"Kick-Boxing doesn't help when you're stuck between four walls..."

A women collector draws the attention of a detective when he kidnaps her niece. The leads are too subtle, however, and we don’t finding the girl in time.

Another woman, Kate, held captive by the aggressor, succeeds in escaping from his basement. She tells everything to the police. She proposes to help the police to bring this massacre to an end. She joins Alex, the detective, in his investigation. What she remembers helps him interpret the clues left behind by the killer.

Se7en was immensely successful back when this movie was made. Its actors, suspense and ending made it a dark movie. Would it be possible to improve the situation by hiring Morgan Freeman to play a similar role in a similar story? Why not make a sequel then? In fact, Kiss the Girls tries to reproduce the same suspense while adding elements from Silence of the Lambs, an even bigger success. The mix is very bitter. In fact, we get the impression that this film borrows the bad elements from both of these movies, instead of the good ones.

Still, this doesn’t make it a bad thriller. Thriller movies are nothing more than slowed down, more realistic horror movies guided by better actors. That is exactly what Kiss the Girls is. The suspense is well installed, we are startled on a few occasions and the identity of the killer remains secret for a while. Interesting concept: even if we know the identity of the culprit, a few more mysteries need to be resolved. The conclusion is surprising, while maybe a bit too foreseeable but satisfying.

I love characters that defend themselves physically. The character played by Ashley Judd does her best without becoming excessive or feminist. She never dominates the killer but uses her wit to flee. The motive behind the serial killings is interesting. It is a bit hard to believe but opens the door to a new style, rarely exploited in the past. Lets just say the murderer doesn’t respect the typical woman killer profile.