Vampiress Review: The Invitation

The Gist:  An American girl struggling her way though life is found by a distant cousin who asks her to come to a family reunion in England where she finds her family there lives an upscale life but eventually finds out that that life comes at a price. 

Clarification: This film is your stereotypical "rich people are elite because they're actually monsters who kill the poor" storyline.  If you've ever seen the 1979 vampire film "Thirst" then basically this is a modern take on that.  In this case Evie the main character in the film learns that her family in England all work for a young English Lord who she falls for.

Just to then find out that he is a vampire and it is her birthright to be one of his three vampire brides after the previous third bride from her bloodline (Her great grandmother who looked exactly like her) had recently committed suicide and as the Dracula rule states there must always be three. 

Female Vampire Factor:  As mentioned above the purpose of Evie is to complete a trio of brides which then leaves the other two. 

Lucy (Alana Boden)

Lucy is the younger and nicer of the two who just wants them all to get along.  She tries her best to make Evie comfortable but kind of hard to do when the thing you're talking about in a sweet and loving way is eating people.  

Viktoria (Stephanie Corneliussen)

Victoria is the stereotypical mean girl of the two.  She's also revealed to be the monstery figure that haunts the manor and is offing the help in the shadows in the early parts of the movie.  She's really into being the murdering monster and it comes off as she just deals with the whole "being one of three brides" thing because it's a requirement for the vampire powers but otherwise would rather not deal with her more humane sisters. 

They end up dying after Lucy comes to Evie's aid when Viktoria attempts to kill her.  Lucy gets tired of Viktoria and ends up plunging both her and Viktoria through a sharp object that vampires probalby shouldn't have in their homes if sharp objects through the heart kill them. 

Evie (Nathalie Emmanuelle)

By the films end Evie decides with the help of some knowledge from Lucy that the best way to handle the situation is from the inside.  She agrees to marry the Lord and as soon as she drinks his blood to get the vampire powers she sets fire to the place and uses those powers to fight both Vicktoria (who still ends up proving to be way above her skill level requiring Lucy to save her) but eventually taking out both Renfield the head servant and the Lord himself resulting in her reverting back to human as she never drank from a human preventing her from going full vampire (as in the folklore of this film if the head vampire dies all vampires he turns dies with them).   

I'll give it a solid Vampire Beauty Rating of 3 out of 5.  Nothing vampiric actually happens other than the 4 vampires in the film do have conversations with their fangs out once the big reveal happens an hour or so in but the only attacking and blood drinking done in the film is the murders Viktoria does off camera before you learn of the vampires and a scene of Renfield extracting it by slitting a maids throat.  With the exception of the supernatural fight scenes at the end the whole movie could have been done without the vampire twist and it wouldn't have made much of a difference.  

Vampiress Review: "Night Teeth"

 

The Gist: A young man filling in for his brother as a limo driver is unknowingly placed in the middle of a murder plot consisting of female vampire assassins on a murder spree. 

Female Vampire Factor: The passengers that limo driver Benny is assigned to pick up are two party girls by the name of Blare and Zoe.

Zoe is the brains of the operation.  She's the girlfriend of the vampire boss Victor who is using the two girls to take out his competition.  She's very short tempered and has no issue with killing anyone who crosses her. 

Blare on the other hand comes off more a victim of circumstance.  She goes along with everything Zoe does because Zoe is who created her but is still in tune with her human emotions and bonds with Benny throughout the film to the point that it seems she's into him and how innocent he is and doesn't want to see him harmed in spite of Zoe and Victors plans for him. 

The only other two female vampires in the film come in the form of one of the vampire leaders Grace and her #2

Grace in this case is played by the it girl of the 2010's Meghan Fox.  She doesn't do anything vampiric but you do get to see her in a very sexy outfit and with fangs during her one scene. 

Final Opinion:  Netflix thankfully does seemingly include one original vampire film in it's Halloween lineup and this one was a very pleasant surprise.  While I've never really been a fan of non horror vampire films, especially ones with the "vampires are just supernatural mobsters" premise as I prefer vampires to be something to fear, this one wasn't too bad.  The underlying story that the elite in the city of Los Angeles are really vampires who own the government and the street gangs are actually vampire hunters was a decent twist though not really explored enough to be important to the plot.  From a femme vamp standpoint you get a much better use of Lucy Fry as a vampire than she was used in the box office bomb "Vampire Academy". That as well as vampire Meghan Fox (though nowhere near the non vampiric performance in Jennifers Body) gives this a Vampire Beauty Rating of 3 out of 5.    

Vampiress Review: "Vampires vs The Bronx"

The Gist: It's up to a group of young kids to save the Bronx when they are the only ones to realize that the new real estate developers in town are really a cover for a brood of vampires looking to take over the neighborhood.  

Female Vampire Factor:  Our one and only femme vamp is Vivian (Sarah Gadon)

Vivian spends the first part of the film as an unassuming sweet innocent overly friendly white suburban stereotype who is repeatedly shown as a fish out of water in the urban lower class burrow she's moved into, often being met with paranoia from those who encounter her that she's just there to call the police on everyone. 

 

All the while the vampire related happenings are pointing at a blond man as the main vampire who the kids of the neighborhood identify and try to convince everyone exists.  Obviously no one believes them.

 

It isn't until about one hour in that its finally revealed that the main real estate agent is just a familiar for the vampires and the blonde vampire we thought was the main vampire was just a henchman.  Everything is cleared up when the boys steal a key from the vampires layer.  Vivian then goes around the neighborhood looking for them and after realizing that the owner of the local convenience store has figured her out (he see's that she doesn't show in the stores security camera) she fangs out and drains him. 

 The boys along with one of the local girls who's the only one who believes them eventually end up at the convenience store and realize the vampires got to the owner.  When the local gang bangers and the vampires go after them they escape but run into Vivian on the way.  Not knowing she's one of them they take her back home with them to safety.

When they get back to one of the boys apartments they start to realize Vivian is acting weird.  She's making small talk with his mom in an obvious effort to be invited in. As if she can't come in unless specificity invited.  

When their holy water starts to bubble they realize she's a vampire and out her to the kids mom.  Vivian then fangs outs and admits that she isn't just any vampire, she is the commanding vampire for an expedition to take over the Bronx. She demands her key but gets doused with holy water instead. 

From this point on till she is finally staked during the final fight scene between Vivians vampires and the residents of the Bronx, sweet Vivian is long gone and she spends the rest of the movie pretty much dressed like Selene from Underworld while fanging out and killing or attempting to kill anyone on screen with her that isn't another vampire.

 

 

Final Opinion: This is Netflix's newest original film and I have to say I have no complaints here and give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 5 out of 5.  A movie where the main antagonist is an attractive female vampire who spends the last half of the film fanging out and biting people pretty consistently is as good as a PG horror comedy is going to get.  Not to mention the swerve of an unassuming background character for the majority of the film all of a sudden being not only the main baddy but a primarily vicious one at that was very well done.  Netflix does a very good job of giving some sex appeal to its horror comedy villains even when the main protagonists are children much like in their "Babysitter" franchise.  This definitely has high re-watchability. 

Vampiress Review: "Vampires"

The Gist:  A teenage girl struggles with life when a dormant gene in her DNA activates and slowly turns her into a vampire.

Female Vampire Factor:  Pretty much everyone on the show is a vampire minus a couple exceptions.  The main character on the show is a girl named Doina played by Oulaya Amamra

Her whole family minus her and her brother Ladislas already had the vampire gene so they can't come out during daylight and must live on blood.

This made life hard for Doina since that means her mother who raised the family alone after their fathers disappearance can't come out during daytime hours when things start to go bad at school. One day Doina started getting urges.  Eventually resulting in her having incidents of biting her boyfriend as the urge to drink his blood was becoming irresistible. This resulted in her beginning to realize the gene had not skipped her and she was turning.

The thing most confusing for her though is that unlike the rest of the vampires in her family she can still walk in the sunlight without burning.

After the first couple of episodes the series goes into Doina being introduced to the other members of the vampire community. This leads to her unraveling the mystery of her families estranged relationship with them that started with a feud between her mother and one of the female elders (below) and exposing a power struggle within that community.   On top of that the elders of that community try to take advantage of Doina's magic DNA that allows her to be both a vampire but still able to walk in daylight like a human.  She becomes even more valuable when they learn that her blood heals vampires who are wounded.

Final Opinion:  This series is a lot of things but a vampire show it honestly isn't other than the first two episodes which seems to be a running theme with these Netflix vampire series.  After that it becomes a heavy drama about feuding families and a secret society.  No fangs, the occasional eye color change but otherwise biting is just normal biting.

 I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 1 out of 5. 

Vampiress Review: "Family Blood"

The Gist: A woman with addiction problems is attacked and turned by a vampire after one of her drug recovery meetings and gives in to her new addiction to blood while her family tries to cope.

Clarification: Very interesting take for a vampire film.   Basically taking the troubles families have when it comes to things like addictions (neglectful parenting, bad decision making, dating other just as screwed up people and exposing them to your kids) and giving it a supernatural twist.

Female Vampire Factor: Ellie is a walking headcase who's a giant question mark in the "responsible parent" department before the whole fangs and blood lust thing.  Her kids have no structure and have to spend more time worrying about her than themselves and in return act out in school.  It just gets way worse afterword.  She has no control over herself and is constantly putting her childrens lives in danger till the point that she exposes her kids to the vampire who turned her (who has it out for her son) and eventually tries to feed on her son herself by the films end.

Generally when she's vamping out it's in the dark though so you can't see anything but her pouncing on people so the majority of the film post turn is her walking around with blood all over her from the aftermath.

I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 2 out of 5.  She's definitely presented as a monster, nothing seductive about her blood lust.

Vampiress Review: "Byzantium"

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Vampiress Review: "From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series"

From Dusk Till Dawn is a television series that debuted on the El Rey Network and Netflix in 2014. If you've seen the original film then basically you can skip the first 6 or so episodes as all it basically does is take the original plot of the film and expand on it enough that it fills several 45 minute episodes.  In other words you get to find out how the Gecko brothers got back together and why the family they eventually kidnap for the purpose of getting them to Mexico was on their road trip in the first place (IE the stuff you probably didn't pay attention to anyway when you watched the film).

Once you get to episode 7 of the series is when you get to the point in the film where Santanico Pandemonium does her iconic dance and also where the series vears away from the film.

 While it keeps to the story for the most part little things have been changed for the sake of making it a series.  First Santanico's backstory is now much different which makes the movie From Dusk Till Dawn: Hangman's daughter not exist in this timeline (the backstory in that movie was MUCH better than the one given in this series BTW).  Next the Gecko brothers are basically the protagonists of the series so their fate in the original had to be changed to accommodate that.  Specifically the character Richie who was played by Quinton Tarantino in the original film gets a bit of a reprieve from his bizarre psychotic behavior as it gets explained that it wasn't him being himself (without giving too much away as it's a very good plot twist).   Finally Santanico's roll as a whole is much bigger in the series than it was in the film in a plot very reminiscent to shows like Blade: the Series and Kindred the Embraced. 

Santinico is played by Eiza Gonzalez

Unlike Selma Hayeks version of the character who was pretty much a dominatrix, this version is more of a damsel in distress type similar to what was explained in Hangman's daughter where she was forced into the position of Santanico but didn't want it. Unlike in Hangman's daughter where as soon as the curse takes over her personality changes to accept it (as does every vampire in the original films) the vamps here maintain all their human personality traits so curing herself of her vampirism is her ultimate goal.

As you can tell she's very hot and lives up to the role when she's in human form.  As far as vamping out they do stay true to the original film in that she takes the form of a snake, scales and all. Though unlike the film she does maintain her hair even in snake form.

 Also even though the vampires in this film do evolve from snakes when she's super angry she does grow a pair of bat wings.

This is disappointing in the sense that the final movie of the series Hangman's daughter (which was a prequal) got away from that and had all the vampires stay in human form with just snake like fangs.  I would say that was just to save money since the straight to DVD film had a much smaller budget than the big screen feature but other vampires in this series keep their human form when they fang out as well (same as the original film).  It's basically just luck of the draw in this show.  I mean it does happen with her but VERY sparingly and you have to look quick.

  

It's a good show and very entertaining.  The first season can seem a little redundant if you've seen the original movie and some scenes are pretty much ripped from the film so it's like you're watching the film told by someone with A.D.D who can't get to the point.  Once you get to the vampire part it starts getting original and a lot more interesting.  

Season 2 is where the series goes to an original story. Santinico and Richie go off on their own as vampires while Seth and Kate go off on their own just as they did in the films end so you're getting Santinico helping Richie go through his vampire transition and Kate trying to get Seth to basically make her a replacement Richie on his crime sprees.  Also during this time most of the vampire characters of the first season are found to have survived the titty twister slaughter and begin plotting their revenge.  

Demi Lovato is introduced toward the end of season 2 as a love interest vampire of evil vamp Carlos played by That 70's show alum Wilmer Valderrama.  

Unfortunately she doesn't make it long and is dead by the season 2 finale. 

On a promising note the season 2 finale ends with Kate (Madison Davenport) being resurrected as a vampire herself leaving something to look forward to for season 3. 

Related:

The Sexy Female Vamps of From Dusk Till Dawn