Directed
by: Xan Cassavetes
Horror/Drama,
97min
USA, 2012
It’s odd
what catches your attention and emotionally attaches you to a movie at times.
For me there was something in an early scene after the initial introduction of
Djuna [Joséphine de La Baume], as her maid Irene [Ching Valdes-Aran] answers
the telephone. Irene writes a note to Djuna reminding her that the videos she
has rented are to be returned to the store. A seemingly unimportant scene, but
it was one that really hit a chord with me. It hit a chord with me because it
made the ordinary world so real. I’ve worked in video stores and calling customers
to remind them to return tapes was a daily task. So there was something in that
small scene that appealed to me and made me venture into Kiss of the Damned
with a smile on my face and a sense of recognition in my head. From that
opening hook to Acanthus Angoisse Temporelle from Jean Rollin’s
Le Frisson Des Vampires playing over the closing credits, Kiss of the Damned was undoubtedly some of the most entertaining time spent
this year.
Djuna is
reclusive woman staying in her friend Xenia’s [Anna Mouglalis] house. During a
nocturnal trip to the video store she bums into Paolo [Milo Ventimiglia] and
the two connect instantly. Djuna takes him home, but sends him away before
things get to serious and remorsefully cuts off all contact. She won’t answer
the phone, she won’t come to the door; she won't have anything to do with him.
Although Djuna keeps Paolo at a distance, he becomes increasingly obsessed with
her. Paolo takes a shot at a chance meeting as he forces his way into the
house. Their joint passion overcomes the rejection and when he proclaims his
love for Djuna, she explains that she’s in fact a vampire. Paola takes his
chance and lets Djuna turn him. From here on the couple could live happily ever
after for all eternity. But that’s not going to happen as Djuna’s rebellious
and manipulative sister Mimi [Roxane Mesquida] unexpectedly turns up…
Kiss of the
Damned is a seductive and magic masterpiece. It takes traditional vampire lore and
lives according to those rules. It keeps the romanticism, the poetic and
smartness of classic vampire mythology, something I’ve been longing to see for
quite some time, without becoming a sanitized piece of commercialized bubble-gum.
Smart, adult, believable and sticking to the basic rules, instead of teenage
angst, adolescent heartbeat and sparkling nightwalkers jumping from tree to
tree in broad daylight - all the things that made vampire flicks safe, cutie
pie pop-culture instead of dark, complex creatures of the night. All that
silliness is replaced with adult lust, stern rules and the dilemmas of
responsibility and it makes for a truly appealing movie that brings the Gothic
and Romantic elements back to the vampire film, even if it does take place in a
contemporary world.
Xan Cassavetes
knows storytelling. She knows it well and Kiss of the Damned goes right up on my list with Nosferatu (both Murnau and Herzog's versions), Tod Browning's Dracula, Terry Fisher's Horror of Dracula, Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos, Tom Holland's Fright Night, Katheryn Bigelow's Near Dark, Paul Morrissey's Blood for Dracula, Abel Ferrara's The Addiction and both adaptations of John Avjide Lindqvists Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right
One In) - not a shabby list for someone who says he doesn't like vampire flicks! But nothing beats a well-told story and believable characters, even if
they are vampires. Emotional recognition goes a long way, and that’s what a lot
of Kiss of the Damned uses. We may never know what it’s like to be a vampire
and all the complications therein, but we can relate to the characters both
human and undead, as the basic traits of loyalty, love, heartbreak, pain,
remorse and guilt are all the same as we experience in our daily lives.
An
important part of Kiss of the Damned is the gentle and delicate approach to the
subject matter. It’s a tenderness that flows through the movie generating a
strange sternness with characters and mood, and at times becoming almost
Lynchian in its style. Characters are almost perversely restrained and calm in
all situations. As if showing emotion will expose them (as in the Vampires) to
the “real world”, which would be catastrophic for them as a race. Meditative is
not the right word, but contemplative is. Everyone is very careful in his or
her decisions and actions. Those who are not, become automatic antagonists. And
in this world of gentle hand, pensive characters and cautious narrative we find
a non-formulaic story much like those told by Xan’s father, John. No
other comparisons made, but a possible influence. Whatever the case, it brings a seductive
uniqueness to the story told, and to the way it unfolds.
Early on
there’s something about the gentle and reclusive Djuna that appeals to an
audience. She’s defying her natural urges, going against vampire convention and
eats animals as not to harm humans. She fights her natural urges to bite into
Paolo when she’s sexually aroused, and sends him scampering off home after
their first encounter. She more or less breaks down and cries when she reveals
to Paolo what she is… All of this builds empathy for the character.
Paolo is sceptic
when Djuna tells him that she’s a vampire, and this helps us accept the fact of
vampires as a reality too, as we have a character that also doubts the
existence of vampires. As soon as Djuna has bitten Paolo she starts to tell him
the rules (of being a vampire). Now this is where the sceptic character becomes
a true believer and the audience is transported from the ordinary world of
Paolo into the let us call it ordinary world of the Vampire. The rules together
with his scepticism make it believable for us. Vampires are real, albeit living under new
rules.
When it
comes to vampire film there’s quite often a problem where to position the
audience as they frequently tend to feel empathetic towards the anti-heroic
character, that is the vampire, traditionally the antagonist, the monster. So
it’s important to create a character that one can relate to, and one that can
lay down the rules. Which is what all that first act is about. Creating a
believable world, laying out the rules and presenting likeable characters that
we will want to invest in. Because it’s
only in the light of how gentile, graceful and honest Djuna is that we can
evaluate Mimi. Compared to Djuna, Mimi is the devil, living the life of “old
school vampires”, breaking all the rules.
Mimi is a
great character. A character much closer to the classic vampire old folklore
tells us about. She’s definitely not the kind of vampire the audience will
empathize with. We may dig her for her Goth chicness and rough demeanour, but
we won’t empathize with her like we do Djuna. She’s manipulative and sinister.
She’s deceptive and cunning. She’s a junkie in rehab! Mimi is getting all the
characteristics of the bad sister. There’s a subplot concerning vampires that have
quit drinking human blood and now only sip animal bloods. Most of the vampires
have since long gone “sober” and only feed off non-human blood… according to
the “new rules”, possibly part of the staying out of trouble idea, so obviously
Mimi is in defiance of those rules too. She want’s human blood, because it’s
the drug she’s addicted to!
Although
Mimi may be the antagonist of the piece, this doesn’t mean that she lacks
dimension. She’s much more than just the “evil vampire”. Cassavetes screenplay gives
all characters dimension and backstory, much of which is referred to on
occasion during the film. We have two sisters who have been around for a couple
of hundred years and obviously don’t share all that many warm feelings for each
other. It’s only natural that they will have a lot of bad blood between them.
Such is the
case with Mimi and Djuna, and it creates a fascinating dynamic between the two,
as there’s something in the backstory that plays a wicked trick on the characters
and the audience. At some time in
history, Djuna has accused Mimi of doing wrong… such as turning a human in the
name of love. Quite possibly this is what once created the rift between the two
sisters. Even if it was in the noblest fashion and everything but against his
will, Mimi forces the power of guilt upon Djuna for turning Paolo into a
Vampire. The bad sister scolding the good for doing wrong, it’s one of many
fantastic moments of character dynamics in Kiss of the Damned!
What makes
vampires such interesting beings – not only here, but also generally in
folklore - is that they come off as suave, lush, seductive beasts of the night,
resistant to pain and set to have fun for all eternity. But there’s a sadness
and sorrow behind the lavish façade. There’s a sadness and regret that they, in
many ways, are damned to live forever in solitude. This too causes interesting
friction between Mimi and Djuna. Mimi scolds Djuna for being selfish enough to
turn Paolo, and in such, condemning him to their eternal suffering. At the same
time here’s a tone of envy in Mimi’s actions, as somewhere along the backstory
it seems that Mimi has lost the love she once had. A love that Djuna in her
turn judged Mimi for, just like Mimi now judges Djuna. The tables have turned
and the sibling rivalry that one can guess has been going on for decades takes
a new destructive twist.
Again as
mentioned earlier, characters are restrained; although this does not mean that
we never understand the emotions they are experiencing. This is where the
emotional recognition comes in. We can relate to them and what they are going
through. As the story tells it’s infected tale, gracefully but still with some
rather gory moments, the way the movie moves into its climax is done in the
exact same fashion. Even though it is a violent climax, it’s told and shown in
the same delicate fashion as the rest of the film. Poetic and just, but equally
haunting, after al these are complex characters and through the emotional
recognition and backstory we can understand their actions. At the end of the
day it all becomes about regret, tradition, honouring rules and loyalty.
Totally
capturing the magic of low-key independent cinema of the late seventies early
eighties, Kiss of the Damned is this years must see art-house indie horror
hybrid. An intoxicating combination of old school Vampire lore, classic
EuroGoth and contemporary genre film! If Jean Rollin where still alive he would
have loved Kiss of the Damned!
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