Apocalypse Kiss - US DVD review

Dark sci-fi/detective film “Apocalypse Kiss” comes to US DVD this April and I was very kindly sent an advance screener to take a look at and review.

 

Set in a dysotopian future, in a world filled with pollution and where giant factories tower over the landscapes (think “Blade Runner”, but without the budget), the film follows a couple of girls, Katia and Gladys, who survive by seducing seedy rich people, then murdering them.

 

Unfortunately for them, their actions attract the attention of high class serial killer Adrian (D C Douglas), who works as a high flying Computer systems analyist during the day, but goes around murdering people during the evening (think, poor-mans “American Psycho”) and he is not best pleased that his killings are being under reported in the news, in favour of the killings being committed by the 2 girls.

 

In the middle of all this, you have a gruff, chain smoking detective, Jerry Hipple (Tom Detrik), who’s trying to track down the killers, but isn’t having much luck. Much to the chagrin of his captain, played by cult movie actor Tom Atkins. So whilst Detective Hipple attempts to apprehend Adrian, Adrian is going after the girls as he’s fed up with them stealing his spotlight in the media.

 

Sort of a difficult film to describe, for the most part its done in the style of a 1950s detective movie, but obviously set in the future. For me the film was a bit hit and miss, whilst the concept of a futuristic “film noir” style movie was an interesting one, the films method of storytelling seemed a bit off. The story with the 2 girls and their antics is really more of a secondary plot, whilst the main thrust of the film is about Detective Hipple and his attempts to track down Adrian, but these 2 plot lines are initially presented the other way round, creating a bit of confusion as the film got going.

 

Also, whilst it was good to see veteran horror actor Tom Atkins in this, as well as fellow horror B-movie star Michael Berryman, who has a brief role as the Horn company CEO, and Troma President Lloyd Kauffman, who appears as the President of the United States. The acting by the rest of the cast is very much a z-grade affair, plus was it really necessary to see Leo Wylder’s character Plex strutting around naked at the start of the film? Whilst I’m sure that audiences at the festivals must have found this hilarious, it had me wanting to reach for the off switch.

 

Now, it should be born in mind that this is a low budget movie, so its not fair to compare it mainstream Hollywood films. I think the director more or less achieved what he set out to do in creating a futuristic detective film, and I found the majority of the film watchable. So if low budget sci-fi films are your thing, you might want to check this out.

 

The screener version I was sent did not contain any extras, however the DVD release should contain the following…

 

- Making of Featurette
- Behind-the-scenes featurette by Lloyd Kaufman
- Cast/Crew Audio Commentary
- Fake Commercials from the Future

 

The film Is released to US DVD April 8th from Midnight releasing,

 

View the trailer on YouTube

 

Buy the US DVD from Amazon.com