It’s not like this movie is boring. I do enjoy noirs. I’ve watched a good few and I know their pace is slow, calculated, and rewarding. This film’s reward is an impressive last 20 minutes, which makes the rest of the film going through the motions pale in comparison. To not spoil the twist, its switch into a different form of genre fiction, which reminds me of how Twin Peaks also plays with genre. But what makes Twin Peaks’ twists and turns more engaging is how soon the corrupting force that causes this eldritch shift is introduced. While it doesn’t come out of nowhere, in Kiss Me Deadly, the twist separates itself from the body of the film to become its own thing. If it was subtly implied throughout the film, I would’ve enjoyed it more.
On a more positive note, one of my favorite parts of this film was how the antagonists were portrayed. Like many other noirs, the main threat is organized crime. Said mob is often portrayed as a shuffling pair of pinstriped legs, that is until a fight scene erupts where I’m fully entertained by how these actors put their entire bodies into physical stunts of might. It adds an air of surrealism with how they choose to obscure the identity of who was assaulting our protagonist.
-written by Aliana Preciado Higgins