Kissed (1996)

3.5

09 Sep 2023

Death has fascinated Sandra since childhood. At a young age, she found dead animals with her friend Carol, and the two would hold ceremonies — for Carol, a funeral, but for Sandra, a spiritual experience that brings her closer to crossing over

As she got older, she began to work at a funeral home, training in embalming. She learns secondhand that her teacher has sex with the young boys, so she tries the same

When Sandra meets Matt — a cute boy her age who is a medical student — she confesses that she “makes love to corpses.” Matt is intrigued — red flag #1 — and they start dating

Kissed aims to give a human portrait, making the movie about Sandra first and her necrophilia as just one facet of her. The film goes out of its way to avoid the grosser aspects of her predilection intent on not scaring away audiences from the story

White light fills the screen when Sandra feels closer to crossing over: the mortuary light, the sun through a window as she opens her first casket, the Fassbinder-like explosion of white at her first kiss

Despite how this sounds, the filmmakers render a touching story and make you care for Sandra, even if you don’t agree with all (or any) of her choices

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