Kevin Bacon
Sgt. Ray Duquette
Search results
Wild Things: Directed by John McNaughton. With Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Theresa Russell. A police detective uncovers a conspiracy behind a case involving a high-school guidance counselor when accusations of rape are made against him by two female students.
- John Mcnaughton
- 33 sec
- Plot
- Analysis and Themes
- Production
- Release
- Legacy
- Sources
- External Links
In the upscale Miami suburb of Blue Bay, wealthy Kelly Van Ryan accuses her high school guidance counselor, Sam Lombardo, of raping her. Following the accusation, her outcast classmate Suzie Toller, who comes from a poor family in the Everglades, makes a similar accusation. Sam hires attorney Kenneth Bowden to defend him. At trial, Suzie succumbs t...
Literary scholar John Thorburn notes that Wild Things is loosely based on several figures in Greek tragedies, namely Medea, whom he describes the character of Suzie as a "modern-day version of." He also notes that Kelly functions as a Phaedra-like figure, while Sam exemplifies both Jason and Hippolytus. Thorburn suggests that the film's "most under...
Development
The film's screenplay was written by screenwriter Stephen Peters, who had previously written the independent film Dead Center (1993). John McNaughton, who had garnered acclaim for the horror film Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer(1986), became involved with the project as he was seeking to make a more mainstream feature. Kem Nunn was appointed to perform some rewrites of Peters's original version. McNaughton commented that Peters's original draft "is brilliant on plot and we didn't change an...
Casting
Kevin Bacon described the script as "the trashiest thing he had ever read" but "Every few pages, there was another surprise." Bacon also executive produced. Robert Downey Jr.was the first choice for the role of Sam Lombardo, which ultimately went to Matt Dillon. Downey was considered because of his highly publicized drug problems, and although he was in recovery he was seen as too great an insurance risk. Producer Rodney Liber said "we couldn't make it work," and the production company even o...
Filming
Filming in the Evergladesproved difficult due to severe weather conditions. A tornado almost crushed a couple of trailers. McNaughton said production had to be halted and the police called when a real dead body floated into view.
Box office
The film grossed $30.1 million in the United States and Canada and $37.1 million internationally for a worldwide total of $67.2 million.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 63% based on reviews from 116 critics, with an average rating of 5.80/10. The site's consensus states: "Wild Things is a delightfully salacious, flesh-exposed romp that also requires a high degree of love for trash cinema." On Metacritic, it has a score of 52/100 based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScoregave the film a grade "C+" on scale of A to F. Roger Ebert gave the film th...
Awards
George S. Clinton was nominated for Best Music at 25th Saturn Awards, but lost to John Carpenter for Vampires, another film from Columbia Pictures.[citation needed] The film was nominated for Best Kiss at the MTV Movie Awards. At the 1998 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Bill Murray won the Best Supporting Actor for Rushmore and Wild Things.The film won a Blockbuster Entertainment Awards for Daphne Rubin-Vega in the category "Favorite Supporting Actress - Suspense".[citation needed]
In a retrospective on the film celebrating its twentieth anniversary, Entertainment Weekly writer Chris Nashawaty noted that Wild Things marked a peak in lurid sex-themed thriller films in the late-1990s, summarizing: "As a rule, movies like Wild Thingsfight an uphill battle with critics who would want to seem above titillation. But this was one of...
Thorburn, John (2010). "John McNaughton's Wild Things: Pop Culture Echoes of Medea in the 1990s" (PDF). In Bartel, Heike (ed.). Unbinding Medea. New York: Routledge. pp. 113–123. ISBN 978-0-367-603...
Wild Things at IMDbWild Things at the TCM Movie DatabaseWild Things at AllMovieWild Things at Box Office Mojo- $67.2 million
- March 20, 1998
- $20 million
- George S. Clinton
Synopsis. Two female students -- wealthy, popular Kelly Van Ryan ( Denise Richards) and goth trailer dweller Suzie Toller ( Neve Campbell) -- accuse Sam Lombardo ( Matt Dillon ), a high school guidance counselor, of rape. Before this, Sam gives Kelly a ride home, at which time they listen to both Third Eye Blind and Smash Mouth on a car stereo.
Mar 20, 2023 · In the story, two Florida teens from opposite sides of the tracks – bitchy socialite offspring Kelly ( Denise Richards) and swamp-dwelling trailer trash Suzie ( Neve Campbell) – accuse their...
Soon, a second victim, Suzie (Neve Campbell), comes forward, and Detective Duquette (Kevin Bacon) discovers that the unfolding case is far from what it seems. Director John McNaughton
- (120)
- John Mcnaughton
- R
- Kevin Bacon
Mar 23, 2018 · By Shea Serrano Mar 23, 2018, 5:20am EDT. Ringer illustration. The most accidentally funny scene in 1998’s Wild Things, an exaggerated, swampy, saxophone-y, extremely humid cult classic that...
Mar 20, 2018 · I'm speaking, of course, about the gratuitously tawdry three-way sex scene between Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, and Denise Richards from 1998's twisty erotic thriller Wild Things.
