Gen Z Might Be Prudes, But ‘Cruel Intentions’ TV Creators Refused to Shy Away From Love Scenes and Horniness: ‘Sex Is Alive and Well’
variety.comHunter Ingram SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for “Cruel Intentions,” both the 1999 film and the entire first season of the new Prime Video series.” Twenty-five years later, “Cruel Intentions” will still make you blush.
The 1999 film about high-society stepsiblings Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) and Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) curing their privileged boredom by corrupting the last shreds of innocence in their peers feels both ahead of its time and like a movie that could never be made today.
Littered with culturally insensitive language and driven by unbridled, often taboo sexuality, it was a cultural shock to the system in the waning days of the last millennium.
Replicating even a shred of that ethos was one of the many challenges facing this new version of the story. But perhaps the tallest order for “Cruel Intentions” was making a timeless tale of striving for power through sex feel relevant and revolutionary in the era of Gen Z, a currently college-aged generation that has been vocal about their lack of interest in sex in film and on television.
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