Body of Influence (1993)

Gregory Dark and Shannon Whirry's most polished hour — the best place to start with the video-shop side of the genre.

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The film

A Beverly Hills psychiatrist takes on a mysterious new patient, and his ordered life begins to dissolve. It's the most confident of Dark's early-90s thrillers: better lit, better paced and noticeably more ambitious than its shelf-mates, with Whirry delivering the performance that defines her run.

If Animal Instincts is the historical landmark, this is the better film — the one to show a sceptic who thinks the entire genre is unwatchable.

Editions: what to look for

As with all the Whirry titles, the question is unrated versus R-rated, standalone versus multi-pack. The unrated standalone is the collector's pick; the multi-packs are a cheap way to sample the run before committing.