Episode 28: Tom DeSimone's SKIN DEEP (1982)

Cruising the Movies

This week on the podcast, we’re taking a look a title that many consider to be among the greatest all-male films ever made: Tom DeSimone’s SKIN DEEP. Released in the period after DeSimone’s mainstream slasher classic HELL NIGHT, SKIN DEEP tells the story of Eric, a porno writer who falls for Mark, a hustler he sees on the regular — but is he in love with the character or the man himself? A haunting chamber piece that plays more like a one-handed two-hander than it does a standard adult film, SKIN DEEP is a classic deserving of a wider audience.

Over the course of this episode, we’ll explore the history of a shooting location that almost serves as a character in and of itself, dig into a whole new crop of superstar performers, and find out how the success of this film led directly to DeSimone’s retirement from the genre.