After her mother dies in a terrible accident, pretty teenager Amy (the lovely Meredith Salenger) finally gets to meet her mysterious Aunt Felice (Joanna Pacula) but soon twigs that her mom's globe-trotting younger sister isn't as perfect as she makes out to be. Using the power of sex and voodoo, Felice controls the fates of Amy's loved ones, before attempting to pass on a very unusual 'heirloom' to her unwilling niece.For a film about an ancient African parasite that is transmitted between female members of the same family by a kiss, this is quite the disappointment, a rather charmless movie with generic direction from Pen Densham, surprisingly poor effects by makeup wiz Chris Walas (Gremlins, The Fly), and flat performances from all except Pacula, who makes up for the other actors' seeming disinterest by really hamming it up.Densham desperately tries to spice things up proceedings with a little gore and sex towards the end (Pacula going topless to seduce Amy's father), and randomly throws a hilariously naff zombie cat hand-puppet creature into the mix, but to no avail. This one could have done with a lot more gore and general outrageousness throughout in order to do the silly premise justice.5.5 out of 10, rounded down to 5 for not going all the way with the 'necklace in the escalator' scene and for failing to get Salenger to take a shower (although, to be fair, she looks pretty great in that white swimsuit).

****SPOILERS**** Hard to phantom horror movie with the wild eyed and zombie like looking Felice Dunbar in that she seems to make no sense at all with this curse punt on her, as a little girl, by her possessed by the devil Aunt Irene when she was traveling by rail out of the Belgian Congo to settle back home in Europe. It's now 25 years later with Felice fully grown and a top fashion model coming to Albany New York to see her long separated sister Hilary Halloran to continue the devil's contract, through the kiss that she received back in the Congo, with her niece Amy Hilary's 15 year old, and all filled out, daughter. Before the two sisters can meet Hilary ends up getting killed in a spectacular car accident that seems to have been orchestrated, through some kind of mombo-jumbo like blood ritual, by her sister Felice. In fact Felice seems to put the whammy on a number of Amy's friends who suspects that there's something that's not all that kosher about her.We get to see Amy who's got the body of a Greek Goddess, but the brains of a a Dodo Bird, always finding time to get herself wet by jumping in the family swimming pool at every occasion even taking nightly skinny dips in it. It's when Felice is finally discovered by Amy's good friend and surrogate mom Heather things have by then gotten completely out of control with Felice who's having an affair with Amy's dad Jack Holloran being exposed as a combination walking dead zombie and blood sucking vampire rolled into one.****SPOILERS**** Determined to keep her blood line, whatever that is, active Falice tries to give Amy a kiss that would turn her into the monster that she is before she turns, since she's dead already, to dust. There's also this Tasmanian Devil like critter, mistaken by everyone to be a feral black cat, that pops up every now and then who's reason for being in the movie is never really explained. But it, the critter, adds to the shock and excitement in the film just by being in it. In the end Poppa Jack Harrolan finally wakes up and smells the coffee and realizes that Felice is no good and in his attempt to keep her from turning his what seems like, in not knowing what's going on, clueless daughter Amy into a zombie by kissing her that he puts an end to Felice and her plans to keep her bloodline continuing. That's by finishing her off in one of the most explosive movie finals since that of the movie "Jaws" back in 1975.

Pucker up and get ready to die. Teenager Amy (Meredith Salenger) just lost her mom to a freak accident. Her long lost Aunt Felice shows up five months after the death to help out. At First Amy is excited to meet Felice (Joanna Pacula) because she is a fashion model and seems hip. Then things get weird when strange accidents happen. There is a great escalator scene when Amy's friend Heather gets hurt.Amy and her dad start to fight over Felice's presence. Doesn't help that Amy's dad is sleeping with Felice. Amy tries to tell her dad and her neighbor Brenda(Mimi Kuzyk)but no one believes her that Felice had anything to do with the strange accidents. They think Amy just misses her mom. But Amy knows Felice has a secret. This is a fun film! Has a lot of gory scenes and a great cast. Mimi Kuzyk is great as Brenda who tries to help Amy.Watch it late at night with popcorn! It is sort of a supernatural reverse version of the Stepfather. I liked the soundtrack. It set the mood. death scenes are great. watch out for the worst puppet cat to ever grace the movies!

I guess the atmosphere is the best thing to date in such a movie. That's because the acting is terrible and the screenplay is based solely upon a climax of anguish and terror. There's an ancient curse but we don't know anything about it but the fact that we have to fear it, and escape from it! That's what 90% of horror movies are about: action, thrill and never an explanation. If you have nothing to say, say nothing. Anyway, there are worst movies than this one and for the horror fans this should be a nice title to rent.