The first Fifty Shades movie, Fifty Shades of Grey broke box office records by becoming highest grossing explicit film ever. The erotic film adaptation starring Jamie Dornan as Christian Grey was rated a M18, but has still managed to earn a massive £330million in ticket sales worldwide. It only cost £26.5million for the film to be made which means the profit makes it Universal Pictures’ highest earning explicit film ever made.

The second movie, Fifty Shades Darker grossed US$115.4 million in the United States and Canada and US$265.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $378.8 million, against a production budget of $55 million.

If you find these two 50 Shades movies lackluster, there are actually other BDSM-themed movies that are purported better. By the way, BDSM stands Bondage & Discipline / Domination & Submission / Sadism & Masochism.

1. The Secretary

Lee Holloway (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a young woman with a history of severe emotional problems, is released into the care of her overbearing parents following a stay at a mental institution. She finds work as a secretary for a rigid and demanding attorney, E. Edward Grey (James Spader), and starts dating the kind but dull Peter (Jeremy Davies). However, Lee soon realizes she’s turned on by Grey’s stern demeanor, and begins a sadomasochistic relationship with him.

“I don’t know about you, but I found all these outrageously romantic maneuvers both funny and endearing.” – Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
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“Secretary is just too original to be ignored.” – Mike Clark , USA Today
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“An edgy, cleverly written indie that simply derails shortly before the final stretch.” – Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
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Watch it here.

2. Bound

Michelle Mulan is a 40-something real estate broker who has recently been promoted as a chairperson to a failing firm, even though she is fully qualified, she had only been promoted because of her father Walter’s, status as chairman. While other chairmen want to sell the firm, she sees more advantage in merging with a larger company. Despite having a boyfriend, George (Mark McClain Wilson), Michelle does cheat on him to satiate her sexual desires. Also a single mother, she struggles to get her teenage daughter, Dara, on the right track and takes her to dinner at a local restaurant. There, a man fifteen years her junior becomes enamored with her. After dropping Dara off at home, Michelle returns to the restaurant and finds Ryan trying to seduce her, but manages to ward him off. Still taking his number, Michelle initially decides not to meet him, but the next day after getting a meeting enabling the merger, decides to do so. After rejecting a marriage proposal from George, Michelle goes out with Ryan. On their date, he introduces her to the world of BDSM after which Michelle cheats on George with Ryan. After breaking up with George, Michelle begins to date Ryan and easily gives in to his dominating personality.

“Just because Bound stumbles into something resembling insight from time to time doesn’t mean that it isn’t, at heart, just another product of the Asylum assembly line.” – Josh Bell, Film Racket
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Watch it here.

3. Kink

Director Christina Voros and producer James Franco pull back the curtain on the fetish empire of Kink.com, the Internet’s largest producer of BDSM content. In a particularly obscure corner of an industry that operates largely out of public view, Kink.com’s directors and models strive for authenticity. In an enterprise often known for exploitative practices, Kink.com upholds an ironclad set of values to foster an environment that is safe, sane, and consensual. They aim to demystify the BDSM lifestyle, and to serve as an example and an educational resource for the BDSM community. In kink, we discover not only a fascinating and often misunderstood subculture, but also, in a career far from the mainstream, a group of intelligent, charismatic, and driven people who really, truly love what they do.

“The director, Christina Voros, adopts an educational approach that embraces the pleasure within the pain.” – Jeannette Catsoulis , New York Times
For more, click here.

“The movie often feels like a full-length ad for a great workplace, which just happens to stash whips and chains in the stationery closet.” – Elizabeth Weitzman,  
New York Daily News
For more, click here.

Watch it here.

4. Nymphomaniac 2

Joe becomes annoyed with Seligman, accusing him of overlooking the severity of her lost sexuality to focus on the allegorical before realizing he can’t relate to her stories. He goes on to confirm his asexuality and virginity, but assures her his lack of bias and “innocence” makes him the best man to listen to her story. She becomes inspired to tell him another portion of her life after noticing a Rublev-styled icon of the Virgin Mary and a discussion about the differences between the Eastern Church (“the church of happiness”) and the Western Church (“the church of suffering”).

“For better or worse, the whole exercise in lurid leg-pulling goes out with a bang.” – Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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“Vol. I felt much wider in scope, crazier, satirical, goofy even. Vol. II narrows the lens, and has more of a desire to explain, to diagnose, to wrap things up.” – Sheila O’Malley, RogerEbert.com
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“Von Trier is such a masterful filmmaker that every new project comes on with the expectation and air of a totalizing masterwork. “Nymphomaniac: Volume II” creates the unsated sensation of having too much and wanting more.” – Mark Olsen , Los Angeles Times
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Watch it here.

5. My Mistress

A troubled kid meets a professional dominatrix in a film that trades a potentially challenging hypothesis for a much more familiar path.

“My Mistress is a story of coming of age and sexual awakening, but there are times when it feels like little more than a sleazy take on a boy meets girl movie.” – Luke Buckmaster, Guardian
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“Stephen Lance’s debut feature is like a wet dream: a fantasy scenario that titillates but never reaches a satisfactory climax, despite impressive performances by Harrison Gilbertson as the obsessed teen & Emmanuelle Beart as the provocative mistress” – Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
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“Flaws and all, My Mistress is worth pondering, especially if you’re curious about the odd place of mothers in current Australian cinema.” – Jake Wilson, Sydney Morning Herald
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Watch it here.

6. Nymphomaniac 1

The film starts with a repetitive sound effect in the dark. Its finally revealed to be machinery pounded by rainfall. After several minutes of this, we see an unmoving hand on the pavement.

The peaceful sounds of the wind and rain is taken over by loud heavy metal music on the soundtrack. We see inside someone’s house. The man (Stellan Skarsgård) puts on a scarf and goes on a walk. He picks up some bait from a tackle store, then makes his way home. He stumbles upon what is revealed to be an unconscious middle-aged woman (Charlotte Gainsbourg) on the ground. He wakes her up; she is badly beaten and bloody. He tells her to lie still and hell get an ambulance. She tells him ‘no’, she doesn’t need an ambulance and if he calls for one or the police, she will leave before he can return. He points out she is hurt and asks if she wants anything and she asks for a cup of tea and milk. He takes her inside his home.

“Nymphomaniac is brave, thought-provoking filmmaking from a genuine auteu”- Chris Tilly , IGN Movies
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“Nymphomaniac is convincing as a work of philosophical seriousness.” – Wesley Morris, Grantland
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Watch it here.

7. The Story of O

Story of O is a tale of female submission involving a beautiful Parisian fashion photographer named O, who is taught to be constantly available for oral, vaginal, and anal intercourse, offering herself to any male who belongs to the same secret society as her lover. She is regularly stripped, blindfolded, chained, and whipped; her anus is widened by increasingly large plugs; her labium is pierced and her buttocks are branded.

The story begins when O’s lover, René, brings her to the château in Roissy, where she is trained to serve the members of an elite club. After this initial training, as a demonstration of their bond and his generosity, René hands O to his elder stepbrother Sir Stephen, a more severe master. René wants O to learn to serve someone whom she does not love, and someone who does not love her. Over the course of this training, O falls in love with Sir Stephen and believes him to be in love with her as well. During the summer, Sir Stephen sends O to an old mansion in Samois solely inhabited by women for advanced training and body modifications related to submission. There she agrees to receive permanent marks of Sir Stephen’s ownership, in the form of a brand and a steel tag hanging from a labia piercing.

“The Story of O disturbs precisely because it takes us through the dumb mask, to the damaged, unpredictable human brain beneath.” – TimeOut London

For more, click here.

Watch it here.

8. Young & Beautiful

While on a summer holiday with her family in the south of France, 17-year-old Isabelle decides to lose her virginity to a cute German boy named Felix. The experience leaves her unsatisfied. By autumn she is working as a prostitute at high-class hotels under the name Lea. Among Isabelle’s clients is a 63-year-old man named Georges (Johan Leysen), whom she likes. He dies of a heart attack while they are having sex with Isabelle on top. Isabelle tries to resuscitate him, then leaves. In winter the police turn up and inform her mother, Sylvie, about Isabelle being a prostitute and Georges’s death. Sylvie flies into a rage and repeatedly slaps Isabelle before apologising and grounding her. Isabelle is forced to give a statement to the police. She says she was first approached by a man on the street to have sex for money, but found it disgusting. After seeing a report about students making money as prostitutes she set up a website, bought a second phone and went into business. As a minor she is the victim and won’t be charged, but her mother will keep the money. Sylvia takes Isabelle to see a therapist (Serge Hefez) to help her deal with what happened, including her guilt because she thinks she killed Georges

“In “Young and Beautiful,” Marine Vacth plays Isabelle, a French teenager who turns to prostitution for reasons that are never really explained.” – Sundance Selects/IFC Films
For more, click here.

Watch it here.

9. Pleasure or Pain

The final feature film from Zalman King, “the high priest of erotic filmmaking” (according to Premiere Magazine), PLEASURE OR PAIN takes the audience on the erotic odyssey of Victoria (Penthouse Pet Malena Morgan), an artistic young designer who falls into a passionate affair with wealthy real estate developer Jack (Christos Vasilopoulus). His sensual charisma exerts an irresistible pull over Victoria. Initially drawn by his magnetic wooing, she soon finds herself spellbound by Jack and inexorably seduced into a world of erotic abandon from which she fears she may never return.

Here, King pushes the envelope of acceptability with a wife Victoria (Malena Morgan) who is so devoted to her husband Jack (Christos Vasilopoulos) that she will experiment sexually in any way that pleases him. – TajLV – AllConsuming.net/Letterboxd.com
For more, click here.

Watch it here.

10. Pet

Seth is a shy man who works at the local Animal Control department. He has developed an obsession with Holly, a waitress he saw writing in her journal on the bus one day. Seth asks security guard Nate for advice, and Nate tells him to be confident and approach her. Seth extensively researches her online profiles for information and tries to ask her out at the diner, but his attempts at confidence are too awkward and she rebuffs him. At home, Holly talks about the encounter with her friend Claire, and takes a drunken phone call from her ex Eric, who cheated on her.

Holly receives a large bouquet of roses at work the next day, and assuming they are an apology from Eric, goes to visit the bar where he works. Seth, who has been following her, confronts her outside, leading to a physical confrontation when he refuses to accept her rejection. Eric beats Seth up, but Seth is able to steal Holly’s journal. He spends the next several days reading every detail. As his performance slips at work, Seth discovers a trapdoor to a room in an abandoned wing of the animal shelter, where he sets about constructing a steel cage. He follows Holly home, breaks into her apartment, and kidnaps her.

“The film is engrossing, thanks to the director’s skill at delivering sustained tension, and the excellent performances.” – Frank Scheck, 
Hollywood Reporter
For more, click here.

“The constant power flipping allows for some interesting explorations of both the misogyny and misandry demonstrated by the main characters, and the way they justify their actions through the philosophical lens of love and sacrifice.” – Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times
For more, click here.

Watch it here.

11. The Duke of Burgundy

Evelyn is studying lepidopterology under the older Cynthia, who frequently lectures on her studies. Evelyn is romantically involved with Cynthia and works as a maid in her home, where she is subject to strict behavioural expectations and high standards for cleanliness. When Evelyn does not complete tasks to Cynthia’s satisfaction, she is punished.

As Cynthia increasingly falters in her dominance, it becomes apparent that Evelyn is orchestrating Cynthia’s role in the relationship by writing instructions and scripts for specific scenes, which the couple acts out in the same way each day. While Evelyn finds the scenes to be sexually exciting, Cynthia only acts them out to sate her lover. She attempts to please Evelyn by ordering a carpenter to construct a bed with a drawer underneath for Evelyn to sleep in as a punishment; however, Evelyn is unhappy with the length of time it will take to produce the bed, and ultimately refuses the gift.

“There’s voyeurism, fetishism, bondage, lingerie and high-flown naughtiness galore, but that’s hardly the movie’s most conspicuous achievement.” – Geoff Pevere, Globe and Mail
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“The Duke of Burgundy is exquisite to look at, but it succeeds best as a human drama, and a searching investigation of how to ask for what you want – and maybe even getting it in the end.” – Ann Hornaday,
Washington Post
For more, click here.

Watch it here.

Let me know what you think of these movies! Do you have any other recommendations?

About Dr. Martha Tara Lee

Surrounded by friends who were sexually inhibited and struck by dire lack of positive conversations around sex and sexuality in Singapore, Dr. Martha Tara Lee decided to take it upon herself to right this societal injustice in 2007. She set out to make a positive difference in embarking on her doctorate in human sexuality, then launching Eros Coaching in 2009. Today, she remains dedicated to working with individuals and couples who wish to lead self-actualised and pleasure-filled lives.

She also holds certificates in counselling, coaching and sex therapy, and is currently pursuing her fourth degree – a Masters in Counselling. In practice since 2009, she is the only certified sexuality educator by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) in Singapore.

Often cited in the local media, Dr. Lee is the appointed sex expert for Men’s Health Singapore, and Men’s Health Malaysia. She was recognised as one of ‘Top 50 Inspiring Women Under 40′ by Her World in July 2010, and one of ‘Top 100 Inspiring Women’ by CozyCot in March 2011. She is the host of weekly radio show Eros Evolution on the OMTimes Radio Network. She has published two books: Love, Sex and Everything In-Between, and Orgasmic Yoga.

Martha works with individuals and couples in private coaching sessions, and conducts her own workshops. She takes prides in making sure all her workshops are also fun, educational, and sex-positive. This comes easily to her because even though she is extremely dedicated and serious about her work, she fundamentally believes that sex is meant to be fun, wonderful, amazing and sacred. As such, this serious light-heartedness has shone through again and again. For her full profile, click here. Email her here.