Vampiress Review: "Kiss of the Damned"

The Gist: A writer on a getaway to Europe to clear his mind falls for a beautiful yet mysterious red head, but when he can't take no for an answer reveals that she's a vampire and at his suggestion turns him.

Clarification:  This isn't so much a horror movie as it is a romance/drama about sibling rivalry.  While the film starts out about Paulo (the writer) and Djuna (The Vampire).  Once he is turned the film goes in several different direction but has a bit of a reverse Twilight feel.  In this case it's not a bad thing whatsoever being that all the vampires are hot women and they actually do have fangs plus it doesn't take 5 movies to tell the story. 

Selling Point:  The scene in the film where Djuna proves to Paolo that she is a vampire and not just trying to blow him off.  She has him chain her to her bed (while wearing nothing but lingerie BTW) and romances her till she fangs out (I guess vampires can't have sexual relations with humans without wanting to eat them).  She then begins growling and writhing around the bed and his response?  What else... He unchains her, says "lets make love" and get an eternal hickey for it.  This scene was HOT!!!!!!!!

Female Vampire Factor:  The film stars Josephine De La Baume as Djuna.  Outside of the above scene Djuna rarely ever looses control and feeds on animal blood and teaches Paulo to do the same when she turns him (as I said "reverse Twilight").  Being that the gist of the film all happens in the first 20 minutes they have to fill the rest with something and that something is Djuna's sister Mimi played by Roxane Mesquida.

Unlike the other vampires of the film Mimi wants absolutely nothing to do with the whole "don't hurt anyone" lifestyle that the others live and is often getting in trouble for leaving her meals lying around for others to see.  She comes to town to stay with Djuna while Xenia (the vampire who seems to run this halfway house for wayward vamps played by Anna Mauglalis) prepares a home for her in Arizona.  Mimi is quite evil and decides she doesn't want to leave and not only sets her sites on Paolo but even goes as far as blackmailing Xenia to prevent from having to go to Arizona by bringing her a young woman and "accidentally" cutting her (Xenia is a vampire version of an alcoholic as she is not capable of controlling her hunger around humans without loosing control).

 Though the ending of the movie seems like a "we couldn't come up with anything better" rush job the fact is getting to it is the best part anyway.  It's a very artsy film meaning full of sex scenes with pretty music in the background.  For that I give the film a Vampire Beauty Rating of 5 out of 5.  The two scenes of female vampires loosing control is worth the price of admission alone.