Vampiress Review: Sinners (2025)

The Gist: When twin brothers from Chicago (Micheal B. Jordan) move to the Jim Crow era south and start a juke joint, the music grabs the attention of a vampire preacher looking to make the patrons part of his congregation. 

Female Vampire Factor: (SPOILER WARNING) There are a lot in the film as by the films end nearly everyone who attended the juke joint gets turned but the one who gets the most screen time is Mary (Hailee Steinfeld)

Mary is the product of a mixed-race father and a white mother who was raised around the black community to the point that she is considered one of them.  She had a relationship with one of the twins (Micheal B. Jordan) who left her high and dry after sleeping with her by leaving before she woke up but we eventually learn that despite him trying to make it look like he didn't care he did it to protect her from people finding out she was with a black man and the danger it could cause her.  

When the vampire paster and his minions arrive asking to come in and party with the black towns people she volunteers to go out and interact with them to see if they are legit or if they had ulterior motives.  This results in her being bitten off camera which starts the horror portion of the film.   Her, already having the trust of the community would then be let back into the club where she would seduce and then bite one of the twins killing and turning him. 

Final Opinion: To say the story of this film is deep is a major understatement and it has enough plot for three different movies which explains the nearly two and a half hour run time.  The first hour and fifteen minutes covers the lives of the twins and their younger cousin who is the son of a preacher but who wants to be a blues musician which his father disagrees with.  This is mostly them planning the business which could have been condensed honestly.  Then the next 45 minutes to an hour introduces the vampires with the final 20 minutes being an action drama about black gangsters taking on the Klan which wraps up everything that was set up before the vampire part.

Similar to From Dusk Till Dawn the vampire portion is the most memorable part of the movie but also the shortest part.  In fact, the first thought that came to my mind is the film does borrow a lot from that movie with a strip club being replaced by a juke joint. 

It does border on being a musical with the amount of performing that goes on in the film as even the vampires get a turn singing and playing instruments.   

The most interesting thing in my opinion is that the vampires aren't necessarily villains.  I mean they are definitely villains but in the films hierarchy of monsters the vampires are nowhere near as bad as the Klansman with the head vampire somewhat having a Jim Jones mindset in that he is not killing people in his opinion and constantly tells those that he wants to turn that as vampires there is no racism and everyone is equal so he is liberating them and that's exactly how it comes across once they do turn as even the Klansman that he turns lose the hateful mindset once they're vampires since I guess all blood tastes the same regardless of race.

As a film on its own it's definitely 4.5 stars (only thing keeping it from a 5 is just how needlessly long it is).  As far as a Vampire Beauty Rating though 3 out of 5.  The limited time Mary gets post turn is good and some of the other main female characters get a few seconds of screen time with fangs but overall, they are an afterthought in the film that mainly exists in the background as random faces in a fight scene otherwise. 

Vampiress Review: Abigail

The Gist:  A group of criminals are tasked with kidnapping a 12 year old ballet dancer not realizing that not only is she the daughter of a powerful mob boss but she is also an unstoppable vampire. 

Clarification: I would best describe this film as if Home Alone was a horror movie. I mean it's literally about a little girl who is left at home alone who must deal with a group of criminals trying to get her and using underhanded tricks and tactics to protect herself.  She's basically girl MaCauley Culken with fangs. 

Female Vampire Factor:  Of course we have the title character Abigail played by Allisha Weir.

She is basically what happens if Claudia from Interview with a Vampire made it to modern times and became a mafia assassin. The anti-hero of the film, we find out that she's a woman eternally stuck in the body of a twelve-year-old who is an assassin for her fathers criminal organization specializing in getting rid of those who wrong him.  The criminals who kidnap her then find out the hard way that the kidnapping was just an elaborate plan to get them trapped in the house with her so that she could kill them.    

Once she reveals herself she spends a majority of the movie being very sarcastic and sadistic, working in a lot of ballet dancing in with her pursuit of her victims showing that she's toying with them more than anything. 

At one point she does bite and turn of her kidnappers in the computer hacker "Sammie" played by Kathryn Newton.

Sammy gets bit while the crew were trying to subdue Abigail.  At first it seems that she will be fine but we then find out that in the vampire mythos of this film anyone bitten by a vampire can be controlled by that vampire to the point that the person becomes an extension of them which is what happens to Sammy. Abigail eventually takes over her body and uses her to attack her fellow kidnappers. 

Problem is, even though she herself is not a vampire but the puppet of the vampire she still has the same weaknesses.  Because of this we also learn that sunlight unlike in other movies where it's a agonizing painful burn is an insta kill. 

Final Thought:  I give this one a Vampire Beauty Rating of 2 out of 5 as clearly you aren't getting much out of a movie about a killer 12 year old but from a purely entertainment standpoint it's a 5.   Like I said above, if you like the movie Home Alone and you like horror films it's a perfect combination of the two genre's and it's not bogged down with a lot of backstory.  The plot is exactly what's happening from beginning to end and anything you learn about the characters is learned while the events are happening and not through flashbacks that kill the mood of the film.  I definitely recommend it. 

 

Vampiress Review: "Black as Night"

The Gist: A teenage girl in New Orleans finds herself at war with a vampire leader who plans on turning the cities destitute population into a vampire army after they turn her mother. 

Female Vampire Factor:  Not much to speak of.  Only one that gets any screen time is in the scene where the films protagonist Shawna visits her mother after being attacked herself and her mother turns and attacks her. 

Final Opinion:  Obviously with the above statement I can't give it a Vampire Beauty Rating above 1 out of 5.  With that being said for overall enjoyment this is a great film that I can't say enough great things about.  Genuinely decent vampire horror movies where vampires are a thing to be feared and not the stereotypical "people who live normal but just happened to have a taste for blood who are potential love interests" are hard to find.  

While the head vamps do still follow the "vampires are divided into mob like factions" thing films like to do the film is not told from the vampires point of view but from the victims so it doesn't matter. Vamps in this film are a threat to be feared and if they're on screen (with one exception) they're trying to kill someone so if you're looking for a straight forward horror film I can definitely recommend this. 

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Vampiress Review: "Bikini Vampire Babes"

 

The Gist: A vampiress creates a fledgling for herself and sets their sites on a bikini contest in Las Vegas all while trying to avoid the fledglings ex and a vampire hunter.

Female Vampire Factor: The film revolves around a main vampire Lizette

After a fight with a guy over treatment she ends up biting his girlfriend Bree, turning her into a vampire which she doesn't necessarily get right away as Bree isn't that smart. 

Lizette ends up going to Bree's day job at a fast food restaurant and convincing her to go to Vegas with her to take part in a bikini contest (and yes, her work uniform is a black bikini and a hat). 

The only real vampiric stuff to happen after that is when the girls car breaks down and they're taken in by a couple.  Bree's ex tracks her down to their house where she ends up biting him as well as the guy of the house.

She doesn't last long after that as Bree does end up dying out of nowhere by stepping into the sun without sunblock (the vampire hunter replaced her sunblock).

Lizette recovers from Brees death very quickly as she ends up taking the vampire hunter and biting her turning her.

The film ends with the couple getting memory wiped by Lizette. Her and the vampire hunter now a bikini vampire herself then drive off to Vegas all the while the boyfriend of Bree is then shown flashing his fangs showing that he too had been turned when Bree bit him.

 

Final Opinion:  Not much of a vampire film so I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 2 out of 5.  It is very much a throwback to the old USA up all night "girls in bikini's do regular stuff" genre that used to dominate the 1990's late night basic cable scene.  Those types of films don't translate too well in modern times since a bikini is nowhere near as provocative as it once was prior to the mass availability of internet adult media.  If you're looking for some cheap T&A the girls are in bikini's the whole film but otherwise the vampire stuff is more of a "matter of fact" thing than the main premise.

Vampiress Review: "Blood of the Virgins"

The Gist: A group of teens spend the night in an old lodge not realizing that it is haunted by vampires. 

Female Vampire Factor: The film begins telling us a story of a woman named Ofelia, sometime in the 19th century.  She is engaged to a guy named Eduardo but secretly seeing a guy named Gustavo.  Gustavo doesn't take too highly to Ofelia's relationship with Eduardo and on their wedding day proceeds to murder him, them reveals he's a vampires and kidnaps Ofelia and turns her. 

Fast forward to the 1960's a bunch of teenagers go and stay at a lodge.  As time goes a girl goes missing.  At the same time one of the guys gets a visit.  It's Ofelia.  Even though she's a vampire she doesn't want to do him any harm and in fact has a thing for him. 

It's without being said that Gustavo is the one going after the girl. A bunch of R- rated sex scenes later Ofelia decides she is tired of living as a vampire.  

 She goes to Gustavo's casket and stabs him in the heart with a knife before turning it on herself. 

 

Final Opinion: I'll get it out the way that this is definitely a Vampire Beauty Rating of 5 out of 5 since Susana Beltran as Ofelia is smoking hot.  The movie itself is average at best but it very much stands out as a Jean Rollins style vampire T&A flick when the vampire stuff finally starts happening which is very much appreciated. All the vamp stuff is done by Gustavo though.  Ofelia's main purpose is to show cleavage and breasts.

Vampiress Review: "Monster Mash"

The Gist: Two teens after their car breaks down in a storm end up in a mansion inhabited by a mad scientists and a bunch of very lonely monsters.

Female Vampire Factor: There are four in the film.  The main vampires are Dracula and his wife Natasha.  Natasha is played by former soap star Sarah Douglas.

Dracula and Natasha are having marital trouble as Natasha is convinced (rightfully so) that Dracula has eyes for other women.  This thought of course being confirmed since he always has three scantily clad brides with him that act as backup singers (one of which being In Living Color Fly Girl Carrie Ann (far left).

As far as the vampirism goes the "Draculettes" are the only women to actually fang out in the film which happens during Dracula's dance number "Old Eternity Blues".

Final Opinion: So this is a movie version of a stage play based on the 1967 hit song Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Picket who himself stars as Dr. Victor Frankenstein in the film.  The script was updated for present day (in this case 1995) and consists of a lot of dated jokes based on pop culture references of the time. I give the film a Vampire Beauty Rating of 2 out of 5.  The damsel in distress of the film played by Full house star Candace Cameron does get bit by Dracula but she does not turn leaving the Draculettes being the films only real vampire T&A.

Vampiress Review: "Daylights End"

The Gist: A group of survivors try to find a plane to escape a city overrun during a vampire apocalypse.

Female Vampire Factor:  This film works like your run of the mill zombie apocalypse film so the vampires pretty much look like anything you'd see on those.  No fangs, just people that run around making screeching noises who bite.

Final Opinion:  If you've seen any decently made zombie apocalypse action film this falls in line with any of those.  Lot's of shooting and survivors having emotional scenes when another finds out they've been bit sort of stuff.  I'd compare it to the first season of the SyFy series "Van Helsing" if anything.  With that I give it a Vampire Beauty rating of 1 out of 5. The vampires are nameless faceless creatures who can only be recognized as such because it's established at the beginning of the film they burn in the the sun.  Also none of the female characters turn (the one who almost does commits suicide).

Vampiress TV Review: Batwoman

"Drink Me"

Season 1

Episode 13

Batwoman is the newest DC comics series in what is known as the "Arrowverse" debuting in 2019 on the CW network.  Not to be confused with Barbera Gordons "Batgirl" who fought alongside Batman in the comics, Batwoman was developed in 2006 as more of a replacement for Batman who takes up his mantle after he's gone.

Batwoman is the secret identity of Kate Kane who is the cousin of Bruce Wayne.  Kate stumbles upon the bat cave and enlists the help of the son of Bruce Waynes head of technology (and batman suit creater Lucious Fox), Luke to help her become the new Bat person in Gotham City hoping to follow in the footsteps of her cousin (similar to Supergirls goal to live up to Superman).

One of the main things that makes the show stick out is it's heavy LGBTQ theme.  The Kate Kane character is a lesbian and like most superhero's her complicated love life when she's not fighting crime is heavily explored.    A bonus is one of her love interests in season 1 "Reagan" is played by Brianne Howey who played the sexy vampire Shaunna Babcock in the shamefully short lived Fox vampire series "The Passage".

Female Vampire Factor: This episode introduces DC comics vampire villain Nocturna

The live action version of her here is played by Kayla Ewell formally a vampire as Vickie from the Vampire Diaries.

Summary: Club kids around Gotham city are being found hanging dead and drained of their blood and Batwoman is on the case.  Kate devises a plan to have a blood drive to bring Nocturna out which unfortunately puts her family in danger as Nocturna ends up coincidentally targeting her estranged sister Beth (the villain Alice) as well as her step sister Mary who is a guest at the party.

The Nocturna portion of the episode is pretty much throw away fodder as the bulk of the episode follows the main reoccurring plot of Batwoman and her alter ego Kates ex Sophie's attraction to each other and her relationship with her estranged twin sister Beth/Alice.  This would also be the episode in which her step sister Mary figures out Kate is Batwoman.  Basically they cared so little about the Nocturna character that it's just explained away through an in show radio broadcast that Nocturna was arrested and sent to Arkham Asylum to write her off after a fight with Batwoman.

The biggest disappointment regarding this version of Nocturna is this is the Batman version of her "Natalie Knight" and is played off as just a girl with a skin condition who cosplays as a vampire.

Not the supernatural vampire from the Batwoman comic "Natalie Mitternacht" who in that comic is an actual vampire who has romantic interest in Kate Kane and uses hypnosis to get her even resulting in Batwoman herself becoming a vampire. 

A dream Sequence from the Batwoman comic #33

That storyline would have been awesome to introduce Nocturna as a re-occurring character as opposed to this which just uses her as a one episode distraction to the shows main characters storylines.

This one does have fangs but they are revealed to be artificial and she uses them to inject her victims with poison that paralyses them instead of for blood drinking purposes (she hangs her victims up and hooks them to IV bags for that.)  For at least having fangs and one somewhat hot bedroom scene to start the episode  I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 3 out of 5

Where to Watch

Vampiress Review: Blood Ransom

The Gist: A driver for a group of mobsters devises a plan to save a stripper who works for them who he is in love with not realizing that the mobsters are vampires and the woman is in the process of becoming one herself.

Female Vampire Factor: Since it's established very early that Crystal (Anne Curtis) is a vampire it's not about if but when does it happen.

99% of the film is her fighting her urges so don't expect much vampirism.  She does not want to turn and especially does not want to kill the man she loves Jeremiah with a lot of her dialogue being her trying to convince someone to kill her.  That means the closest you get in that portion is her getting veins in her face and red eyes as she fights back her urges while the two escape the vampires chasing them looking for her.

Once she exposes to Jeremiah what she's becoming they head to a pyschic who explains how she can become human again.  Crystal doesn't believe the psychic so she proves to her what she's saying is true by exposing that she is herself a vampire and her little girl is turning like Crystal is (the idea being you have to drink a special potion within a specific time from being turned and you can go back and also to kill a vampire they must have their throat slid with a specific blade)

 (SPOILER ALERT) In the films final act both the vampire and Dan, the cop on the case who happens to be Jeremiah's best friend catch up to them.  Crystal and Jeremiah survive the vampire attack when Crystal forgoes taking the vampire cure in order to rip him to shreds but Dan then confronts them with the intent to kill Crystal.  Jeremiah steps in front of Crystal and pleads for her life and tries to shoot the cop but when that doesn't work because his gun jams gets shot three times in the chest.  This is the one and only time in the film that Crystal actually fangs out as she loses it over Jeremiahs "death" (post credits hints he didn't die and she turned him).

Final Opinion: Best way to describe this film is Innocent Blood meets John Carpenters Vampires. The ending is a bit of a let down especially since the reality was that Crystal was not in any real danger from Dan and could have handled herself (she did after all rip the head vampire to shreds just the scene before and this was just a small town cop) so this kind of falls under the Titanic "Jack didn't have to die because there was plenty of room on the wood" type argument. While it's a good movie I can only give a Vampire Beauty Rating of 3 out of 5 since it's a film about a hot lady almost being a vampire more than being a vampire film.

Vampiress Review: "Night Trap"

The Gist: An undercover operation to save a group of school girls from a family of vampires requires you to control security cameras and activating traps.

Clarification:  Night Trap is an interactive live action video game in which selections you make decide on how the film you're watching proceeds.   It was originally filmed for the use of an unreleased interactive VHS format in the late 1980's but when that format never came to be it was shelved until video CD media became affordable in the early 1990's when Sega launched it's Sega CD (or Mega CD in Europe) system.

The game while very cheesy by todays standards has garnered a major cult following after it was taken off shelves shortly after it's release once it became the center of a government investigation into the effects of video game violence on children.  The scenes of young girls being taken away by zombies was in part the reason video games today have a rating system similar to movies and because of this infamy the game has been re-released on multiple current formats just based on it's role in pop culture history

Female Vampire Factor: In the game you play the role of a member of a police type force monitoring a slumber party that is being held in a house where it's believed girls have been going missing.  One of the girls at the party Kelli is an undercover member of the force. Kelli is played by the late 80's child actress Dana Plato which made the game that much more controversial as she was in the news often at the time for her troubles with drugs and crime.

The family who owns the home are all vampires with plans of taking the girls as victims.  Problem is a group of blood sucking zombies called the Augers (basically faceless generic devolved humans dressed in all black who limp around the house) have entered the home and are taking the girls for themselves.

There are two women in the vampire family.  The mother Sheila and the Daughter Sarah.   As mentioned you have control over what happens in the game so if you play the game right there will be zero vampirism in the entire process.

But if you capture the Augers and get to the portion of the game where the family are the ones chasing Kelli you will get to a point where different members of the family will corner her.  If you do nothing to save her during those scenes you will see a bite scene with Sheila...

  or Sarah.

Final Opinion: The Sega CD was hands down very much before it's time and it's a bit of a shame that this format of game barely exists anymore as there is a lot of satisfaction with literally controlling who lives and who dies in a film or in this case who is the one doing the killing.  This film is pretty bad but the game is campy fun and there is a payoff if you want it.  I give it a Vampire Beauty Rating of 4 out of 5. There was a kickstarter to make a sequel to this but nothing came of it.  If anything during this day and age of it being popular to say how easily offended people are today this game is a great example of how people were much more sensitive 25+ years ago.  The re-release of this game that was once considered too graphic for anyone under 18 is now rated T for appropriate for teenagers.