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So much average

Great Film overall

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

THE KISS starts off in typical American suburban territory with a normal family who you just know are going to be plagued by sinister events (just like the family in POLTERGEIST. And THE ENTITY. And THE GATE. And THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. The list is endless.) In the first half of the film, there is a lot of expository material like this, and it's quite boring indeed. A little boring and a little dull and even hard to sit through in places. Luckily, there are some meaty deaths to enliven the proceedings, which are pretty gory when it comes down to it. I wasn't expecting gore of this sort so I was pleasantly surprised. The film then takes an upward turn towards the conclusion, and guess what? It actually becomes quite good. Not amazing or ground breaking, but quite enjoyable. Lots of fighting and magic things and deaths occur and they blend together well, like a nice bowl of vegetable soup.The acting is all right. Joanna Pacula is splendidly evil, but not over the top. She also sheds her clothes rapidly too, another surprise. Meredith Salenger is annoying, yes, but not as annoying as her '90s counterpart Neve Campbell. thankfully. The gore really adds to this film and makes it pretty enjoyable. The plot is executed well too, and there are enough turns and thrills to keep the viewer engaged in the action. I had a good experience with this film. I didn't expect much from it but I found myself enjoying it. A big surprise seeing as I usually hate family-orientated horror films such as these, full of drippy sentimentality and obnoxious actors and actresses. THE KISS isn't anything brilliant, but it's good enough to be better than average. Slightly.

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.

"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.

This run of the mill horror flick has one really well done gruesome sequence. Through black magic a lady is hit by a truck that crashes through a plate glass window. She is conscious and injured under the truck, it may come down on her at any moment, she notices gas leaking and it could explode at any second. She tries to wiggle out, but she can't, the truck shifts and comes closer to crushing her. Finally, bystanders pull her out from under the truck and one of her legs is left behind, having been severed in the crash. A great sequence, nicely rendered and edited, that is out of place with the rest of the movie.After this early sequence, the only reason to keep watching this movie is the cute Meredith Salinger.