A Kiss Before Dying

1991

Crime / Drama / Mystery / Thriller

7
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 31% · 13 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 32% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.7/10 10 6394 6.4K

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Director

James Dearden Photo
James Dearden

Top cast

Elzbieta Czyzewska Photo
Elzbieta Czyzewska as Landlady
Billie Neal Photo
Billie Neal as Nurse
Charles Bodycomb Photo
Charles Bodycomb as Motorcycle Cop
Sam Coppola Photo
Sam Coppola as Detective Michaelson
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
855.76 MB
1280*690
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 32 min
Seeds 5
1.71 GB
1920*1036
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
1 hr 32 min
Seeds 14

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by jotix100 5 / 10

A stolen life

Reviewed by uroskin 7 / 10

Hitchcock tribute

The large part of the fun of watching A Kiss Before Dying is looking out for the number of Hitchcock movie moments the film is paying tribute to: from Psycho's shower shots and the lonesome mother's house our Norman Bates has escaped from, to the bleaching of the heroine and taking the Kim Novak role a la Vertigo with possibly lethal consequences. I was hugely amused and never mind the creaking plot. On a technical level, I loved the Technicolor hue of the film, very Hitchcock period too. I'm not sure why the lead actress, Sean Young, got a double Razzie award for her dual role. It seems undeserved. I'm sure there must have been far worse performances in 1991 to choose from.
Reviewed by hitchcockthelegend 5 / 10

Kiss of life required to ignite this film noir re-imaging.

A remake of the 1956 film of the same name, A Kiss Before Dying is directed by James Dearden and Dearden adapts the screenplay from Ira Levin's novel. It stars Sean Young, Matt Dillon, Max von Sydow, Dianne Ladd and James Russo. Music is by Howard Shore and cinematography by Mike Southon.Story has Dillon as a troubled young man who murders his pregnant girlfriend (Young) and then hones in on her twin sister (Young again obviously) for further psychotic shenanigans.It's just about an average thriller at best, where even if the plot line and character motivations are intriguing enough to hold the attention to keep one interested to the ending, even there the outcome is rushed and unsatisfying. From the negative reaction at the initial test screenings, to Golden Raspberry awards, and tales of rewrites and re-shoots et al, this noir reboot is messy.The tie-in to Hitchcock's Vertigo is glaringly "not" homage worthy, and not just content with that, director Dearden tries to use some of Hitchcock's macabre black humour to unintentionally "not" witty results. So with Young on hilariously bad form as well, the thriller aspects strain to get resuscitated for dramatic worth.Dearden does show some nice touches with his camera-work, and there's a lurid quality to Southon's colour lenses that pay respect in heart to Levin's source material, but ultimately it's hard to recommend seriously to noir fans and the 56 version (itself not without problems) is still the way to go. 5/10
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