In an issue of Screw Magazine, model Mara (Marlene Willoughby)
reads an ad for a job that pays $1,000 a week. Sure she knows right away
that can only mean prostitution, but a grand a week is really good
money - so she applies. Turns out the whorehouse that has advertized is
specialized in BDSM, and the madam (Ultramax) needs another dominatrix to
help out with the customers. She gives Mara a tour so she knows what to
expect, then interviews her - in the nude, with a double-headed dildo of
course. From here on, the narrative inexplicably shifts to a handful of
hookers (Vanessa Del Rio and C.J. Laing among them) being abused by their
dominant male clients, before we return to Mara and the madam humiliating,
torturing and pissing on a couple of clients. It seems Mara has learned a
hell of a lot on her first day on the job, and for some after hours
entertainment, she straps the madam to her bed ... Of all
different sexual fetishes, BDSM is an extremely rich field to explore in a
porn movie, especially since each and every practice seems to come with
its pretty much ready-made narrative, and the interplay of dominance and
submission between consenting partners is fascinating. None of all this
is in Dominatrix Without Mercy, basically because it seems that
none of the performers are really into what they're doing, the submissives
are clearly not enjoying themselves, while their partners confuse being
dominant with just being rude, vulgar and even violent. And obviously even
genre legend Shaun Costello had his problems finding into the narrative
undercurrents of the things he is showing on screen. Add to this a cast,
sets and costumes that are a tad too deeply rooted in the mid-1970's and
haven't aged well (figuratively speaking), and you're left with a pretty
disappointing movie with an extremely promising title ...
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