Genre: Taboo

Director: Jacky St. James

Cast: Elsa Jean, Jenna J. Ross, Cadence Lux, Karla Kush, Karmen Karma, Samatha Hayes, Megan Rain, Marley Brinx, Anthony Rosano, Chad White, Tommy Pistol, Chad Alva

Audio/Video: The audio is clear, and performers can easily be heard and understood while performing. The questionably Staind-esque menu music aside, the music and sound editing is well-executed and not distracting from the action. The video quality and cinematography is consistently clear and well-done (save for some issues with natural lighting in the fourth scene).

Length: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Release Date: Dec 8, 2015

Extras: Behind The Scenes, Photo Gallery, Scenes Organized By Sexual Position

Condoms: No

The Rae Of Light: A more fitting title would be "I Can't Believe It's Not A Vanilla Threesome Compilation!", or perhaps "Now That's What I Call A Contrived Pretext For A Group Fuck". The incest angle is not only unbelievable (as the "siblings" are all supposed to be step-siblings, and therefore obviously don't look alike, and step-siblings living together, and in at least one scene still with their parents, speaks more to the troubles of the millenial generation in achieving economic independence than of the filthiness of the sex), but also unneeded.

The writing and acting of the pre-sex scenes is reasonably tight and polished, even by non-porn standards. The scenes don’t really establish the “sibling” relationships aside from cursory references, and the comedy of pretending to be too short to grab a glass on a shelf to show off your ass to your crush or writing an email to your love interest in Windows Notepad is genuine and charming in its own right.

It fails to recognize or play with any of the emotional messiness that makes incest fantasy hot in a way that resonated with my genitals.

Instead, what we're left with is a lot of "been there, done that" threesome sex dependent on a vague suggestion of impropriety. The casting is more often than not mismatched and lacking chemistry. For the most part, the sex is not improved by the implication of an unspeakable kink, and doesn’t reinvent the “boy plows girl while girl goes down on other girl” wheel.

That being said, I think the performances by Karla Kush, Cadence Lux, and Anthony Rosano warrant a rental, or purchasing their scenes individually.

Sex Scene 1: Cadence Lux likes Karla Kush's step-brother, but doesn't know how to get him to notice her. Karla's plans to match them up eventually led to her and Cadence making out on the couch with the intent of her brother, Chad Alva, stumbling upon them. The scenes depicting the plotting are charming, well-acted, and genuinely funny.

This scene is like science in the days of Galileo in that Karla and Cadence have an ungodly amount of on-screen chemistry. The most gratifying aspect of the whole film was watching them egg each other on while they take turns getting fucked by Chad, and even the most hardline of dark age inquisitors would find his resolve weakened at the most romantic "two girls tag team a blowjob" ever. Rather than a lucky son of a gun who gets to live out the fantasy of two women, Chad's role seems more of an experience that Karla and Cadence are sharing with each other. At various times, both seem like they're being fucked on the verge of tears, while the other giggles with excitement (or welps from having their pussy eaten).

Chad, to his credit, is passive and pliable while remaining present. He, in the most positive and productive way, embodies the trop of the elusive step-brother, with the requisite genuine affection for fucking railing his sister in front of her best friend.

This allows for the camera to focus on the interactions of Cadence and Karla who are, by the way, so fucking hot, individually as their own selves but also together. Karla has a "veteran seductress" vibe, with Cadence as a more straight-forward America's Sweetheart that is also exceptional at eating pussy. I would honestly have just watched 45 minutes of them driving a car and holding hands and affirming each other's life choices. Maybe they're driving to Coachella where one of the 8 cover bands Chad is probably is getting their big break.

Sex Scene 2: Tommy Pistol is in a D/s relationship with his step-sister Marley Brink. During a session, he suggests she invite her best friend, Megan Rain. Megan is very enthusiastic, Marley is trepidatious; these roles and traits do not shift or grow throughout the scene. Marley is either too effective or too committed to playing at the shy, eye-contact-averting, defeated-tone-of-voice ingenue. When, after she and Tommy have tied Marley and tortured her pussy, she tells him Megan should get fucked first "because she deserves it more", it doesn't feel like aroused shame of a submissive cuckquean—it feels like I'm watching someone's will be broken. And like, if that is your thing, fine: that's not what this film purports to be.

See, what makes most incest porn "taboo" (i.e. dangerous) is the inherent power imbalance that exists within families and the torching of the fundamental relationships in which we base how we set boundaries as adults. If you're not bothering with power imbalance, if you're going to employ the amorphous nature of step-sibling relationships as the basis for your incest porn, it needs to be grounded in the emotional chemistry of the performers. Otherwise, when someone doesn't seem into it, it looks kinda a lot like genuine non-consent.

I don't blame this on the performer (who works well with what she's given), but rather the machinations of the scene itself; the BDSM is awkwardly performed and portrayed (why do we need to see you film each individual limb strapped to the bed?) Tommy, in his button-down shirt that's a size two big and his unsure "Dominant" voice, comes off like the sort of jackaroo on FetLife who buys rope bondage manuals just to jerk off to and messages random women telling them to suck his dick and call him Daddy. In his defense: to that end his flimsy pussy-flogging is quite true to life. He also keeps lampshading the silliness of the scene (at one point choking Megan while she's tied up and asking if she's never done this before, how does they know what she likes), which comes off as desperate attempts to save the scene with humor.

The saving grace of the scene is Megan, who does her damndest. She writhes so emphatically while tied down, even when Tommy and Marley are playing on top of her and not paying her body any mind. She just keeps wriggling and moaning. Like she's at the world's weirdest three-person rave. Her interactions with Marley are hot and endearing in their awkward tenderness.

Sex Scene 3: Anthony Rosano is in love with Samantha Hayes, who’s in love with his step-sister Karmen Karma, who herself is in love with Anthony. They settle to resolve their triangle with a threesome. It’s a predictable (and reliable) porn trope with some added whimsy; who in 2016 thinks you can know you’re in love with someone before they put a finger inside you and spit on your asshole?

Anthony Rosano gives the best male performance of the film. He dons the “nebbish, awkward guy with a huge boner” character like a second skin. He’s genuinely funny, and relatable, however embarrassing it is for me to say I can identify with him standing on the edge of the bed, jerking off, watching his sister make out with his love interest with a “I don’t know, guys” look on his face. He’s endearingly, unabashedly beta. We all love an alpha who knows what they want and gets it, but a lot of kinky roleplay looks like like Anthony flopping on a bed in the hopes of a blowjob and then not being sure what to do with your hands.

Karmen and Samantha don’t have a lot of chemistry with each other, but each work really well with Anthony—it’s the only scene where the times it focuses on the man works. My roommate requested I put in my review that they thought Karmen Karma’s ass was perfect. And I don’t disagree! She has the “chill but wicked at heart” persona that would populate a lot of Chick Tracts on why watching porn just once will turn you into a 80’s movie henchman. Her encouraging Anthony to cum on Samantha makes for the best pop shot in the film. See? I know industry terms! I have definitely jilled it to some skin flicks in my day, my dude.

Since all the action happens on a bad, it gives the camera a lot of time for us to explore and admire Karmen and Samantha’s curvaceous forms. Samantha has a subtle stunningness to her—she’s the right person to bridge “bad girl deviant” and “awkward dork living out the holy grail of heterosexual male fantasy”. She gets really into it, which is not only necessary for a film about this type of fetish, where the strength lies in the, shall we say emotional truth of it all, but also hot, because she’s hot and has a great ass and looks great being fucked by Anthony or getting head from Karmen.

This is one of two scenes in this film I’d watch again recreationally.

Sex Scene 4: I wonder if putting this scene (or the performers of this scene) on the cover of the DVD (and therefore, at the forefront of advertising it) was the producers anxiously showing their hand, the way I rattle off uncomfortable secrets about myself when I’m around a beautiful stranger in an effort to sabotage myself so I never have the chance to fail on my own.

Such to say, I really really disliked this scene.

It had promise! The scene starts with Jenna J. Ross introducing friend (and virgin) Elsa Jean to the pleasures of a vibrator. This could’ve been the whole scene. It’s not “you’ll need to change underwear and possibly look up whether the type of chair you’ve just leaked all over can be washed”, but it’s a solid premise, and tame (for those who prefer or need that). Maybe they could just jerk themselves off and talk about fucking their brothers. I’d have sat through 45 minutes of that.

Instead, for the sake of uniformity, they throw in the step-brother angle, and it all gets really uncomfortable.

Jenna wants her (beefy as fuuuuuccckkkk) Chad White to fuck Elsa so she won’t have to endure college as a virgin anymore. She suggests they “demonstrate” for her, and he replies with “I’m not fucking you, you’re my sister”. He never verbalizes or reallly demonstrates why he changes his mind a minute or so later, which makes the shots of him looking asleep or otherwise non-present while he gets blown a bit problematic.

Elsa’s constant grimacing at Jenna work her brother over (and at one point lamenting that Chad’s cock is possibly too big for her pussy) doesn’t really help. Look: I get it. It’s porn. People are there by (some degree of) choice (dictated by the need to accrue income). For some definition of the idea, they’re there because they want to be. But if someone’s performance is giving the impression that they’re not present or enjoying it (and “nonconsent” isn’t what your film is trying to sell), it really isn’t a lot of work to stop, check-in, and maybe re-do that spot with a focus on enthusiasm.

Otherwise, you get what happened when my roommates thought it’d be fun to watch a porn scene with me while I reviewed it: they became really uncomfortable, said the scene was “kinda rapey”, and asked me to fast forward or turn it off. They aren’t critics or performers or other “insiders”. Those are consumers; if you can’t be swayed by the ethical politics of consent, then maybe consider how this can affect your bottom line.

All this was decorated with sun glare because the camera shot directly facing the sunlight (coming from multiple sources); it feels like everyone in this shoot was giving up.

It did get better once it became your standard “threesome on a couch”, after it removed itself from the narrative of an incest kink. With this and the awkward, clumsy BDSM in scene two, it feels like kinks were used to get a little more mileage out of otherwise vanilla threesome sex, lazily playing into stereotypes of porn.

To treat, incest, which exists as a super hot kink and a legitimate source of trauma for a lot of people, like a Party City costume you slip off once the “real sex” commences seems flippant, misguided, and boring.

That said: Elsa Jean has fantastic cheekbones, Chad White’s got the sort of physique that triggers the sort of “aren’t some men exquisite and intriguing creatures” impulse laden in lesbians like me who don’t sleep with men but love watching them wrestle each other.

And Jenna J. Ross is a great exhibitionist (I mean, like, beyond the baseline exhibitionism of being a porn perform). Their girl/girl bits are the highlight of a downer fourth quarter of a film I had some high hopes for.