King Cobra takes an interesting true crime and covers it in exploitative sex, pedophilic overtures and acting that would make a high school drama teacher cringe.

Though based on a true story, it's presented with none of a docudrama's ragged, lumpy oddity: the narrative is on the lean side, but as taut and burnished as the bodies it depicts.

King Cobra smells more like business plan than a movie.

Christian Slater is the MVP in Justin Kelly's melodramatic, semi-salacious, occasionally erotic true crime adaptation. It's become difficult to watch Franco queer bait in the intervening years.