Kissed 1996

As far back as Sandra Larson, Molly Parker can remember, she has been fascinated by death. As a child, she dances with the corpses of animals at night, rubbing them on her body, before giving them a funeral. She shares this with her only friend, a girl named Carol, Jessie Winter Mudie, but their friendship ends soon afterward.

In college, Sandra studies biology, carefully dissecting the bodies of small animals, trying to avoid disfiguring them. She lands a job at a funeral home to stay close to dead bodies. The funeral home’s janitor, Jan, James Timmons, believes, like Sandra, that dead bodies still have a soul in them. While driving the hearse with a body in a coffin in the back through a car wash, Sandra looks at the body and spots a shining light, convinced that the body’s soul is alive somewhere.

Mr. Wallis, Jay Brazeau, apprentices Sandra in embalming, and she begins studying mortuary science, where she meets a medical student named Matt, Peter Outerbridge, who also has to study corpses for his major.

Matt and Sandra start dating, and Matt is intrigued by her death fascination. They occasionally spend nights together in Matt’s basement apartment, but Sandra keeps slipping away for late-night visits to the mortuary to celebrate the dead bodies of young men with dance ceremonies, which gradually escalate into necrophilia.

Matt becomes distraught when he realizes he is competing with the living for Sandra’s attention. He tries unsuccessfully to get Sandra to talk about her necrophilia, so he begins visiting her at the funeral home, which only upsets her. In the end, he must confront the consequences of Sandra’s struggle between the living and the dead, leading to tragic results.