The film is called "Vengeance", put out by Wicked Pictures. It's something like a porn remake of "The Crucible", with a dark-haired, tanned, jewelry-wearing woman named Tituba leading several other women in pagan spellcrafting and sexual events. Pilgrim men (definitely pilgrims in the New World, the costuming is amazingly good) find out, there's accusations of witchcraft...

...and that's only half the plot. The other half is set in present day, with what I'm guessing are reincarnations of the earlier characters - I haven't finished the movie, I'm just typing this up NOW so I don't forget, but it's far too awesome to stop watching so I'm distracted... where was I? Oh yeah - and the main character is seeing the reincarnated Tituba, Tituba is playing a counselor or therapist-type person and the main character is dreaming about the past. We see her dreams, some of them sepia-toned clips, some full-color longer bits, and as the plot progresses we find out that all of the others know they've been reincarnated; only the main character is clueless so far.

The sets are fucking awesome, great old stone buildings, hardwood-floored houses, beautiful rooms, perfect landscapes. It's just one long series of incredible sets, everything from old jail cells to a modern techno-playing goth club, you name it, it's here. They must have spent a LOT getting some of these locations, I'm definitely impressed.

The costumes are even better, pretty much period-accurate, the only changes are a few less layers and the occasional too-well-made corset, nothing that really shakes you out of the fantasy. All the characters are dressed believably, down to the big buckles on their hats and shoes and the cute little plain white bonnets on the women, this actually looks researched rather than thrown together.

The actors themselves... well, they ARE porn stars, so don't expect perfect acting, but they do a damn good job for porn stars and a half-decent job by any measure. They have the right tones for whatever time period each scene is in, they have realistic expressions, only occasionally do you even think they MIGHT be faking some of their enthusiasm, most of the time it just seems... real.

There's quite a few fake breasts, of course - Wicked is a good company but they tend to prefer large and fake to real and small... and OMG, the character they have playing the villain male is PERFECT for it, he's gotten into the role and is just amazing. And there's PLOT, did I mention that? Seriously, a plot you can follow, characters you are actually interested in, a storyline that makes you want to see what happens next, I'm just blown away. I haven't seen a porn like this in AGES.

Want more proof it's good? At one point there's a four-girl scene and one girl is shoving her three middle fingers into the other one... she's doing it from the right angle, and she's the only one without at least a bit of fingernail, she has her nails cropped back to just below the tip of her finger so she doesn't scratch. The two girls with middle-sized fingernails never put more than one finger inside, and the one with long fingernails doesn't put her fingers in anyone. Seriously, one of the things that bothers me most about the majority of porn I've seen is women with two-inch fingernails just shoving them into the nearest hole. That would fucking HURT. This movie? If you have sharp nails, you keep them OUT of other peoples' orifices. I like that.

There's also a fair bit of kinkplay - no, not whips and chains precisely, but a lot of dominance and submission, orgasm control, teasing, some hot wax... and it all fits what's going on, it isn't just thrown together, isn't silly, isn't unrealistic. It's just all GOOD. I am so stunned by this, I'd expected we were gonna go through the four-disk set we rented and all four of the movies would be horrible and maybe, maybe one of them would have a scene or two that were arousing enough that I'd get off. Instead I've got a movie that is actually a half-decent MOVIE, as in this is something I'd watch for the story, the acting, the sets, the costumes, not just the sex. Cate and I are both watching it wide-eyed, waiting eagerly to see what happens next.

We're going to see if we can track down any more films by this director, maybe we'll find more this good. This one at least is definitely on the list of Christmas presents (*grin* I'm totally asking Deborah for it, she'd think it was great) and something we NEED to add to our tiny porn collection. Even the oral sex scenes in here are fairly realistic and look appealing, and I REALLY dun' like watching most oral sex, it's never the sort of licking I would like done to me so it just doesn't usually turn me on. Here, they got it right.

If you're looking for great porn, great plot, great costumes, great sets, and a generally great video-watching experience, look for "Vengeance". I promise you won't regret it. *wicked grin*