What would a month of Halloween be without a few Vampires to make it gory and lustful? For a taste of blood it’s Embrace of the Vampire a remake of the 1995 release with a lot more skin and scream filled nights. The film now on Blu-ray in a combo pack with DVD for the first time puts the movie in your hands on your home ground. While this feature brings things up to date, it does lose some of the creepy vampire feel without the transforming bats or Transylvania Counts. It’s the ghoulishness that made the vampire films of old, but then here there’s lovely Sharon Hinnendael to look at.
The movie opens with a horseback rider speeding through the woods in 1735 Bucovina, Eastern Europe. She arrives at the house of a woman being held down on a table, after administering a blood potion the door swings open and a vampire enters the room killing them all and biting Stefan. Flash forward to modern day where we find Charlotte (Sharon Hinnendael) arriving at North Summit College. She meets her roommate Nicole (Kaniehtiio Horn) and settles in to her room.
Shortly thereafter Charlotte gets introduced to Eliza (C.C. Sheffield) Nicole’s best friend and member of the fencing team. Eliza’s very jealous of anyone wanting Nicole’s friendship as she wants her all to herself. Needing extra money Charlotte gets a job at a local coffee house where she meets Chris (Ryan Kennedy) and a relationship ensues. On the way home from work that evening she bumps into mysterious Professor Cole (Victor Webster) her fencing coach and Mythology teacher. When Charlotte starts seeing hallucinations that don’t make any sense she finds herself being drawn into a diabolical world that’s finally catching up with her from her Romanian past.
The players are mainly formulaic with very little dazzling acting, but then very few vampire films need Oscar performances to give one the willies or make their hair crawl on the back of their neck. Carl Bessai keeps his film smart and interesting making more of a relationship movie than a murderous rampage of blood lust. He builds his characters with new actors that can capture your attention and fit into the script without the ‘star quality’ distraction that’s not necessary here.
He uses mythology well in both the opening attack by the vampire in Southeastern Europe and Professor Cole’s classroom where he shows the creatures comparing them to Neanderthals, dragons and humans. The story uses a lot of symbolism with a fencing sword nicking the neck of Charlotte resembling a bite and the swift flash of a human slightly visible to create a sense of someone evil nearby. But director Bassi gets over enthusiastic with his vampire horror however, snatching one of his characters up into the trees reminiscent of Twilight and the proverbial death worms appearing in Charlotte’s coffee cups.
I do like the performance of Sharon Hinnendael as Charlotte the innocent scholar who comes under the control of the vampire. She keeps her character sweet and innocent, but when her back’s to the wall she knows how to protect herself. Her character was brought up at a Catholic orphanage so it isn’t a big stretch that she’s the only virgin available for the vampire to become human. She’s fairly new to the screen, but I have a feeling she’ll be around for a long while.
Embrace of the Vampire has not been rated but contains nudity, graphic sex, language, violence and gore. The movie drags somewhat because there is a lot of character buildup but director Bassi makes up for it with a quick out of control ending.
The video quality is very good, sharp and crystal clear. The 1080p widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 fills the whole screen top to bottom and side to side on 16×9 televisions. If there is a flaw it’s that the movie may be too stark and bright giving the horror flick an overly pristine look.
The sound quality of the Blu-ray Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and the DVD Dolby Digital 5.1 is excellent played through my HD television speakers. If you have an upgraded sound system you can feel the excitement of the surround sound during the attack scenes and the opening scene.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Sharon Hinnendael, Kaniehtiio Horn, C.C. Sheffield, Chelsey Reist, Victor Webster, Robert Moloney, Ryan Kennedy, Keegan Connor Tracy and Olivia Cheng
Director: Carl Bessai
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Running Time: 1 Hr 31 Min
Video Release Date: October 15, 2013
Language: English
Format: Blu-ray, DVD
Audio: Blu-ray Dolby TrueHD 5.1, DVD Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: 1080p Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Number of Discs: 2 Disc Combo Pack
Distributed by: Anchor Bay
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
