An air of sickly sweet soap opera melodrama makes this low-budget exploitation shocker about necrophilia all the more perverse. Mary Wilcox (billed on the promotional one-sheet as "Miss Body 1973") stars as Lindsay, a troubled young woman whose carnal cravings for the recently deceased drive her to seek out funerals and wakes in order to steal soul kisses from the bodies. Lindsay's adventures bring her in contact with a depraved and murderous funeral director, who attempts to induct her into a necrophilic sex cult. Repulsed (yet still turned on), she attempts to form a more traditional relationship with a handsome antiques dealer (Lyle Waggoner, undoubtedly paying off some kind of debt with his appearance here) who bears a striking resemblance to her late father. But the union is doomed from the start, as Lindsay soon learns that old habits die hard.
Subject matters aside, the most unpleasant aspect of Love Me Deadly is the manner in which writer/director Jacques Le Certe (a probable pseudonym) addresses them. Dressing Lindsay's neurosis as a sort of Gothic tragic romance (complete with sepia-toned flashbacks and an overripe theme song), and then juxtaposing them with graphic scenes of violence, torture, and sexual perversity, makes for a very disorienting and ultimately disturbing viewing experience. Horror/cult fans expecting a campy laugh riot may not be prepared for such naked ugliness, and are forewarned before attempting this most extreme of '70s-era sexploitation.