television coverage made sure of that. Here was a movie people wanted to see partly because they wanted an opinion on it. Being scandalous could make a film a bigger event, especially when a major star was involved.

These were also roles actors could build careers on. Body Heat made Kathleen Turner a star, while Michael Douglas became a fixture of the genre through Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct, and Disclosure. The appeal for audiences to take the time to watch these films went further than just seeing famous people undress. A convincing performance could make an obviously dangerous person seem worth the risk. You understood why someone stayed, even while silently begging them to get dressed and go home.

And if you didn’t buy a ticket, you could rent the tape. Video stores and cable also gave these films an audience beyond their theatrical runs, including viewers who preferred some privacy. An underwhelming opening weekend wasn’t necessarily the end of their earning potential. That made it easier for studios to keep financing stories intended specifically for adults.

Why Studios Stopped Making Them

But the same audience had more choices once internet pornography became readily available. Anyone buying a ticket mainly for nudity could find something more explicit for free. Adult content couldn’t replace the tension of a good erotic thriller, but it made the promise of a sex scene less of a selling point (via The New Yorker). The weaker films had less to fall back on.

Meanwhile, television offered plenty for viewers who enjoyed picking apart a suspicious marriage. Big Little Lies and The Undoing had stars, beautiful homes, ugly secrets, and explanations that never quite satisfied. They also had hours to let an apparently reassuring conversation become troubling in hindsight. The audience for that kind of storytelling had somewhere else to go.

Studios were increasingly pursuing films they could sell to families, leaving less room for adult dramas (via The New Yorker). A story about sexual obsession had to compete for funding with blockbusters designed to reach a much wider audience. Erotic thrillers didn’t need to become universally unpopular to lose their place in Hollywood. They only needed to become less attractive investments.

Verity Suggests They Might Be Making A Return

Verity getting a theatrical release suggests studios haven’t entirely given up on that audience. There’s also recent evidence that an affair storyline can still sell tickets. Babygirl, which cast Nicole Kidman as a married executive sleeping with her intern, earned more than $64 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo). Its appeal depended on viewers wanting to understand a woman who was risking the comfortable life she had built.

That gives Verity some company, though a handful of releases doesn’t amount to the steady business Hollywood once did. Colleen Hoover’s readership also gives the movie adaptation of Verity an advantage that an original screenplay wouldn’t have. If it succeeds, studios could take that as encouragement to make more erotic thrillers, or rather to buy more Hoover books.