Review: Meridian, aka Meridian: Kiss of the Beast (1990)
By William Pattison
This time I’m reviewing Charles Band’s Beauty and Beast tale
that was one of the opening Full .Moon Films.
An American heiress returns to her ancestral Italian castle
where a traveling carnival brings performers who hide ancient evil beneath
their smiles. Shadows pool in gothic arches as two women drink wine that burns
with betrayal, their bodies becoming contested ground between a magician's
hunger and a beast's cursed existence. The castle breathes with memory;
portraits watch. Catherine moves through corridors where past and present bleed
together, her inheritance proving more than stone and title. She must choose
between breaking centuries of punishment or preserving her own survival.
This was the second release
from Charles Band’s newly formed Full Moon Pictures, after the popular Puppet
Master. This was the only attempt to do a hard core fantasy film by Full Moon.
It is also one of the better of the early Full Moon films with its dark fantasy,
psycho sexual style
This film features the iconic Italian Park of Monsters,
which was also featured in the classic Christopher Lee horror film Castle of
the Living Dead. In many ways this film is a sequel to the Lee classic.
Sherilyn Fen plays Catherine, the kove interest of Oliver,
aka The Beast. This film features an intense sex scene between Catherine and
The Beast as well as a rape scene with Charlie Sprdling, who plays Catherine*s
friend and will be the future Full Moon spokes girl.
Also, the beast costume was so well constructed that years
later Francis Ford Coppella reused it
with a few minor alterations in Bram Stocker’s Dracula.
The only unfortunate thing about this film is the ending is
so predictable and fast that it is so unsatisfying given the rest of the film.
Also, unfortunate is that Full Moon bever did another dark fantasy film. The
only film even close to this film is castle Freak and it is not even close to
the style of this film.
So, if you want to see a rare attempt by Charles Band to do dark
fantacy this is your film.
