nre: Straight, Feature

Director:Fred August/Joanna Angel

Cast: Emily Willis, Emma Hix, Michael Vegas, Joanna Angel, Katrina Jade, Lacy Lennon, Small Hands

Length: 1 H 33 Min

Date Of Production: 2019

The Movie:

Under The Bed Volume 1 is an anthology movie of sorts, offering two stories directed by Fred August and Joanna Angel, that opens with two women, Emily Willis and Emma Hix, getting out of their car and making their way into a beautiful cabin in the woods. They don’t realize that a man (Michael Vegas) is watching them from the nearby brush. We flashback to the scene of a violent car crash where a few body lies motionless, and then head inside with the two Ems where they start making out on the couch. Thunder crashes and rain comes down, some ominous music plays on the soundtrack and again we see odd flashbacks, this time of a woman throwing something on a grave and weeping to herself, only to start screaming as blood comes out of the grave. All this in the first minute!

Scene 1 – (Within) Emily Willis, Emma Hix: We spend a bit more time with Vegas’ character, he’s clearly unhinged, living along in the woods surrounded by dead animals and covered in filth. We, again, see the girls go into the house and he peer in on them. They talk amongst themselves and make themselves comfortable, lounging near the lake and bonding. Soon enough they’re rubbing each other down with suntan lotion, unaware that they’re being watched. Rain comes and they head inside to watch a horror movie together as the day turns into night. This, quite predictably, turns into a makeout session and that makeout session turns into some rad lesbian sex. These girls are enjoying themselves and taking their time here, starting with some kissing and heavy petting before getting down to the harder stuff. The scene is nicely lit, the periodic lightning flashes accentuating things as they heat up. Both ladies look great and do seem to genuinely enjoy using fingers and tongues on each other. It’s a standard lesbian scene, not breaking any new ground, but definitely enthusiastic enough, without overdoing it and seeming fake, to work for those who enjoy watching two lovely ladies go at it. It ends with a naked Michael Vega showing up behind them as they finish up, which brings us to…

Scene 2 – (Within) Emma Hix, Michael Vegas: …Vega asking Hix if she always plays with her food while she washes blood off of her hands. What’s happened to Emily Willis isn’t pretty. They talk about how she’s able to live among the humans, how tough it is. They talk about having to hunt them, their place on the top of the food chain and how he doesn’t have to hide… at least not from her. This quickly turns into him going down on her as she sits back on the window sill and spreads her legs. He goes at it for a good long while and she seems to appreciate it, maybe ‘acting’ a bit too much at times, but enthusiastically returning the favors once she’s been well taken care of. They move to the bed where she blows him for a few minutes, which soon turns into a sixty-nine and then a reverse cowgirl ride. They switch it up and do cowgirl, doggy and missionary with intermittent blowjob breaks now and then before he pulls out and pops on her stomach. Again, the lighting is good here, the cinematography better than average what with the lighting flashes helping to build some mood. There aren’t a ton of gynecological close-ups here, it’s shot more artistically and softly than you might expect, but it still shows plenty of what you’ll want to see and the two of them go at it with a fair bit of what would seem to be legitimate passion. After they finish they talk about their plight and, well, without spoiling the plot too much, there’s a big, bloody twist.

Scene 3 – (The Night They Came For Lacy) Joanna Angel, Katrina Jade, Lacy Lennon, Aaron ‘Small’ Hands: Lacy Lennon walks in a cemetery in a ridiculously skimpy outfit (I know this is porn, but c’mon…) in and amongst the tombstones of her three co-stars for this scene. She prays and asks that they be granted eternal rest, laying flowers at their graves. We flash back to a year prior where the four of them are in a car heading out to Lacy’s open mic night. There’s a lot of back and forth, and they head to a bar on the way home for one drink, on her. As they make their way there, Aaron talks about how they’re on the wrong way, and soon enough, boom, there’s that car crash we saw clips from in the beginning. The plot twists and turns a bit from here, and we don’t want to go into spoiler territory in this review, but Lacy winds up alone in a candlelit house where some weird stuff starts happening, weird stuff with a supernatural bent to it. She winds up in the bedroom, hoping to get some rest as she disrobes for the night, only to find something odd under the bed. Flash forward to the cemetery and the bleeding dirt and low and behold the friends she lost in the car accident come back to life in zombie form… for an orgy! They get Lacy’s skirt up and Joanna takes charge first, before Aaron gets his done down her throat. Joanna and Kartina go at it while Lacy gets fucked, standing up even, by Aaron. The girls go at it for the duration while Aaron concentrates mainly on Lacy’s snatch, fucking her from all of the requisite angles you’d expect before pulling out and blowing his load on her stomach. This one has way too much moaning and groaning in it, it feels performed rather than natural. The sex is enthusiastic for sure, and the cast look really good, but despite the ‘shock’ ending it never quite comes together the way it should, coming across as hokey more than anything else.

The DVD:

The Video:

Under The Bed is a shot on digital video production which looks pretty clean presented here in a very strong and stable 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. This is actually a very nicely shot production showing better than average productions values and really nice lighting and camera work. Skin tones look nice and natural, the compositions are dead on (the camera work is very good here), and overall the movie looks great showing very nice detail and color. Some minor compression artifacts do pop up now and again but they are minor indeed, there are no real problems to complain about here in terms of picture quality, aside from the “PURETABOO.com” video bug that is present in the bottom right of the frame for the whole damn movie (it’s annoying and distracting).

The Audio:

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track is quite sufficient. The dialogue comes through cleanly and clearly as do all of the moans and groans though there are a few spots spoken that are hard to make out. The background music is fine, levels are nicely balanced, everything sounds clean and clear and all in all the disc sounds very good.

The Extras:

Extras are slim, limited to menus, trailers for a few other Pure Taboo properties, a trailer for the feature and a still gallery.

Final Thoughts:

Under The Bed Volume 1 is okay. Not great, but okay. The stories told in this anthology format are pretty thin, but they are marginally interesting and provide the sex scenes with a reason for happening in the first place. The first two chapters work fairly well, delivering convincing sex with a good cast, while the third and final sex overdoes it, sadly, though it does also benefit from some good looking talent. Production values are more than decent, the movie is well shot with good audio. I admire the effort here. The disc looks very good and sounds pretty solid, though the extras are light. Recommended for fans of the talent involved, otherwise, a solid on-demand rental for those looking for something marginally couples-friendly that does more than just offer up a collection of unrelated gonzo clips.