Directed by: Lynne Stopkewich
Starring: Molly Parker, Peter Outerbridge, Jay Brazeau
This wasn't an easy movie to review. The main character in this does some pretty disgusting things, and yet I do not hate her. There is no doubt that she is a deranged sick person, and yet I can’t help but feel some sort of compassion for her. Now, in no way does that make me condone any of her actions. It’s just really hard to hate this woman, and I should. For, you see, Kissed is a movie about a young girl discovering her sexuality. Nothing new there; it has been done countless times before. Yet her sexual awakening doesn’t come from the love of a man or a women. It doesn’t come from any children or animals either, so don’t start writing any hate letters. Her desire comes from the recently deceased. Yes, our main girl is a necrophiliac, and even though I should hate and despise her, she is very captivating, and it’s difficult to not become interested in her or what she believes. It plays around with your sense of morals, and will have you liking someone that you should not like at all.
Sandra Larson (Molly Parker) has been fascinated by death ever since she was little. It was never any sort of exuberant kind of joy for her when someone died, but it wasn’t anything traumatic or sad either. Sandra had pets, and when they died (she didn’t kill them, I promise), she performed rituals where she could feel the animal’s soul cross over. Certain customs have different beliefs about what happens to us when we leave this earth. I’m sure you yourself have different ways you grieve the loss of a loved one. I’m not saying that dancing around with the body of your dead cat is a good thing, but when Sandra explains why, it does make sense, and you accept it. Years later, she grows up, but is still fascinated by death. In order to find answers to these problems, she goes to school and gets a job at a mortuary. You may be thinking she should have visited a shrink, but sometimes you have to figure out certain things for yourself. It is there where Sandra discovers her desire, and loses her virginity to a corpse.
For a movie about a necrophiliac, the actual sex is shot more tastefully then it sounds, which is an odd thing to say in and of itself, I’m sure. It never has any wide shots of her straddling the dude, while she gets herself off. It’s all done with stylized close ups, and we don’t see much of her and the body together, just her face and this bright white light that keeps getting brighter and brighter until she reaches orgasm. Yet Sandra herself will say that it is never just about the sex. She believes that this experience helps her see that man’s soul and feel his love. She says that it’s like looking into the sun without going blind. The rational side of me wants to lock this lady up, but for some reason I want to follow her on this journey.
Sandra later meets up with a young man named Matt (Peter Outerbridge) who finds out about her fetish, but is not repulsed by it. He really likes her and wants to understand her; it’s just his methods of doing so are wrong. In one scene, Matt acts like a corpse so that she will do the same ritual for him as she would the dead. Sandra tells him that it feels weird, and she’s right - it does. But wait a minute, this girl has sex with dead guys; she’s the weird one, and yet I feel kind of bad for her.
Molly Parker is superb in this role. She brings humanity to a character who could have easily been portrayed as a nut job. If this character were a man, I would have a real hard time watching this. This may make me sound like a hypocrite, I’m sure; I just have a soft spot for shy female characters who don’t fit in with in society’s guidelines. If I met anyone like this, I would never get involved with them, but I would still want to talk to them. I would be both repulsed and fascinated at the same time. After all, she’s not doing anything too destructive to the bodies, and I can’t get too upset at the thought of a cute girl who wants to jump my bones (literally) after I die.
If you have an open mind, I would suggest checking this out. If not for the subject matter, watch it to see Molly Parker, because she is really good. I would later see her in a movie called The Center of The World and that one convinced me to keep watch of most anything she does.
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