Embrace of the Vampire

Tags

1990's, Alyssa Milano, Anne Goursaud, Charlotte Lewis, Embrace of the Vampire, Erotic Horror, Harrison Pruett, Jennifer Tilly, Jordan Ladd, Martin Kemp, Rachel True

Film Title

Embrace of the Vampire

Director

Anne Goursaud

Starring

• Alyssa Milano as Charlotte Wells
• Martin Kemp as The Vampire
• Harrison Pruett as Chris
• Jordan Ladd as Eliza
• Rachel True as Nicole
• Charlotte Lewis as Sarah
• Jennifer Tilly as Marika

A pretty tired and dragging vampire fantasy/horror, Embrace of the Vampire gets by thanks to some erotic atmosphere and the sexy Alyssa Milano shedding her good girl image.

An unnamed Vampire has lived alone for thousands of years, dwelling on his days as a romantic nobleman before his transformation. It happens that he will disappear for good and from existence if he doesn’t acquire the love and blood of a willing woman within three days. In his sights is the young and virginal Charlotte Wells; a college student about to turn 18 and struggling to adjust to campus life after being raised in a convent as a young girl. At the minute, Charlotte is having difficulty with her boyfriend Chris. He wants them to sleep together,but pure Charlotte is not ready for that step in their relationship. Into her thoughts and dreams comes the vampire, who casts a spell on the girl and pulls out devious tactics to bring her to him. With all of these visions and manipulations being put on her by the desperate vampire to make her love him, Charlotte slowly transforms from a shy girl to sensual siren as the dreams get more pronounced. The increasingly shocked but sexually awoken Charlotte discovers that she has a choice to make in the days that lead to her coming of age. Will it be eternal life with the vampire or genuine love with Chris?

Anne Goursaud has good style as a director which she adds to the film, but her powers over story and getting us to be interested in the film is less controlled. The script is a big let down that just throws so much into the cauldron and doesn’t bother explaining any of it sufficiently. The main character of the Vampire may be nearing the end, but it doesn’t mean that we want to be dragged along as the whole exercise suffers through lack of development or soul. We don’t feel anything for the vampire, if we did this may have been a film with a bit of substance. And while Embrace of the Vampire is billed as something of a horror, despite a bit of death, it’s rather bloodless and not at all given a feeling of shock or suspense. One of primary reasons Embrace of the Vampire gained any notice was the prospect of the formerly sweet Alyssa Milano in and mainly out of her clothes. And yes she does go nude in this movie, in many love scenes. I must say though that the scenes in question do have a very erotic feel that lifts it slightly above the sleaze that it sort of is. More passion seems to be poured into these sex scenes( which include a lesbian scene and a vampire orgy) than any part of the movie, cloaking them in a dark desire. This is probably why they are the most remembered parts for how they show Charlotte’s shift from rule abiding girl to sexy lady. You can tell that these scenes mainly functioned to tantalize the audience and on that score they succeed as the erotic angle is the best stylistic and coherent part of a slow drudge of a film. The music is completely overblown, yet on the odd chance it does bring a little bit of ambience to a rather tepid film.

The main reason for watching Embrace of the Vampire is the presence of Alyssa Milano. At the time of filming, she was known for being the wholesome young girl so this film is a definite change of pace. Although the threadbare script doesn’t quite have a hold or clear idea on the character of Charlotte, Alyssa Milano fills in the gaps to give what is really the only good performance in the film. The way she struggles with her feelings and desires once hypnotised by the vampire is well-played and you do feel her agony and ecstasy as she blossoms into a vixen. The part didn’t call for much in the way of acting ability, but Milano is a talented actress and made it work. The same doesn’t go for any other members of the cast. As the Vampire, Martin Kemp is pretty wooden and charmless when he should be seductive and mysterious, which is part of the reason the story is a damp squib. Harrison Pruett is pretty bland as the boyfriend, while Jordan Ladd and Rachel True are superfluous as two of the girls on Charlotte’s campus. Charlotte Lewis is stranded with a one note part of a seductive photographer, and not even the reliability of Jennifer Tilly can save the role she is given.

It’s a largely unimaginative affair, with no real horror and it must be said a plot that is practically non-existent, but the two strong elements of Embrace of the Vampire; it’s style and good performance from Alyssa Milano at least keep you from reaching for the off button.

The Hunger

Tags

1980's, Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Erotic Horror, Horror, Susan Sarandon, The Hunger, Tony Scott

Film Title

The Hunger

Director

Tony Scott

Starring

• Catherine Deneuve as Miriam Blaylock
• David Bowie as John Blaylock
• Susan Sarandon as Dr. Sarah Roberts

A stylish vampire horror with lots of 80’s excess and blood, The Hunger is also a very mixed film in terms of quality and watch ability. For all its visual panache and atmosphere, with the added bonus of a good cast, The Hunger in the end left me wanting something more from it and I felt that there was something missing from it.

Miriam Blaylock is a centuries old vampire who has the ability to bestow immortality on people she takes as consorts to ease her loneliness. Her current companion is John Blaylock, who has been with her for two hundred years travelling from domain to domain. The two are now in New York in a high-rise apartment, which they use to lure back unsuspecting victims to feed on their blood at least once a week. John believes that his youthful appearance will last forever but soon learns that it doesn’t. He will in fact live forever, but Miriam has not told him that his physical appearance will drastically wither away. Soon enough, John’s appearance begins to age at an alarming rate. Wanting help, he seeks out Dr. Sarah Roberts, a determined scientist who studies cases of advanced aging. At first she dismisses him, but after witnessing him age in just over two hours, she is shocked and wants to help. Unlucky for John, the aging continues and Miriam buries him in a coffin, alongside her other lovers over the years who are cursed to live forever but age horribly. Sarah is soon drawn into Miriam’s life and becomes bewitched by the alluring woman. And Miriam is now looking for a new lover and sees the perfect partner in Sarah. So on one of the their meetings, the seductive Miriam seduces Sarah and binds her to her by feeding on her blood. Sarah, who was unaware of this act, begins to develop worrying symptoms and begins to crave blood, leading to a gruesome, blood-soaked showdown with the imperious Miriam.

I’ll begin by going through the things that I took issue with and could have been improved on first. While The Hunger does have some thematic value, I always felt that the story and themes could have been pushed a little further than the finished results. The theme of immortality and the search for youth is an interesting one, but it gets swallowed up by the visuals and doesn’t really stand a chance. The pace of this movie can be really slow as a snail and meandering when it should have been a bit quicker. I understand going for a slow burn, but this really takes it a bit too far. The ending of the film also feels more than a little forced and undoes some of the intrigue that the film has built up but can’t sustain. In conclusion to the negatives, The Hunger just has that feeling of being hollow and not really reaching much of a worthy conclusion.

It must be said on the positives that The Hunger heralded the rise of Tony Scott as a stylish director with a keen eye. Everything in The Hunger is photographed with a certain gloss, that ties in with the setting of 80’s glamour and decadence. He masterfully inter cuts scenes to create visual symmetry and atmosphere. From rippling curtains, misty lenses and quick cutting, The Hunger is in the category of films that have a stunning impact on the eyes. I must day that the effects still stand up today, particularly when John begins to rapidly age. Scott does manage to tap into some of the themes in the story and certainly brings a darkly perverse and erotic core to it. I was similarly impressed by the way he updated vampire lore, instead of having the same old types of vampires we have seen a thousand times. The vampires here mingle into society, don’t seem to have an aversion to sunlight, have no fangs that we see and instead of biting the necks of victims they use a small knife to slit the throat and then proceed to feed. A perfect example of this is the striking opening scenes in which Miriam and John cruise around a dark nightclub and take home two unwitting victims to seduce and then feed their need. The style, music and visuals all fit together to give this opening scene a hell of an impact. Also worth mentioning is the seduction scene between Miriam and Sarah, as slow motion sensuality and a more sinister undertone perfectly mix to exotic effect, accompanied by the strains of opera. The unusual music score has a ghostly but strangely romantic twist to it and it makes for a chilling listen.

Catherine Deneuve is at the height of her icy and aloof powers here portraying the eternally beautiful Miriam, who is fond of company due to living for so long. There are glimmers of sadness that Deneuve brings out in subtle ways, but she’s most impressive when being alluring and poised, a vampire femme fatale whose kiss and appearance alone brings a hypnotic impact to those around her, in particular Sarah. David Bowie elicits a whole lot of sympathy as the aging John, who comes to see that he’s been spun a lie about how long he will remain youthful. The scene when he ages alarmingly fast is all the more sad for Bowie’s moving delivery of this betrayed man. Susan Sarandon is full of sensuality and curiosity as she becomes the latest victim of Miriam’s affections. Sarandon is also adept at displaying the fear that Sarah goes through as her body changes due to her sexual encounter with the icy Miriam.

So while the atmosphere and gloss of The Hunger is intoxicating, this doesn’t add up to the most riveting movie out there and it emerges as one that needed some other spark to ignite some form of interest.