Kissed

Posted By: Ms. Sinclair Aug 24th, 2019

Director: Lynne Stopkewich
Starring: Molly Parker, Peter Outerbridge
Year: 1996
Country: Canada
Weird Score: 7/10

It gets weird when: Instantly. This movie doesn’t waste time. Dead birds, dead bodies and the strange things people do for love.

Kissed is a movie that was recommended to me years ago while I was bartending at a martini bar in downtown Toronto. I was immediately intrigued by the premise and I had always enjoyed Molly Parker as an actress. Looking back after watching the film, it is a bold movie to suggest to someone you barely know but a big thank you to the person who did.

“Kissed”…sounds romantic doesn’t it? I suppose it is in a way …depending on how you define romance. Molly Parker plays Sandra, a young woman coming of age and discovering herself through…necrophila??? To say that the subject matter in this film is difficult to pull off is an understatement. Sandra is fascinated with death from early on. It’s almost as if she is the most at peace and comfortable with herself when she is surrounded by it. This drives her to study embalming and work at a funeral home. She meets a young man named Matt (played by Peter Outerbridge) in a coffee shop and the two have an instant bond. So much so, that within a minute Sandra reveals to him exactly what she does with those bodies. Matt is instantly intrigued and instead of slowly backing away and running straight out the door he wants to know more…in detail. What the film does well is not making anything gratuitous. Most of Sandra’s time with the bodies aren’t at all graphic and mainly implied. As an audience member you feel like Matt does in the film; a curious outsider looking in, just trying to understand. Matt seems like a perfect match for Sandra..there’s only one problem…he’s alive…and well…she’s just not into that. I think that this film works despite it’s controversial topic. Sandra’s voice-overs throughout the film make what she does actually seem poetic and Molly Parker’s performance is compelling. I never thought a film about necrophila would make me ponder the many questions of life, death and love but Kissed managed to do all of those things.

It will get weird if you talk about this movie at: a funeral, a kid’s birthday party, your grandma’s 90th birthday, a first date and you use it to give an example of your sex life.