Vicious Kiss

Always liked Margaux Hemingway in the few pictures that she did act in and also her sister. I enjoyed their Grandfather's writing, Ernest Hemingway, however, in this picture I felt so sorry for Margaux, because of the fact that her drug and booze additions were quite apparent in her over all appearance in this film. Angela (Monique Parent), a wealthy widow, discovers that Jason James,(Danny Fendley) is the spitting image of her beloved deceased husband. Angela does everything in her power to create a sort of "Fatal Attraction" type of love for poor Jason/James, she actually rapes him and even drugs him to make love to her. Angela never gives this guy a rest and constantly wants to make love. This film is horrible and of course, you can see plenty of nudity, but the film is not worth your time viewing.

The last time I watched this I had thought the film was only 54 minutes in length, a typical runtime for a Donald Farmer joint. Then I realized the DVD had a glitch in its time display and the film was actually 90+ minutes long, a typical runtime for anyone else but a possible slog for a director like Farmer. Stupefied because I thought I had already gotten to the climax, I peaced out and gave Vicious Kiss its 2½ star rating. Tonight I return to give it a fair go...

B-movie queen Monique Parent plays an unhinged rich widow who, after discovering the spitting image of her cheating late husband, aims to dominate his life to get her marriage back.

...the remaining half hour is worth committing to, I'm glad to say. Cold-blooded murder, neon-drenched sex, dry hump rape, fist fighting, dog attacks, and an exploding motorcycle crash, to mention a few surprise moments during the back end you'd be remiss to skip. No cannibals or vampires or hacksaws, but I'll still bump it up a star.

I laughed. I cried. I viciously kissed the last hour and a half of my life good-bye. Now, I am a fan of the spirit behind low-budget movie making. Plus I understand when a film has budget constraints, but this film really has no excuse. Donald Farmer, where do you get your money? My intelligence was severely insulted. It was almost like I was losing IQ points watching this. My ears were was tortured listening to (the now deceased) Margaux Hemingway(Sorry Margeux) lisp and slur her way through this movie. (I am almost convinced that she has been the inspiration of recent cartoon voices.) I couldn't understand a word the woman spoke. It was painful. And Danny Fendley ever consider acting lessons? I have heard that they are great.

The one that redeemed the film was the presence of the beautiful Monique Parent. Even though her acting wasn't the greatest in this one either, but she definitely out-shined her competitors for the spotlight in the film.

Compared to other films I have seen in this realm it wasn't the worst stink bomb, but it was far from a bed of roses. A four, I feel, is a generous vote. It is definitely worth a watch if you can tolerate(and find humorous) the flaws of low budget films. You might find this film to be entertaining in it's attempt to be a real movie.

One thing I would like to know is 'What was with the stuffed dog anyways?' Those of you who have seen it know what I am talking about. This is a great movie to show future film students what NOT to do.

I did the cover of the reissue of this movie (Vicious Kiss) for Vintage Home Entertainment (you can see it in the "Commercial" gallery on my website--just google L.W. Perkins) and I came up with the "Love Can Be Terrifying" tagline because the black area at the top of the DVD case looked pretty empty..I have no idea what the original movie poster or tagline looked like, since VHE just gave me the movie as a master tape and turned me loose on it. So real movie purists may have to dig some more to find the original tagline:-)

Okay, my comment apparently hasn't got enough lines in it, so I will comment on the movie--I agree with the review that the acting was less than sterling, but I had come off doing covers for several other *much worse* movies and this one at least had a plot you could follow, and there even were one or two mild plot twists. Probably my biggest complaint was the uneven sets--the "mansion" that the wealthy widow lived in was so laughably a tract house somewhere that it was a bit distracting from the "action".

--L.W. Perkins