Serviceable Vamp Effort…
I’m a big fan of vampire movies, and have seen perhaps more than my fair share of most that get released. Embrace of the Vampire is a decent mixture of many that have gone before, and will appeal to any that enjoy this genre, but it isn’t without its flaws. It’s the story of a quiet and rather withdrawn girl, Charlotte (Sharon Hinnendael), who is starting a new life, and just starting university. She makes friends with her roomy Nicole (Kaniehtiio Horn, Hemlock Grove), but makes enemies of some jealous girls on the fencing team. After a drunken hazing ceremony, Charlotte starts to see things; bloody faces with vampire fangs; maggot filled cups, but the hallucinations get more frequent. She learns she has a connection to vampires, and eventually has to confront this fact.
- Embrace of the Vampire
- Directed by
Carl Bessai - Cast
Sharon Hinnendael, Kaniehtiio Horn, C.C. Sheffield - DVD Release Date
15 October 2013 - Ed’s Grade: C+
Embrace of the Vampire is trying to be an adults-only version of Buffy, and it most certainly succeeds in being more suitable for grown-ups, with loads of naked eye-candy and sexual encounters. At least you can skip that porn flick you planned to watch, and instead tune-in to this. Sex and vampirism go hand-in-hand, but I would’ve liked a bit more vamp, and a touch less sex, because this remake was too one-sided for my tastes. Thankfully, the gorgeous Sharon Hinnendael (Dean Slater: Resident Advisor) , was extremely easy on the eyes, and made this film a pleasure to watch during the slower portions, of which there were a few, particularly during the middle act.
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Performance wise, it was pretty good, with Hinnendael coming across very convincingly, but everyone was good throughout the film. The actual story was quite good too, and didn’t really settle on cliché, which was a big deal for me. Whenever it appeared to approach well trodden ground, we would go off in a different direction, usually of a sexual nature, sadly, causing it to lose focus at times because of this. It meandered a lot, never allowing us to digest what was supposed to be happening, but it kinda worked in its favour.
A stronger ending would have helped immensely, instead of the tepid one we got, as it felt rushed and tacked on; not leaving us fully satisfied. Even so, Carl Bessai created a watchable vamp flick, but I’d hoped for something better from the director of one of my fave Butterfly Effect-type movies, Repeaters. The budget clearly wasn’t there, however, Bessai got great performances from the cast, and this alone, prevented Embrace of the Vampire from being just another vampire movie that would’ve been quickly forgotten, but it was still better than the original 1995 version.
Review by Ed Blackadder, Lead Entertainment Writer
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