It was the premise that most fascinated me into seeing 'Apocalypse Kiss', which is actually the case with quite a lot of films (have a thing for good premises and talented casts and hate it when they are squandered). It sounded truly fascinating and really one of the best and most imaginative premises for any film seen recently by me. Though there was the worry as to whether the film would pull it off on a low budget as it did seem like there was quite a big risk of it not making it.
Sadly my fears were proved correct. 'Apocalypse Kiss' did waste its potential, which does leave me very frustrated considering how good the premise was and how much potential it had to work. 'Apocalypse Kiss' was not a case of not making any effort. If anything the film tries far too hard and didn't have the resources to pull off a premise this ambitious, at the end of the day it felt over-ambitious. Also an example of a film that had something that sounded extraordinarily but executed it so ordinarily.
Will start with 'Apocalypse Kiss' good things. The opening sequence was visually and atmospherically striking so that was a promising start. The other was the only semi-decent actor in the film, that actor was D.C. Douglas giving his all and being both sinister and fun. Tom Atkins does his best too but has far too little to do.
Everything else fails. The rest of the acting is marginal at best and horrendous at worst, leaning mostly towards the latter. None of the characters are particularly well developed, so much more for instance could have been done with the killer. With a name like his, the promise is so there but so little is done explaining his motivations, the significance of the way he killed, the meaning behind what he's called and his methods. There doesn't seem to be anything to be at stake here, didn't detect much urgency in catching the killer and it was like the characters didn't actually care. The writing is so sketchy and the stilted flow was suggestive of bad improvisation.
The story has no suspense or momentum, and tries to do far too much. Too much to focus on in too little time, and the writers seemed to not have any idea what to do with the material because it is so confused and underdeveloped. This was not a case of not trying despite how this sounds, there are crew members that take on more than one job and without the experience to do so, showing a biting off more than they could chew effect. The direction is limp and has no style and other than the opening the film is woefully under-budgeted. Particularly evident in the chaotic editing, the limited sets that indicated that they ran out of money and time and an overuse of special effects that mostly look rushed and obvious.
Also felt that the music never fitted and that it felt like it was written for another film entirely. Lets not get started on the gratuitous excess of nudity. The apocalyptic element is given too short shrift as well as abruptly introduced and haven't seen a more proposterous ending for any film in a long time.
Overall, great premise executed too ordinarily and confusingly, needing to have a higher budget and a longer running time (mini-series even would have been better) to pull off such ambition convincingly. 2/10 for the opening and Douglas
