From the original release poster.
"Here’s to my love. [Drinking.] O true apothecary,
Thy drugs are quick. Thus, with a kiss I die."
Thy drugs are quick. Thus, with a kiss I die."
— Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
With a Kiss I Die is a 2018 lesbian vampire romance film. It was directed by Ronnie Khalil and written by Khalil with Barbara Leibell and Jimmy Orie.
The premise is that after Romeo and Juliet (who apparently were real people) committed suicide, a coven of vampires found their bodies and revived Juliet, turning her into a vampire. Now, several hundred years later, Juliet lives adjacent to her coven on the island of Santarini, Greece, where she spends her days searching for Romeo's grave, consuming the poison that killed him every night, and feeding off a dedicated human servant to avoid killing humans.
She encounters Farryn, an American tourist with a tragic backstory. The two are drawn together and begin a cautious love affair, hampered by interference from Juliet's coven, Juliet's own reluctance to move on from Romeo, and Farryn's dark secret . . .
This film provides examples of:
- Adaptational Sexuality: Juliet is portrayed as heterosexual in the original play. Here, she's bisexual.
- The Ageless: Juliet explains that she is not immortal, but will live a long time and will never age. She and the other vampires can be killed by, among other things, drinking infected blood.
- Black Vikings: Juliet, a Medieval Italian noblewoman, is Black here. While not impossible, it would have been unlikely for a noble Veronese family like Capulets to be of African descent. This isn't commented on in the film.
- Bury Your Gays: Juliet and Farryn die at the end, with the former bi, the latter either bi or gay. Of course, being based on Romeo and Juliet, it was pretty inevitable.
- Coming and Going: Subverted. Farryn and Juliet's first sexual encounter is intercut with a grieving Amaltheo cutting his wrists in the shower. In the next scene, however, he shows up still alive, indicating he was just self-harming.
- Daywalking Vampire: No mention is ever made of the Weakened by the Light trope. All the vampire characters are able to freely walk around in direct sun. However, vampirization apparently diminishes one's ability to see color, which may be a reworking of that trope.
- Downer Ending: Farryn dies in Juliet's arms after she's been drained of too much blood by the other vampires. Juliet is unwilling to live if she's dead and drinks it as well. This is poisonous to them as Farryn's got leukemia, and she dies with her.
- Driven to Suicide: Juliet manages to escape from the coven with Farryn, but Farryn has already been lethally drained of blood. Unable to face life without her, Juliet drinks the rest of her infected blood herself, killing both of them.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Juliet, unlike the rest of her coven, is reluctant to feed on humans and bears them no malice.
- I Hate You, Vampire Dad: Juliet has a terrible relationship with the vampire who turned her ("Father"), who is manipulative and dangerously unstable.
- Immortality Bisexuality: Juliet is now a centuries-old nigh-immortal vampire who's found love with a woman. Though unspecified, it's possible she had romances and or sex with other woman over the centuries as well, since the number of her past lovers is implied to be quite high.
- Immortality Promiscuity: Juliet is implied to have had sex with many people across the centuries (as she became a vampire in the 1300s) which may have included famous inventor Leonardo Da Vinci.
- Inspiration Nod: Quotes from and nods to Romeo and Juliet are strewn throughout the film. Father delivers one when Juliet arrives in his lair:Father: Ah, Juliet! The brightness of your cheeks would shame the stars.note
- Lesbian Vampire: A vampire romance between two women. Juliet is bisexual, with Farryn's orientation never stated.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Farryn and Juliet are both young women with a feminine style that get into a relationship. However, at least Juliet's bisexual, while Farryn's preference is not specified beyond her.
- Love at First Sight: Implied between Farryn and Juliet. The first time they make eye contact, the screen goes golden. Juliet says that she still believes what she and Romeo had was love at first sight as well.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Juliet and Farryn consummate their mutual attraction while outdoors.
- Monster Progenitor: Juliet's coven is run by a vampire called "Father," from whom all the rest are descended.
- Mood Lighting: The film's tint changes from blue-black to fuller-bodied orange whenever Juliet drinks blood or does something especially romantic with Farryn.
- Ms. Fanservice: Juliet bathes naked, shown in silhouette (plus her nipples over the water's edge). She's also clad in revealing clothing, and a bikini at one point. Farryn is also shown in a bikini cavorting with her, and topless briefly. Both are quite lovely young women.
- Our Vampires Are Different: They don't live forever, though age very slowly such that Juliet (who was born in the 1200s) looks about thirty in the modern age at most. Sunlight doesn't affect them at all. They're colorblind, and also lose their ordinary sense of taste. They can be killed through decapitation, fire and drinking dead blood.
- Queer Romance: The film imagines that Juliet of Romeo and Juliet was transformed into a vampire and falls in love with a human woman in the present day.
- Race Lift: Juliet is Black instead of White in this story based on Romeo and Juliet.
- Really Gets Around: Juliet is implied to have had sex with a lot of people over the centuries (including perhaps Leonardo da Vinci — she's coy when asked). Of course, being over 700 years old, this isn't too surprising.
- Really 700 Years Old: Juliet was born before 1303 sometime, but looks no older than thirty or so in the present, centuries later. The Greek vampires who turned her are even older, but don't look it either.
- The Renfield:
- Amaltheo has lived with Juliet for over 30 years, allowing her to feed on his blood without turning him. When she falls for Farryn, he becomes disillusioned and betrays her to Father.
- Father keeps a young human woman in his lair, who tends bar and serves drinks made from her own blood. She has a faint smile on her face on all times, but it's not clear whether she's there voluntarily or is somehow being controlled (e.g. brainwashed).
- The Reveal: It's implied that Farryn is hiding something earlier in the film — she's shown lying to her father about being in San Francisco —but it's not until Juliet tastes a drop of her blood that she is forced to confess her secret: she is dying of leukemia, with only a few weeks left to live.
- Secretly Dying: Farryn is revealed to secretly have terminal cancer.
- Shakespeare in Fiction: Juliet reveals that she told her story to "an English writer" who turned it into a play. She describes him as "a womanizing drunk."
- Spiked Blood: Whatever's in the human's blood affects the vampire who drinks it. Applies with both alcohol and cancer.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: There's the whole vampire/human thing, and on top of that are Juliet's coven, who benefit from her continued despondent attachment to Romeo, and Farryn's life-threatening disease.
- Tragedy: Like in the inspiration, both lovers and several supporting characters all end up dead.
- Vampire Fiction: It's a fairly typical Vampire Romance, despite the rather esoteric premise.
- Vampires Are Rich: Father and his hangers-on are immaculately groomed and wear nice clothes.
- Vampires Are Sex Gods: Juliet is portrayed as extraordinarily attractive to Farryn. She refuses to say just how many people she's slept with, implying it's a lot.
- Vampire Vannabe: Farryn hopes that Juliet will turn her because she is dying.
- Voluntary Vampire Victim: The Renfield Amaltheo has been allowing Juliet to feed on him for decades, as they are in a sort-of romantic relationship. Farryn also asks Juliet to turn her before learning that she can't without risking both their lives.
