Embrace Of The Vampire

This reboot is in a whole different league than  Embrace of the Vampire  (EV95) that came out two decades ago, and not just because contemporary film has a number of advantages. In case you missed EV95 (I wish I had), it featured a silly vampire who was on an inexplicable 3-day deadline, and of course the real reason most people watched: television star Alyssa Milano's implants exposed. As I never have and never will care about Alyssa Milano, I'll try to be kind by giving EV95 credit for daring to do at least a couple of things I'd never seen in a vamp film: [1] a neck bite done thru a net (I think it was a soccer net) and [2] a vampire licking a door for about a half-minute (granted, the door had blood on it, but it was still one the most ridiculous things I have ever witnessed in a film that was not intended to be absurd).PROs✔ Actors. Don't be surprised if you recognize some of the faces. Victor Webster: Carlos of  Continuum . Kaniehtiio Horn: Rynn of  Defiance . Ryan Kennedy: Josef of Defiance, Odin Sinclair of  Caprica . Chelsey Reist: Harper of  The 100 . Destiny Rumancek of Hemlock Grove. Most of the actors have been in numerous TV shows. As for the protagonist of Embrace of the Vampire 2013 (EV13), relative newcomer Sharon Hinnendael did better than you might expect for a contemporary B movie. I'd have to see her in another production to be sure, but it seems she can act... or in the least she can act like a melancholy, socially awkward girl.✔ Cinematography: very well done. I wasn't expecting such high production values.✔ Location: The story opens in Eastern Europe and EV13 seems like it's trying to fool you into thinking the whole thing is in Europe, but this was a Canadian production (you guessed it: British Columbia).✔ Plot: it's a vampire flick, what do you expect? You don't need to be a rocket scientist to follow it, but EV13 is better than the cover art suggests. Who is the vampire? You don't find out until the second half, and that's a good thing. The innocent Charlotte (Hinnendael) is tormented by some "mean girls" (à la  Heathers ) of the fencing team, which will admittedly bore many viewers who want action rather than character development; I found the mean girls implement (a classic horror mechanism) effective, as it provides a reason to bond with the protagonist.✔ Strong female protagonist in the spirit of  Buffy tvS . It took her the whole movie to get there due to loads of self-doubt, but she eventually became someone to root for... where's the sequel? EV13 probably put a dent in Hinnendael's career, so she might as well reprise the role.CONs✘ Horror tropes abound, making this a "vampire plus" film. I prefer my vamp movies with a little less random horror imagery and a little more vampirism. At least blood was a key component of these sequences.✘ The plot was sufficient to hold my interest, but it doesn't break any new ground for a vamp film (although I'd never seen one before EV13 that centered around a fencing team).✘ The ending. Fades to black just because they couldn't think of something clever to do after the central conflict resolves. Not bad per se, just lacking in creativity or even closure.--☠ Reboot? Yes, it was. Both movies open with a scene in the Old World and the same vampire antagonist, and both have characters named Charlotte, Chris, Nicole, Eliza, and Sarah. Both Charlottes were found passed out on campus after dream sequences. Both Charlottes have trouble during lectures. Do I need to go on?☠ Sex. Yes, but very little. Despite the cover art suggesting "soft-core," that would be a misnomer considering how mild and infrequent the erotica is in EV13. There was one tame female/female scene (~3 minutes), and the protagonist remains still a virgin when the closing credits roll. If you like boobs (not pornstar fakes, mind you, but real ones), then you've come to the right place.☠ The vampire is the Buffyverse (Joss Whedon) type, i.e., face can be either regular human or true ugly... plus makes a growling sound during attack (I never did like that about Whedon's vamps).☠ Funny things not intended to be funny. The female "students" of the cast were presumably supposed to be typical twentyish matriculants, but the casting choices made this impossible to believe unless these students were at the end of some kind of part-time 12-year program (Sharon Hinnendael is the saving grace for credibility here).⚖ Final Verdict ⚖ I may be giving it more credit than it's due because of [1] the occasional titillation, [2] Sharon Hinnendael's allure, and [3] Victor Webster playing a major role, but EV13 did keep my eyes open even through the closing credits.

For those who have seen the original, the only similarities this "remake" has is the main character is named Charlotte, there is a vampire who wants her, and Charlotte comes from a Catholic school to attend college. Otherwise, this is a totally different movie. There is a lot of nudity and sex in this, which some of it seemed pointless. It seemed more like a "if we flash boobs, more people will watch" type of thing. The acting wasn't bad but I wouldn't consider it great. And I didn't really like the vampires either. I never understand why vampire movies have the vampire rip off flesh and let blood go everywhere. What is the point of that?The movie was shot really well though, which is mostly why I'm rating this a three. The cinematography was beautiful. All in all, though, the plot was weak and the ending seemed abrupt, were as the beginning and middle took waaaayyyy to long to get to the point. Just an average movie, nothing spectacular.

This was one of those movies that I really wanted to like, but wasn't due to its shortcomings with the writing and uneven pacing. The story did have a nice twist to the Vampire story, but it got lost in the ho hum story somewhere between naps.This Vamp story was based on a student that lost her mom in an auto accident a couple years ago. Charllotte (Sharon Hinnendael) is an honor student with a full ride scholarship and under tremendous pressure to succeed. With the pressure come strange visions and flashbacks that are interfering with school. work and a possible love connection. During these flashbacks we learn that her families history dates back a few hundred years where all of her trouble originated. These little events happen to often for me and at times do little to explain Charlotte's problems.It was hard to feel very much empathy for Charlotte because of the way she interacted with others and the poor character development regarding her predicament.The story has the usual problems that plague todays students like hazing, jealousy, alcohol, bullying, teachers lusting after the student and being shunned for being so everything.The only reason I gave this 2 stars is because of the locations and the landscape cinematography of Quest University in B. C. Canada and the surrounding mountain ranges and was real close to giving this one 3 stars because of the GOOD production values that are the Saving Grace of the movie. The other Saving Grace is the attractive cast and a few good performances by some of the cast.The movie does contain a fair amount of sex scenes with a fair amount of female nudity.The foul language was a lot less than expected and I can't remember if there was an f...word thrown in or not? The movie also has some hazing binge drinking and a few scenes of tame violence including decent gore/blood (knife, bite and spear wounds to the neck and torso) effects makeup.I really can't recommend this movie, but I will say the locations were worth it for me.

I have to say I really liked this version better than the 1993 film. It has that low budget feel to it but it also gave me a surprise. Normally low budget means poor acting and bad camera feel. But this film surprised me, more like a independent feel to it instead. The actors did well, the location is beautiful. The location has a very Twilight feel to it, but doesn't come close to Twilight itself. The legend of the vampire didn't really keep with the legend and towards the ending of the film it made me want for a sequel to this film, badly. Give it a try if you aren't sure. I didn't expect to like this more than the 1993 film, which left me a little meh!

There are moments within this movie that are impressive, the hallucination scenes are confusing, which is good as that is how they should be, but in general terms, it's not that good a film! The acting is rather stiff and a lot of scenes are pretty much throw-away, plus when you get a vampire film, you want a good proportion of neck biting and the usual vampiring shenanigans, but sadly it doesn't really deliver!However, whilst I am not going to rewatch this film over and over again, the ending does leave a sequel open and yet not being that great, I wouldn't mind a sequel, as long as the story and production value can be stepped up a notch or two!

Honestly, this was terrible. The original was much better in both portrayal of the story and casting choices, even though Martin Kemp pretty much gurned the entire way through. Save your money or buy the original.

very good remake better then the1st

Very good.

Good but dated film