Huntress -- Spirit of the Night

In 1996, I remember watching Huntress (1995) late one night after renting it on VHS. I followed Full Moon since Band first started releasing films from the company on VHS in the early 90s. Huntress wasn't a film I expected...of course, I'm not sure what to expect. It certainly left its impression...or Jenna Bodnar sure did. This is the kind of role that separates all those other softcore outings she participated in. She was just another softcore babe bedding partners; in Huntress, she has the realm of horror/fantasy to strike her seductive pose. And, Bodnar is all in.

This contains plentiful nudity.

A review for imdb I made back a couple years ago after revisiting the film when it was released on dvd by Full Moon:

Tara(Jenna Bodnar)returns to Breckin, Northern Wales where she was born to attend her father's funeral. She was sent to America, because of her father's fear that a savage beast plaguing the surroundings of the area would harm her. Actually, thanks to a diary containing her father's recorded thoughts and newspaper clippings with photographs, given to her by butler Geoffrey(Constantin Cotimanis), Tara discovers that a panther was behind a mass of slayings, shot by a Breckin citizen, with it's owner, a witch, cursing the female populace to carry the spirit of her beloved animal. Tara finds a young naked female being hunted by a village mob looking for a beast prowling the area killing citizens again, on her father's estate, and watches as the spirit leaves her body looking for a new host to rest..in Tara does it find such rest. While actually being sexually repressed, Tara finds this primal spirit providing an extra motivation to embrace her carnal desires. Meanwhile, childhood friend, Michelle(Blair Valk)and crush, Alek(David Starzyk)wish to purchase Tara's father's estate. Michelle has a specific reason why she wishes to get her hands on the estate, having seduced Alek into finding investors interested in forking over the appropriate funds to do so. But, as Tara becomes accustomed to her surroundings, the atmosphere of it all enveloping her, she may wish to stay, even against the urgings of Geoffrey, worried about her well-being, and local antique-dealer, Ty Bodi(Charles Cooper), a friend of her father's, who believes in the legend of the panther spirit, warning her of it's evil. Through Ty does Tara realize that the beast killed her mother. Also, Tara meets a photographer, Jacob(Michael Wiseman)who she falls for. He's in the area capturing wild life for a magazine, a cavern his temporary refuge and studio. She willingly accepts an offer to pose for him and does so provocatively, letting go of her inhibitions, the animal inside unleashing her from the cage holding her true self at bay. If Tara doesn't sell the estate, Michelle will try more lethal methods..

As a few others have already mentioned in the user comments section, I felt this is a loose variation on "Cat People". The ravishing Jenna Bodnar has enough acting skill to tackle the role of an *outsider* transitioning to the new environs where folklore and superstition still remain in the hearts of many. I think, however, this works best as a piece of erotica because Bodnar has such a magnificent body, her figure so well-defined, and director Mark S Manos has the knack for arranging several set-pieces to showcase her "talents." My favorite, besides the terrific cavernous photo session where lightning, rain, and a campfire enhance her naked flesh being bathed with water as it falls, is the first true night where Tara is caught up in a wave of lustful abandon, the animal inside emerging as she takes to a group of steps(..nice prop provided by the director so that Bodnar could work over it, her body barely confined within the silk robe, only a strap containing it)set up in a room overlooking the wilderness, a lantern swaying to and fro. The director's camera covers every inch of Bodnar's body, up and down every curve. Carefully edited are the sex scenes. I think the director wishes for you to salivate over Bodnar, the story is of little consequence next to her "sexual awakening" as the spirit takes hold, ever so pushing her to embrace the dark side, chambered for so long. As a horror film, it isn't successful. I think the film uses the sexuality of "Cat People", while neglecting the violence that derives from being consumed with the aggressive tendencies of the panther to hunt for food. It is mentioned in the film, through newspaper articles of recent attacks and the ever so glum Ty Bodi condemning Tara to leave at once. I cared little about the angle with Michelle and Alek..although, Valk is incredibly sexy and has a very memorable disrobing before crawling on all fours on top of a piano. Unfortunately, though, her threesome with Tara and Alek is uninspired which is a shame since all are attractive. See it for Bodnar, she doesn't disappoint. She even turned me on moving her tongue down a butcher knife in a fantasy sequence. Executively produced by Charles Band(..my DVD carries his Full Moon label)and filmed on stunning, richly lush Romanian locations..there's an enchanting nature this location gives off that seems just right for an erotic fantasy.

To tell you the truth, I think this review from 2008 covered exactly I how felt about it at the time and still do. But to describe Bodnar and show her are two different things. This film can tell us about some significant transformation and how the spirit of the panther thrives within Bodnar, but the way she escapes into that it is what carried weight with me. The pivotal moment is the "official" rapture of the panther spirit with Bodnar overwhelmed within her robe, her naked body freeing itself and the actress totally in the moment. I had asked myself on Friday night while watching the scene if the atmosphere was so that Bodnar was caught up in the moment and enraptured by the role and transformation. I loved all of it. The woman doesn't just pose like a model but commits fully (I think she just loses herself) to the awakening of the spirit and how eroticized she becomes during the transformation. For me (and others, I'm sure), it is a scene that allows an actress to embrace a side of her that some consider just a naked woman on a stage working a crowd for a few hundred bucks, but in this case in front of the camera for a low budget company earning a few thousand bucks maybe...to me, she makes good use of the lighting and mood set by the director and his team.

Jenna Bodnar

There's an early scene once the spirit exits one female into Bodnar and the next morning she takes a shower. After the shower, I really like how it seems something else is present...and admiring the new female form it currently inhabits. She had a window of "softcore time" doing work in Cinemax erotica, but soon in the early 2000s, Bodnar (like others in her time) left the scene altogether. If you cannot advance past imitating sex with women and men, showing your nice body as required, and throwing yourself into the typical sexpot roles that were expected, then it was either stay in or quit while ahead. Because she doesn't have that extensive a resume in softcore (or films at all), Bodnar's name will probably not ring any bells. Maybe, Huntress won't either.

What I really enjoy from certain types of erotica (my preference when its from the woman's perspective of sexual awakening), is when we see latent desire, in fantasy and eventually made manifest under the proper motivation and impending circumstances, given form in film. I like how this film opens with a bit of danger mixed with sexual desire to describe what latently inhibits Bodnar's character, Tara. Tara is on a train, a knife and a man, the possibility of both sex and violence. There's the possibility of a threesome Tara seems almost complicit in that seems to indicate she's harboring the potential for such a sexual encounter. Then, after the panther spirit uses her as its host, Tara's body becomes enlivened with sexual heat. Finally a photographer benefits from Tara's vigor and photographic willingness to embrace the beast within, totally open to his camera lens in a local cavern. I like that the film shows a gradual shedding of her caged desire until she's no longer avoiding the limits of such repression.

So, mum's the word: shhhh, this is a blog review glorifying Bodnar almost entirely. Her bod--yes, it's impressive--but I didn't think her performance sucked. I guess it is safe to say this was Full Moon's Cat People. In fully committing to desire, and as the curse remains, Bodnar loses more and more of her human side with the panther gaining control. The film and Bodnar need to at least give the fantasy/elements of the plot somewhat equal footing with ogling Bodnar naked. Looking at a nice body's one thing, but someone who can convince you she's been possessed and through it has abandoned the repressive stance her personality once had deserves some bit of recognition.

I could have sworn when I rented this, Full Moon was the label, but on dvd it carries the once recognizable (to those familiar with all the smut that once popped up on late Max in the late 90s/early 2000s) New City Releasing (listed below) and Torchlight Entertainment (a low budget company releasing smut into the later 2000s). This isn't a film that will force its way into a conversation when Band or Full Moon are the talk of it, but I think Huntress might just be worth a late night watch if you are so inclined.