Embrace of the Vampire

By:
In-House Review - May 11 2004

A sensuous but innocent college freshman is being seduced by the most obsessive lovers. A lover who comes to her only in dreams -- a dark, handsome vampire who touches her in forbidden places and will stop at nothing to arouse her passion. As she is drawn deeper and deeper into the vampire's erotic world of carnal pleasure, Charlotte is to make a choice, between her college boyfriend and her nighttime lover, between sweet romance and uncontrollable lust, between the of light and the power of dark, between true love. . .and eternal passion.

By: Amos Lassen

"Embrace of the Vampire"
The Dark World of Carnal Desires (not so dark and not so carnal)
Amos Lassen
Charlotte is a good girl; she is an 18 year old freshman at college who has been having some very sexy and strange dreams which have come to her via a vampire. She must stay pure for three days so that the vampire will take her with him and give her eternal life. The vampire only comes to her though her dreams and he touches her in sensual places and is determined to arouse her passion. Soon Charlotte finds herself drawn into his world of carnality and she is to decide which lover she wants-the one who comes to her in her dreams or her college boyfriend; sweet romance or uncontrollable lust; the of light or the power of the dark; true love or eternal passion.
Charlotte is Alyssa Milano who is seduced by the vampire played by Gary Kemp. We learn that his immortality is in danger unless he can bring an eternal bride into his (non)life in three days. First he must get her away from her boyfriend, Chris (Harrison Pruett) and it is here that the action is set.
This is meant to be an erotic thriller but the thrills fall flat. It seems that the vampire lost his lover and has to replace her. He thinks that Charlotte is that lost love. For a reason that is never given to the viewer, he has only three days to bring her to him and if he does not, he is to die (although I always vampires were already dead.
The film seems to have been made as an excuse to see Milano's body and we do see her in various stages of dress and undress and as a prim young college student and as a Goth lesbian. Kemp as the vampire who never really seems to be serious about the role he plays here. His speech is affected by the fangs he has to wear and he lisps her way through the film (which is not too sensual-I mean really, a lisping vampire?).
Jennifer Tilly is beautiful and sexy but is a non-actor. She only has a cameo as a seductive vampire and it is one of the best scenes in the film which gives you an idea how bad this movie really is. Former Playboy Playmate Rebecca Ferratti is the photographer who is to photograph Milano and she is probably the best actor in the film even though she appears to be too old for the part she plays.
The movie is set on a college campus but the only aspect of college life that we see consists of parties, parties, lesbian sex, sex in the showers, sex at parties, parties, sex in alleys and parties, parties and parties. Charlotte's boyfriend does a great job of staring at her breasts. The plot (or lack of it) never seems to move forward but the music is quite good. I have no idea what director Anne Goursaud was thinking with this film but I bet it had something to do with showing us Milano's naked body. There are some almost steamy scenes but to see them we have to wade through the muck of the rest of the film.
"Embrace of the Vampire" uses "Dracula" as its source and then steals as much as it can from the original.
"Both films feature a vampire pursuing the reincarnation of his centuries-old love. Both films aspire to a sort of "vampire romance." At the end of Embrace of the Vampire Martin Kemp's tearful bloodthirsty angst, Alyssa Milano's tearful rediscovery of her love, the "tragic" star- crossed finale, and the Christian iconography, all mirror Stoker's classic tale".