Kiss the Girls (1997)

Kiss the Girls is the kind of mid-’90s thriller that grabs you by the collar and doesn’t let go, powered less by gimmicks than by the steady intelligence of Morgan Freeman and the bruised, fiercely human resolve Ashley Judd brings to every scene. The movie’s special pleasure is its partnership dynamic: two people piecing together terror with grit and empathy, trading sharp dialogue that feels grounded even as the danger escalates. Director Gary Fleder keeps the vibe tense and creepy without drowning in gore, building suspense through pursuit, close calls, and the unnerving sense that evil can hide behind a polite face. It’s not for everyone—there’s serial-killer material and sexual-threat menace—but if you want a smart, propulsive crime mystery with real performances at its center, this one delivers.

Kiss the Girls wants to be a slick, high-stakes cat-and-mouse thriller with a smart profiler, a resilient survivor, and a sprawling investigation that hops coasts and suspects. It does deliver some tense set pieces and Morgan Freeman’s steady, grounded presence helps keep the chaos from tipping into pure pulp, while Ashley Judd brings credible fight to a role that could’ve been purely victim-shaped. The problem is that the plotting starts to feel like it’s sprinting to the next “gotcha” rather than earning its turns, so the twists can land more confusing than clever and the logic gets wobbly when the movie needs momentum. If you’re sensitive to sexual-threat material or you want a mystery that plays fair and sticks the landing, this one may feel like a promising setup that trades coherence for conventional thriller noise.