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At a later date Sandra is more cautious, having been slightly burnt once she now trusts no one with her secret. Fortunately for her the cards fall just so when her floristry position takes her to the Wallis Funeral Home. Acutely conscious that this is where she'd like to spend her days, Sandra corners Mr. Wallis (Jay Brazeau) and asks to become his assistant. Impressed by her enthusiasm he takes her on, little guessing at her true motivation. Inside the home she learns about dressing the corpses, keeping the relatives relaxed and, most significantly, embalming the bodies. While she doesn't much like the idea of puncturing their abdomens with a huge needle (believing that they can still feel), she takes to the job eagerly.
In the outside world Sandra enrols on college courses to increase her knowledge, hoping to take in all there is to know about death. While idly browsing through a text on post-mortem procedure, Sandra finds herself being chatted up by sometime medical student Matt (Peter Outerbridge). Insistently curious about her background, Matt engenders a unique reaction within Sandra; she is charmed by his attention. For the very first time she is attracted to a man who hasn't gone through rigour mortis. Back in the funeral home Sandra starts chatting to the slightly creepy janitor Jan (James Timmons). Perhaps, after all, she isn't quite alone in her desires!
There is much to be said for films which explore genre backwaters, such as that which crosses necrophilia with romance and comedy. For one thing they can open your eyes to fresh ideas, sides of the human psyche that you may never before have considered. For another, any picture that avoids the pallid formulae of Hollywood has got to be worth a look. Unfortunately while Kissed meets both of these criteria, it doesn't go much further. Put simply, once you've got over the initial thrill of seeing Sandra have sex with a corpse you realise how slight the story is. First-time director Lynne Stopkewich seems content to rely on the central theme without exploring it in depth; a fine approach in theory, yet in practice there's too little here to retain the attention.
Since Sandra is the pivotal figure in Kissed, it's essential that her frame of mind appears credible. Luckily through a combination of the opening scenes, with young actress Natasha Morley, and the emotional solidity of Parker, this never becomes a weak point. From the very first frame it's clear that Sandra has a fairly warped perspective on life, being riveted by the idea of "crossing over" into the afterlife. The cute angle is that the film imposes no moral code, leaving that choice to the audience; thus Sandra's desire is never seen in a negative light. The other characters in the film are far less fully defined, mostly being illuminated in comparison to Sandra rather than in their own right. Where they do exhibit a characteristic of interest (such as with Mr. Wallis), the leads are not followed up.
The lasting impression of Kissed is just how tame the film is, despite its provocative subject. While the idea that bodies can still feel after death is an interesting one, Stopkewich doesn't take it beyond a few exploratory scenes. Instead she chooses the safe and pedestrian route, making Kissed both tedious and predictable; in essence the movie could have been based around Sandra's secret passion for flower-arranging, considering how little difference this would make. The really annoying aspect is that there are moments of humour which spice up the leaden tone, indicating how absorbing the story could have been in more inspired hands. So if you're catching Kissed purely for the erotic morgue scenes, be prepared to wind up as stiff as one of Sandra's "patients".
This film was viewed at the 1997 Birmingham International Film & Television Festival
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