A Kiss Before Dying Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

A Kiss Before Dying Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 13, 2026

James Dearden's "A Kiss Before Dying" (1991) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critics Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson; new audio commentary by critics David Del Valle and Ryan Bijan; and vintage trailer. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

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Both famous cinematic adaptations of Ira Levin’s novel are deeply flawed for the same unavoidable reason. The novel is a portal to the psychopathic killer’s head. Levin spends a great deal of time there, describing the killer’s thought process, what he feels, and how he reacts to different developments around him. Levin also describes the killer as he switches masks and personalities. In the novel, virtually all of the suspense is a byproduct of these descriptions.

Gerd Oswald’s film is a conventional old-fashioned thriller. In it, Robert Wagner plays a handsome young man who uses his charm to deceive and kill. He is smart, but his intelligence is not what makes him dangerous. It is his appearance that allows him to outmaneuver and manipulate his female targets, including the wealthy heiress he plans to marry.

James Dearden’s film is a conventional thriller, too. It trades the post-war environment of the original film for a contemporary environment, but its reconstruction of the psychopathic killer from the novel is equally problematic. After Matt Dillon murders his girlfriend, it instantly evolves into a cat-and-mouse game, dedicating nearly two-thirds of its time to an interchangeable observation competition. Initially, it is the cat doing all of the observing, and later, the mouse becomes curious and begins observing and studying the cat.

Unfortunately, transforming Oswald and Dearden’s films into faithful cinematic adaptations of the novel is essentially impossible because the novel's descriptive material, which is its greatest strength, is unfilmable. This is why Wagner and Dillon are tasked with portraying strong characters with distinctive personalities and ensuring their transformations convey as much of the novel's descriptive material as possible. However, this is a catch-22. Once these characters emerge, their actions become the catalyst for the suspense, and the descriptive material loses its significance.

This reset ensures entirely predictable films that could impress only with their star power. Dearden’s film does not even attempt to pretend that it is not so. For this reason, it moves even further away from the novel by treating Dillon and Sean Young as a power couple sharing tremendous chemistry. The two look good in front of the camera, with or without clothes. However, they are not a power couple that could make up for everything that does not happen or work as it should.

There is one other important detail that needs to be addressed whenever Oswald and Dearden’s films are grouped and discussed. The former is not a visual stunner but looks quite good, at times even unusually elegant. The latter has a very ordinary appearance that does not help to sell Dillon and Young as a power couple. In fact, it makes them look like yet another imperfect-turned-bad modern couple. Dearden’s film should have been a gorgeously lensed but very dark erotic sizzler, using intense sexual fireworks to expose Dillon as a much more complex chameleon and, ultimately, a prisoner of his twisted mind.

The cast also includes Max Von Sydow as Young’s multi-millionaire father, James Russo playing a suspicious veteran detective, and Patricia Farren emerging as a trusted old friend.

A Kiss Before Dying Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, A Loss Before Dying arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an old and, sadly, very problematic master, supplied by Universal. This master gives the entire film a very smeary, very artificial appearance that makes it impossible for any of its visuals to reveal proper organic qualities. On my system, the smearing was particularly distracting, as conveyed here. During fast moving footage, there is no proper delineation, while depth is completely wiped out (see here. Obviously, digital tools must have been used to strip all grain and repolish the entire film. This is most unfortunate because without the digital corrections this master would have produced very fine organic visuals. How do we know? The density levels of all visuals are very good. Image stability is outstanding as well. On top of this, the master is nicely graded as well. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

A Kiss Before Dying Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The release is sourced from an old master that could have produced a very fine presentation of A Kiss Before Dying. All of the big problems are in the video department. In the audio department, the lossless track performs as well as one would expect. Clarity, sharpness, and depth are excellent. I suspect that a few minor balancing adjustments could have been made, but they would not have altered the overall quality of the lossless track. I liked it a lot. I did not encounter any encoding issues to report in our review.

A Kiss Before Dying Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson.

• Commentary Two - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics David Del Valle and Ryan Bijan.

• Trailer - presented here is a vintage trailer for A Kiss Before Dying. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

A Kiss Before Dying Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even in the early 1990s, the consensus was that James Dearden's A Kiss Before Dying got most everything wrong. The Los Angeles Times had an interesting theory why: "Parts of this movie play like a cross between An American Tragedy and Sleeping With the Enemy -- the wrong parts." I would not argue that the mainstream critics misjudged A Kiss Before Dying. However, no one bothered to explain why, like its 1950s predecessor that Gerd Oswald directed, it is not a faithful cinematic adaptation of Ira Levin's novel -- the best parts of this novel are unfilmable. Of course, A Kiss Before Dying could have been an unfaithful adaptation and still turned out a lot better. Like the person who wrote The Los Angeles article, I have an interesting theory about how it could have become a better film, too. However, the crucial point is that a proper adaptation of the original material from Levin's novel was a bad idea from the get-go. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from an old and, most unfortunately, quite problematic master, supplied by Universal.