Sharon Stone’s Performance in ‘Sliver’ Is on Par With ‘Basic Instinct’

In a pivotal scene from Dario Argento’s thriller, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Sam Dalmas is helpless as he stands behind a glass door, watching a victim writhing in agony from what appears to have been an attempted murder. The aspect of voyeurism is closely tied to the thriller, especially in classics such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Sliver, released in 1993 during the short-lived run of erotic thrillers that found varying levels of success following Basic Instinct, encompassed themes of voyeurism and obsession that have always been prominent in the genre.

Dismissed by many critics at the time of its release, Sliver is one of many erotic thrillers that deserves far more praise than ridicule. Some who had seen Sharon Stone‘s performance as femme fatale Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct were taken aback by what some described as a more “passive” role. While Stone’s portrayal of book editor Carly Norris is different from her performance in Basic Instinct, it’s one that many actresses have taken on, such as Edwige Fenech, as someone who inexplicably gets wrapped up in a web of obsession and intrigue.

An Isolated Location and Examining Private Lives

There are many familiar concepts that the thriller genre has utilized that Sliver makes full use of in its narrative. The first of these is the setting in which much of the film takes place. Carly Norris (Sharon Stone) is a professional book editor who moves into a luxurious high-rise apartment building in New York. The tall building, with its diverse group of tenants and a mysterious murder that took place prior to Carly moving in, allows for a considerable amount of intrigue to take place.

Fans of Roman Polanski’s “Apartment Trilogy” (Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby, and The Tenant) will notice some similarities as the building becomes the focal point of the narrative, and every tenant seems to possess their own inherent vices. There’s a clever nod to Rosemary’s Baby when one of the tenants is mysteriously found dead outside the building as Carly shows up to notice the appearance of investigators in the aftermath of the incident.

The driving theme of Sliver is voyeurism. The private lives of not only the tenants who inhabit the building but even those who live on the outside are held under a microscope, or in this case, a lens. The concept of examining private lives emerges at a cocktail party hosted by Carly after moving in. A telescope, given to her by a secret admirer, becomes the means by which she and her guests become entertained as they view the activities of residents who live in the building across from her. A not-so-subtle nod to Hitchcock’s Rear Window, Sliver builds on this concept and brings it into the modern world.

The modernization of voyeurism in the thriller comes by way of Zeke Hawkins (William Baldwin) and an elaborate camera system that allows him to monitor the private lives of the residents who reside in the apartment building. A criticism made against Sliver at the time of its release was what some described as the nonsensical surveillance system that Zeke has at his disposal. Looking at Sliver through modern eyes, it’s easy to see that it illustrates the public’s fascination with reality television, with Zeke even boasting that it’s “better than any soap opera.” The ways in which private lives are viewed, and all secrets are exposed to prying eyes have now become a staple of many real-life television programs.

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“Sex and Violence… It Sells, You Know?”

If one can see the aspects of voyeurism in Sliver as they pertain to the future rise of reality television, then there’s something to be said about the world in which Carly Norris navigates. Audiences expecting Stone to resurrect her femme fatale persona from Basic Instinct were still treated to the sexually charged content that made it such a smash hit among audiences, but Carly Norris is the polar opposite of Catherine Tramell. Working in the male-dominated publishing world, she continually has to navigate the shark tank environment and keep her head above water, as it were.

This chauvinism is exemplified in the character of Jack Landsford (Tom Berenger), an author of sensational crime novels who continually pursues Carly as his next conquest. Carly’s choice to have a torrid affair with Zeke over the persistent Jack harms his ego, bringing about his darker side. Jack’s novels, which are at one point described as being full of sex and violence that sells, is an almost self-aware moment in which Sliver announces its intention to stimulate the senses through its presentation.

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‘Sliver’s Approach to Voyeurism Was Prophetic

Like so many other erotic thrillers released after Basic Instinct, Sliver has the unfortunate fate of being remembered as a critical disappointment and a product of a short-lived craze. Despite this, Sliver has proven to be rather prophetic in its depiction of why reality television gained so much popularity: the thrill of watching sequences that aren’t part of a manufactured screenplay. The relationship it shares with the audience in terms of being a voyeur makes Sliver one of the more unique erotic thrillers of its time, and tying in various elements that were formulated by Polanski and Hitchcock, proves that older elements from a genre can be utilized in its modern incarnations.