Tags:
Film: Once Bitten
Year: 1985
Director: Howard Storm
Writers: David Hines, Jeffrey Hause and Jonathan Roberts
Starring: Lauren Hutton, Jim Carrey and Karen Kopins
Review:
This is a movie that didn’t know about until getting into podcasts. I’ll be honest, if I did know about this one, I most likely would have avoided it. I wasn’t then and I’m still not always the biggest fan of comedy horror. I mean in that order. What made me decide to check this out was this is my Halloween review since it culminates on that day. I’ll be honest as well, I wanted to see a young Jim Carrey as well.
Synopsis: a vampire countess (Lauren Hutton) needs to drink the blood of a virgin to keep her eternal beauty. It seems that all is hopeless, until she bumps into Mark Kendall (Jim Carrey).
Now I do think this synopsis is a bit misleading. Our vampire is the countess from the synopsis and she has a familiar in Sebastian (Cleavon Little). What I love here is that he is gay and this is played for laughs at times. She needs the blood of a virgin to keep her young, so that is true as well. The part that I disagree with is that all seems hopeless. Sebastian isn’t worried about completing the ritual where she is starting to. She just needs to find a male virgin before Halloween and to feed off him three times. If she doesn’t, she will revert to being old.
That’s when we shift to meet Mark. He is trying to have sex with his girlfriend, Robin Pierce (Karen Kopins), in his ice cream truck. She wants to sleep with him, but she isn’t ready yet. This is played for laughs that he gets out of the truck, looks around and all the parked vehicles are rocking. There is even an oil well behind him where the machine is simulating a movement to the vehicles.
Mark then talks with his two friends, Jamie (Thomas Ballatore) and Russ (Skip Lackey). They decide to get laid by going to Hollywood that night. The group goes to a cool bar where there are telephones at the table and you can call others inside. Mark is beckoned to the bar by the countess. They leave together when a jealous husband shows up and accuses his wife of cheating. He pulls a gun out, causing everyone to disperse.
Now our young man is taken to the countess’ house with the help of Sebastian. She slips into something more comfortable where Mark gets nervous the closer he gets to hooking up. She goes down on him and he passes out. The next day he goes to school and tells his friends. The problem is that Robin overhears him.
He is in a predicament. Having this encounter with the countess has made Robin want him more. The problem is that the countess needs him. Mark also goes through changes as with each bite from the countess, Mark becomes closer to becoming a vampire.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is that this is a solid 80s comedy with horror elements to it. They are light, so be forewarned there. The biggest thing that makes this fall into a horror film for me is that we have these vampires and there are stakes there. Mark is dangerously close to becoming a member of the countess’ stable of monsters. There is comedy there with each of the eras these vampires comes from. There is a World War I Ace, confederate, a cabin boy, flowerchild, twins and a Moll Flanders’ one. That was a good touch to me.
Now that I’ve set that up, I’ve come to realize that this is a play on Elizabeth Bathory. If you aren’t aware, she was the countess of blood who would kill virgin women and bath in their blood to stay young. This is a legend of course, but it is something that is used throughout film history. Especially when you want to have a female vampire. I did like that touch and making the change that she feeds on her new young lover. This is loose as well on whether it is a male or female, but it seems like since the 17th century, she’s stuck with males. Another aspect that isn’t new is the need for virgin blood. I’ve seen this concept in multiple movies, the biggest that comes to mind is Blood for Dracula. I like the lore that they set up. There’s also a gag about religion not working to repeal them, because the countess is an atheist.
Let me then go to the other major part of this and that would be the 80s teen sex comedy. Now I know this is a bit problematic today to people, but it was a different time and this was done a lot. I’d say this is tamer than others for sure. For the most part, it is just Mark wanting to get laid. Where I don’t have a problem is that Robin also wants to have sex. They just haven’t had the right moment. There are good portions of this that made me laugh. It is interesting that her drive to be Mark’s first grows the more that the countess interferes in their lives. It does become problematic to me that this movie is almost telling women to have sex with their boyfriend or possible lose them to someone who will. That shouldn’t be the deciding factor is my issue there.
That should be enough of the story so to the acting. I thought the cast was good here and they interacted well. Hutton is great as our beautiful countess. We do see her nude in a painting, which I wasn’t mad about. I thought she does well as this sexually active creature. She plays well with Little and they’re a great tandem. It is fun to see a young Carrey. His facial expressions at times add comedy and he is just one of the greats. Kopins is also quite attractive. I love that she becomes the protagonist here and needs to save her boyfriend. Ballatore and Lackey are solid as the two friends to Mark. My issue comes with how their characters are written. Jamie has a fun gag where he uses the same pick-up line and it gets him in trouble. All the vampires are good, its fun to see Stuart Charno here as I know him from Friday the 13th Part 2. There’s also a cameo by a young Megan Mullally as Suzette.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I also thought that this was well done. The cinematography is good. What is best here is the gags we see when vampires are in front of mirrors. Off the top of my head, there is one where the countess is in front of a mirror and Mark notices. There’s another with him and Robin. I did like that. The look of the vampires is good. The bit of blood we got looked solid. None of this was an issue and they worked for what was needed. The same for the soundtrack. I did need to say that I have a soft spot for the cheesy theme song this movie uses as well.
In conclusion, this is a fun watch. I don’t think this is a great movie, but we are also working with a combination of a teen sex comedy mixed with vampires. We have a solid cast of characters that are led by Hutton, Carrey and Kopins. This is a well-made movie technically. This is just a movie that works well with friends and just go with what it is doing. The horror elements that are incorporated are quite smart so that’s a plus for me, even though they aren’t necessarily new. I’d recommend to fans of comedies like this or you’re a big Carrey fan to see an early work from him.
My Rating: 6.5 out of 10