DVD Vault Flashback: Wild Things (1998)

The following was originally written and posted on my Instagram (@dvdvault) on 2/14/25 with minor editing today.

John McNaughton’s Wild Things (1998) is a master class in purposeful sleaze. This movie revels in how scuzzy and depraved it is and knows exactly what it’s doing with every male gazey shot, every hammed-up line of dialogue, every shoehorned sex scene, and every absurd twist. And when you think Wild Things has had its fill of filth, its cup runneth over in the final moments by casually revealing that two of the people you’ve watched together in multiple sex scenes are actually related. Yikes.

I love how Wild Things is populated with just the most awful people on the planet. Class plays a huge part in the film, but regardless of social strata they’re all human garbage. The strangest thing, though, is that the most likeable character is the crooked lawyer, played by Bill Murray (who I didn’t remember being so fucking hilarious). If I have a legitimate complaint with Wild Things it’s Murray’s exit after the trial. The movie’s still very tongue-in-cheek but not nearly as fun.

Tonight was the first time I’d watched Wild Things since becoming an educator and that perspective immediately took away any illusions the film tries to construct around Matt Dillon’s Sam Lombardo. He crosses so many lines within the first ten minutes of the movie that it’s impossible to think he’s innocent. As an educator, my philosophy with students is to be friendly but never their friend and the constant discussions of Lombardo being such a good friend to his students set off so many alarms in my head. The only thing I could relate to with him was that he worked at a school in a town where he could barely afford to live because of class disparity. Been there.

Overall, I was happy to revisit Wild Things for the first time in at least twenty-five years because at the age of fifteen I definitely didn’t get—or care about—the disgustingly brilliant artistry of what might be the horniest movie of the ‘90s.