Ren Savant makes a thunderous return to directing with The 8th Day—his first effort as helmsman since 2006 and first major feature since the early 2000s. Furiously ambitious and spectacularly inventive, 8th Day instantly claims a spot as one of the most indelible movies in X-rated history, and just maybe one of the all-around most virtuoso, as well.

Not so faintly calling to mind Stephen King's The Stand, this end-of-world epic casts Adam & Eve contract girl Kayden Kross as Samantha, daughter to the possibly mad scientist who caused the "Big Burn" that sent civilization back to the Stone Age. Samantha wakes up from a cryogenic stasis to find herself literally naked and defenseless against the barbaric inhabitants of the New World left behind by this apocalyptic event.

She soon falls into the hands of Mel (Amber Rayne), a rough-and-tumble "Scav" who brings her to the hub of society as it exists, known as Elysium Fields. There, she meets Prince Amir (Ameatabh Bachan), one of the few survivors of the Big Burn and the new, self-appointed leader of the human race. And, as they say, hilarity ensues.

Kross proves she's got leading lady chops as Samantha, and of course delivers superbly on the sexual front, too, most especially in a manic three-way toward the end with Violet Marcell and Evan Stone.

Even more memorable, sex-wise, is the three-girl caterwaul—in no figurative sense—between Bree Olson, Tori Black and Poppy Morgan upon the gravelly floor of a rock gulch during the dead of night. Decorated with tribal body-paint, the three screech and hiss as they dance about each other ritualistically, then attack one another's bodies like, well, animals. It's a display of primal eroticism the likes of which we've rarely, if ever, seen.

Still, it's 2009 AVN Unsung Starlet of the Year Amber Rayne who makes the biggest impression of all. Her soulful, multi-layered and completely bravura performance as Mel is the stuff of which true stardom is woven.

There's plenty more to praise about The 8th Day—the art direction alone is worthy of a dissertation unto itself—but suffice it to say, this is adult cinema of the highest order, and one not to be missed by any enthusiast of the genre.