David Leland wrote Mona Lisa (1986) and Wish You Were Here (1987), and directed The Big Man (1990) with Liam Neeson. Then came Virgin Territory. Why? Budgetary reasons, perhaps. Or a love of bawdy Italian literature. Or a midlife crisis filmed in high definition. Leland reportedly wanted a playful, erotic comedy in the vein of Pasolini’s The Decameron (1971) but accessible to a American Pie generation. The result pleased nobody.
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Let’s be honest: Virgin Territory is not a lost classic. Critics panned it for its tonal whiplash (it shifts from crude sex comedy to genuine plague horror without warning). It has a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Virgin.Territory.2007.DVDRip.XviD-CME
However, if you want to watch a movie that looks like a music video for a 2000s alt-rock band, featuring knights talking like modern frat boys, it is a guilty pleasure riot. It is the cinematic equivalent of a Warped Tour band playing in a Renaissance Fair.
Directed by David Leland, Virgin Territory is a loose adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron. However, if you are expecting a stodgy period piece, think again. This film is a bawdy, raunchy, and surprisingly colorful medieval romp. David Leland wrote Mona Lisa (1986) and Wish
Set in Florence during the Black Plague, the film follows a group of young people fleeing the city to escape the disease. In true Decameron style, they pass the time by telling (and acting out) increasingly wild stories of love, seduction, and deception.
Despite its failure, Virgin Territory achieved a kind of immortality through piracy. The CME release (dating from late 2007 or early 2008) was among the first high-quality rips to circulate. For collectors of “so bad it’s good” cinema, this film became a cult oddity — not because it’s entertaining, but because it’s a perfect artifact of a specific moment: In memory of the XviD codec, the DVD
Virgin.Territory.2007.DVDRip.XviD-CME is more than a filename. It’s a digital tombstone for a film that failed upward into the dark corners of the internet. If you find it today, watch it with friends, alcohol, and zero expectations. And spare a thought for the CME ripper who captured that DVD, wrote the NFO, uploaded it to alt.binaries.multimedia, and ensured that — even if no one should see this film — anyone could.
In memory of the XviD codec, the DVD era, and every actor who needed a Tuscan vacation in 2007.
Here’s a write-up suitable for a release like Virgin.Territory.2007.DVDRip.XviD-CME, often used on release sites, forums, or NFO files.