KISSED is a film about necrophilia. But the odd thing is that it’s not what you’d expect. Not by a long shot. I disliked the subject matter, intensely, but I admired the expertise of the filmmaker, Lynn Stopkewich, in allowing us to see this phenomenon from the necrophiliac’s point of view. It’s an enormously brave film. And yes, because I know you’re wondering as much as I did before seeing it, the film does demonstrate exactly how the necrophiliac does it, though, praise be, with less graphic detail than anyone needs to know about.
The central character, Sandra, explains her obsession this way. She feels like she’s catching the sparks that fly when life becomes death. As a child, she creates special rituals for the burial of dead animals that she finds. As an adult, she finds work in a funeral home as an apprentice embalmer and takes these rituals to a new level. She’s overwhelmed by the feel, the smell, and the stillness of death. Necrophilia is the logical and, in this film’s universe at least, the natural outcome. As to the logic or naturelness of the obsession, the film makes no judgement. In its exploration of nascent eroticism, it is profound.
In point of fact, the only unwholesome obsession KISSED presents is that of Sandra’s medical student boyfriend (Peter Outerbridge). After she confides in him about her after-hours doings with the corpses, he wants to know all the morbid details and, finally, wants to watch as she cheats on him with the dead. When she refuses, he asks her to demonstrate, letting him play the part of the corpse. THIS she finds repugnant. And so do we.
Stopkewich has taken on a subject that can’t help but be controversial but presents it in a way that is completely non-exploitive and non-sensational. Don’t underestimate that acheivement. In fact, she’s made a film that is, and I don’t use this word lightly, lyrical. It’s an effect aided in no small way by Molly Parker, who plays Sandra. Possessed of a delicate face able to convey an odd blend of introspection, reverence and puckishness, she seems to be keeping a secret that amuses her no end, which of course, she is. Her performance makes Sandra a perfectly believable, even reasonable, character in this genuinely tender girl meets corpse love story.
Don’t be quick to dismiss KISSED.
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