Kissing Darkness (DVD Review)

Vampires have always been a little bit gay, but Kissing Darkness wants to take that further with a film that comes across as if Twilight had been made in the style of a gay porn movie – except without the hardcore sex.

A group of gay friends (plus a token straight guy) head off for a weekend at a remote cabin. However their fun time isn’t just spoiled by tensions amongst them, but by a strange spirit they awaken after messing with a Ouija board. The ‘witch’ seems to have a problem with the gays, and works her way through the group, turning them into bloodthirsty vampires who do her bidding.

While there’s a lot of effort been put into Kissing Darkness (indeed, the director has apparently been working to get it made for years), the result is very cheap and pretty cheesy. The actors won’t be troubling the Oscars any time soon, the audio is often muffled and the plot is all over the place. The guys are good-looking and some of the movie is quite fun, but for every scene that’s entertaining there are two more where you’ll be rolling your eyes.

It’s the sort of film where you get the feeling that the plot is an excuse to string together lots of sexiness, but it’s been made in a way where it thinks it’s a proper movie, and by pretending it’s more than it is, it just highlights what it’s lacking. There are some racy moments and a couple of the sex-scenes are really quite hot (including one where it would appear the actors found it quite sexy too – or at least certain body parts did), but even with those it’s movie sex where it’s difficult not to get pulled out of it by the fact it’s clear people don’t really make love quite like that. It’s that odd sort of sex that seems full-on and coy at the same time, partly due to the fact no one removes their underwear more than showing off their butts.

However to get to the sexy bits you have to sit through the rest, which isn’t that good at all. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy with a cheesy horror movie that’s just designed to pass the time and be a bit sexy, but even I had difficulty with Kissing Darkness – not least by how often it gets close to parody, such as the excuses the guys start to have to find for why they’ve taken off their shirts.

There is some promise here, and the vampiric ‘witch’ who wants vengeance for her broken-hearted past is kind of fun, but it’s not enough to make this work.

Overall Verdict: A cheap, cheesy and very gay horror movie, which may sometimes be sexy and occasionally quite fun but is mostly pretty rubbish.

Reviewer: Tim Isaac