Kiss of the Damned (2012): Twisted Euro Vampires in the wrong movie (Review)

During the director interview on Eureka’s release of Xan Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned, the director states that titles like Twilight are children’s films and don’t belong to the great tradition of vampires in cinema. Although that wasn’t the influence behind the film, it’s a good point to approach from. While those films are steeped in the awkward sexual politics young adult fiction, Cassavetes approaches the mythical beast as an aggressively sexual creature – invoking 1970s horror and European cinema.

While looking around a DVD rental shop, Djuna (Josephine de la Baume) catches sight of Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia), staring at him in a way that couldn’t possibly fail to get attention. Attracted by this spark, Paolo takes a great interest in Djuna who takes a good while to reciprocate. Claiming to have a skin condition, eventually, she gives in to Paolo’s tenacity. There are brief moments of violent passion, but it’s not until the night where Djuna admits that she is a vampire that events take a turn for the dramatic. That night the two of them have sex while Djuna is in her vampire form with Paolo being bitten in the process. With that ‘Kiss from a Damned’, the two are set to be lovers for all time. Behaving like the perfect loved up couple, their peace is interrupted by the arrival of Djuna’s chaotic sister, Mimi (Roxane Mesquida).

There are aspects of the relationship between Djuna and Paolo that don’t add up. Even though these vampires live among humans and are as much a part of this world as we are, survival is naturally much more of a task. Turning people on such a whim shows an incredible naiveté that makes it incredibly hard to believe that Djuna is an eternal being. It’s a small detail, but an important one. Despite their love being the main concern of the film, it quickly drags the film down after that initial lust cools off. From there, there is little to comment on for Paolo, he is but a cypher for powerful women to operate through.

The devil of Cassavetes script is in the detail. Unlike the majority of vampires in cinema, those in Kiss of the Damned are not part of a lineage that has them rampaging their way across Europe or America treating humans as little more than food.  These vampires have their own ways of operating and their own systems to save them from public lynching or execution. Being set in the modern-day, there is no secretive cabal in the guts of the city, no, instead they operate within the parameters of the bourgeoisie. Going from the aggressively sexual vampire in the privacy of her own home to a dinner party scene is a strange leap, an intentional one but no less strange. It’s in the realisation of this world that makes the greatest ingredient of Kiss of the Damned finds its best work.

That element is Djuna’s sister Mimi (Mesquida). While all the Vampires are engaged in high society and art, she is busy being their antithesis – the perfect picture of what a vampire should be. Mimi is a carnal creature, ruled by barely concealed promiscuity and blood lust while her kin is living off of synthetic blood and small animals. While Mesquida could never be accused of being a good actress, she brings a wave of anger and energetic conflict that sees the film at its sharpest.

Atmospheric, brutal and with no sentimentality at all, Cassavetes adoption of Euro Horror and 1970s style makes the whole thing pop. Taking its patience from European cinema and the sexy/ominous atmospherics found in Italian horror of the 70s. Cassavetes has tastefully borrowed from genre traditions that bring the best out of her material. Of which, Tobias Datum’s cinematography uses colour and the gorgeous hallways of the manor houses to imply at the dark truths hidden from view.

Even if any of the actors who are speaking in their second language never sell the script and the dialogue is occasionally clunky, there is still that measured detail. The community of vampires alone is worthy of your attention. It’s unfortunate then that the lavish detail and some beautifully directed hunt scenes centre around a love story that neither the characters nor the director are all that interested in. A slight reshifting of the focus would’ve made this a modern vampire classic. Would have, should have, could have.

Thanks for reading our late review of Kiss of the Damned

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