Today marks the 35th anniversary of the erotic thriller, A Kiss Before Dying.

The film was written and directed by James Dearden (the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Fatal Attraction), loosely adapted from Ira Levin’s acclaimed debut novel. It starred Matt Dillon (in his first starring role since Drugstore Cowboy), Sean Young (in her fast-fading leading lady days in Hollywood), with supporting performances from acclaimed icons Max von Sydow and Diane Ladd rounding out the cast. The film got negative reviews from critics (Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel were two rare supporters), barely recouped its budget, and is best remembered, if it is remembered at all, for a particularly unfortunate bit of awards trivia (more on that in a bit).

It also happens to be one of my favorite bad movies, a go-to bit of cinematic comfort junk food that I love to periodically revisit whenever I need a pick-me-up.

Those who know me know the erotic thriller is my favorite genre. The secret to this genre is, whether the film in question is genuinely great or absolutely terrible, they are almost never boring. And A Kiss Before Dying has an admittedly great hook: Jonathan (Dillon), a charismatic, ruthless psychopath who dreams of wealth courts a pair of twins, Dorothy and later Ellen (both played by Young). As with any good erotic thriller, the bodies start piling up and our heroine must face the uncomfortable possibility that her dashing boyfriend is not only a great lay, but a ruthless killer as well (ah, back when dating was a simpler affair).

Watching the film, the most striking element is just how artificial the whole thing is. Deliberate artifice certainly isn’t a dealbreaker for me. In fact, as seen with masterpieces like Far From Heaven, it can actually add to the film’s overall power. To put it mildly, A Kiss Before Dying is not a masterpiece, but it does achieve a certain dubious victory: it feels so out of time, so detached from any realm of recognizable reality, at times it feels like a film that the characters in Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks would watch. Unlike those two classics, A Kiss Before Dying plays like a bizarre halfway point between glossy 60s melodrama and late 80s murder mystery: you have the cinematography and obvious painted backdrops of the former, with all the bad wardrobe and hairstyling of the latter. But more than this stylistic mismatch, there’s a certain detachment present in everything from the pacing to the acting (all the spoken dialogue looks and sounds dubbed) to a complete lack of any genuine suspense (a small flaw in a thriller subgenre).

Now, with all of that said, does the film’s badness rob from its fun. I’d say… absolutely not. Granted, if you read the original novel (which is terrific and deeply unsettling) or saw the much more acclaimed 1950s adaptation (still unseen by me, admittedly) and expect any of Ira Levin’s genius to shine through here, you will be waiting a loooooooong time. This is trash aiming for a certain degree of respectability it will never achieve, which makes it all the funnier to watch.

Reading about the film’s production, one starts to wonder if there was a chance that this film could have become either a cult classic of 90s thrillers. The producers reportedly wanted River Phoenix (RIP) to play Jonathan and Bridget Fonda to play the dual role of Ellen and Dorothy. Phoenix allegedly declined multiple offers because he couldn’t relate to Jonathan’s character while Fonda dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Fonda and Phoenix were two of my favorite actors and I can only imagine the added depth they could have brought to this production. Phoenix had a wounded quality that could expertly straddle the line between heartbreaking and terrifying. Fonda, my choice for one of finest actors of her generation, was so naturally chameleonic, she could disappear into pretty much any role and make the character seem wholly unique. Would either actor have been able to triumph over the artifice on display? Tough call, but they probably would have faired better than the cast they got.

The cast the filmmakers assembled is mixed bag, to say the least. Matt Dillon is a gifted actor, equally adept at comedy and drama, and a performer who knows how to use his boyish good looks to great affect. Here, he plays the whole thing more like the neighborhood delinquent who sells booze to high schoolers rather than a scheming murderer. He has energy, but doesn’t have the right neediness to make Jonathan feel appropriately menacing. Max von Sydow hams it up as Dorothy and Ellen’s father, a filthy rich copper tycoon whose personality is entirely dependent on what the plot needs in the exact moment as it is unspooling. It’s a paycheque job, but he has his fun. Diane Ladd, as Jonathan’s mother, can do saintly maternal suffering in her sleep. She is one the two actors who gives a performance that actually feels real. The other being Adam Horovitz (yes, Ad-Rock from Beastie Boys) as a hitchhiker.

As for Sean Young…. remember what I mentioned earlier about the film’s unfortunate bit of trivia lore? Well, for her work in this film, she won the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress (as The Twin Who Survives) and Worst Supporting Actress (as The Twin Who is Murdered). It’s all very unfortunate and yet watching the film, it’s is hard to shake the feeling that those wins were deserved. I genuinely like Sean Young; her work as Rachael in Blade Runner remains one of my favorite breakthrough performances in cinema. At her best, she could make the steely and the touchingly vulnerable look interchangeable (Blade Runner) or she could bring some much needed playful zest to liven up the plot (No Way Out). In A Kiss Before Dying, she may being playing twins (Dorothy is more bubbly, Ellen is more sullen), but Young seems so detached from what’s happening that her dual performance almost feels like avant-garde theatre (Entertainment Weekly said “[she] seems to have founded a whole new school of bad acting”). Worse still, for an actress who can look like Old Hollywood glamor personified, the film styles her to look as frumpy as possible. I get Ellen is supposed to be more salt-of-the-earth, but c’mon Dearden, if you can’t give your gorgeous leading lady something to work with, at least have her look great and not like a walking example of how unkind the early 90s were to fashion.

Ultimately, the film we got is an absolute mess. I periodically think about the trailer and promotional materials for the film, which contain multiple scenes that are not in the final cut. Whether this was a studio botch job or Dearden simply having no idea what he wanted, the result is the same: hilarious.

To the four souls who bothered to read all of this (and I thank you for sticking this out), you may be wondering “Ice Cream Planet, why the hell did you spend all this time talking about stupid trashy thriller that is deservedly forgotten?” A fair point and to which I say: it came out the year I was born. I feel like every time I see a film from 1991, it’s a way of connecting to the moment in time where I came into the world. Make no mistake, 1991 had many, many more films whose brilliance is remembered and deservedly so: Raise the Red Lantern, Paris is Burning, Dead Again, Rambling Rose, O Fio da Memória, The Silence of the Lambs, the list goes on and on. And for junky cinematic comfort food, A Kiss Before Dying delivers the goods and satisfies precisely because it feels so out of its time. It’s pure cinematic fakery. Good or bad, this is escapism in the truest sense of the word, and in this day and age, if that isn’t a gift, I don’t know what is.

Available for rent or purchase in the US on Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango, and Youtube.