Altered States meets Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde in this tale of genetic research and moral ambiguity. Heady stuff for porn, to be sure, but director Michael Raven pulls it off with surprising style and heat. And while moments in the script are more hamburger patty than Paddy Chayefsky, overall the plot (a welcome relief from cheating husband/wife couples films) is compelling, and provides excellent motivation for some sizzling sex.

Alec Metro is a professor & research biologist (stop chuckling) who believes that morality and societal norms are encoded on our DNA, and as such, can be circumvented scientifically (presumably negating the need for annoyances like small talk, dating and cologne). All this is explained in the stiff-as-a-board voiceover by Metro, but the same info is delivered painlessly in the dialogue for viewers with itchy fast-forward fingers.

Metro meets fellow professor Bridgett Kerkove (again with the chuckling?) at a dinner party, and it's love at first pout. Two months and one sultry straight fuck later, Kerkove and Metro are happily married. But all is not well in their connubial paradise.

Metro's continuing experiments with his deprivation tank (a really great set that scores a pre-nom for art direction) are driving him ever closer to his goal of amorality, with the result that he is growing ever more distant from Bridgett, and more sexually voracious.

In an attempt to placate the belligerent Metro, Kerkove agrees to fuck a total stranger while he watches, which leads to a steamy anal with Evan Stone. Of course, things don't work out quite the way Metro had planned.

Great production value all the way around including photography, lighting, editing and production design, a solid if not brilliant script, and mostly volcanic sex (only the g/g with Halli Aston and Amber never boils over) make this a guaranteed winner with virtually any customer. A stronger actor in the lead would certainly have bumped Primal Urge onto the Editor's Choice shelf.