Vampiress Review: "Crucible of the Vampire"

 

The Gist: A female researcher is sent to an old manor in search of the missing half of an old cauldron unaware that those who live there are part of a cult who worships vampires and the daughter of the owner of the house happens to be one. 

Female Vampire Factor: As mentioned the daughter of the manor Scarlet is the main vampire and is played by Florence Cady.

Throughout most of the film she comes off very normal other than being a bit snobby.  The first hint that she might be a bit different is partway through the film when the researcher Izabelle has very sexual dreams about her.  The most graphic being one that ends with Scarlet going full lesbian on Izabelle before fanging out and biting her.

It isn't until the end that she finally shows her true form after she realizes that Izabelle has killed her father who along with the rest of the cult were trying to sacrifice her.  She then chases Izabelle around the manor for the remainder of the film trying to avenge him.

During this chase Izabelle also runs into a woman only referred to as the "Dark Lady of the Manor" who seemingly is the vampire who the cult worships.

In the end it looks like Izabelle has escaped. The dark lady burns in the sun going after her and Scarlet has fallen possibly to her death.  Looks are deceiving though as one of the last scenes shows that Izabelle has herself turned (Scarlet bit her in the arm during a fight scene as she was trying to escape). 

She then returns to the manor where Scarlet is shows to still be alive.

Final Opinion: Critics tore this film apart but honestly I can't disagree with them more.  While the film does seemingly take forever to get to the point at no time in it was I ever bored or un-entertained.  On top of that Scarlet was definitely my favorite type of vampire as she was a full on seductress who very much enjoyed haunting Izabelle to a level that I started getting some "Vampire Lovers" Camilla Karnstein vibes from her.  In fact I would best describe this film as Vampire Lovers meets the Shinning.  I'm going all in by giving it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 5 out of 5 as I found Scarlet that good being the sexy/scary chick once she got in that mode.

Vampiress After Dark Review: "From Lust Till Dawn"

 

The Gist:  Once she's brought back from the dead a vampiress sends her minions after the offspring of those who originally destroyed her. 

Female Vampire Factor: The movie is told from the point of view of a woman named Monica Dawn (Christina Black) who is being interviewed by a guy.

She somehow knows every detail of everything that happened well before her own involvement so she gives the story from the beginning starting with how a group of vampire hunters stopped a sexy vampire Queen named Cassandra (Shay Sights) by setting her on fire and hiding her ashes. 

Monica then explains that 20 years later a woman named Angelique found the ashes (Stevie).  We then get a sex scene featuring Angelique seducing a man in a dirty room before having sex and biting him. 

She then spills his blood over Cassandra's ashes bringing her back from the dead.

Cassandra then orders her minions to seek out the ancestors of those who destroyed her so that she may drink their blood. 

This leads to a couple sex scenes that end with collecting the blood of women.  The first being a threesome with two vampire guys and a girl and the second being a lesbian scene with Angelique seducing a nun.  The final ancestor is the narrator of the story Monica who Cassandra confronts herself at what seems to be an S&M club (this is also the point in which Cassandra's costume which has been holding on for dear life to keep her large fake breasts in check just gives up).

This leads to an orgy scene between Monica, Cassandra and a male vampire.  Right when Sonya goes to bite Monica she pushes Cassandra away, fangs out herself and proceeds to make short work of the vampires eventually killing all of them. 

Back in present day the guy interviewing Monica tells her that he does not believe a word of her story.  Monica basically says she doesn't care then forces herself on him. 

Just as it looks like she's going to bite him the guy wakes up in a sweat in his bed.  He goes into his bathroom to throw some water on his face when he realizes he's been bitten and his reflection disappears. 

Final Opinion: Considering the amount of garbage that was being passed as vampire films in the adult genre in the early 2000's which was still the era of bad Buffy the Vampire Slayer parodys this is very good. I was pleasantly surprised that the Monica Character gets the most vamp screen time considering she turns so late in the film but she flashes her fangs A LOT.

On top of that I love Cassandra's double fanged look and that costume is pretty amazing.

I give this a Vampire Beauty Rating of 5 out of 5.  Highly recommended. 

Vampiress After Dark Review: "Heroine Domination Death Hell: The end of the Vampire"

The Gist: A sword wielding vampire super heroine wages a battle with an evil female vampire and her brood.

Female Vampire Factor:  Your vampire super-heroine is played by Sayuri Ichimatsu

 In this film she faces off with a larger blonde female vampire who also has a henchwoman with her who dresses in a very corporate look.

For those who are new to the Japanese super heroine style films they're easily summed up as cosplay torture porn. Generally the hero gets dominated by the villain which leads to lots of molesting.  The sexy hench woman in this one gets plenty of fang time prior to being offed which is great since in my opinion she's the hottest female in the movie.

There's also an even sexier scene in which the villain after dominating the hero feeds on her.

Then after she's overcome with blood lust blindfolds her then strips and force feeds her friend to her.

To add insult to injury after she finally one ups and kills all the villains our hero ends up being staked through the heart by a vampire hunter when she isn't looking.

Final Opinion: I have absolutely no complaints about this film.  It's straight and to the point with the vampires being feral monsters which is always a plus for me.  I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 5 out of 5. These kinds of films are hit or miss but this one was definitely on the better end of the entertainment spectrum.

Vampiress Review: "Dead Frequency"

The Gist: A group of vampires try to live a normal life working at a radio station in England but get into trouble when government agents start to close in on them as well as having their own weird personal issues to deal with.

Female Vampire Factor: All the women in the film are vampires or become vampires.  The only one who actually does anything vampiric is the character Emily (Michaela Marshall)

She gets angry at the new human station manager Diane for threatening their jobs when she catches Emily along with one of the radio hosts having sex in the studio.

 Emily follows Diane home and in front of her home strips her topless then bites her.

This is the only time a vampire fangs out in the movie.  Diane technically does turn but is killed off screen at the end of the film.

Final Opinion: This one tries to be a drama but the mood is all over the place.  I would have loved this to have been more of a dark comedy as I did find myself laughing more than feeling for the characters to an enjoyable degree actually.  Then when I realized "oh this is supposed to be serious" it took the enjoyment down a peg because as a dramatic movie it's bad. I assume that this is why it is listed as "comedy" in listings for it even though when watching you can clearly see the film was not intended to be funny as the topics it touches on are serious and pretty much the entire soundtrack is somber slow songs.  On top of that it's got a total non ending, basically one of those situation where the movie just stops, no resolution of anything.  Just credits after a scene with the government agent stating they're about to go after the vampires one by one. 

I give this film a Vampire Beauty Rating of 2 out of 5.  The Emily bite scene is great and is literally the only thing keeping it from a 1.

Vampiress Review: "The Carmilla Movie"

The Gist: A rehabilitated Carmilla Karnstein heads to Europe to face the ghosts of her victims when it's believed their reappearance is responsible for her beginning to have vampire urges again.

Female Vampire Factor:  Natasha Negovanlis reprises her role as Carmilla

Ironically in the one piece of media where she isn't a vampire she does more vampiric things in the first 20 minutes of the film than in the entirety of the web series this was based on. This takes place after the web series where the cast are now adults with careers.  Carmilla is human and her and Laura now live together as a couple in Toronto.  A problem arises when Laura begins to have very vivid dreams of Carmilla being a vampire and trying to feed on her but she sees herself as someone else in her dreams.

They are eventually brushed off as dreams by Carmilla until one day Laura wakes up from one of those dreams with Carmilla actually trying to bite her.

Confused by that the crew due some tests on her and find out that her vampirism is returning.  She has to now re-learn to control her urges.

When Laura describes her dreams Carmilla then realizes that those dreams aren't actually dreams but memories of things that happened to one of Carmilla's exes and they deduce that Carmillas vampirism returning may be connected to the ghosts of her past trying to reach out to her. The gang heads to her old stomping grounds in Europe and are shocked to literally be confronted with the ghosts of her past.  The ghosts of her victims are inhabiting the old home of her mother.

She's informed that they need her to help them escape from limbo.  It ends up being a trick as Carmillas Ex Elle had tricked the ghosts into believing a ritual would help them escape but the ritual instead returned her from being imprisoned in a pendant and sent them into it.  On top of that they find out Elle was the one sneaking into Laura's dreams.  This leads to a lot of Carmilla and her crew running around a dream world looking for a way to stop Elle and Carmilla even having to relive the day Elle found out she was a vampire (someone informed Elle of Carmilla's secret so she confronts Carmilla by slicing her hand and watching Carmilla fang out at the site of the blood).

Final Opinion: During my original review of the Web Series I referred to it as what would happen if Nickelodeon and Logo came together.  The premise was simple.  A high school girl doing vlogs about her life in the dorm who began to believe her roommate was a vampire killing students with nothing really happening on camera.  Well this is not that.  This is a true movie and a true vampire movie at that.

Do you need to watch the web series to know what's going on?  Kind of .  There is a lot of calling back to stuff that happened in that series in this so it might be a bit confusing without the back story.  Even with that this was a very well done PG-13 level light horror film. I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 5 out of 5.  A very entertaining flick about a hot lesbian vampire trying to control her vampirism while surviving a hot lesbian ghost seeking revenge.

Vampiress Review: "Bit"

The Gist:  A small town girl is turned into a vampire when a brood of feminist vampires take interest in her during her first night in Los Angeles.

Female Vampire Factor:  It's a feminist lesbian coming of age film with vampires so pretty much everyone right?

The lead character is Laural (Nicole Maines)

Small town girl from Oregon who goes to stay with her brother in L.A. for the summer to find herself and day 1 just kind of goes off with a bunch of women she doesn't know and is turned into a vampire. Then spends the rest of the time basically doing the same stupid slacker stuff most 18 year old non vampires do while ignoring her gay needy best friend she left behind and her family. As all this is happening her vampire friends are fighting a literal war with slayers and playing vampire superhero killing men they've determined are evil.

Then you have the vampire clique

First up is the leader of the clique "Duke" (Diana Hopper).

Turned by Dracula himself in New York in the 1970's.  She was glamoured to be with him as she herself is a strict lesbian.  When she got the opportunity she turned on him and is keeping his heart to prevent his return.  She has since deemed that no other man can be turned.


Izzy (Zolee Griggs)

The vamp who took interest in Laurel that got her into the situation.  She was supposed to be feeding on Laurel but ended up falling for her (Izzy fed on Laurel anyway with Duke making the call to turn her). 


Frog (Char Diaz)

The glamour of the group and seemingly the only straight woman as she is usually the bait when the girls plan to seduce men before feeding on them. Pretty sure she's named after the family of vampire hunters in the Lost Boys.


Roya (Friday Chamberlain)

She's your stereotypical masculine lesbian character who basically just stays in the background and barely talks.

Finally you have Dracula's brides

The dark haired one ends up being the loan survivor of the attack that killed Dracula as she killed him herself and joined Duke.  She's actually the first vampire seen in the film.  As the film starts she had just turned a man into a vampire and was caught doing so by Duke and the group.  They kill him and sentence her to isolation in a hole.

Final Opinion:  Have we seen this story before?  Yeah Blood Angels, Cold Hearts, Lost Boys, We are the Night etc.  I guess if a story works it works.  What separates this film from those?  Not much other than maybe it's a lot less sexual than most of those films other than Cold Hearts since it centers more on the fledgling vampires life issues than the vampirism which only really comes into play in the films final act as she finally loses control from not feeding.  Otherwise most of the vampire groups hunting is done in montages as the movie is mostly about Laurel with the vampires just being background characters.

The one thing I will mention is that the Laurel character is supposed to be transgendered but it's never outright said at any time in the movie unless I missed it which makes a lot of the stuff that goes on with her not make much sense if you don't know this in advance.  It's hinted throughout the film that she's different and struggles with acceptance.  There's a lot of people talking throughout the movie about how much she's been through and how proud they are of her. The first thing she asks her brother in L.A. is if his friends will accept her and her brother at one point goes on a rant on having to defend her to her parents and being tired of her needs always coming first growing up. Even Vlad (Dracula) when he first encounters her has a one liner where he says "I suppose it is the new millenium" after looking her over which is the one line that eliminates the unmentionable thing they're discussing being that Laurel is a lesbian which otherwise the movie could have gotten away with (It's established well before that point that Vlad is fully aware of lesbians and has no issue with them for the statement to be about that).

Problem is instead of the beating around the bush they do, there was a clear scene in the beginning at a graduation party where this could have been addressed head on so the comments characters make about it in the rest of the film wouldn't be so cryptic.  Since it's not ever actually said you're leaving it up to the viewer to have either read up on the films production (which mentions it) or to have done enough research on Supergirl TV series actress Nicole Maines to know she herself is trans since that's not an easy guess just using the eye test.

So without that info it just kind of comes off as your standard situation of Hollywood casts a glammed up actress to play a character that would never have the problems her character would have since she looks like any other young eye candy Hollywood actress in a film mostly walking around in very distracting (in a good way) booty shorts like it's a Micheal Bay film.  That little bit of info would make her a much more sympathetic character or just not address her lifestyle at all.

I give this film a Vampire Beauty Rating of 4 out of 5.  I highly recommend it and it has pretty high re-watchability.  I think it does a much better job of telling the story that the Second Lost Boys film attempted. I only wish Laurel would have struggled more with her vampirism and less with her social life.