7 ways to get hot under the collar – and everywhere else

Let’s strip away the pretence for just a moment and admit that sometimes all we want is to see some skin, and the actual plot (if there is one) is secondary, serving to stitch the sexy scenes together. If there is a decent story, bonus, but if not, we can lie back and enjoy some super-hot moments on the small screen with these steamy thriller movies.

Those in the know say the male lead here makes Christian Grey look positively lukewarm and if that doesn’t have you reaching for the remote, nothing will. There are so many hot scenes, who can pick only one? The ice cream licking? Purple passion BDSM just minutes later? There’s no respite as the movie heads into sex on a boat for a full five heaving minutes.

If you want the plot: A woman falls victim to a dominant mafia boss, who imprisons her and gives her one year to fall in love with him. Polish, subtitles. You don’t have to pretend you’re in it for the dialogue, although there is some English.

Quick recap: young Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) signs a contract with billionaire Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) to be his sub. It’s all above board between two consenting adults, but then feelings, ugh, begin to get in the way of all that bondage and spanking and toys. Speaking of toys, in this movie (Fifty Shades of Grey is also on Showmax), Ana attends a charity auction with Christian while wearing (is that the right word?) silver balls inside her hoo-ha the whole time. Afterwards they go back to his childhood room to explore the results a little further.

If you want the plot: Based on the bestselling novels, this sultry sequel sees Anastasia Steele continue her sensual exploration of the mysterious Christian Grey, who grapples with his inner demons.

This steamy thriller movie, starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, is legitimately good, and it’s based on the Gillian Flynn novel (she also wrote Sharp Objects, which was turned into an award-winning HBO series, streaming on Showmax). You even get to see Ben Affleck completely naked for a moment. He wanted it on the record that the set was freezing when the revealing scene was shot. This should be the steamiest moment of the film, but our vote goes to the scene where Nick’s college-age mistress turns up in the middle of the night, in the middle of an investigation in which Nick is the prime suspect, and they can’t keep their hands off each other. It’s all kinds of wrong, and that’s why it’s also all kinds of right.

If you want the plot: Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his glamorous wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) present a portrait of a blissful marriage to the public. But when Amy goes missing on the couple’s fifth wedding anniversary, Nick becomes the prime suspect in her disappearance.

You can get quite lofty about this one, exploring the connection between sex and violence. After all, the French call an orgasm “la petite mort”, meaning “the little death”. With the observation of a blow job and the subsequent death of the person who gave as the impetus of the film, does that make violence sexy? Later, when another man goes down on the woman who saw this, for oral sex, he promises to be everything she wants but he won’t beat her up. The question here is, is it just all about the sex (and violence) or is this actually sexy? People do get turned on by all sorts of things.

If you want the plot: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, and Jennifer Jason Leigh – what a trio. A teacher in New York witnesses a sexual assault that could have been the prelude to a murder by a killer roaming the city. A handsome detective arrives to interview her but their relationship soon moves from personal to passionate.

Mature woman, teenage boy – a fantasy as old as the hills, for both parties, and nothing new in steamy thriller movie history. She’s a teacher, he’s a boy next door and friends with her son. Everything is screaming “bad decisions!” but that is the last thing on anyone’s mind in the middle of a seduction. And who can resist a hot young thing with surprisingly grownup knowledge putting everything into Claire’s pleasure…kissing here, kissing there, kissing everywhere…

If you want the plot: J Lo plays a woman separated from her unfaithful husband. She has a steamy encounter with her handsome new neighbour, but the affair takes a dangerous turn.

It’s right there in the title – some people do, some people like to watch other people doing, and there are those who do both, doing while watching. This is getting confusing. “Along with all of its darkness and suspense, The Voyeurs is brimming with seductive scenes that will leave you blushing as you piece together the clues of this twisted mystery. From close-up shots of a shirtless [Ben] Hardy to a hardcore kitchen-counter sex scene just six minutes into the movie, this film holds nothing back,” says Pop Sugar.

If you want the plot: Pippa and Thomas realise they can see into their neighbour’s apartment, the neighbour who happens to be a photographer who shoots nudes then seduces them. Sydney Sweeney plays Pippa and got her kit off in Euhporia. It’s more than “just a pair of tits,” she told Huffpost. She’s also in White Lotus, Sharp Objects, The Handmaid’s Tale (all on Showmax) and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood on DStv online.

This is something of a classic steamy thriller movie, and features a brilliant cast: Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon (both delectable), Bill Murray (attractive for other reasons), Neve Campbell and Denise Richards – who was married to Charlie Sheen so she’s no good girl. Bad boy adjacent if you will. The pool scene in which Denise and Neve’s characters kiss, is super hot, and the camera just loves Denise’s body in a later scene with Kevin Bacon that references “breast stroke”.

If you want the plot: A police detective uncovers a conspiracy behind a case involving a high school guidance counsellor, when accusations of rape are made against him by two female students.