A Kiss Before Dying

"Loving him was easy. Trusting him was deadly."

1991 1h 35m EN

😐

5.6

MID

🥫

31%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

5.7

IMDB

★5.6TMDB · 139🥫31%Rotten Tomatoes●40Metacritic★5.7IMDB · 6,413

MysteryThrillerCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Infatuated with the idea of becoming rich, college student Jonathan Corliss secretly dates Dorothy Carlsson to gain the approval of her wealthy father. When Dorothy tells Jonathan that she is pregnant and that her father will deny her inheritance if he finds out, Jonathan murders her, but he stages her death as a suicide. As Jonathan works his way onto Mr. Carlsson's payroll, Dorothy's twin sister, Ellen, investigates the apparent suicide.

“Loving him was easy. Trusting him was deadly.”

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Cast

Matt Dillon
Jonathan Corliss
Sean Young
Ellen / Dorothy Carlsson
Max von Sydow
Thor Carlsson
Diane Ladd
Mrs. Corliss
James Russo
Dan Corelli
Adam Horovitz
Jay Faraday
Martha Gehman
Patricia Farren
Ben Browder
Tommy Roussell

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: James Dearden
Writers: James Dearden
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

35 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by James Dearden, shot by Mike Southon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Howard Shore. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Bradsell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Matt Dillon and Sean Young and Max von Sydow carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Loving him was easy. Trusting him was deadly.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0102220 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

James Dearden directs. Mike Southon behind the camera. Howard Shore scores. Michael Bradsell cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

135 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
3Directed by James Dearden, shot by Mike Southon. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Howard Shore. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Michael Bradsell shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Matt Dillon and Sean Young and Max von Sydow carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Loving him was easy. Trusting him was deadly.".
8IMDB entry: tt0102220 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 8 themes, including "cupboard", "girlfriend", "remake", "train".

The technical file

Cinematography: Mike Southon
Original score: Howard Shore
Editing: Michael Bradsell
Production design: Jim Clay
Costume design: Marit Allen
Makeup / hair: John Dods
Runtime: 95 min · 1h 35m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $15,400,000
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: A Kiss Before Dying (1991)
Rotten Tomatoes: 31% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 40/100
IMDB rating: 5.7/10 · 6,413 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

2 wins total

Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress
Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

James Dearden

Stills · wallpapers

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2017-11-18
★ 5/10
Kiss of life required to ignite this film noir re-imaging. A remake of the 1956 film of the same name, A Kiss Before Dying is directed by James Dearden and Dearden adapts the screenplay from Ira Levin's novel. It stars Sean Young, Matt Dillon, Max von Sydow, Dianne Ladd and James Russo. Music is by Howard Shore and cinematography by Mike Southon. Story has Dillon as a troubled young man who murders his pregnant girlfriend (Young) and then hones in on her twin sister (Young again obviously) for further psychotic shenanigans. It's just about an average thriller at best, where even if the plot line and character motivations are intriguing enough to hold the attention to keep one interested to the ending, even there the outcome is rushed and unsatisfying. From the negative reaction at the initial test screenings, to Golden Raspberry awards, and tales of rewrites and re-shoots et al, this noir reboot is messy. The tie-in to Hitchcock's Vertigo is glaringly "not" homage worthy, and not just content with that, director Dearden tries to use some of Hitchcock's macabre black humour to unintentionally "not" witty results. So with Young on hilariously bad form as well, the thriller aspects strain to get resuscitated for dramatic worth. Dearden does show some nice touches with his camera-work, and there's a lurid quality to Southon's colour lenses that pay respect in heart to Levin's source material, but ultimately it's hard to recommend seriously to noir fans and the 56 version (itself not without problems) is still the way to go. 5/10
tmdb280390232022-08-27
★ 1/10
Jonathan (Matt Dillon) is obssessed with inheriting Thor Carlsson’s (the majestic Max von Sydow) copper empire. Why? Presumably, because as a poor child literally living on the wrong side of the tracks, he would sit in his room and stare at the endless parade of freight trains passing by, all of them bearing the Carlsson company logo. Jonathan has successfully wooed Carlsson’s daughter Dorothy (Sean Young), and the two plan to get married. However, when he finds out she’s pregnant with his child, he lures her to a rooftop and pushes Dorothy to her death. Why? He fears old Carlsson would have disowned her; perhaps Jonathan should have thought of that before he had unprotected, premarital sex with her. Luckily for him, Dorothy has an extremely conveniente identical twin sister, Ellen (also Young). Four years after Dorothy’s death, history repeats itself; Jonathan has no trouble sweeping Ellen off her feet, but once again finds it, ahem, too hard keeping it in his pants. This time, though, he takes the precaution of charming the father as well as the daughter; he ingratiates himself with the old man, goes fishing with him, agrees with everything he says, until Thor gives him a job in the family business, to which Jonathan is so devoted that he has no time for Ellen, who after all was only a means to an end – and that end, apparently, was to become a workaholic yuppie. I can't help thinking that there are other, better ways to achieve this without resorting to murder. The only problem is that Ellen, unlike her father and the police, is not convinced Dorothy committed suicide. Dorothy was wearing new shoes, you see, which she bought just before she died. Is that something a suicidal person would do? Actually it is, but only if you belong to the Heaven's Gate cult; everyone else must share Paolo Nutini’s love of recently acquired foot wear.