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Vampires and Dark Romance are definite bedfellows, and Kiss of the Damned (2012) doesn’t invent
the wheel. Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia) is a screenwriter who eyes the forlorn
Djuna (Joséphine de La Baume) in a club. Both are lonely. Djuna lives in a
mansion and feeds off animals instead of humans while Paolo is in need of
companionship. They both could complement each other in the department of love
and sexual fulfillment. The vampire genre has pretty much at this point used up
all its resources. I’m not sure what else we can expect at this time except
doing the same rounds that have been tread since the likes of Murnau’s Nosferatu and Browning’s Dracula. Milo cracks a smile once he’s
with Joséphine but the guy needs a personality because I couldn’t care less
about him or his character. In fact, even when you’d think he would be absorbed
by the relationship with Joséphine after seemingly going through the motions of
an unfulfilled life, Milo hasn’t the power to summon the least bit of joy. It’s
all stiff and lifeless. Joséphine is blessed with a European beauty that fits
perfectly with the part of a longing-for-love vampire, shown sulking and in
misery, whose countenance cannot rise above the near pit of despair her
existence seems to have provided her.
Even more troublesome to Djuna is her
ravenous sister, Mimi (Roxane Mesquida), a carnivorous vampire more than
willing to feast from mortal humans without the slightest hint of remorse or
regret. Djuna reports to an opera star who seems to be an authoritative vampire
with some level of prestige, but her sister gets the benefit of the doubt when
all would point to her needing to be contained for the benefit of vampires in
general. That said, Mimi brings a fan to the famous performer for a “snack”
that ends in blood. Meanwhile, Paolo’s agent (played by a coke-snorting Michael
Rapaport, looking might weary) , has been trying to get in contact with him,
finally reaching the young writer at Djuna’s mansion. Sleeping off a drunken
binge and coke high, the agent is soon attacked by a vampire. Who could have
been? It’d be easy to point at Mimi, but Djuna and Paolo both have the same
vampiric appetite…
The movie is sexy, and Joséphine and Roxane are both
seductive screen beauties, so Kiss of the
Damned (I think its chief goal to feature sexy and dangerous vampires in
contemporary society trying to co-exist with humans, secretly feeding from them
on occasion) is a success in what I believe it wants to set out to accomplish.
It isn’t original and doesn’t cover fresh terrain, opting to follow the bumpy
ride against the romance of Joséphine and Milo, both of whom contend with
Roxane’s infiltration of their potential happiness. Because the couple is
dealing with “the hunger”, they aren’t altogether happy, but Roxane seems right
the opposite: because she doesn’t fight against what she is and how she
hungers, Roxane’s Mimi embraces her voracious appetite. The movie is headed in
one direction it seems: Mimi will have to be removed from the equation in order
for Mimi and Paolo to ever truly remain in their good place in the
relationship. Mimi’s reckless behavior and unstable bloodthirst (and her
precocious attitude, needing to be naughty, always causing trouble, Mimi’s a
handful) are certain to be her undoing.
Because Paolo is a man, he cannot resist the eventual
seduction of Mimi once she makes a move on him in a steamy shower. Weakened by
not taking from humans, Djuna is told to rest while the sullen Paolo is in the
shower, soon to be joined by Mimi. Without getting too explicit or featuring a
great bit of nudity (Paolo’s sex scene with Djuna is similarly shot), the sex
scenes featuring Paolo and the vampire sisters still, to me, are quite sensual
and erotic…both women have a lot to do with that. Chained for a while at her
behest, Djuna is soon released by Paolo and her hunger can no longer be abated.
Paolo is bitten, and she admits to Mimi that he is her love. Mimi is always at
odds with Djuna because of their deep-seeded dislike for each others’ ways. It
is obvious Mimi relishes the idea of seducing her sister’s man so the attempt
isn’t surprising. And because Mimi is powerfully persuasive when it comes to
her seductive charms, it’s not surprising Paolo is unable to resist. Both Djuna
and Paolo eventually cop to mistakes they made (feeding from a friend, fucking
a sister) and all’s well that ends well. Oh, and Mimi receives her just
punishment for egregiously motivating her opera singing mentor to take a bite
out of a 17-year-old fan…a deer in the road and a sun in the sky took care of
her. Djuna’s faithful maid lights a smoke while watching Mimi smoke!
This film does show that taking from humans seems to
generate far more strength than animal life as evident when Mimi lifts Djuna
from her feet by the throat with relative ease. Djuna just wants Mimi out of
her life, off her residence, and put away for the long term due to her
insatiable bloodlust. The film also relates to us that the hunger never
dissipates. At an after-opera party, Djuna and Paolo both find unrest as human
throats call to them. Not Mimi, as she picks up a man from a club, takes him
off to the side, as the public goes on their way, ripping out his throat and
reveling in the taste of flesh and blood. Mimi desires authority and the fruits
of what her vampirism can provide. It isn’t about mingling amongst the mortals
and trying to fit in; Mimi wants to rule and feast.
My favorite scene is undeniably Djuna’s unrepentant craving, spurning from arousal in Paolo, unchained in her bed even though he knows she is dangerous and out of control. I got a vicarious thrill from that gorgeous body writing in equal parts ecstasy and agony. Sex and Hunger at odds, both eventually leading to Paolo’s turning. It is the orgasm at the end of the orgasm. Djuna satisfies her sexual and blood hunger all at the moment of her orgasmic peak…Paolo is the reason she could reach this rapturous moment. This separates Kiss of the Damned from one of those damned Twilight movies. While I think both women are delicious in their own ways, Roxane--dare I say it?--has the juicier part as Mimi. She is the femme fatale, an absolute vampish heavy; in wickedness does she leave her mark. Joséphine has that sad kind of beauty fit for paintings: always warring against what she is, and having brought the man she loves into that same dilemma of ferocious hunger, in a sense condemning him to a never-ending desire for human blood not to be quenched.
Just saw this the other day and have to agree. I preferred We Are The Night, but this is DAMN sexy vampiric stuff. And we both have the same favourite scene.
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