Meridian - Le baiser de la bête

Young American sculptor Catherine (Sherilyn Fenn) returns to her family castle in Italy where she meets up with her pal, artist Gina (Charlie Spradling). After enjoying the sights of a travelling sideshow, the girls invite the performers to the castle for dinner. During the evening, the friends are drugged and raped by twins Lawrence and Oliver (both played by Malcolm Jamieson), one of whom is evil, and the other cursed to turn into a beast whenever he gets the horn!

Those who watch Meridian in order to see Twin Peaks babe Sherilyn Fenn in the altogether will no doubt be more than happy by the actress's frequent unclothing, but they may be amazed to find that Fenn isn't the fittest bird in the film: outshining Sherilyn is Charlie Spradling, who only has the one nude scene, but what a scene it is! If only the roles had been reversed, giving us more opportunity to fully appreciate her incredible physical attributes.

In addition to the impressive forms of both of its leading ladies, Meridian also benefits from excellent special make-up effects courtesy of Greg Cannom (channeling his inner Rick Baker for a cool transformation scene), a lush score from Pino Donaggio, and sumptuous cinematography from Mac Ahlberg. It's a shame that the story isn't really worthy of such talent - a weak 'beauty and the beast' style fantasy horror yarn spiced up with erotica, that director Charles Band is unable to bring any magic to: his attempts at style and classiness (slow motion, red light and smoke) amount to tedium for the most part, while the script conveniently glosses over certain plot elements with fairytale 'anything goes' dream-logic (thereby avoiding addressing such questions as 'Why does the painting being restored by Gina depict events that are about to happen?',' Why is there is a glowing red portal in the castle walls?', and 'Why do the sideshow ghosts enter and leave through the mouth of a statue?').

4.5/10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb. Recommended to fans of Fenn and Spradling for obvious reasons, but the slow pace and trite gothic romanticism makes it a bit of a bore at times.

This film will not challenge anyone intellectually. The castle where a good portion of the movie is filmed does have an eerie feel about it. Charlie Spradling and Sherilyn Fenn play the two women who are drugged at the castle where they live by some weird circus performers. The leader of the group takes Fenn into a back bedroom and strips her down and looks like he is going to have a good time with the nubile, lovely lady but then he passes her over to his twin brother. The leader then goes and strips down Charlie Spradling and and ravages her body while his brother gets it on with the drugged Fenn. Weird!

Yes, this movie features the incredible...ummm, talents of Sherilyn Fenn and Charlie Spradling but honestly I was going to imitate another fairy tale and fall asleep for a hundred years rather than make it to the end. This is BEAUTY AND THE BEAST with a modern-day Italian setting, and a gothic horror spin by making it a psycho-sexual romp! Sounds intriguing, and it well could have been much like the SNOW WHITE movie that did this same thing with more success, or COMPANY OF WOLVES that remade Little Red Riding Hood into a very sexy gothic horror movie. But alas, MERIDIAN just plods along without much direction or clear focus on anything! The effects are not special, the story simple and not engaging, and valiant efforts by La Fenn and company can not save any scene in the entire movie. Only the die-hard Fenn fan could weather this storm, and I barely made it despite a very strong obsession for her.

decent sexy and stylish fantasy/horror film is well acted and lots of nice eye candy the girls are gorgeous and this is pretty slow paced but it is kinda engaging with lots of good set pieces and some very good lighting sequences and beautiful visuals some cool dream sequences make this very slow paced watchable also the transformations are very well done and realistic the make up effects are astounding and amazing the beautiful set pieces and designs make this a stunning yet slow pace viewing it is sexy stylish and very well made now this isn't your typical horror flick it's very unique and i recommend it to all of you *** out of 5

Meridian is an erotic horror film that used to be known under the name 'Phantoms' here in the UK. It was directed by Charles Band for his Full Moon production company who were known purveyors of B-movie schlock. This one seems to have a bit more of a budget about it, although it was still a straight-to-video effort. In fact, it could easily pass itself off as an Italian movie, seeing as it benefits from a very nice on-location Roman setting; while the soundtrack from the popular composer Pino Donaggio gives it a lush Euro atmosphere, in a late 80's kind of way. Its story focuses on a young American woman Catherine who inherits an Italian castle. One day, she and her friend encounter a group of travelling carnies whom they invite over for dinner, only for this to end in both girls being drugged and raped by their guests. Supernatural events follow…

The film is sort of a sex and horror version of the 'Beauty and the Beast' story and keeping with its fairy-tale roots it remains a pretty restrained, albeit erotic in places. The reason it's sexy is also the prime reason to see it and that is undoubtedly on account of its two incredible leading ladies, Sherilyn Fenn and Charlie Spradling. They are certainly the best thing about this one and both feature prominently in a very sensual and well shot erotic sequence, which you will sure know when you see it. As astronomically beautiful as Ms Fenn is, I actually thought that Charlie was - incredibly - even more attractive. Needless to say, these girls are pure candy for the eyes. Unfortunately Charlie more or less vanishes for the second half of the movie and the plot then focuses on the ghostly goings on surrounding Sherilyn. Perhaps inevitably after such a strong start the film does fade somewhat as it goes on, yet it remains pretty stylish and entertaining for the most part. But see it for Charlie and Sherilyn would be my advice.