Kissed

In Canadian director Lynne Stopkewich's first feature film, Molly Parker plays a young woman who finds a strange sort of fulfillment through sex with corpses. Almost by accident, she attracts the attention of a student who is not only not repelled, but fascinated by her hobby. Though it doesn't shy away from its depictions of necrophilia, Kissed is not an exploitative film: It gives the sense that, like Parker's character, it's trying to find a new, meaningful, and comforting approach to death. Despite this attempt and a fascinating opening sequence, Kissed too often devolves into a Gothic fantasy, and it's not aided by the purple, explanatory narration. There's much of interest here, and though it's rare and refreshing to find a film that genuinely tries to address the subject of death directly, Kissed is likely to leave its audience as cold as the objects of its heroine's desire.