A determined student murders his pregnant secret girlfriend and moves onto her twin sister who gradually becomes suspicious of her new lover.A determined student murders his pregnant secret girlfriend and moves onto her twin sister who gradually becomes suspicious of her new lover.A determined student murders his pregnant secret girlfriend and moves onto her twin sister who gradually becomes suspicious of her new lover.
- Awards
- 2 wins
Frederick Koehler
- Mickey
- (as Freddy Koehler)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMatt Dillon was actually James Dearden's third choice to play the lead role. Originally Dearden wanted River Phoenix to play Jonathan, but Phoenix didn't relate to the material saying he couldn't play someone so evil. Then Dearden approached Kiefer Sutherland who turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts. Finally Dillon got the role and Dearden was so impressed with his performance that he later said Dillon should've been his first choice all along.
- GoofsWhen Ellen discovers her sister's lighter among Jonathan's souvenirs, it lights on the first attempt. It is a fuel-burning lighter, which, after extended storage, would not have worked at all, the fuel having long since evaporated.
- SoundtracksDangerous Love
Written by Simon Stokes & Mark Hefferman
Performed by Simon Stokes
Courtesy of Kook Records
Featured review
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
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
helpful•70
- hitchcockthelegend
- Nov 18, 2017
- How long is A Kiss Before Dying?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Ölüm Öpücüğü
- Filming locations
- St. Thomas Church - 1 W 53rd St, New York City, New York, USA(Jonathan and Ellen's wedding)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $15,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $15,429,177
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $4,348,165
- Apr 28, 1991
- Gross worldwide
- $15,429,177
- Runtime1 hour 34 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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