Kiss of the Damned
Kiss of the Damned pays homage to Italian horror cinema and Hammer Horror films of the 1970's, minus a lot of the cheesy qualities that plagued some of those films, most of which were due to budget restraints. This film doesn't boast a huge budget either, but clearly director Alexandra "Xan" Cassavetes knows how to effectively spend that small budget. No doubt her famous families background in cinema has given her the necessary tools to be a talented director in her own right. Her brother Nick Cassavetes directed Alpha Dog and the Notebook, her father was Guy Woodhouse in Rosemary's Baby, and she has previously made a documentary, but her Silver Screen directorial debut is impressive.
Albeit a vampire movie, it is a quintessential vampire movie, sticking to the traditional mythos that horror fans have come to expect. None of this Twilight nonsense of sparkling in daylight and playing baseball. Kiss of the Damned vampires are brooding, sad and sexy. This films oozes...
Damned Awesome
I saw a trailer for this in a theater and turned to my friend and said, "This looks awful, but I would totally watch it." Then I found out it was written and directed by a daughter of John Cassavetes and it was available on demand, so I was intrigued and took a chance. Definitely the best vampire movie I've seen in a long time, stylish and less goofy than the trailer suggests. Retro and smart, glamorous and gritty, very satisfying.
In Depth Take on a Worn Subject
I'm continually amazed how a subject which you think has no more gas left in the tank has new life breathed into it.
Here's the scoop. A screenwriter (Milo Ventmiglia) falls for a gal (Josephine de la Baume) who turns out to be a vampire. He finds this out but allows her to "turn" him because he's so in love with her. Her sister (also a vampire) arrives at the home and throws everything up for grabs.
Many have called this an homage to the 70's vampire flicks. Other than some cheesy, Euro sounding music from that period, I found this much better than what Hammer and like-minded studios were pushing back then. This is better all the way around. Certainly tech oriented aspects of film making have improved over the decades, so this looks a lot better than its predecessors. But the writing is much better as well. This digs deeper to the heart of what it's like to be a vampire in a human's world. There is even a rather philosophical discussion to that effect during one...
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