Supernatural

Wicked Pictures

Genre: Feature

Director: Michael Raven

Cast: Kirsten Price, Eric Masterson, Katie Morgan, Steven St. Croix, August, Randy Spears, Sophia, Barrett Blade, Jacy Andrews, Joey Ray
Non-sex roles: Jennifer Allison, Michael Raven/Thomas Priest, others not credited

Length: 84 minutes

Date of Production: 4/4/2006

Extra's: For many of you, the best extra will be the admittedly good scene between Kirsten Price and Barrett Blade taken from Between The Sheets. Personally, I like new extras that are geared towards the release in hand so I enjoyed the 19 minute long Behind the Scene feature by talented Mark Stone more but I prefer unique extras in my movies more than most so your mileage may vary accordingly (especially if you already have the movie in question). There was more sex, nudity, and short interviews as Mark meandered around the sets of the flick, talking with cast and crew, spending a lot of time getting the inside scoop from director Michael. I also liked that lovely August got an extended masturbation scene, something that might have worked better incorporated into the movie from the looks of it, even though it only lasted about 4 minutes. There were also the usual photogalleries (5) and 3 Star Stats, a whole 4 minutes of bloopers from the multi-day shoot, the 2007 Promotional Reel, spam, DVD Catalog of Wicked Pictures titles, the usual DVD ROM material, and trailers to movies like The Visitors, Gossip, Eternity, Camp Cuddly Pines, Hook Ups, Curse Eternal, (but none for Mobsters, Manhunters, or other new titles; curious...). There was also a cardboard protective sleeve on the DVD case and a double sided cover for those who care.

Condoms: Yes

Audio/Video Quality: Supernatural was presented in the same 1.78:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color it was shot in by director Michael Raven for Wicked Pictures as shot & mastered in High Definition. The DVD was not another HD DVD release (a shame too) but it did look a lot alike some of his work on film in the past (with the grain to prove it). Michael used various lighting effects to achieve his artistic vision. The colors were accurate, the grain was about the same as usual, and the composition of the shots tended to be quite favorable to the cast. There were no compression artifacts or video noise that I saw and the visuals seemed just fine overall to instill a sense of mood that few features in the porn world seem capable of providing these days. The audio was presented with a choice of either a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English, a 2.0 DD track in German, Spanish, Greek, French, and Italian (the dubbed tracks were considerably worse than those for the anime I review in case you're wondering). I listened to the English track and while I didn't hear any appreciable separation on the audio, it was nicely put together otherwise. Fans of subtitles will appreciate the Greek version added in, though I've never understood why unless Wicked is particularly effectively marketed in Greece (or Italy, France, Germany, etc.). Still, as limited the audio was in this mid budget feature, it was handled pretty well overall.

Body of Review: Michael Raven has long been known as a porn director trying to bring mainstream stories into the adult realm, even back in his days at another company. In recent years, he tends to make one larger budget movie and a number of smaller efforts at Wicked Pictures each year, offering some sugar and spice along with a curiosity for the thriller genre. His most recent release in the erotic thriller category is Supernatural; a ghost story that seemed a step down from last year's The Visitors but a pretty fair little effort designed to cater to like seeing fuck and fear used in the same flick. The back cover said it like this: "Award winning director, Michael Raven, expertly presents an erotic thriller that takes you into the chilling world of the "Supernatural." After the untimely death of Kathy's (Kirsten Price) husband Sean (Eric Masterson), strange things begin to happen.... Kathy is repeatedly haunted by unexplained sounds, lights flicker without reason and photographs crash to the floor. When the apparitions appear in her bedroom, she's had enough. Determined to get her life back, Kathy seeks the help of experts to remove the evil spirits. But just who are they? And why are they there? Before he died, Sean told Kathy he'd love and protect her forever. Sometimes it takes the power of love to fight the "Supernatural." But will love be enough?" In all, it had some merit to the movie as a movie more than serving a strictly porn loving audience, a subgenre that some would argue doesn't exist in solid marketing terms but managed to elevate the movie into an acceptable niche for me. If you're still interested, here's a quick look at the scenes by cast and action, noting that they all had condoms, keeping in mind that this was more of a mainstream styled effort than a porno with tacked on dialogue so do expect a lot of circus act sex:

Scene One: Kirsten Price, barely dressed in some skimpy lingerie, was up first in a luxurious living room with Eric Masterson. The two made out and kissed, acting like young lovers more than porn performers as they savored the moment together. He went down on her and she reciprocated, neither spending enough time before the active riding style she employed on his cock with her pussy. Like all the scenes, condoms were used but as I've said in the past, they don't really get in the way in a contemporary feature, certainly not a scene like this. They had fun with each other but as aggressive as she was in riding him, they really didn't seem to have a lot of chemistry together, especially after he popped his load on her lower abdomen.

Scene Two: Katie Morgan, a sexy blonde that has graced a great many pornos in the past, was up next as she proved once again that her days of being limited to bubbly airhead roles is long gone. She wore a pink one piece outfit to bed with aging lothario Steven St. Croix, playing an unlikely couple at best before he made his move on her. They were naked in no time and while that serves the porn dynamic well, it weakened the place of the scene in relation to the movie as a movie. He snacked on her box in the poorly lit room, spending some time on her lovely ass as well. She started blowing him well enough, not showing her very best moves as he slapped her titties but nothing that I'd turn down either. She was an active rider, as expected, and used porn valley dirty talk; the vaginal bout ending with another wad of population pudding coating the lower abdomen (though some of it flew further).

Scene Three: August, a cute gal with nice curves, was up next in a bed at night with studly Randy Spears. The moody music sounded almost as if a shark were in the water about to get them, Randy slowly making his play for her naked form tossing in the bed. It was an even more limited scene than the others as the oral and vaginal work seemed truncated to me but she looked appealing as a midnight snack of sorts and did appear to get into the action once it was well underway. He launched a pretty big load this time, going yet again to the lower abdomen; striking me as a weird quirk considering that in a true couples movie, it would have stayed in the condom and in a true porno the load would have hit her face or the back of her throat as she swallowed.

Scene Four: Sophia, a curvy gal with extremely pretty eyes and a playful demeanor, was up next as she snuggled with Barrett Blade at night. They spend a bit of extra time warming each other up; necking before doing anything overtly sexual but moving to the hummer/cunnilingus pretty soon nonetheless. The back of a van (a former coworker of mine called them "fuck trucks") isn't an optimal place to screw but her active style made it look easy; her riding him aggressively as a result for part of the scene. This seemed to last longer than the other scenes and resulted one more time in an abdomen pop shot (who thinks this shit up?!?).

Scene Five: Jacy Andrews, an athletic blonde with some nice oral skills, was up last as she slobbed the knob of slob Joey Ray on a couch. She impaled her throat on the dick and while he isn't exactly the most gifted meat puppet in porn, it seemed to work for her as being just the right size for her so that she wouldn't have to work too hard. She rode his cock vaginally with equal vigor, applying a porn style performance where I felt it would have worked better elsewhere, eventually taking the final pop shot...on the face! Personally, I don't care where it lands but in a couples feature, a facial is counter intuitive and too many fans want to see the facial in a strict porno so maybe one of these days, a director will simply go with the genre and stop catering to narrow interests (let's face it, competing for how hard you are in a feature isn't a Wicked Pictures trait and to get more people checking out their features that aren't into porn seems worth the risk-especially if you're going to do abdomen shots).

Summary: Supernatural by director Michael Raven for Wicked Pictures was a title that I'll give a limited Recommended to for those of you looking for a movie that has sex but spends as much time with the eerie plot and dialogue. The acting wasn't half bad for a porno but there were times when it reminded me of the horror spoof Camp Cuddly Pines Powertool Massacre so don't go in expecting it to be as high end as some would suggest. In short, Supernatural had a modest goal and managed to prove that porn and features can coexist, though I would suggest that the next such outing cater less to a porn crowd if crossover appeal is the true goal as it appeared to be here.