Erotic Karma
2013
Written by Tina Hawthorne
Directed by Austin Brooks
Your Erotic Karma ran over my erotic dogma! Just kidding! No dog gets ran over, just some jerky human being! But he then goes on a body possessing spree, so maybe he deserved it. Erotic Karma is a title that seems to have little to do with the actual plot, except maybe the vague notion of New Age philosophies that the whole soul transferring plot device may be borrowed from. But it is also similar to just random ghost stories, so who really knows? In any event, the supernatural aspect caught me a bit off guard, because Mainline Releasing is generally more grounded in reality with their plots. It was an interesting change of pace for them, but doesn’t seem to be a genre they return to with any frequency.
Erotic Karma is written by Tina Hawthorne, the possibly real person who has written a bunch of Mainline films including Obsession, Hidden Treasures, Sex Tapes, Dark Secrets, Birthday Sex, Sexy Assassins, and Naughty Reunion. Her scripts usually don’t follow the standard softcore movie plots, and even have characters discuss things like their feelings, stuff that you just don’t find in softcore movies, and there is some of that going on here as well. The story here could easily be a horror movie topic, and is basically the plot to Fallen except instead of a demon skipping bodies, it is some horny jerk. Horny jerks are the worst jerks, especially when their name rhymes with the work “jerk”, so expect a lot of jerking.
The body changing does allow several characters to flex their acting muscles, including one side character of the type that usually shows up for a one-and-done sex scene. That was probably my favorite part of the film, the various characters suddenly acting like Southern jerk.
One thing not really addressed is the same problem I have with these films whenever people are possessed by ghosts or aliens and then begin having lots of sex, which is the fact all the sex scenes become rape scenes. Not to be a killjoy, but those scenes are a killjoy to my entertainment, so maybe I do mean to be a killjoy. Maybe I do. Three people are possessed in the course of the film, their bodies used by the notorious Professor Dirk Jordan to satisfy his supernatural urges. And also to order people to get him a beer. So few films have the evil villain include people bringing him beer as part of their master plan that it was hilarious.
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At the local college Anthropology department, Sean is “teaching” a class, and by that I mean he is just reading a book to himself while the students do their own thing. He’s visited by Alex and he begins gabbing about how various soul mythologies in different cultures are very similar. He mentions that he’s researching this because he is supposed to teach a class about death and also how he is supposed to teach a class about death. He also dismisses the class, teaching being an afterthought.
Professor Dirk Jordan rambles in and begins putting the moves on Alex. By “putting the moves on”, I mean he sexually harasses her in a way that would lead to a seven figure lawsuit at any major university. Even the awful universities that try to shield various faculty who do things like this. Not only does he call her “darling”, but he talks about her body and asks her to go back to his office and have a drink.
Alex’s boyfriend is Mitch, but Mitch is busy helping out Camille, who is helping out Professor Napoleon (!!), who isn’t in the movie. Boooo! Needs more Napoleon! Dirk used to date Camille, but she dumped him and he’s still stalking her. Instead of grading tests, Mitch and Camille are grading each other on sex. After they both pass, the couple has a fight because Mitch refuses to break up with Alex, as it would devastate her. She threatens to call Dirk to make Mitch jealous, and then tosses him out of the house when he gets upset.
As he is backing out of the driveway, Mitch runs over Dirk in his anger.
“Mitch, NO!” yells Camille.
Mitch checks on Dirk’s body, a special effect flashes, and suddenly Mitch goes back to the car and runs Dirk over again while leaving.
“Mitch, NO!” yells Camille, again.
So Dirk’s soul has jumped to Mitch, right? Yes! In fact, soul jumping is specifically mentioned by Alex when the new Dirk/Mitch – who we will call Ditch – starts talking to her with a “good ol’ boy” accent like Dirk had. They get it on, and he wants more sex in the morning and is ditching teaching class. Alex says she’s not ditching work, and leaves Ditch to ditch by himself. Ah, using the word “ditch” multiple times in the same sentance…
“Mitch, NO!” yells Camille. Okay, she didn’t yell it that time. But what if she did???
Sean is reading Dirk’s thesis when Alex mentions how Mitch doesn’t seem like himself. Sean gives her a necklace he got from a shaman that is supposed to protect from evil spirits, because why not? He says soul jumping is true because so many cultures have similar stories. It’s true, and since the movie Superman has been remade in so many cultures, that is also now true!
Ditch has a masseuse named Lisa over who spends about four seconds massaging him before they are massaging their sex muscles with each other. They continue even when Alex comes home. She storms out, but just then cops come to arrest him.
Alex is now spending the night at school, though later she mentions that she partially owns the house she shares with Mitch, and he’s in jail, so why isn’t she at home? Oh, well. Sean invites her back to his place and puts the moves on her, revealing he’s always had a crush on her, and they make love.
The next day Camille talks to Alex, confessing she was sleeping with Mitch, and Alex tells her that Mitch didn’t care about either of them because he was sleeping with yet another woman. Camille didn’t narc on Mitch, she told the cops she didn’t see who hit Dirk. Alex asks Camille about Dirk and how he acted, and Camille shows her with a home video. If you guessed it was a home video of them getting it on, you are correct! If you thought the two women watching a sex tape together would lead to a lesbian sex scene, you are wrong! No lesbians in this movie. It seems two straight women watching porn doesn’t immediately turn them into lesbians. This is the most disappointingly realistic part of the movie.
Camile, Alex, and Sean then team up to try to find the right method of exorcism to banish Dirk’s soul from Mitch. Somehow, Ditch is back out of jail and at Mitch’s home. The masseuse, Lisa, stops by, and Ditch becomes obsessed with wondering what it is like to have sex as a woman, and Lisa admits she has the same curiosity. So he transfers their souls, Dirk is now in Lisa becoming Disa, while Mitch seemingly returns to being Mitch and Lisa is out of the picture (though we didn’t know this until after the sex scene ends!) Disa continues the Dirk tradition of being rude, crude, and horny during the body-switcheroo sex. Mitch flails around like he’s confused, but eventually goes with it, though he mentions several times that Disa is “crazy”.
Later Disa seems to not have recognized Alex when she was in the home earlier, and Mitch suddenly becomes worried about Alex and possibly figures out Disa is Dirk when she mentions that he was having sex with “her” girlfriend for weeks. No one seems concerned that Mitch is facing manslaughter charges for running over Dirk, in fact, it’s never addressed again in the movie. Disa declares she will have sex with Camille now as it will feel different as a woman.
Camille and Alex go to try to snag Ditch, not knowing Dirk has switched bodies. While they are out, Disa has snuck over to Camille’s where Sean is waiting for them. Soon the pair are making out and Disa is becoming very commanding of what he should do as they start having sex. After it is done, Dirk transfers his soul to Sean (becoming Dean, I guess) just as Mitch, Alex, and Camille return. Lisa leaves in a hurry, not enough of a main character to get an explanation or even say goodbye.
Dean’s plan is to have sex with Alex and Camille, or something, so they leave Alex with Dean, and they have sex, but Alex is wearing the magic necklace she got from Sean. And after a long long while she puts a second necklace on Dean just as Dirk is trying to transfer into her. Dirk is expelled, Sean is back to his self and Dirk is a ghost who is out of time to find a new host, and vanishes after Alex refuses to let him in. Dirk, you jerk!
It’s a happy ending, except for all the trauma and decades of psychotherapy all these characters will undoubtedly need for being possessed or having sex with possessed people. And Mitch will probably go to jail for a few years killing Dirk and fleeing the scene. But that’s Erotic Karma, the most erotic of all karma! The flick was interesting, but I think it lacked on delivering memorable scene of both the sex and non-sex varieties, as well as the aforementioned rape issue. The soul-transference was goofy, but the film didn’t capitalize on that goofiness too much, nor did it make the concept of taking over bodies horrific. It just stuck with the formula, which ended up with a inferior product. At least I got to write a complicated movie synopsis where I renamed possessed characters with names beginning with “D”. My 2016 Things To Do checklist is getting completed faster than ever!
Rated 4/10 (logos, skull, fancy, soul shifting)
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