Basic Instinct

1992 Directed by Paul Verhoeven

A brutal murder. A brilliant killer. A cop who can't resist the danger.

A police detective is in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder, in which a beautiful and seductive woman could be involved.

Michael Douglas Sharon Stone Jeanne Tripplehorn George Dzundza Denis Arndt Leilani Sarelle Bruce A. Young Chelcie Ross Dorothy Malone Wayne Knight Daniel von Bargen Stephen Tobolowsky Benjamin Mouton Jack McGee Bill Cable Stephen Rowe Mitch Pileggi Mary Pat Gleason Freda Foh Shen William Duff-Griffin James Rebhorn David Wells Mary Ann Rodgers Adilah Barnes Irene Olga López Juanita Jennings Craig C. Lewis Michael David Lally Peter Appel Show All…

Alternative Titles

Sirove strasti, Prvinski nagon

mystery thriller

127 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Todd Gaines ★★★★½ 39

I love how the opening scene of Basic Instinct is filmed. You're almost certain you know the identity of the killer, but by never showing the killer's face, you have just the right amount of doubt in your head. Paul Verhoeven's Basic Instinct is a game of Tomcat and Kitty between Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone, and it forever changed the mainstream erotic thriller.
The interrogation scene. Who doesn't love it? Of course, there's the ultimate money shot, but Sharon Stone completely flips the script. She's the one being questioned, yet by the end of the scene, she's the one in total control. That's real fuckin' power.
Was the San Francisco setting done on purpose? The early '90s was a…
Review by Griffin Newman 4

1) I can't believe that Michael Douglas' reign as a major star was so long.
2) I can't believe that Sharon Stone's reign as a major star was so short.
Review by josh lewis ★★★★ 1

verhoeven goes de palma mode and stylistically indulges every possible obsessive, violent, horny impulse and detail of this lurid paperback thriller of a plot that takes the psychology of noir characters to their most perverse extremes. references hitchcock and hellraiser and lives up to both of them. if any line from any movie sums itself up more than "that magna cum laude pussy on her done fried up your brain!" than i'm not aware of it. the fuck of the century!
full discussion on episode 9 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.
Review by Joe ★★★★★ 5

"She's evil! She's brilliant!" Doctor Beth Garner on Catherine Trammel - note the order.
In Vertigo, a man falls in love with the image of a woman and the woman dies as a direct result. In Basic Instinct, the image takes her revenge. This is a thriller about the seductive power of the thriller, how deep down we're all attracted to killers and psychos, and how fear, excitement, and arousal can all be substituted with one another at will (but whose?). Most Hollywood thrillers are built on a rote good-vs-evil paradigm, but here that prism is irreverently skewered at every opportunity, and we have a villain who might be innocent and a hero who is unquestionably guilty.
I remember Ebert's…
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★★

93
Sex not just as power, but as the ferocity of power. Captures the energy and the sweat behind the curtains of Noir; a sticky, coked-up dance in early 90s garb. Sure, it's a Verhoeven picture, but all I see is Sharon Stone.
Review by lauren ★★½ 1

catherine tramell walked so amy dunne could run
Review by eely ★★½ 3

this movie has many unintentionally funny moments but the two that are the funniest for me are 1. the fact that these people describe their vanilla sex as sadomasochistic because sometimes they like to tie each other’s hands to a bed post with white silk hermès scarves and 2. the idea that sharon stone would ever fuck michael douglas
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★★★ 4

In a blink and you'll miss it scene, the most important line of the entire film is quickly passed from Gus to Nick: "it takes one to know one."
After this phrase is delivered through a dismissive laugh, the parallels between Nick and Catherine become increasingly obvious and I'm sitting there with the biggest, dumbest grin on my face while my body is thoroughly tense, completely absorbed in another Verhoeven experience.
Review by Sally Jane Black 4

I admit freely that my prejudices affect my viewing. I'll embrace John Waters despite his obvious flaws, and I'll indulge Verhoeven as he revels in the warped sexual thriller genre here. I assume this is satirical because it's Verhoeven, and so I see satire here. Maybe he's just a monster, though; I don't know. Maybe the heightened reality he portrays here isn't a scathing look at the demonization of sexuality. Maybe he just thinks audiences would pay a lot of money to see this, so he made it.
Regardless, what I see is a mixture of melodramatically distorted noir and pornographic thriller crafted to draw in slobbering hordes in order to twist their minds. Sharon Stone plays a depraved bisexual,…
Review by Matt Singer ★★★½ 3

Equally trashy and beautiful, a rare combination that’s definitely part of its continued appeal. There just aren’t too many movies this full of shit that are also this good looking. There are parts of this movie that are as silly — or sillier! — than anything in Showgirls. But almost no one seemed to notice that in 1992. Sharon Stone is so goddamn sexy I think she hypnotized everyone into not realizing it.
Stone here is like a baseball player here with an unremarkable rookie year who suddenly starts pulling down Hall of Fame numbers in season two. She could make a textbook about upper endoscopy procedures sound erotic. And Verhoeven matches her playfulness; every single aspect of the movie…
Review by pd187 ★★★★★ 5

found a lot to relate to in this story of an alcoholic loser getting drunk and watching hellraiser & the jeffersons
Review by Ian West ★★★★★ 2

Verhoeven’s ability to turn trash into a wet dream of visceral intrigue is second to none, channelling the consequence of the male gaze and putting on a goddamn clinic of self aware, satirical awesomeness via the cover of a Hitchcockian Noir and psychosexual De Palma giallo.
To quote the great Hollie Horror:
"And just like that *BAM* you've been Verhoevened"

Recent reviews

Review by kath ★★★★

sharon stone que como psicóloga, escritora y asesina, que mujer.
Review by Daniel ★★★

I literally always want to slap Michael Douglas but I watched this because of Sharon Stone and she did not disappoint
Review by mbfoley ★★★★

Nothing to say except this fucking slapped
Review by lily ★

this movie fucking sucks idc
Review by T Boner III ★★★★★

Basic Sextinct
Review by zamoraes ★★★★

both women are way too beautiful for that sack of potatoes they try to pass for a man. very cool and good
Review by Mandela Namaste ★★★★

I can see why Sharon Stone is tired of being asked about this movie. On the other hand, she was born for parts like this.
Almost 30 years removed, the controversy around Catherine's bisexuality relating to her murderous instincts feels a bit overblown because a) neither Verhoeven nor Eszterhas makes a connection between the two, and b) the outrage appears to be more because LGBTQ people simply weren't portrayed very much on screen in the late 80s and early 90s, so for this to be one of the biggest representations of that community could give conservative folks the wrong impression.
However, now that everybody agrees that the original conversation around Basic Instinct was needlessly fraught, we're free to enjoy this campy-as-fuck movie.
Review by Daniël Nugteren ★★★½

Whew, happy I didn't watch this one with my parents...
Review by juanfranz

La vi porque la tenía pendiente de dont fuck with cats. Está muy buena, además que es alto clásico (creo).
Review by Dvniele ★★★★

Grandissimo thriller con una Sharone Stone che parla da sola 😳 film ricco di personaggi da mettere a fuoco per farsi un idea chiara di come sono andate veramente le cose, scene finali negli ultimi minuti davvero girate bene con Verhoeven che davvero non vuole farti capir nulla fino alla fine.
Review by mar🌱ina ★★½

just some horny fuckers trying to play detectives. wtf
Review by dylll ★★★½

The people who protested this when it came out are probably writing reviews here now...