The Artcore series has its foothold on a certain era of porn that won’t ever happen again. What was once viewed as a sidenote in sleaze is now a marking in porn history. Did the guys at Anabolic set out to influence others when they made Toilet Girl? Whether or not they intended for any of this other filth firms built off of that archetypal porn style. It’s not gonzo, it’s not glamorous, and it’s definitely not your typical porn: it was Artcore.
Like all porn series, the Artcore name had to have a homebase. This was the Anabolic brand, which lays claim to helping to start the gonzo porn movement. Back then, this level of raunchiness wasn’t really done in such a stylish manner, so it seemed more taboo and outlandish than the average fetish. Now today we have this Anabolic-born series being one of the sole reasons the genre “gonzo” possibly even exists. Only time would tell us this. Thanks to the lightning-fast speed of social media today, fetishes are streamlined to users all over the world at the push of a button. This causes alternative styles of porn like foot fetishes to be embraced by people that once thought they didn’t have an outlet for it.
That also goes for the rougher side of porn that still to this day isn’t as widely accepted as a smoking fetish, for example. Which is understandable being how graphic rougher porn can be for milder tastes. But we’re talking about the Artcore series so acquired tastes are definitely welcome. Anabolic was doing this before the open-ended world of social media was around and now today the renaissance of sex positivity gives way to responsible types of porn which allow exploration of extremes. Do we have the Artcore series to thank for this? Let’s take a stroll around this series that dates back to the early to mid-2000s to find out for ourselves. We’ll start with Toilet Girl.
Toilet Girl
As a product of 90s porn, I can’t help but feel like the cast of Toilet Girl as being some sort of porno dream-team. I was rewarded for being a porn nerd by recognizing cameos from porn’s familiar faces like Deron the Minion sliding through a scene. Then I saw Mike Horner step in as the closest thing to a villain this film has to offer in its abstract plot. And who’s the Toilet Girl? The one-and-only Gia Paloma, of course!
It may seem too artsy-fartsy at first but the sex is real and raw with crazy characters sure to stick with you. Toilet Girl predates the “rough stuff” that permeates some styles of porn today. Sal Genoa was brave enough to film this stuff back then, and now we have an entire style dedicated to the spitting, slapping, and choking that most people admittedly can’t handle. None of this is new to porn, but never was it more refined and stylized until Artcore series came along to trail-blaze this.
Jessica Darlin being part of this dream-team gave me more of that sweet nostalgia nectar that oozed from this era of smut. The plot entails some sort of surreal Studio 54 party, with each scene transitioning to a different room at this eclectic event. It’s the best description attributed to a surreal affair like this that I can give. The extreme themes of hardcore sex are what this film touted in its day. Today, we can sit back and appreciate it as defining pornographic art.
House of Whores
Any sequential series has peaks and dips in terms of episode-quality; it also happens in film sequels as well. House of Whores is this dip in the Artcore series, but not in terms of quality; in terms of timing. It was released in 2004, so it wasn’t the exact downfall of the series. Just not a strong point and thankfully we had plenty of more Artcore to go from there on.
Though this is a part of the series that must be witnessed even with the flaws it has like the overly dark sets that some of the sex takes place in. The Eva Angelina and Chiquita Lopez scene comes to mind in House of Whores. This can be attributed to artistic value, but Toilet Girl had better lighting and twice the amount of surrealistic art value. The plot is purely nonexistent, even though it’s meant to be early-gonzo in nature, yet I would have liked more of the direction I saw in Toilet Girl. Familiar faces like Tony T. are in place again for House of Whores.
You’ll have even more familiar stars from the “Artcore-era” here with Melissa Lauren. Her hardcore status prowls these dark set pieces that make up Artcore: House of Whores. Melissa’s scene closes the film out and contains a barely-lit DP scene to watch, but thankfully it’s there. You also a have a strong opening to this Sal Genoa experience with Joel Lawrence and Katsuni carving into each other. The sex starts with zero foreplay fitting that unorthodox Artcore theme that was the progenitor of this freestyle type of porn we now call gonzo. Even though some parts are visibly unwatchable due the alternative lighting techniques in the film, I still have to recommend this as a historic look at an era that shouldn’t be missed.
Masquerade
Masquerade may be considered the refinement of this prehistoric gonzo series. It has the divided nature that most gonzo features now contain, with each scene standing alone. The only connecting theme it seems are the masks that some of the talents wear throughout this fuck-flick. Because of this, it’s hard to identify some of the talents in Artcore: Masquerade. One thing that is identifiable is the amount of DPs in a better-lit stage setting. The luscious Lucy Thai scenes stick out the most with what appears to be Joel Lawrence and other studs that satisfy Lucy’s cock-hungry desires in this historic Artcore feature. The slamming Sativa Rose has more than her fair share of moments in this classic too.
Crushing cast aside, I could easily come here for these DP scenes that were very high quality for their time. This is was when star power pulled you into a film rather than a few tags like the said DPs. Yet you have lively performances from Nautica Thorn, Melissa Lauren, and Tiffany Holiday. All from an important era in gonzo porn which is something the masks can’t hide.
Series/Studios Influenced by Artcore:
Gag Factor
<div class="center"
