Embrace of the Vampire 2013

I think vampire films can produce certain results with simple scenes like above. Vulnerable prey, seemingly unaware of a predator in their midst, could be victimized at any moment. As seen above, a sleeping beauty, as was the case with Lucy in Dracula (1931), in her own bed, isn't safe from the potential vampire bite.

Let’s be honest. Well, I’ll be. There are these erotic vampires films built in the hopes of titillating a specific target audience. If a little style is applied, infecting the movie with an eye candy appeal sometimes significantly. I’m of the audience that certainly likes a little titillation, but there are really few “erotic throwbacks” to vampire films of the 70s, with a few exceptions these days. While I think “Kiss of the Damned” (2012) follows the more artistic side of those kinds of films (while sensual and recognizing the allure of vampirism), there are films like “Embrace of the Vampire” (2013) which attempt to go a little towards the softcore route to provoke arousal.

There are some scenes I really like in Embrace. My definite highlight was an extensive bloodsucking that befell a college student who didn’t realize that the man behind her wasn’t her boyfriend, but a vampire (posing as a fencing instructor at said collegiate institution!) caressing her neck and shoulder with teeth on the verge of sharpening, and the eventual blood drain which leads to quite a stream down her naked bosom. It is the way of the vampire…the ultimate predator takes advantage of a prey and drains the victim. What I think is key to the scene’s success is how the actress sells the desire of her situation before the bite and drain: voluntarily, she is ready for her beau to remove her top, fondle her bare flesh, and openly allow his touch, totally involved in the pleasure of what is happening and could happen. Unfortunately, most of the fondling is done by a vampire that will soon drain her considerably. I won’t lie, it was all about the woman for me. I loved how she is so lost in the process. Sure sex can lead to some unfortunate situations, but the process (foreplay) can prove to be quite seductive on screen if sold in such a way to show that the touch of hands and lips has a tranquil quality to it that certainly punches buttons for yours truly. The face with a relish in the touch, the vampire in total control, and the gradual lure for the bloodsucker to take that bite: it is a scenario I find old-fashioned but not irrelevant for the genre which doesn’t just stay close to the modern, but on occasion looks back at the past and incorporates what once worked so well long ago. 

I am the kind of horror fan that sees the terror of the eventual realization and how it all works, and tracing it back to one of my all-time favorite horror films, “Dracula” (1931), is why it works substantially well to me: the “spider and the fly”. I think you see Dracula very present in Embrace. The desire for Mina, and Dracula’s willingness to risk all to have her: In Embrace, the vampire could kill the troubled lead heroine at any point, but he doesn’t. In fact, you see him struggle with the vampire at the end when it appears she will give him her sex…to him it is love. He genuinely wants her for his vampire bride, but she sees it as a mission to destroy him.

I won’t pretend that this film is anything remotely newsworthy. You want lesbian sex, there’s plenty of it out there, so this film doesn’t create anything original or awakening. It is about sexual awakening, mind you, but how many films have we seen focused on a young woman's burgeoning realization of the desires latent and potent? Regarding a sheltered Catholic schoolgirl finding her desire increasingly aware to her once she’s relocated to a college in an idyllic mountainous campus, this does kind of update the plot to an ideal setting that isnt urban. Sharon Hinnendael, for whom I’m unfamiliar, is this introverted young woman named Charlotte battling disturbing hallucinations (one scene involving teeth falling out, and another involving sex with a campus girl are examples of doozies) and severe anti-social discomfort. She does kind of relax herself over time as she gets used to the girls in her eventual inner circle, but Charlotte must withstand the typical hazing ritual that students are *not* supposed to practice. Humiliating alcohol bathing (not quite a golden shower) and dousing leaves Charlotte in emotional tatters. 

Then we’re led to believe that Charlotte participates in her first lesbian encounter with a gorgeous student (who is in her fencing class, no less), played by a very enthusiastic Chelsey Reist, named Sarah, after the hazing (a hallucination has Charlotte seeing Sarah with a snake wrapped around her while in the middle of coitus with some campus guy) incident. Considered by some (including me, admittedly) to be the film’s best scene, it is just right for a Cinemax movie featuring Jaden Cole (name drop I’m proud of). It includes tongue work and excitable faces during a brief bit of electrified sexual joy. I liked it while it lasted, but when it is shown to be just a dream, it left me a bit disappointed. I have a blog post ( Here)involving specifically this scene and its immediate aftermath. How I wish it was a treated more than just a footnote in the overall plot. Sadly, Reist doesn’t get much time or focus in the film, which I felt was a sin, truthfully. She had a relish in her lesbian scene with Hinnendael who also sells how much she enjoys the letting go and embracing the desire once kept inside: but its relevance is abandoned after an attempt by Sarah to offer a sympathetic ear to Charlotte is met with resistance. A disappointing lack of followup just kills it.

Kaniehtiio Horn is Nicole, the dormmate of Charlotte who becomes an influence for the "outsider", awkwardly trying to transition into a social life, having a hard time due to her shy nature and string of intrusive fantasies, both good and bad. Horn shows her tits almost immediately, getting that out of the way. Director Carl Bessai must have had significant influence on his girls because they are more than willing to " free their shirts", topless and often totally into Erotic scenes that ask a bit from them. Horn's topless scene, in panties, is right in front of a stunned Charlotte who is taken aback by her comfort naked almost upon first meeting!

What I found refreshing about the lead is her yearning lust. She was about to give up her virginity to Ryan Kennedy's Chris when vampire Victor Webster's Stefan ruins such lofty goals. We get intimate with Charlotte, inside her sexual emergence and unsettlingly odd flashes of evil fantasy that creep up to startle her and shake up her psyche.

CC Sheffield is the unfortunate hottie who Webster drinks excessively from. She's very traditional "willing to fuck a guy she's into" slasher genre archetype. Yeah, you had to know she was getting teeth in the neck...