Review by Tristan Bishop
Vampires have always been about sex and seduction – right back to Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla (filmed by Hammer as The Vampire Lovers), those befanged bloodsuckers have been beguiling us into dropping our guard and baring our necks for nearly 150 years. Cinema took a little longer to catch on, of course – I can’t imagine anyone getting hot under the collar for Lugosi’s Dracula or Schreck’s Nosferatu – but by 1958 Christopher Lee and Hammer brought the seduction angle to the forefront, ushering in a new age of vampiric sexiness, further built upon by Roger Vadim’s sadly neglected Blood and Roses and by Hammer themselves in the Le Fanu-based Karnstein trilogy. By the 1970s censorship throughout Europe had become so relaxed that film-makers such as Jean Rollin, Jess Franco and Jose Larraz were making vampire films that focussed almost solely on the carnal aspect of the undead – indeed in the case of Franco’s The Female Vampire (1973) some versions of the film featured explicit hardcore sex alongside the blood-letting. These Euro-sleaze items, with their dreamlike qualities and more honest depictions of what was once sublimated in the idea of vampiric hypnosis still have a massive following today, and Xan Cassavettes has obviously seen a fair few of these films, as Kiss Of The Damned’s look and feel seem informed by the work of these European pioneers – Rollin in particular.
The story chiefly concerns the relationship between Djuna (played by Josephine De La Baume), who has been a vampire for centuries, and Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia – IE Peter Petrelli from Heroes, now sporting a grown-up beard), a man she meets in a DVD rental store and who becomes instantly enamoured with her. At first she puts up her defences, claiming that she cannot see him due to her ‘rare skin condition’, but our Paolo is nothing if not persistent, and finally she relents and lets him in to the opulent mansion that she is borrowing from Xenia (Anna Mouglalis), who seems to be somewhat of a leader in the vampire community. Djuna shows her vampiric side after she lets Paolo chain her to the bed (for his own safety of course), but Paolo isn’t just after some hot vamp bondage action, he wants to be turned, to share in this mysterious, romantic existence. Everything seems to be going swimmingly – Djuna teaches Paolo to hunt animals for blood, forsaking the traditional human prey, until one day Djuna’s sister Mimi (Roxane Mesquida, who has previously heated up the screen in art house fare such as Gregg Araki’s Kaboom and the god-awful Rubber) arrives, ordered by Xenia to stay for a couple of weeks on her way to what amounts to vampire rehab. Mimi turns out to be rather different from her sister – rather than hunting animals she prefers the traditional ‘seduce ’em and suck ’em dry’ approach to subsistence, and her loose cannon approach threatens to upset the seemingly perfect existence of Djuna and Paolo, not to mention the wider, bourgeoisie vampire society, who are content to turn up at social functions and exist on synthetic blood.
This is writer/director Xan (short for Alexandra) Cassavetes’ first feature, but she’s had a bit of an edge on most first-timers, being part of an impressive dynasty – Her father was the legendary director John Cassavetes, and her mother his long-time wife and muse Gena Rowlands. Xan acted as a young girl in some of her father’s films, and, more recently had a role in Alpha Dog (2006), as well as directing shorts and documentaries. Unsurprisingly, her style is assured and impressive here, and what could easily have seemed like mere pastiche of classic Euro-sleaze is filtered through more modern techniques (notably the impressively-paced editing courtesy of Taylor Gianotas and John F Lyons) and up-to-date versions of the vampire mythos – The influence of True Blood here is undeniable.
Kiss Of The Damned has a lot more going on than merely being a undead mash-up, however – there’s some real substance to the story. Like all good ‘monster’ films this is really about people, and about how much we are willing to let ourselves be seduced by materialism and social status (something which has been implicit in vampire stories since the start). An early scene where Paolo begs to be let in to Djuna’s house is a great inversion on the well-known inability of vampires to enter a house unless invited – he does not need to be ‘glamoured’ by a vampire (not intentionally, at least) in order to want to become one – the existence itself is seductive enough to him, something which I would imagine many viewers would agree with.
The soundtrack is certainly worth a mention– switching dizzyingly between fuzz-tone guitars, synth drones, classical music, wailing operatic vocals and a stunningly good harpsichord and funky drum piece which recalls the groovier end of Jess Franco’s soundtracks – props to Steven Hufsteter for his work here.
The trump card of this film, however, is the casting of Roxane Mesquida – The kind of actor who effortlessly exudes sex whenever the camera is on her. Her Mimi is the fly in the ointment, a vampire who knows what she wants (sex and human blood), and isn’t afraid to go out and get it – She is tolerated by Xenia’s liberal society, and she is happy to indulge in the materialism whilst eschewing the polite pretentiousness, and her seductive and deadly presence gives the other characters (and, indeed, the audience) several questions to ask themselves about their true nature. My one minor quibble about the film comes from Roxane – As her first language is not English (a trait, in fact, shared by most of the actors in the film), some of her line reading seems a little odd. But then my French is dreadful, so she’s forgiven. Plus I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sexier neck-ripping on film. There. I said it.
So if you’re willing to be seduced by a vampire film that stimulates the intellect as well as the baser areas, open your collar and bare your neck for Kiss Of The Damned.
Kiss of the Damned is released to Region 2 DVD and Blu-ray on 27th January 2014, from Eureka Entertainment.