Kiss of the Damned

Plot synopsis:
Paolo, a screenwriter staying in Connecticut to write a screenplay, meets and falls in love with Djuna (Joséphine de La Baume), only to discover that she is a vampire who survives by consuming the blood of animals. She confesses to him, but he is refuses to believe, so she requests for him to chain her up so she can prove it to him. Revealed in her true form, Paolo is unafraid. He releases the chains that bind her and joins her, receiving her "kiss of death" and is turned into a vampire. The two continue to live in Djuna's large summer house which is actually owned by Xenia (Anna Mouglalis), a leader in the vampire community and theatre actress. It is a half-way house of sorts for vampires in Xenia's community.
Their happy life together is disturbed by the arrival of Mimi (Roxane Mesquida), Djuna's out of control and less morally sound sister who has come to live at the house after she killed a man in Amsterdam. Mimi claims she only plans on staying a week and proceeds to generate chaos in their lives. She feeds on human after human, forbidden in their community, seduces Paolo, and offers Xenia a virgin - Anne (Riley Keough), who is a fan of Xenia in the theatre. Irene is the caretaker of the summer house (Ching Valdes-Aran). Her family has been caretakers for generations due to a unique blood disorder that makes their blood undesirable to vampires. She overhears Djuna telling Xenia that her sister Mimi has been attacking humans, although Xenia tries to deny it.
Mimi is seen recklessly driving her car towards the house, loses control, and crashes. After a small time skip, it is evident dawn is approaching while Mimi is still strapped in the car. She wakes up and races to the house, only to fall short within sight but already burning from the sun. She sees Irene and begs her to help, but Irene ignores her desperate plea and, instead, pulls a cigarette out and lights it from Mimi before smoking it.
Next, Paolo and Djuna are preparing to leave the summer house. Paolo is saying how they're set to go stay with their friends in Italy. As they leave the house, a black trash bag near the entrance tips over. Djuna, Paolo, and Irene look back at it, find nothing of interest, and continue on their way.

Tags: violence, gothic, murder, flashback

Review:
At the time that I am writing this review, this movie has an abysmal rating on IMDb (less than five stars).If IMDb were a room full of people with exceptional taste, I guess I would understand why.
I get the feeling that it's supposed to be a 'Hunger' for the modern era, moody and atmospheric-- they've even traded the classical and operatic soundtrack for haze-scene and low key beats looped with synth harpsichord melodies -- and yes, sometimes it falls a bit short and comes off amateurish.But IMDb is not a room full of people with taste, so I don't get it.
I keep asking myself what about it is causing people to react so negatively; the only thing I can figure is that perhaps the vampire crowd are portrayed as too cultured or something, I don't know.Ultimately I guess I'm writing this review for people like me, those who put a lot (perhaps too much) stock in IMDb ratings.
As a fan of films like The Hunger and the whole 'artsy, excessively classy but tortured immortal' cliché I can honestly tell you that I didn't think this film was an utter waste of time (at least no more so than many other movies).
"Kiss Of The Damned" is a modern Gothic vampire tale that melds elements of classic romance with dramatic thriller edginess.
The film is directed by Xan Cassavetes and stars Milo Ventimiglia, Joséphine de La Baume, Roxane Mesquida .
In the movie Djuna falls in love with a young man Paolo whom she tries to resist.
Keep that in mind when watching this film if you are expecting a "True Blood" high intensity or gore level because you will be disappointed.
Let me explain"Kiss Of The Damned" carries us back to the golden age of vampire tales when we held a romantic and dark desire for the creature of the night.
The film didn't bother getting too graphic or soft-core with the heightened sexuality of the relationships depicted in the movie but it was adult enough to be sheer supernatural eye candy.
This movie is a great date movie for that vampire loving partner or person you want to kick it with.
The story was compelling in true dramatic style that expresses the lives we expect vampires to enjoy.
"Kiss Of The Vampire" is a film that flows more as an emotional heart- song with moments that rise to melodrama before sliding darkly down into melancholy.
There is plenty of blood soaked sequences that express the true nature and conflict that lives within the vampire but it does not push the themes to the level of grindhouse or exploitation.
However if you remember the classic view of the more romantic creature of more Gothic tales of the vampire then this movie gives you the heat, passion and- yes -the bloodstains as well..
However, Djuna discloses to Paolo that she is a vampire and while making love, she turns him into one.
"Kiss of the Damned" is an underrated and sexy film romance with a good romance with an international cast where the female vampires are French actresses.
If European cinema in the 1960s had access to HQ digital cinematography and sound, then a vampire film made then would be like this.
She is also firmly on the side of the vampires.This great-looking movie is a mixture of what works and what doesn't, hence a seven.
Xan understands that relationships, even in a vampire flick, are more interesting than blood and screaming.
This movie may not have hardcore CGI and 3D Gore splashing out into the audience, but it does however offer an interesting 'to the point' storyline and creative indie film tactics.
People giving this movie poor reviews are probably looking for the next "Interview With A Vampire" or "Twilight" and are judging it on a summer blockbuster 10 million dollar budget scale.
The story itself is more adult than your average teenage movie that came out lately (yes Twilight and any spawn it gave "birth" to), but also very predictable.I watched it at a Festival, so the audience knew or expected this to be a strange one.
The only interesting thing about this movie is the fact that it was directed by John Cassavete's daughter, Xan. He had a reputation for making off-beat dramas, and his offspring has his eye for the strange.
Djuna lives alone in a big, creepy house, until one day at a video store she meets Paolo, a screenwriter, and it is kismet; well not right away, but eventually after a bitten tongue, he discovers that she is a vampire.
The relationship of the sisters can be related to many real life siblings and/or friendships .The timeless feel of the home the sets the lighting the music...its an other worldly experience.It might be ahead of its time for people to get right away but its going to be something that people will be drawn to for years to come.
Like Tilda Swinton's "Only Lovers Left Alive", this is a vampire story for serious adherents to the genre.No ridiculous spraying of fake blood, and I loved the philosophical discussion as to vampires' targets and the relationships between humans and vampires.8 out of 10 stars, keep it up we the consuming audience will lap this up and clamor for more - standing ovation !!!!If only every vampire offering had this level of thought we wouldn't be so thirsty for decent offerings...I loved this film and look forward to more from writers and directors.....
Kiss is an homage to all the "sexy' Euro-vampire movies of the 70's which lit-up the Drive-ins and city theaters.
One night he gets writer's block and decides to visit a video rental store (making the movie a period piece) where he meets the sultry Djuna (Josephine de La Baume).
You know something's not right with her since we've already watched the maid come in and daintily clean blood off the marbled floor.Djuna kicks Paolo out when he tries to get to close to her for no obvious reason.
Djuna bites his mouth, drawing blood, and he finally leaves.This time when Paolo confronts Djuna she confesses: she's a real life vampire.
Djuna plunges her fangs into him, not to kill him, but to exchange blood, thus infecting him withe Living Dead curse.After Paolo has been vamped, the audience discovers some very interesting things about the breed: they have extremely long lives, don't succumb to natural diseases, and heal instantly upon injury.
The blood drive is always a problem and through-out the movie you see Paolo and Djuna staring at people's necks, fighting back the urge.
Vampirism is portrayed as alcoholism with benefits.But Djuna and Paolo's sojourn comes to an end with the arrival of Mimi, Djuna's sister.
However, Djuna has heard all this before....There is plenty of discussion on the Internet about how this movie resembles a 70's vampire movie in its form and style.
The love-making scenes between Paolo and Djuna nearly melted my HD screen.
The director choose French fashion models to play most of the lead women vampires and their way of pronouncing words in English does add to the sexiness.
I'll have to buy the Blu-Ray just to turn on the subtitles (watched it on Netflix).I highly recommend this movie as an homage to all the great vampire movies of the 70's.
I watched this with my offspring who summed it up perfectly with "It's kind of like a vampire film, but without anything interesting happening." Poor acting, below average directing and a slow script.
Prior to seeing this movie, I heard it likened to The Hunger and the poster looked like it was aimed at the kind of person who owns a lot of Stevie Nicks albums so I went in not expecting much and I wasn't disappointed - I became bored twenty minutes into it.
Above all, The Kiss of the Damned tried to tackle vampires from a new angle.
Craving human blood, they try to attack humans as rarely as possible.The approach to filmmaking in The Kiss of the Damned makes the viewer reminisce about the movies of the nineteen-sixties and nineteen-seventies.
Kiss of the Damned presents a Gothic romantic film that is nostalgic of classic vampire themes.
The film showcases colour in a dreamy and melancholy atmosphere, from the intimate close up shots of lust and violence, to the isolated and sprawling landscape shot at twilight.Kiss of the Damned is best described as a romantic thriller rather than a horror, as the bloodshed is pretty tame.
The film uses a mixture of 70's European music and classical, creating stylised and cultured vampires who are forever suspended in a timeless vault of isolation and immortality.
Kiss of the Damned is a luscious canvas of colour and raw sexual desire, with some blood splattered scenes included for good measure.
This is a story of a "reformed" vampire living outside New York City who turns handsome screenwriter Paolo, whereupon they begin sharing a life together as she gradually introduces him to higher society.
The plot is relatively simple and as believable as a contemporary vampire film can be made.
nice LIttle vampire sexy movie, accept its imperfection and enjoy ..
The vampire movie genre is one of the oldest in cinema.
With "Kiss of the Damned", director Xan Cassavetes, in her feature film debut, delivers a beautiful, atmospheric example of this, depicting the lives of a community of vampires in Connecticut.
While most of the vampires in the film try to control their nature, it is shown as marked by lust, brutality, power, and some weaknesses, just as they it is supposed to be.
It is a very nice vampire movie!
They become intimate, she turns him and introduces him to her world- a world of art-loving ancient vampires who live in hiding, who answer to a boss- the theater actress Xenia.Everything is going well; they make plans to travel to Italy, they hunt together in the woods for animals and drink synthetic blood, no vampire attacks humans.
But then Djuna's sister Mimi shows up, and she's bad news- young, reckless, fun-loving, authority-challenging.
Mimi likes all sorts of sex with humans, and she drinks their blood and kills them, she even seduces Paolo, and has plans for Xenia.Kiss of the Damned is exactly what I imagined and hoped it would be when I saw the original movie poster, not the one slapped on the DVD.
However, Roxane Mesquida just steals the show, she's hot and cute and mischievous.Kiss of the Damned is an astonishing feature film debut for writer/director Alexandra Cassavetes.
Horror needs more movies like Kiss of the Damned and less remakes and lost-footage junk..
I'm a huge fan of all vampire movies...
I knew when I first saw the trailer for this movie it was going to be a tad different from the brooding sparkly vampire teenagers we've come to know over the past several years and I was right.
So often vampire movies become campy predictable interpretations that completely miss the mark but this film was dead on (pun intended) From it's stylized 70's themed wardrobe and settings to it's fantastically melodramatic soundtrack it had me absolutely captivated right from the beginning.
It was gory, captivating, and seductive at all the right times and in my opinion one of the better vamp films I've ever seen..
Let me begin by saying I am a big fan of Vampire Movies....
There are very few Vampire films I have not yet seen!
I very much enjoyed it and I really hope the female director continues providing more films like this (this film being her first vampire/horror film).
I watched another vampire film recently that came very highly recommended (Only Lovers Left Alive) but Kiss Of The Damned is so much better than that one!!
This is simply the best vampire film ever made.
Joséphine de La Baume delivers a flawless performance as a scrupulous and tender, yet lustful vampire troubled by her rebellious, deranged sister (Roxane Mesquida) getting in the way of her newly found happiness.
I'm sure many vampire lore lovers out there, as well as appreciators of good cinema in general, will feel that this is the vampire movie they've wanted to see for a long time.
Kiss of the Damned is among on of my favorite vampire movies because the acting was so good.
While the storyline was a bit dry at time, the actors really made this movie good!
A movie very much like Interview With A Vampire.
This one has more of an Interview With A Vampire feel with the sexual aspect of True Blood.
This is not a teen geared vampire movie, but it's also not Dracula either.
If you are a vampire movie fan you will enjoy this.
There are many plot holes in this movie regarding vampire-ism and how it's shown here.
(Lenny didn't die, he's undead and he's gonna track down these female vampire killers.) I can see it now.This movie is fairly well done, but low budget and you can tell because the effects are kept to a minimum because the killings are so low.
Low budget vampire film that brings nothing new.
Mostly, because the vampires in the film, classical as they were, had this twist of high class addicts that tried to stay off human blood, but occasionally failed.
The vampire Djuna (Josephine de La Baume) resists the advances of Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia), but soon gives in to their passion.
When her trouble-making sister unexpectedly comes to visit, Djuna's love is threatened, and the whole vampire community becomes endangered.I did not pay as much attention to this film as I should have, but it had two things that jumped out at me that deserve recognition ,even if I am not ready to write a thorough review.One is Michael Rapaport.
Anyway this is a sexy, dark great great great vampire movie.
I think I love that the vampires were trying to fight against their passion.
I really loved the characters and thought they were excellent, all really good looking and sexy of course!
Take some conventionally attractive people, semi nudity, blood, vampires mix it together and under normal circumstances something quite sexy will pop out of the other end of the movie making machine 9 times out of 10.
The result is akin to the kind of soft porn you can see any day of the week on late night TV which is funny to begin with but becomes dull after a while.What confuses me most about this movie however, is the fact that these people are vampires (which let's face it is pretty cool).
it's just a shame that the rest is so pants.If you like your vampires boring, this is the movie for you.
We first meet Djuna (Joséphine de La Baume), a neurotic introvert who spends her nights scavenging the forest for animals and watching romantic movies.
He would rather be cursed as a vampire forever than live a life, regretting the love he denied.
To those whose opinion of vampires has been tarnished by the Twilight series, please watch this film to see it done correctly for once.3.5/5.
It will appeal to those that have loved Twilight and other brain dead people.There have been a lot of romanticizing of vampire movies lately so I tell some of my ideas on vampire myths.
Boring romantic vampire movie.
You can't get more clichè than that in a vampire movie....
I watched "Kiss of the damned" last night because I haven't seen a movie with Milo Ventimiglia in a while.I am not going to lie, he was the main reason to watch it.
Most people will probably think this is another vampire movie like Twilight but this one is not that cheesy and contains a lot of sexual scenes(little too much I think).
The good thing is that I didn't fall asleep because there were definitely parts that got me interested .The bad thing is that some of the scenes did not make sense to me, others could have been done better and I felt like the story could have been more deep, with little more details and explanations.All in all this is definitely not a movie that I would like to watch again.
So if you like Milo or Joséphine you will want to see it but other than that I don't find anything special or remarkable about "Kiss of the damned"..
When they do bite another of their kind, it is usually to the sound of opera and surrounded by sumptuous décor – and often because of the machinations of wild-child Mimi, who comes to visit her sister Djuna and her new lover, Paolo.
Excellent Vampire movie!.
It has everything I like in a Vampire movie.
Sort of a love story, violence, good ending, good plot line, and the Vampires are realistic (well, as vampires go).I wish I could find more movies like this one.
I'm running out of Vampire movies.
The Twilight Series is OK, but this movie is the kind of Vampire movie I like.
It has a good mix of a love story mixed with Vampire violence.
Djuna (Joséphine de La Baume) is a vampire.
Except for the Apple product placement this could have been an Italian 70's film with the acting, scenery and music.A fair film for vampire lovers.Parental Guide: F-bomb, sex, nudity (Roxane Mesquida, Joséphine de La Baume).
A-Z Horror Movie of the Day..."Kiss of the Damned" (R - 2012 - US)Sub-Genre: Vampire/RomanceMy Score: 6.6Cast=5 Acting=7 Plot=6 Ending=7 Story=8 Scare=4 Jump=4 F/X=8 Vampire=9 Romance=9The vampire Djuna resists the advances of Paolo, but soon gives in to their passion.
When her trouble-making sister unexpectedly comes to visit, Djuna's love is threatened, and the whole vampire community becomes endangered.This slow burn was a good vampire movie!!
It has a solid love story and is very sensual...oh and there are vampires, too.
No I wouldn't do that to my fellow horror movie fans...this is well worth a look!