I Watch Films: The Kiss

 

The Kiss

Two sisters are split apart in the Congo in the 60s, Felice goes on a train with her aunt who has a weird talisman and attacks her. Felice is found with the talisman and her aunt’s desiccated corpse.

In the present (1988) the other sister, Hilary, lives in America with her architect husband Jack and teenage daughter Amy. Disturbed to get a phone call from Felice she’s then killed in a bloody car accident.

Several months later Felice arrives, she’s working as a model for a supplement company. She comes to stay and Amy is intrigued, slightly put off and also interested in her, while Jack is very attracted. Brenda, the divorced next door neighbour who they’re now close friends with, has her cat allergies set off by Felice. Odd accidents occur and the longer Felice stays the weirder things get.

The film enjoys gruesome injuries, which it implies as much as it shows, and creating dreadful situations. In the end it sort of throws everything at us, there’s a talisman from Africa and shapechanging/a familiar and transmigration and of course a magic kiss.

Watch This: A horror film which asks what if your sexy mysterious aunt wanted to steal your life?
Don’t Watch This: It’s weirdly paced and picks up a couple of odd ideas then puts them down unexamined