A Cold Red Kiss

Tom O’Riordan never wanted to be involved in the family funeral home business, but when his father dies, he feels compelled to step in and keep it afloat. He and his wife Millie move to the small midwestern town where the business is located. There, Tom meets his employees—Jeff and Annette, embalmers, and Ron, a cosmetologist. Ron and Jeff can’t stand each other and make embarrassing scenes in front of clients. Tom is soon obliged to fire Jeff, who doesn’t take it well. Jeff sends Tom videos he has secretly taken of Ron having sex with corpses in the funeral home basement. Jeff threatens to make the videos public if Tom doesn’t cough up $200,000. Tom doesn’t have the money. And perhaps it’s not a coincidence when he meets a man named Keenan, who presents him with a highly lucrative opportunity. Keenan works for The Company, a secret organization that resurrects the dead. Keenan wants Tom to offer The Company’s services to grieving clients. For a large fee, they can have their departed loved ones returned to life. Tom would get a commission on each referral. Tom refuses, thinking Keenan insane. But in a subsequent, grotesque demonstration, Keenan proves his company can indeed raise the dead. Tom begins working for them. Before long, Tom earns enough to pay off Jeff. At that point, Tom quits, wanting nothing more to do with the clearly malevolent organization. But it’s not that easy. Keenan murders Millie, Tom’s vibrant, good-humored wife. Keenan says he’ll bring her back to life—but only if Tom will resume working for The Company. Tom agrees. But the resurrected Millie is only a pale, heartbreakingly empty version of her former self. Still, as time passes, it seems as if Millie may be returning to who she was, or at least a very good copy. Meanwhile, Tom and others begin to notice absurd, surreal things happening—a boy with two left hands, a plastic plant that suddenly blooms flowers, a cat that speaks and threatens its owners. Existence itself is teetering on the edge of chaos. Keenan visits Tom. He pulls a gun, intent on killing Millie—for good this time. He explains that the Company has come to realize that raising the dead—something counter to the laws of nature or God or both—was like pulling a thread that is now unravelling reality. They hope that by “recalling all the products” they’ve resurrected they can return things to normal. Tom seems to understand that this is the only way. He asks to be the one to put Millie out of her misery. She’s suffering deeply, aware that she’s only a shadow of a person. Keenan gives Tom the gun, but Tom turns it on Keenan instead. Tom and Millie run away. It looks as if they’ve pulled off an incredible escape, but reality around them keeps falling apart at an ever faster clip. With the sky going into day and night cycles every few seconds, it dawns on both of them that Millie is the last of the “anomalies” that might be causing this existential problem for the world.