April 17, 2026 Category: Celluloid Dreams | Forgotten Gems
Currently unavailable. You’ll have to find a dusty VHS rip on YouTube. And honestly? That’s how Lars intended it. Have you seen Siren’s Kiss? Do you think Catherine was a real person or a figment of Jack’s oxygen-deprived brain? Let me know in the comments.
And honestly? It’s a masterpiece of mid-90s sleaze. If you remember the plot of Siren’s Kiss , you probably weren’t paying attention. But for the record: Catherine (played by the luminous and tragically underutilized Isabelle DeLisle ) is a jazz club singer in a rain-slicked, fictional version of Seattle. She has a "kiss" that allegedly kills any man who truly falls for her—hence the title. sirens kiss 1995
Siren’s Kiss isn’t a movie about reality. It’s a movie about VHS reality—a humid, dangerous, impossibly cool world where every man wears a leather jacket and every woman has a secret that can drown you.
Spoiler: She does both. Literally. The final scene is a freeze-frame of lips meeting as a knife hits the floor. Siren’s Kiss bombed. It made roughly $47,000 at the box office (mostly from midnight showings in college towns). But it found a second life on late-night cable, specifically on Cinemax After Dark. For a generation of teenagers who stayed up too late, Catherine became the femme fatale. April 17, 2026 Category: Celluloid Dreams | Forgotten
Isabelle DeLisle retired from acting in 1997 to become a real estate agent in Vermont. Michael Durand went on to play "Cop #2" in Armageddon . But for 94 minutes, they were icons. Absolutely. But don't watch it for the plot. Watch it for the mood. Pour a glass of cheap red wine. Turn off the lights. Let the grainy grain of the film stock wash over you.
🎤💋 (Two microphones and a kiss of death) That’s how Lars intended it
But what Siren’s Kiss captures better than any A24 film today is the . In the pre-internet 90s, mystery was erotic. You couldn't Google Catherine. You couldn't check her Instagram. You had to sit in the dark, watching her smoke a cigarette in a rainstorm, wondering if she was going to kill the hero or kiss him.