Christina Slater in King Cobra (IFC Films)

Based on the true story that rocked the gay porn industry, King Cobra recounts the events that left one man brutally murdered and two men in prison for life. While the subject matter had the potential to be one hell of a movie, Justin Kelly’s film comes off like a term paper that was written the night before it was due.

The film stars Garrett Clayton (Disney’s Teen Beach Movie) as up-and-coming porn star Sean Lockhart, who goes by the performing name Brent Corrigan. Christian Slater plays Stephen, the producer who ushers Sean into the world of porn. Sean has come to Stephen’s home in suburban Pennsylvania to live with him and shoot porn—he’s told his mother (Alicia Silverstone) back home in San Diego that he has a film internship. The two also begin sleeping together, and Stephen becomes possessive of Sean, forbidding him from leaving the house without him. Sean sits around Stephen’s house all day, cut off from the outside world until Stephen walks in the front door again and it’s time to shoot another scene.

Sean begins to put it together that Cobra Video has been making a lot more money off the Brent Corrigan videos than Stephen has let on. Sean tries to negotiate a partnership to up his price and allow him to step behind the camera, but Stephen refuses Sean’s demands, as he clearly wants total control over his company and of Sean. The film bounces back and forth from Sean and Stephen’s lives at Cobra Video and two other men in a very similar relationship at a rival company, Viper Boyz. Harlow (Keegan Allen, Pretty Little Liars) is the younger, dopey one, and the older Joe (James Franco) runs the operation. Both men have emotional problems—Joe especially, who is prone to violent outbursts.

When Sean leaves Stephen and tries to take control of his own career, he discovers Stephen has gotten him blackballed from the industry. Enter Harlow and Joe, who offer him $10,000 to make a film with their lesser-known studio. But, legally, Sean cannot perform under the name Brent Corrigan because Stephen owns the trademark. Without that name the movie would be useless. So, something needs to be done about Stephen.

Slater finds the layers to Stephen, a man who tries to reconcile his desires to be both gay and keep up the appearance of a straight conservative man. There is a scene when he shakes his shoulders statically as he tries to get into techno music that is so telling. The film could have used more moments like that. (Stephen wears nondescript clothing in public, like he’s a fugitive from his own life.) But before the real Lockhart even appeared on his doorstep, Stephen had been embroiled in a scandal with a 15-year-old boy, marking him a pariah in his small community, but this is not explored here. Instead the audience is expected to make something of his incognito appearance. That is indicative of so much about this film: themes are hinted at rather than developed.

Or ignored altogether. The controversy over Cobra’s films featuring unprotected sex is eschewed. The drug and alcohol abuse of some of the real-life figures is practically nonexistent. (Stephen is shown with a beer or glass of wine now and then, appearing to have it under control, quite the opposite of the real situation). This story had so much potential to explore so many themes besides the gay porn industry, such as the gay community at large, but it’s tame instead. Even the sex scenes are bland, static, not unlike Stephen’s dancing.

King Cobra will surely reach the market interested in watching the cast simulate gay sex and drop morsels of wisdom like, “Every top secretly wants to be a bottom.” Anyone looking for a more elevated experience will wish the filmmakers had asked for that deadline extension.