Cruel Intentions is spreading itself thin with its third installment since 1999, this time in a straight-to-video package.

Cruel intentions 3 gets closer to raw sex as it strays further from seduction and the original storyline.

“I don’t think anyone was looking to emulate (the original Cruel Intentions),” said Kristina Anapau, who plays Cassidy.

With only a vague reference to the first film, Cruel Intentions 3 detaches itself from the series, but sticks to the basic plot of sexual games going too far.

The seductress is a rich college student named Cassidy, who falls victim to Patrick (Kerr Smith) and Jason (Nathan J. Wetherington) in the beginning.

After Patrick and Jason conquer Cassidy, they make a wager — the target is a pair of spoken-for women. The object of the game is for each to get his respective woman into bed before the other.

It’s just fun and games to Patrick and Jason until things take a horrible turn and Jason rapes Alison (Melissa Yvonne Lewis), the girl he is trying to sleep with.

“The rape is when things go too far,” Lewis said. “It was a necessary part (for the movie) to have humanity.”

Lewis, who said she is used to playing the good girl, said it was easy to be emotional when she had to be, but difficult to do the rape scene.

“It’s a difficult scene because it’s hard to go there,” Lewis said. “You don’t want a rape scene to be titillating or to look like fun.”

Eventually, with Patrick’s help, Cassidy accuses Jason of raping her and frames him. The manipulative and somewhat cruel Cassidy is a new role for Anapau, who said she enjoyed playing a different character.

“It wasn’t a life I have. I enjoyed playing a rich bitch,” Anapau said. “It was one of the most fun movies I have ever done.”

It was fun for Anapau until she got sick and had to do a sex scene with Wetherington, who coincidentally wound up being sick at the same time. Anapau said the sex scenes did not help chase away her sickness.

“It may look sexy, but it wasn’t,” Anapau said. “There is nothing like six hours of dry humping to bring back your illness.”

In a movie with its fair share of bare flesh, both Anapau and Lewis are involved in sex scenes, but neither appears in the buff. The two actresses refused to get naked and had lawyers present when they signed their contracts to make sure it stayed that way.

“(It is) definitely not a good career move (to appear nude),” Anapau said.

Decent acting and a mediocre plot made for an OK film — something to be expected from a straight-to-video release.