Downward Spiral is the most engaging adult film of the year. European directors Frank Mayor and Andrew Youngman have sidestepped the pitfalls American porn producers fall into while attempting to create big-budget features. Spiral is free of laughable CGI effects, overwrought dialogue and grainy shots with MTV editing and a punk/alt soundtrack.

What Spiral provides is a dark and sexy, damsel-in-distress story told with confidence, style and daring. Set in a decaying, crime-riddled city, Spiral's mood is dangerous and grim. Everything in sight, from the abandoned gang-tagged warehouses to the dimly lit alleys, looks filthy and gloomy. The inhabitants, the majority of whom are physically flawless femme fatales, are downtrodden and desperate.

Sandy, a beautiful flight attendant caught in a layover, is mugged and abandoned in the city by a junkie cab driver. Penniless and without a phone, she searches the neighborhood for help. Prostitute Nikki Rider informs her that to earn cash she'll have to suck cock like the rest of them. Sandy follows Rider to a glory-hole, where Cindy Hope services a multitude of strange cock. Having fulfilled her good Samaritan duties, Rider sets off to earn her own keep in an intense street-side d.p. with a couple of johns.

Sandy, however, ventures deeper into the city and soon falls prey to its demented predators. Before sunrise, she will be gang-raped by dykes, chased naked by pimps, and assaulted by corrupt cops who mistake her for another of the city's hookers.

Retailing: Smart and sexy entertainment. Stock.