Embrace of the Vampire (Video 2013)
3 out of 10 stars Time to Read: 1:14 min
BASIC PLOT: Charlotte Hawthorn (Sharon Hinnendael) has just received a fencing scholarship to a prestigious university. She's an orphan, and she's been living in an all girls boarding school for some time. Moving to a coed university is a big change for Charlotte. She's suddenly not herself. She's having frightening visions, or are they dreams? Charlotte keeps waking up in strange places, having no idea how she got there. But after a random meeting at her job, with a woman named Daciana, Charlotte may finally get the answers she needs.
Charlotte has seen Daciana (Keegan Connor Tracy) around town, and has always felt a strange pull coming from her. Daciana professes to have the answers to questions, Charlotte didn't even know she needed to ask. She begs Charlotte to come see her as soon as her shift is over. Danger surrounds Charlotte, and without Daciana's help, she may not survive.
Will Charlotte accept Daciana's help, or will the darkness swallow her for good?
WHAT WORKS: *BEAUTIFUL ATMOSPHERIC The setting is fantastic and creepy at the same time. It's about the only thing that works.
*THE LANDSCAPE SHOTS ARE GREAT! Shots of the area are filmed beautifully. There's a shot of Charlotte (Sharon Hinnendael) in the window, overlooking the mountains, that's beautiful.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *LOTS OF CONFUSING/DISTRACTING SHOT CHOICES I know everybody wants to be Roman Polanski, and shoot like he did in Rosemary's Baby (1968), but just filming with something in the way, doesn't accomplish the Polanski effect. It's usually just distracting and annoying.
*THERE'S ZERO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT They don't give any background on anybody (at least not any that makes sense), so it's just a melange of disjointed scenes, and images.
*YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THE CHARACTERS Without character development, I didn't care if a tornado blew threw, and wiped them all out. I should care about Charlotte and Daciana, but I don't. It's pathetic!
*THE CUT VERSION IS UNWATCHABLE I saw the cut version on Lifetime, and the sex scenes were barely there. I kept thinking they were going for something like Cat People (1942). Everytime Charlotte got in touch with her sexuality, a monster would emerge. But none of that played out, much like the rest of the movie. It was a bunch of haphazard ideas and images thrown together, and shot in random order.
TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, except maybe film students, who need a reference of what NOT to do.
CLOSING NOTES: *This is a straight-to-video movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. Straight-to-video movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.
*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in ANY way by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews, and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.
BASIC PLOT: Charlotte Hawthorn (Sharon Hinnendael) has just received a fencing scholarship to a prestigious university. She's an orphan, and she's been living in an all girls boarding school for some time. Moving to a coed university is a big change for Charlotte. She's suddenly not herself. She's having frightening visions, or are they dreams? Charlotte keeps waking up in strange places, having no idea how she got there. But after a random meeting at her job, with a woman named Daciana, Charlotte may finally get the answers she needs.
Charlotte has seen Daciana (Keegan Connor Tracy) around town, and has always felt a strange pull coming from her. Daciana professes to have the answers to questions, Charlotte didn't even know she needed to ask. She begs Charlotte to come see her as soon as her shift is over. Danger surrounds Charlotte, and without Daciana's help, she may not survive.
Will Charlotte accept Daciana's help, or will the darkness swallow her for good?
WHAT WORKS: *BEAUTIFUL ATMOSPHERIC The setting is fantastic and creepy at the same time. It's about the only thing that works.
*THE LANDSCAPE SHOTS ARE GREAT! Shots of the area are filmed beautifully. There's a shot of Charlotte (Sharon Hinnendael) in the window, overlooking the mountains, that's beautiful.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK: *LOTS OF CONFUSING/DISTRACTING SHOT CHOICES I know everybody wants to be Roman Polanski, and shoot like he did in Rosemary's Baby (1968), but just filming with something in the way, doesn't accomplish the Polanski effect. It's usually just distracting and annoying.
*THERE'S ZERO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT They don't give any background on anybody (at least not any that makes sense), so it's just a melange of disjointed scenes, and images.
*YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THE CHARACTERS Without character development, I didn't care if a tornado blew threw, and wiped them all out. I should care about Charlotte and Daciana, but I don't. It's pathetic!
*THE CUT VERSION IS UNWATCHABLE I saw the cut version on Lifetime, and the sex scenes were barely there. I kept thinking they were going for something like Cat People (1942). Everytime Charlotte got in touch with her sexuality, a monster would emerge. But none of that played out, much like the rest of the movie. It was a bunch of haphazard ideas and images thrown together, and shot in random order.
TO RECOMMEND, OR NOT TO RECOMMEND, THAT IS THE QUESTION: *I cannot recommend this movie to anyone, except maybe film students, who need a reference of what NOT to do.
CLOSING NOTES: *This is a straight-to-video movie, please keep that in mind before you watch\rate it. Straight-to-video movies have a much lower budget, and so your expectations should be adjusted.
*I have no connection to the film, or production in ANY way. This review was NOT written in ANY way by a bot. I am just an honest viewer, who wishes for more straight forward reviews, and better entertainment. Hope I helped you out.