Female vampires once ruled the world. Now they are overlooked for glittering guys with big hair. It's time to point out why the female of the species should be the center of attention.
The Gist: A Vampire Count sets his sites on the wife of the librarian he hired to work at his home.
Clarification: Yep, Jonathon Harker is a Librarian now. So basically Dario Argento took the Dracula story, changed several aspects to where there were less characters (I guess less actors to pay) and replaced the lack of characters with horribly bad CG effects.
Look out for the video game praying mantis
So this is pretty much Argento's attempt to "Hammer Horror" Dracula into his own character so to speak. In this version he's an old school horror monster who pretty much just murders everyone in his path by turning into CG monsters like the Praying Mantis above which usually results in very bloody "B" movie graphic style gore.
Selling Point: I assume this would be much more interesting in 3D which the film was originally shot for. Also there is quite a bit of female vampire nudity.
Female Vampire Factor: This version has two. The first is the promiscuous village girl Tanja played by Miriam Giovanelli
Tanja is seen at the beginning of the film having sex with her boyfriend then refusing to hold on to his cross and walking home through the woods at night by herself. Dracula ends up getting to her which is the first piece of action prior to the opening credits. From that point on her role becomes that of the female vamps used in the Hammer Horror's Dracula series where she lives in Dracula's castle masquerading as his "niece" to unsuspecting visitors but constantly plots to take Dracula's victims for herself. This was a plus as Dracula's brides hardly ever get a backstory and this actually explains why Dracula is so easily upset with them (or this case her since she's the only one) for going after Harker. As you can see above she's a blonde so I'm not quite sure why they thought to put a horribly fake looking blonde wig on her but at least her role is very clothing optional.
Next you have Lucy Kisslinger who is played by Dario Argento's daughter Asia Argento.
Now despite the fact that she is on the cover art of the DVD as a vampire she is only a vampire in the film for one scene. Her role as Lucy follows the book for the most part where she is Mina's best friend who happens to get seduced and turned by Dracula first. She then rises from her crypt, goes after a child and Van Helsing (played by Dracula Veteran Rutger Hauer) puts a stake to her when she comes back to her crypt with the child in hand. If you've seen a Dracula movie before you know what scene I'm talking about since it's in most of them.
So most reviews agree that the movie is pretty bad with some saying it's entertainingly bad while others just saying avoid it altogether. If you're a fan of female vamps then this film does have some entertainment value as Tanja is a major character in the film but fact is the film is terrible. As far as a Vampire Beauty Rating it gets a 4 out of 5 because they're their and they have purpose but not sure if sitting through the film is really worth it.
The Gist: After a Vampire apocalypse a vampire hunter and a young kid look to drive to Canada to get away from the vampires and find civilization.
Clarification: If you've seen Zombieland or The Walking Dead, you've pretty much got the point of this film as it's the exact same premise. Two people heading north running into different people, taking them in and dealing with different obstacles on the way other than just the vampires such as cannibals and homicidal religious nuts.
Selling Point: If you like those shows you'll like this movie. It's a very good knockoff with an extremely well written and done story.
Female Vampire Factor: This is where all the compliments stop. Since it is a zombie movie knockoff the vampires are nothing more than zombies with fangs. Generally they're all decayed and deformed though there is a couple of exceptions.
At around the 47 minute mark of the film one does get extended time. During the scene the young kid goes searching through what was thought to be an abandoned house and sees a girl sleeping under the bed. She then reveals herself to be a vampire which took him by surprises as unlike the rest she still looked human. This scene deals with the apprentice vampire hunter learning to make a kill on something that still looks human and the conflict it causes.
I give the film a Vampire Beauty rating of 2 out of 5 (the only reason it doesn't get a 1 is the above scene is very good). If you're in it for sexy bite scenes from female vampires, steer clear. If you're in it for a great vampire movie I highly suggest this one.
From Dusk Till Dawn is a television series that debuted on the El Rey Network and Netflix in 2014. If you've seen the original film then basically you can skip the first 6 or so episodes as all it basically does is take the original plot of the film and expand on it enough that it fills several 45 minute episodes. In other words you get to find out how the Gecko brothers got back together and why the family they eventually kidnap for the purpose of getting them to Mexico was on their road trip in the first place (IE the stuff you probably didn't pay attention to anyway when you watched the film).
Once you get to episode 7 of the series is when you get to the point in the film where Santanico Pandemonium does her iconic dance and also where the series vears away from the film.
While it keeps to the story for the most part little things have been changed for the sake of making it a series. First Santanico's backstory is now much different which makes the movie From Dusk Till Dawn: Hangman's daughter not exist in this timeline (the backstory in that movie was MUCH better than the one given in this series BTW). Next the Gecko brothers are basically the protagonists of the series so their fate in the original had to be changed to accommodate that. Specifically the character Richie who was played by Quinton Tarantino in the original film gets a bit of a reprieve from his bizarre psychotic behavior as it gets explained that it wasn't him being himself (without giving too much away as it's a very good plot twist). Finally Santanico's roll as a whole is much bigger in the series than it was in the film in a plot very reminiscent to shows like Blade: the Series and Kindred the Embraced.
Santinico is played by Eiza Gonzalez
Unlike Selma Hayeks version of the character who was pretty much a dominatrix, this version is more of a damsel in distress type similar to what was explained in Hangman's daughter where she was forced into the position of Santanico but didn't want it. Unlike in Hangman's daughter where as soon as the curse takes over her personality changes to accept it (as does every vampire in the original films) the vamps here maintain all their human personality traits so curing herself of her vampirism is her ultimate goal.
As you can tell she's very hot and lives up to the role when she's in human form. As far as vamping out they do stay true to the original film in that she takes the form of a snake, scales and all. Though unlike the film she does maintain her hair even in snake form.
Also even though the vampires in this film do evolve from snakes when she's super angry she does grow a pair of bat wings.
This is disappointing in the sense that the final movie of the series Hangman's daughter (which was a prequal) got away from that and had all the vampires stay in human form with just snake like fangs. I would say that was just to save money since the straight to DVD film had a much smaller budget than the big screen feature but other vampires in this series keep their human form when they fang out as well (same as the original film). It's basically just luck of the draw in this show. I mean it does happen with her but VERY sparingly and you have to look quick.
It's a good show and very entertaining. The first season can seem a little redundant if you've seen the original movie and some scenes are pretty much ripped from the film so it's like you're watching the film told by someone with A.D.D who can't get to the point. Once you get to the vampire part it starts getting original and a lot more interesting.
Season 2 is where the series goes to an original story. Santinico and Richie go off on their own as vampires while Seth and Kate go off on their own just as they did in the films end so you're getting Santinico helping Richie go through his vampire transition and Kate trying to get Seth to basically make her a replacement Richie on his crime sprees. Also during this time most of the vampire characters of the first season are found to have survived the titty twister slaughter and begin plotting their revenge.
Demi Lovato is introduced toward the end of season 2 as a love interest vampire of evil vamp Carlos played by That 70's show alum Wilmer Valderrama.
Unfortunately she doesn't make it long and is dead by the season 2 finale.
On a promising note the season 2 finale ends with Kate (Madison Davenport) being resurrected as a vampire herself leaving something to look forward to for season 3.
The Gist: After being bitten by a snake a woman transforms into a blood sucking vampire.
Clarification: I had to go to the IMDB plot summery for that. This is a very artsy film full of camera tricks, screen filters and nothing plot wise is actually spelled out. Basically a woman is doing a video diary the whole movie explaining what's going on with her which is followed by scenes of her doing stuff with no dialogue or explanation till her next days diary and even then it's not very clear what's happening. Basically an over thought out music video or late 90's playboy strip tease video would be the best comparison I can make.
Selling Point: Generally the "Doing stuff" portion is either in lingerie, sexy club wear or nothing at all.
Female Vampire Factor: Your vampire in this film is played by British actress Melanie Denholme
So if you're going to watch a confusing film where the lead actress spends much of it in sexy clothes you can do much worse. Not much else I can add to this that wasn't said above as the film really doesn't have much substance to it. In the film she is either talking into a camera or in artistically edited scenes where she's doing things like taking a bath, walking around her home, getting dressed or undressed and by the movies end feeding on people she's seduced into her home (an assumption based on the clothing as very little of this film takes place outside of her home so you only see the feeding and nothing that leads to it).
Speaking of the feeding, she does have fangs but as seen on the box art they are the piranha style and not your traditional vampire fangs.
This is one point where the artsy style of the film does help as the weird vision and filters do make them sexier than they otherwise would be.
In the end I would say it's better than other British indy horror movies that are like this since they attempt a sexy horror movie without trying to over-saturate it with side plot like many of the others of this genre do.
but considering how bad some of those were that's not saying much. I give the film a Vampire Beauty Rating of 3 out of 5.
