The Kiss (1988) User Reviews

Excellent little-known Canadian B-horror movie

[eurimatic · 6/10 · 3 November 2004]

I used to watch this little-known Canadian b-horror movie on Frighnight Theater with Whitey Gleason. He said he enjoyed the film because its main special effects artist worked on "The Fly". In the film, a young teenager named Amy loses her mother to a tragic car crash. Her mother was on her way to visit Amy's aunt, who was a fashion model. Soon after the funeral, the aunt moves in with Amy's widowed father and, besides hooking up with the father and brainwashing him, begins using voodoo magic to kill off Amy's friends. She intends to isolate Amy so she can transfer a snake-like voodoo vampire creature out of her body into Amy's. Apparently the aunt and the snake thing will die if she has the creature in her too long. There is a great b-horror movie death scene at the end, complete with exploding propane tanks, wet fighting women, and a snake in the pool :)

Entertaining Time Waster

[rhaynes1974 · 6/10 · 6 July 2013]

It's 2013, and there's a distinct lack of originality in the horror field at present, what with all the remakes, reboots or re-imaginings.

The Kiss is by no means a classic of the genre but it is a fun way to kill 90 minutes and (shock! horror!) it's original. The ever wonderful Meredith Salenger here is pitch perfect in the lead. (Why she isn't working more is beyond me)

Joanna Pacula is also fabulous as the villainess of the piece. She's sexy, bitchy and suitably over the top. The film has its flaws; namely a god awful puppet kitty scare, but on the whole it has the sleek polish of any 80's studio horror flick. Tri-Star had quite a good track record with horror back then.

Sure it's cheesy but at least it's fun. The Kiss also has some genuine suspense and some good gory thrills here and there.

Big hair, big scares, big effects and big performances make this one stand out a little more than it deserves to. Welcome back to the 80's...

A solid six of out ten.

Decent for what it is

[udar55 · 6/10 · 22 January 2012]

Amy (Meredith Salenger) finds her world turned upside down when her mother is killed in a freak accident. Soon her mother's estranged sister, fashion model Felice (Joanna Pacula), has moved in and begins working her way into the family, starting by seducing dad Jack (Nicholas Kilbertus). Naturally she has ulterior motives as she wants to pass on an ancient African curse via a slimy demon that must be passed from mouth-to-mouth. This Canadian chiller came out during a seemingly endless supply of evil demon women flicks (THE UNHOLY, NIGHT ANGEL, SPELLBINDER, THE GUARDIAN, SATAN'S PRINCESS) and does alright for what it is. You're not going to get a horror classic, but you do get bloody killings, a pulsating medical dummy, a drooling demon cat and Pacula performing rituals naked. The end is particularly over-the-top with the big showdown in the family's pool, complete with hedge trimmer stabbing and a barbecue propane tank flamethrower (only in the movies). Tri-Star barely released this in theaters in October 1988 in the United States, which is odd as they funded a special trailer for it that features a minute or so of "trailer only" footage.

* * * out of 4.

[brandonsites1981 · 29 May 2002]

Amy's (Meredith Salenger) mother has just died in a freak automobile accident. To make matters worse, an almost unknown Aunt named Felica (Joanna Pacula) shows up and takes a fancy to Amy's dad. That's when all of Amy's friends start to meet gruesome ends and Amy starts to find voodoo spells and other assorted items in Felica's stuff. It seems Amy is the next in line to get a fatal kiss from Felica.

Fast paced, often exciting & scary film features a fun premise, solid direction, terrific effects, plenty of sexual energy & atmosphere. Meredith Salenger is appealing and Joanna Pacula is flawless in a tailor made role that plays up to her exotic beauty and mysterious appearance. However, poor supporting performances by Mimi Kuzyk & Nicholas Kilbertus nearly ruin it.

Rated R; Graphic Violence, Nudity, Sexual Situations, and Profanity.

I just need your body, baby, from dusk 'til dawn.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 4 November 2015]

After her mother dies in a terrible accident, pretty teenager Amy (the lovely Meredith Salenger) finally gets to meet her mysterious Aunt Felice (Joanna Pacula) but soon twigs that her mom's globe-trotting younger sister isn't as perfect as she makes out to be. Using the power of sex and voodoo, Felice controls the fates of Amy's loved ones, before attempting to pass on a very unusual 'heirloom' to her unwilling niece.

For a film about an ancient African parasite that is transmitted between female members of the same family by a kiss, this is quite the disappointment, a rather charmless movie with generic direction from Pen Densham, surprisingly poor effects by makeup wiz Chris Walas (Gremlins, The Fly), and flat performances from all except Pacula, who makes up for the other actors' seeming disinterest by really hamming it up.

Densham desperately tries to spice things up proceedings with a little gore and sex towards the end (Pacula going topless to seduce Amy's father), and randomly throws a hilariously naff zombie cat hand-puppet creature into the mix, but to no avail. This one could have done with a lot more gore and general outrageousness throughout in order to do the silly premise justice.

5.5 out of 10, rounded down to 5 for not going all the way with the 'necklace in the escalator' scene and for failing to get Salenger to take a shower (although, to be fair, she looks pretty great in that white swimsuit).

Fun Fun Fun Flick

[Sburt4-1 · 6/10 · 25 April 2006]

Pucker up and get ready to die. Teenager Amy (Meredith Salenger) just lost her mom to a freak accident. Her long lost Aunt Felice shows up five months after the death to help out. At First Amy is excited to meet Felice (Joanna Pacula) because she is a fashion model and seems hip. Then things get weird when strange accidents happen. There is a great escalator scene when Amy's friend Heather gets hurt.Amy and her dad start to fight over Felice's presence. Doesn't help that Amy's dad is sleeping with Felice. Amy tries to tell her dad and her neighbor Brenda(Mimi Kuzyk)but no one believes her that Felice had anything to do with the strange accidents. They think Amy just misses her mom. But Amy knows Felice has a secret. This is a fun film! Has a lot of gory scenes and a great cast. Mimi Kuzyk is great as Brenda who tries to help Amy.Watch it late at night with popcorn! It is sort of a supernatural reverse version of the Stepfather. I liked the soundtrack. It set the mood. death scenes are great. watch out for the worst puppet cat to ever grace the movies!

"We're lot alike. You and me."

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 21 April 2013]

I wouldn't say this is boring, but in the end "The Kiss" didn't do too much for me. It's a commonplace witchcraft tale in what is a primitively decent little late 80's supernatural occult horror item. There are moments of creativity, from its story arches to its grisly, mean- spirited imagery (there being some neat twisted special effects on show by Chris Walas), but still evident is that it does seem to meander at times (who knew tree trimming could be relaxing), sometimes the messy plot just throws in things with no explanations (what about that ugly looking artifact statue and where the hell did that nasty looking feral cat come from?!), secondary characters are less interesting (although Mimi Kuzyk has her moments) and eventually the overall silliness takes control (wait around for the overblown climax involving a late-night dip). However it can be atmospherically tense and quite sexed-up with the mysteriously fetching Joanna Pacula seductively manipulating things to her advantage as this scarlet happens to be possessed by some sort of ancient curse that's passed on through the females of the same bloodline with a kiss.

The story opens up in the early 1960s in the Belgian Congo, where a young girl is inflicted with ancient curse from her auntie. Twenty-five years later, the girl Felice is a famous fashion model travelling the world, which suddenly turns up in New York after the strange accidental death of her older sister. There she meets her teenage niece Amy (a strong performance by Meredith Salenger), but Amy isn't so keen on her and wonders why her mum never talked about her. Yet Felice does have plans for Amy to become heir to this horrifying family legacy.

Generic and rather blotchy, but Pen Densham's direction etches out some style and Pacula has a hypnotic screen presence that not only intrudes on the family, but also the viewer.

"Amy if your curious about me, all you have to do is ask."

Little Out There But Entertaining

[Firefly-28 · 7/10 · 25 August 1999]

This movie is about an evil enity passed down from generation to generation in an unfortunate family. It's an evil snake-like creature that controls the body ( if you've seen Jason Goes To Hell, it's similar to that ). The movie opens with two young sisters in Africa. One is leaving to Europe with her Aunt. During the ride, the Aunt passes the creature into her niece's body through a "kiss". 25 years later, the other sister has a husband and daughter named Amy ( Meredith Salenger from The Journey Of Natty Gan, and most recently Lake Placid ) who live in New York. The mother dies in an accident, and 5 months later the sister, Felice ( Joanna Pacula )shows up. Now Amy most protect herself before it's to late because Aunt Felice wants to give her a deadly kiss. It's better than it sounds. Meredith Salenger and Mimi Kuzyk ( she plays a friend of the family ) are very likeable in there roles and Joanna Pacula is good at being creepy. Favorite line : Amy : " I want some fritos, I want a f**kin' diet coke " ( after her Aunt has given her all this " healthy food " crap ).

Only for fans of Joanna Pacula

[smatysia · 4/10 · 11 December 2003]

Not a very good horror offering. There was actually some fairly inventive gore. I am a fan of Joanna Pacula, and she was one of the rare bright spots in this film. She is lovely, and a marvelous actress. I wish she had gotten some of the better roles in Hollywood, because I think she would have become a superstar. But I suppose that, at her age, that opportunity will never come to pass. Meredith Selenger and Mimi Kuzyk did as well here as the material allowed. I was very unimpressed with Nicholas Kilbertus. And most of the other criticism I've read about this film is warranted, the gaping plot holes, the over-direction, etc. And, oh, yeah, the evil cat thing looked about as real as the Caddyshack gopher. I can only recommend this to fans of Pacula or Selenger. Grade: F

Sexy and fast-moving; better than you'd think.

[gridoon · 7/10 · 18 December 2001]

A surprisingly good little horror film. The direction and acting are clearly above average, the atmosphere is tense and subtly sexy, and Meredith Salenger is so beautiful that it's a wonder she never became a minor star. The film just gets a little silly in the end, when - possible spoiler - Pakula's witchcraft is reduced to an "Alien"-like mini-monster, but I guess that's to be expected when the special effects department is helmed by Chris Walas, the man who also designed "The Fly"! (**1/2)

Not too bad but not exactly great either, an OK time waster.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 19 May 2005]

The Kiss starts with a caption that informs us that we are in the 'Belgian Congo 1963' at a train station. A young girl named Felice Dunbar (Priscilla Mouzakiotis) is being sent away by her Father (Philip Pretten) with her Aunt Irene (Celine Lomez) while her sister Hilary (Talya Rubin) stays behind with him. On the journey Irene shows Felice an ancient tribal statue of some sort, not long after Irene's rotted corpse is found... The Kiss then informs us that it's '25 Years Later Albany New York'. Hilary (Pamela Collyer) is now married to Jack Halloran (Nicholas Kilbertus) & together they have & beautiful teenage daughter named Amy (Meredith Salenger). One day out of the blue Hilary receives a phone call from her sister Felice (Joanna Pacula) & they both arrange to meet, however on the way Hilary is killed in an accident. It's now '5 Months Later' & while visiting Hilary's grave Amy & her Father meet Felice, after they find out who she is Jack invites her to stay at their house. Amy starts to distrust & dislike Felice as one of her friends named Heather (Sabrina Boudot) dies in another bizarre accident & Felice seduces Jack. Amy's suspicions grow when she discovers a strange statue & Heather's sunglasses in Felice's room. More accidents happen & Felice becomes weirder & weirder until all is revealed when Amy realises she is about to become heir to a horrifying family secret & she has to fight for her life against The Kiss...

Co-produced & directed by Pen Densham I thought The Kiss was a mildly entertaining horror film but nothing that was particularly special in any way shape or form. The script by Tom Ropelewski & Stephen Volk is reasonably well paced, it has one or two slightly slow points but it's not too bad. The script doesn't really try to explain what's going on that much, no explanation for the origins of the statue, the eventual creature or the psycho cat. The Kiss also suffers from the usual silliness one associates with the horror genre, the scene with the propane tank at the end is unrealistic to say the least & this daftness affects The Kiss at times because the film seems to be taking itself quite seriously. There is some gore in it, a burnt hand, a rotten corpse, death by escalator, scissors stuck in someones neck & a couple of nasty car accidents including one with a juicy severed leg. I did like the special effects sequence when Amy is in science class at school & the anatomy dummy comes to life with it's exposed beating heart & lungs, cool eh? The special effects are OK, except that is the killer psycho cat which looks very fake & somewhat silly throughout I'm afraid. The fine looking Pacula provides the nudity. The acting in The Kiss is adequate by horror film standards although I thought Pacula as the main villain should have had a bit more of an on screen presence. The Kiss is quite well made, nothing stands out as being technically brilliant but nothing stands out as being overly bad either. Generally speaking Densham films The Kiss in a rather bland & uninteresting way which isn't a great surprise I suppose. Overall I thought The Kiss was an OK way to pass an hour & a half but I'll have probably forgotten all about it by the middle of next week, just about worth watching but don't expect a masterpiece.

Sublime '80s mishmash

[drownsoda90 · 8/10 · 22 December 2016]

"The Kiss" follows teenaged Amy (Meredith Salenger) whose mother has just died in a gruesome car accident. To complicate matters, her estranged aunt Felice (Joanna Pacula) arrives in town, who was separated from Amy's mother during their childhood in the Belgian Congo. Little does Amy know, Aunt Felice is under the thumb of an ancient curse, one which must be passed on to Amy before Felice's vessel disintegrates.

I won't attempt to make "The Kiss" sound like something it's not—it is an absolutely absurd romp that stirs all of the '80s horror fixings into a melding pot and serves up a ragbag medley of witchcraft, African magic, mysterious talismans, and monster parasites passed on from mouth-to- mouth. Oh, and did I mention a therianthropic rabid cat?

Derivative and impossible to take seriously, "The Kiss" is still a fantastic film in that it makes the most of all of its derivative elements, and has plenty of fun doing it. In some ways, it is a feminine answer to "Fright Night," and actually makes an intertextual reference to that very film. It evokes the small-town atmosphere which is ripe for teenaged terror, and the weird ancestral/incestuous undercurrents in the film are grotesque and utterly bizarre. The special effects team behind this is something of a technical powerhouse, having done the work for "Gremlins" among other things, and while some of the effects are dated (the cat, for example, is just ridiculous), there are also some impressive and legitimately gruesome effects that supersede the sillier ones.

The film follows a familiar narrative trajectory that was seen before and would be seen again, especially in writer Stephen Volk's followup script, "The Guardian" (1990) which ended up being directed by William Friedkin two years later. There are some loose threads in the film (we, for example, are provided no significant followup to the recovery of Amy's friend Heather after she is nearly mangled to death by an escalator), but there is significant suspense in spite of some sloppy technicalities. Joanna Pacula is fantastically evil in the film, and Meredith Salenger plays your everyday likable teenage girl very well.

Overall, I found "The Kiss" to be sublime, even in its most absurd of quandaries. It essentially epitomizes the entire landscape of '80s horror films, specifically the supernatural thrillers, and is undeniably fun. It offers solid performances, some fantastically gross (and other times hilariously bad) special effects, and a poolside finale that is perhaps one of the most thematically and aesthetically chaotic things I've ever seen. 8/10.

Watch out for Aunty Joanna

[neil-douglas2010 · 7/10 · 15 June 2022]

Decent little witchcraft film starring the beautiful Joanna Pacula. She's the star turn in this horror film, but good performance also from Meredith Salenger as Amy and Mimi Kuzyk as neighbour Brenda. When Amy's mother dies in a mysterious accident her sister Felice turns up on the scene wishing to pass on her gift of eternal life to Amy. Felice won't take no for a answer even seducing Amy's father to get him onside. Thankfully Felice is a bit deranged and Brenda finds out about her strange blood sample, and she comes to the rescue, but not before a big fight with zombie cats which ends up in the swimming pool. This horror film does just enough to keep the viewer entertained before the end.

Not Scary, Just Bad

[nutsy · 1/10 · 25 November 2003]

I can't believe anybody gave this piece of crap a '10'. This is reutine horror which uses a thriller structure to try to legitamize the absurd idea of a woman possessed by a demon with a demon-cat to do her dirty work.

*SPOILERS*

The acting is pathetic and the suspense is workman-like at best. It really feels like made-for-cable horror with better film-quality. It attempts to be classy with a "historical" prologue in the middle-east.

When we meet the leading girl (or favored victim) she is just another teenaged thing without any remarkable features and we are asked to like her and her bimbo friend. Her friend speculates about the possessed aunt "Screwing Mick Jagger and Sting at the same time", only adding to her valley-girl "cuteness". She is attacked by an escalator, but sadly we don't get to see her die. The rest of the film involves the demon-aunt seducing the girl's father and using her demon-cat to protect her secret. It all boils down to the same old tired, ancient-demon-stalks-present-day format which Lovecraft tried to make work back in the day.

*End Spoilers*

Don't bother watching this if you seriously want to be scarred or intrigued. There isn't enough plot, horror, or exploitation in this wreck to please any horror fan. This thing is purely for insomniacs or for people who have no discriminating tastes. THE KISS is just your typical waste of time.

Kiss It Goodbye.

[tfrizzell · 14 August 2002]

Really disturbing horror flick that has Joanna Pacula terrorizing a family with a strange witch-like curse that has been passed on through the generations of her ancestors. Some really steamy sex scenes involving Pacula take away from a couple of creative deaths. Overall the film is a typical 1980s horror mess that is stylish to an extent, but still totally uneven and lacking in cinematic merit. 2 stars out of 5.

Frivolous.

[bombersflyup · 2/10 · 19 April 2020]

The Kiss lacks substance and quality, with no point of origin and weak drama.

Minus the pretty faces and a little gore, there's nothing here. The premise unknown until the very end, so for the majority of the film you don't know Felice's intent or why she's doing these things. Nor did she need to bond with Amy in order to possess her. The creature that comes out of Felice, almost identical to the "Alien" creature bursting out of the chest.

When auntie F. comes to town, there will surely be blood!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 26 November 2007]

"The Kiss" is actually just a rudimentary & simplistic witchcraft story about supernatural powers getting passed through the female members of the same bloodline, but director Densham neatly polishes up the concept with impressively explicit make-up effects (courtesy of Chris Walas' company), adequate supportive character drawings and atmospheric building up towards the death scenes. The story opens in the early 60's in the Belgian Congo, where two sisters become separated at the train station. The youngest one, Felice, is seriously ill but her aunt miraculously cures her by passing an alien-like creature into her body through a kiss. 25 years later the other sister tragically dies in a car accident, leaving behind a husband and a stunningly beautiful adolescent daughter named Amy. Aunt Felice shows up again (in the ravishingly matured version of Joanna Pacula) and quickly works her way into the family by seducing her widowed brother-in-law. Auntie Felice is clearly just interested in Amy's body as the host for the inheritable creature, and she won't hesitate to use violent voodoo tricks against anyone that stands between her and the young girl. "The Kiss" is one modest class above the majority of 80's witchcraft-movies, because it features a little more directorial flair and style. There's a continuously pleasing level of suspense and film is suitably gruesome, including images of people burning alive, losing body parts underneath trucks and getting strangled on escalators. Felice has an OTT grotesque wild cat assisting her to kill people and there's a bizarre (but macabre) montage showing Amy menstruating in class whilst her father makes love to the sinister aunt. That was quite an awkward moment, and I'm not entirely sure about the symbolic significance/importance of that sequence. In fact, there's quite a lot of sexual innuendo that appears to be a bit lost in the wholesome of the story. Anyway, the story grows increasingly sillier near the end, resulting in a highly implausible and chuckles-inducing finale. Meredith Salenger was truly adorable girl in the late 80's (and still a gorgeous woman today) and I severely regret the fact her career didn't skyrocketed after this film. Recommended to watch at least once, particularly if you appreciate feminine beauty and graphic gore.

Flimsy '80s horror with outlandish premise but no charisma

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 17 October 2015]

Suburban teen, mourning the recent death of her mother in a freak accident, is suspicious of her mother's estranged sister, an exotic model who comes to stay with the girl and her father; turns out this dangerous woman harbors an evil bloodline that must be passed down to a female relative by a kiss. Despite 'shock' deaths and a heavy-breathing feral cat (who pops up with alarming reliability), this entry in the '80s horror cycle is pretty bland. Director Pen Densham juices the proceedings with sex and voodoo--and a menacing mall escalator--but to no avail. Most of the cast is so laid-back, they evaporate on the screen, particularly young Meredith Salenger (a typical movie kid feigning a modern ordinariness that borders on laziness). As the villain, Joanna Pacula gives it a go, but the silliness of her role (and of the movie's entire concept) defeats her. *1/2 from ****

Decent enough witchcraft yarn

[The_Void · 6/10 · 14 October 2007]

Well, I didn't go into this film expecting anything great; I was really just hoping for a decent timewaster along the same lines as Wes Craven made for TV opus 'Summer of Fear', and that's more or less what I got; though it cant be said that this film isn't as good as Craven's. The film is a mix of two very basic and very common horror themes; namely, the insider who works their way into a family unit, and of course the idea of witchcraft. After the first fifteen minutes, I feared the worst because = the way that the plot is set up is very messy; and that's never a good sign in a simple film like this one! However, it soon settles down and once I got an idea of what to expect, I found that the film became easier to enjoy. The film starts with two sisters in 1963 that get split up. One of them goes off with a relative who passes onto her a strange curse via a kiss. We then cut to twenty five years later, and the other sister has died in a car accident; leaving her husband and daughter behind. Then onto the scene comes the cursed sister, who wants her niece to bear her curse...

It has to be said that this film could have been better if have handled by someone more adept, and if it had a better focus. The plot soon becomes predictable, and there are several things about it that don't make sense, and the film often veers off on a tangent with certain things that aren't really relevant. The Kiss seems to have taken a bit of influence from The Omen with regards to the way that the death scenes are carried out; mostly excessive and random, but also quite imaginative: the death scene on an escalator is well done...though the clues preceding it spoil the surprise. None of the characters are particularly interesting, which is a shame considering that the main one is a conniving witch. However, the film never becomes too boring. The special effects aren't over-used, but what we do get is generally quite realistic; the only exception to this rule being an aggressive cat, which looks like a stuffed toy. It all boils down to an exciting and explosive finale, which also happens to be the best ten minutes of the film. Overall, I won't be going round recommending this film to people; but there's worse ways to spend ninety minutes of your life.

The cops just brought in a road pizza

[kapelusznik18 · 5/10 · 2 January 2015]

****SPOILERS**** Hard to phantom horror movie with the wild eyed and zombie like looking Felice Dunbar in that she seems to make no sense at all with this curse punt on her, as a little girl, by her possessed by the devil Aunt Irene when she was traveling by rail out of the Belgian Congo to settle back home in Europe. It's now 25 years later with Felice fully grown and a top fashion model coming to Albany New York to see her long separated sister Hilary Halloran to continue the devil's contract, through the kiss that she received back in the Congo, with her niece Amy Hilary's 15 year old, and all filled out, daughter. Before the two sisters can meet Hilary ends up getting killed in a spectacular car accident that seems to have been orchestrated, through some kind of mombo-jumbo like blood ritual, by her sister Felice. In fact Felice seems to put the whammy on a number of Amy's friends who suspects that there's something that's not all that kosher about her.

We get to see Amy who's got the body of a Greek Goddess, but the brains of a a Dodo Bird, always finding time to get herself wet by jumping in the family swimming pool at every occasion even taking nightly skinny dips in it. It's when Felice is finally discovered by Amy's good friend and surrogate mom Heather things have by then gotten completely out of control with Felice who's having an affair with Amy's dad Jack Holloran being exposed as a combination walking dead zombie and blood sucking vampire rolled into one.

****SPOILERS**** Determined to keep her blood line, whatever that is, active Falice tries to give Amy a kiss that would turn her into the monster that she is before she turns, since she's dead already, to dust. There's also this Tasmanian Devil like critter, mistaken by everyone to be a feral black cat, that pops up every now and then who's reason for being in the movie is never really explained. But it, the critter, adds to the shock and excitement in the film just by being in it. In the end Poppa Jack Harrolan finally wakes up and smells the coffee and realizes that Felice is no good and in his attempt to keep her from turning his what seems like, in not knowing what's going on, clueless daughter Amy into a zombie by kissing her that he puts an end to Felice and her plans to keep her bloodline continuing. That's by finishing her off in one of the most explosive movie finals since that of the movie "Jaws" back in 1975.

A poor screenplay for a good atmosphere...

[dddvvv · 6/10 · 6 October 2002]

I guess the atmosphere is the best thing to date in such a movie. That's because the acting is terrible and the screenplay is based solely upon a climax of anguish and terror. There's an ancient curse but we don't know anything about it but the fact that we have to fear it, and escape from it! That's what 90% of horror movies are about: action, thrill and never an explanation. If you have nothing to say, say nothing. Anyway, there are worst movies than this one and for the horror fans this should be a nice title to rent.

The Kiss

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 22 April 2024]

Pen Densham had a cool path to directing. He left school at fifteen to be a photographer and shoot The Rolling Stones, then moved from England to Canada to direct commercials and documentaries with Marshall McLuhan. He then formed found Insight Productions with John Watson and earned 70 international award for their movies, including two Oscar nominations. One of the movies they made, If Wishes Were Horses, was called "The best film of any length shown on Canadian TV."

It brought him to the attention of Norman Jewison who got him to Hollywood. He and Watson started Trilogy Entertainment Group, serving as creative consultants on movies like Footloose and Rocky II before becoming big successes with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. They also produced the new versions of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone, as well as Poltergeist: The Legacy in the 1990s and 2000s.

He also directed two movies, The Zoo Gang and what we're here to talk about today, The Kiss.

Felice Dunbar (former model Joanna Pacula) and her sister Hillary (Pamela Collyer) are totally living the start of The Parent Trap. Felice is to live with her aunt (Céline Lomez) and Hillary with her father. As they take a train away from the Belgian Congo, her aunt - wearing a serpent medallion - attacks the young girl. The lights go out as she kisses her, blood coming from her mouth, and when they come back on, the aunt is a lifeless deformed body and the little girl is alone but has the talisman.

Years later, Hillary lives in America with her husband Jack (Nicholas Kilbertus) and her daughter Amy (Meredith Salenger). Her sister calls her in the hopes of meeting her family, but she refuses. She goes to a gun shop and while looking in the window, a car smashes her into the store, killing her.

Five months later, Felice - who works as a model - shows up in town and moves in. Next door neighbor Brenda Carson (Mimi Kuzyk) reacts to her as if she is a cat and becoming allergic. Amy hates her aunt immediately and after making fun of her with her friend Heather (Sabrina Boudot), her BFF is almost murdered when her necklace gets stuck in an escalator. This is absolutely my childhood trauma, so I'm glad I didn't see this until now.

Felice starts making moves on her sister's widower, while Amy confides to her boyfriend Terry O'Connell (Shawn Levy, who directed the Night at the Museum movies) about finding her friend's bloody sunglasses inside her aunt's room, as well as a serpent talisman. Terry follows her aunt to a hotel room where he watches her in the midst of a ritual. She transforms into a cat and nearly kills him. He barely gets away, only to be run over and his death made to look like a suicide. Amy then tells a priest who remembers Hillary telling him about her sister and how evil she was. He tries to run when she shows up and spontaneously combusts. How many powers does this werecat have? And how wild it is that when they do a DNA test on her, it shows that she is already dead?

Felice reveals that she must continue living - inside the blood - of Amy, trying to transform her into what she is. It takes Brenda the neighbor, Amy and her father - as well as garden shears, a propane tank and a swimming pool - to stop her.

This was written by Stephen Volk, who also was the writer of Gothic, The Guardian- that makes sense - and Ghostwatch.

Curses, kisses and at carnivorous cat. And Joanna Pacula, too!

[TonyB2594 · 8/10 · 8 August 2022]

The Kiss (1988) - It's no wonder that Joanna Pacula was irritated at Meredith Salenger from almost start to finish in this movie.

She wasn't used to being the second-most attractive one in the room.

Ha ha... just kidding. They were equally attractive. But I can say without question that Joanna was the ugliest one in another way.

I'm talking evil personified.

This is a pretty intense horror story about curses, fatal kisses, endangered daughters and one of the dumbest dads in history.

In brief... Pacula plays Felice Dunbar, who as a child in the Belgian Congo is separated from her sister Hilary. She is victimized by an aunt who is into voodoo rituals involving a cursed talisman.

Auntie seals her niece's fate with a fatal and bloody kiss, killing herself and turning Felice into an undead kind of creature.

Many years alter, Felice, a successful (but still undead) model, tracks down her sister Hilary in New York. What she's really after is Hilary's daughter Amy (Meredith Salenger) and her husband Jack (Nicholas Kilbertus).

After Felice engineers the accidental (and gruesome) death of Hilary, she worms her way into Jack and Amy's life, with the intention of eventually planting a fatal kiss on Amy and sucking out her life essence.

Amy smells a rat almost from the get-go. But dad... hmmm...what an idiot. He falls for Felice hook, line, and sinker.

So who can save Amy? There are a few candidates, but Felice does a good job of eliminating them in voodoo-influenced and violent ways.

Pacula put in a performance worthy of Barbara Steele. That's a HIGH compliment, because no female actress (in my opinion) did evil better than Babs. Pacula's cold eyes, the snarl on her lips when she was angry with Amy, the devious passion with which she seduced brainless Jack, and the devilish delight when she was caressing the cursed talisman... just the perfect temptress.

Salenger was excellent as well. This kid has her wig on straight, and isn't afraid to face off with Felice - and her dad - in her valiant attempt to survive.

A very honorable mention should go to Mimi Kuzyk as Jack and Amy's neighbor Brenda. She is loving and caring and a fierce defender of Amy.

Finally? There's this black cat from hades that pops up from time to time and attacks people. It's so silly-looking... but I'd still feed it some Friskies.

Meredith Salenger in a 1 piece

[caspian1978 · 6/10 · 4 May 2004]

A 90 minute suspense thriller with only 1 minute worth watching. The very young and very beautiful Meredith Salenger is the only reason worth watching. The pool scenes in the movie is the only reason why this forgotten gem is rented by young teenage boys. Salenger is true eye candy for the audience. The movie had something to do with revenge or murder, or something. I couldn't tell you what the plot was about because its wasn't worth finding out. Every time Meredith Salenger wasn't on the screen made the movie less enjoyable. Then again, every time Meredith Salenger walked into a scene and walked across the camera was film worth watching. This will never make it to DVD for its unpopularity. Then again, Meredith Salenger never looked so good.

I seen this f*cking movie!

[jessegehrig · 2/10 · 5 August 2015]

This movie is about the Church and Lesbians, and how some lesbians are evil vampires. Not all lesbians are vampires but enough lesbians are so the Church recommends just not being a lesbian, but also it's a horror movie. It could have been one of those horror movies that was good but instead it's a thinly veiled metaphor about how the Church is good and sexuality is bad, especially if that sexuality is not hetero. So you want to know things about this movie? You want me to tell you stuff about this movie, like my theories and opinions? Nope. This is a garbage movie, the time when it was made is irrelevant and nobody did a good job. If you want to redeem this movie start with lighter fluid and matches.