Kissed

Lynn Stopkewich's Kissed is now set for a doubtlessly quieter launch onto DVD

Film Review by Lindsay West | 12 Mar 2007
Film title: Kissed
Release date: 12 March.
First released in 1996 amidst a flurry of controversy and Newsnight debate, Lynn Stopkewich's Kissed is now set for a doubtlessly quieter launch onto DVD. The story of a young woman's (Molly Parker, Hollywoodland) descent into necrophilia, Kissed is an unapologetically - even zealously - dark film, charting the ritualism and fetishism of this most niche of sexual preferences.

The contemporary outrage and condemnation of the film was too easy, and the inevitable DVD sleeve associations with other sex-taboo films are inaccurate – Kissed is nowhere near as stylised nor as likeable as Secretary, but thankfully avoids the giggly voyeurism of Crash.

Parker is a compelling study in unearthly serenity, and though the film is by no means conventional entertainment, its sensitivity with such problematic subject matter demands at the very least a respectful response. Certainly a bit of a challenge – and hardly going to make it onto primetime TV any time soon - but undeniable as a piece of groundbreaking cinema. [Lyndsay West]
Release Date: 12 March.