Meridian - Lilith Likes to Watch Monster Lover May

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Title: Meridian (AKA Kiss of the Beast)
Year: 1990

Starring: Sherilyn Fenn, Malcolm Jamison, Alex Daniels

Director: Charles Band

Synopsis: After her father’s death, Catherine returns to her family’s gothic castle in Italy and gets caught in the web of a mysterious love triangle. - Via Letterboxd.com

Lilith's Notes: The on-screen debut of the werewolf creature from Bram Stoker's Dracula!

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"What we felt, that was real."

You will have to excuse me. It was a long weekend here in Canada and I partied hard, so this review might be a little scant.

Like I said, I partied hard.

Just like the ladies in this film!

If you look around at the critical reception, you might think Meridian is a bad movie.

Perhaps it is. But, I liked it.

At first I was worried I was in for a bad time. The film opens with what look like the rejects from the Safety Dance music video parading out of a giant statue with truly terrible music. But as things progress I found myself both beguiled and charmed. It's not high art or anything, but something about it just sort of worked for me. Though I had never seen it, I was seduced by a sense of nostalgia. This is a movie that I would have watched while sneaking onto the TV at 2:30am. This has an airy, dreamy quality that makes you think, wait, did I imagine that movie or did it really exist?

Catherine (played by Sherilyn Fenn) returns to her childhood home of a mother fucking Italian castle after the death of her father. She hangs out with her friend Gina, (played by Charlie Spralding) and they watch a troupe of traveling performers. Smitten, Catherine invites them to her mother fucking Italian castle.

There, she and Gina are drugged and…well, the consent gets rather murky from here on out.

Catherine's lover turns into a beast as he fucks her.

That's right, we're getting all Beauty and the Beast in here! With extra steps.

You see, the beast, Oliver has a twin brother, Lawrence (played by Malcolm Jamison in a dual role). And there's a murder mystery, and a curse that only true love and death can break.

I reiterate, it's probably not a good movie, but it got into a very girlie part of me; the part that likes princesses and castles and romantic settings. The part that grew up on Beauty and the Beast with Ron Pearlman as Vincent and rewatched the masquerade scene from Labyrinth over and over again. Romantic in the true definition of the word, not the love story sense.

And for the me of the now? The me that needs some mark of quality to retain my interest? Well, Fenn is beautiful to look at. She is a stunning woman and we see a lot of her. Lucky us! And the monster fucking, well, it's there. It goes on longer than ten seconds, too.

It's softcore, late-night Skinemax type content but there is no mistaking what is going on. We see full bodies rutting together like nature intended.

Returning for a moment to that sense of nostalgia, the monster here felt very familiar to me. That’s because it’s the same costume used in my monster-fucker-awakening film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The lighting here does it no favours and reduces it to a generic wolfman with bad edges around the mouth. There’s magic in lighting and it’s lacking here. Having said that, I appreciated the use of him here. It’s nice to see this particular monster in action.

For that, I am grateful.

Will I watch this again? Probably not. And I'm not sure I would recommend it to anybody who asked, lest they look at me weird and judge my tastes. But you have to understand I've seen some true trash that was not even worthy of comment, let alone review. I wasn't bored, it delivered lovely visuals, and offered a unique take on a classic fairy tale.

And who doesn't want their own castle?

Best Moment: The monsterfucking. Not only is it the Bram Stoker's Dracula costume but it's pretty graphic for being simulated.

Worst Moment: Yes there are identical twins on screen but honestly sometimes I had trouble telling Catharine and Gina apart.

LILITH'S SCORE: 3/5

Until next time, my voracious voyeurs. I’m Lilith, and I’m always watching.