DVDpedia : Library : Genre : V

Theatrical: 2007

Studio: Columbia

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 113

Summary: This is the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town's husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction.

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: New Line

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 123

Summary: The final battle begins and the trinity comes to an end! Blade is back and his enemies have grown in number since they resurrected their king, Dracula. Together with a new group of vampire hunters, called the Nightstalkers, led by Whistler's strong but beautiful daughter Abigail and the wise-cracking Hannibal, they must finally defeat the vampires or face inevitable extinction.

Theatrical: 1974

Studio: Image

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 103

Summary: Filming on "Blood for Dracula" began on location in Italy on the same day that filming of "Flesh for Frankenstein" ended, and knowing this enhances one's appreciation of director Paul Morrissey's delightfully twisted--and defiantly artistic--approach to violent, campy horror. Originally titled "Andy Warhol's Frankenstein" and "Andy Warhol's Dracula", both films are blessed by Morrissey's opulent visual style (he and his Italian cinematographer worked wonders with modest budgets), and both showcase Udo Kier and the languorous hunk Joe Dallesandro in opposing roles. Here we find Udo Kier as Count Dracula, looking even more ashen than usual and desperate for the blood of virgins to restore his waning health. He travels to Italy and stays at the fading estate of a once-wealthy family, and the presence of four lovely, sexually inexperienced daughters turns out to be a recipe for disaster. It so happens that only the youngest daughter is actually a virgin, and by process of elimination Dracula discovers that non-virgin blood makes him violently ill! Dallesandro plays the resident handyman--handy in more ways than one, as the daughters have learned--who dares to protect the remaining virgin from the Count's bloodsucking exploits, and as usual director Morrissey finds ample opportunity to combine sex and gore with outrageous sensibility and logic of plot. As in the case of "Flesh for Frankenstein", this Criterion Collection DVD restores the film to its original director's cut, presented in its original aspect ratio with a supplemental commentary by Morrissey, Kier, and critic Maurice Yacowar. Kier is particularly delightful, observing during one gruesome scene that "vomiting looks great when you've got a tuxedo on." "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1957

Studio: Lions Gate

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 68

Summary: In a girl's boarding school, science teacher Miss Branding dabbles with regression and hypnosis, her prey the young and innocent Nancy Perkins. Unknown to her, she commits a series of full-moon murders and is finally brought to the realization that she herself is the culprit.

Theatrical: 1998

Studio:

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 99

Summary: Intergalactic vampire hunters. "Buffy" meets "Star Trek" in a "Mad Max" world.

Theatrical: 1960

Studio:

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 85

Summary: A young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In so doing she innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace, including those at her school for ladies. Luckily for some, Dr Van Helsing is already on his way.

Theatrical: 1970

Studio: MPI Home Video

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 98

Summary: Jess Franco's version of the Bram Stoker classic has Count Dracula as an old man who grows younger whenever he dines on the blood of young maidens.

Theatrical: 1971

Studio:

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 93

Summary: In medieval Europe aging Countess Elisabeth rules harshly with the help of lover Captain Dobi. Finding that washing in the blood of young girls makes her young again she gets Dobi to start abducting likely candidates. The Countess - pretending to be her own daughter - starts dallying with a younger man, much to Dobi's annoyance. The disappearances cause mounting terror locally, and when she finds out that only the blood of a virgin does the job, Dobi is sent out again with a more difficult task.

Theatrical: 1988

Studio: A-Film

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 93

Summary: Netherlands released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), Dutch (Subtitles), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SYNOPSIS: The story begins when a camera crew unearths a thousand year old vampire from Mesopotamia. Years after his rise from the grave, the vampire becomes a famous horror film director and holds auditions for his up and coming film. Four young hopefuls are chosen and are invited to spend the night at the vampire's house. At dinner the vampire reveals his true nature to his guests and the real reason why they are there, to kill him before dawn, as he has grown bored with his existence. SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu,

Theatrical: 1931

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 399

Summary: Feature titles include: Dracula (1931), Dracula (1931) - Spanish Version, Dracula's Daughter, House of Dracula, Son of Dracula

Theatrical: 1931

Studio:

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 104

Summary:

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: Dimension

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 90

Summary: More horror-filled terror in the modern DRACULA series presented by Wes Craven, DRACULA III: LEGACY adds Rutger Hauer (CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND, THE HITCHER) to a hot returning cast starring Jason Scott Lee (THE JUNGLE BOOK), Jason London (GRIND, OUT COLD) and Roy Scheider (JAWS). The feared Dracula (Hauer) leads vampire hunters Father Uffizi (Lee) and Luke (London) back to eastern Europe and a country plagued by civil war. There they discover powerful local warlords are assisting Dracula by capturing victims and delivering them to feed the vampires residing in Dracula's castle! And to make matters worse, Father Uffizi must face his own temptations as he struggles to overcome the vampire virus within himself! With sizzling stars, a riveting story and stunning special effects, this suspense-filled thriller will satisfy anyone with a taste for terrifying entertainment!

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: Dimension

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 99

Summary: In the millenium version of this classic Gothic horror we find Abraham Van Helsing (Plummer), who has tangled with Count Dracula (Butler) in the past, working as an English antiques dealer. Simon (Miller) is a vampire hunter in training under his apprenticeship. Van Helsing and Simon travel from London to New Orleans to rescue Van Helsing's daughter Mary (Waddell) from the family's life long nemesis - Dracula.

Theatrical: 1969

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 92

Summary: "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" is the third Christopher Lee Dracula film from Hammer Studios. While trying to rid the former Dracula's Castle of evil after the mysterious death of a local girl, the Monsignor inadvertently raises the dark prince from his deathly slumber. Once awaken from the grave, the parched prince only has one thing on his mind, the yummy taste of blood which he fiendishly extracts from the local maidens. Though a little weak in plot, "Dracula Has Risen from the Grave" still comes off as a strong vampire film, delivering the goods on the gothic visuals, eerie sets, and Lee's performance. "--Rob Bracco"

Theatrical: 2005

Studio: Castel Film Romania

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 86

Summary: Father Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee) and Luke (Jason London) travels through a Romania destroyed by the civil war and the vampires. Luke is trying to save Elizabeth (Diane Neal) from the claws of Dracula, and Uffizi to terminate with the vampires. Along their journey, they meet the British television journalist Julia Hughes (Alexandra Westcourt) covering the war, and the trio follow together facing dangerous situations with the rebels and the vampires.

Theatrical: 1966

Studio: Anchor Bay

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 90

Summary: Two couples traveling in eastern Europe decide to visit Carlstad despite dire local warnings. Left outside the village by a coachman terrified at the approach of night, they find themselves in the local castle and are surprised at the hospitality extended by the sinister Klove. It turns out the owner, Count Dracula, dead for ten years, has been hoping for such a visit.

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: Rai Fiction

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 173

Summary: "Dracula's Curse" is a 102-minute truncated version of the 163-minute Itallian television mini-series "Il Bacio di Dracula" ("The Kiss of Dracula"), which retells Bram Stoker's gothic horror story in the modern day setting of Budapest. This time Jonathan Harker (Hardy Krüger Jr.) is an investment banker working in Eastern Europe who has become engaged to Mina Murray (Stefania Rocca), and is celebrating with his friends, English diplomatic official Arthur Holmwood (Conrad Hornby), businessman Quincy Morris (Alessio Boni), and the funny loving Lucy Westerner (Muriel Baumeister). After the ball and a quick spin in his new sports car, Harker has a late night meeting the Vladislav Tepes (Patrick Bergin), who wants Harker to work for his "uncle." Meanwhile, at the local insane asylum, Dr. Seward (Kai Wiesinger) is dealing with one of his patients, Roenfield (Brett Forest).



Of course those well-versed in the lore of vampires in general and Dracula in particular will recognize the variation of Vlad Tepes as being the name of the "real" Dracula of history, the Wallachian prince known as the Impaler. What threw me at first was the whole bit about Dracula's uncle, because the whole idea that Dracula becomes younger as he gets new blood that we have seen in the past (e.g., "Bram Stoker's Dracula"), is abandoned this time. Not only does Bergin play both Tepes, we go back and forth from the younger to the older throughout. This becomes problematic because the older Vladislav is the more imposing and interesting figure of the two, especially since the younger one smacks too much of James Bond at time. At least the older one has something of a Romanian accent (most of the time, anyhow).



The basic narrative of Stoker's novel is intact, with the other glaring difference besides bringing the story a century into the future being that Abraham Van Helsing is now replaced by Dr. Enrico Valenzi (Giancarlo Giannini). He proves to be the one character that works well in the 21st century, mainly because the teleplay by Eric Lener and director Roger Young allows him to discuss the existence of vampires from a 21st century perspective. However, the resent of the vampire hunters are just young plastic types who would rather be partying, driving fast cars, or running around half-dressed in the middle of the night. There are times when I was reminded of "Dark Shadows," but this soap opera is not as compelling. The authority that Valenzi holds over the group ends up being by default, because he is smarter than all of them put together. Well, the guys, for sure, since Mina has some moments.



Granted, we are watching a mini-series that has had an hour chopped off of it, and I have seen what that has done to even great mini-series like "Shogun" when that sort of butchery happens. So it could well be that "Il Bacio di Dracula" in its entirety is superior to "Dracula's Curse." Then again, it could be that what was cut was more of the soap opera elements that disengage our interest. Ultimately, the paradox of "Dracula's Curse" is that while it indeed convinces us that a modern retelling of the original Dracula story can work, this movie version of the mini-series does not carry it off. For every scene that makes you sit up because things are getting interesting and well-played, there are two scenes where things are going backwards (often involving characters floating and/or Bergin opening and closing his cape). The end result is that while this version is of some intellectual interest, "Dracula's Curse" lacks enough of a pulse for it to be anything more than a curiosity to fans of vampire flicks.

Theatrical: 1943

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 153

Summary: "Dracula's Daughter" This cut-rate sequel to "Dracula", sans Bela Lugosi, turns out to be an unexpectedly sleek and stylish movie. Gloria Holden, tall, dark, and continental, is the aristocratic title character fighting her nature and seeking a cure for her affliction. A sympathetic psychiatrist, Dr. Garth (Otto Kruger), encourages her to "face her fears," but when she lures a pretty young streetwalker to her room to model for a painting, the temptation of her fleshy offering proves too much to overcome. Edward Van Sloan reprises his role as Van Helsing, held by the police for the murder of Count Dracula (the film opens on the final scene from "Dracula") but released in the nick of time to help Garth, now at the mercy of the bitter and vindictive vampire. Director Lambert Hillyer makes the most of his low budget, with austere, angular sets and an almost abstract sense of the foggy city night. Holden's mysterious face and tall, willowy body make her an even more striking vampire than Lugosi, and Irving Pichel's offbeat servant is like an American gangster with the breeding of a European aristocrat: thick and thuggish, but always proper. The script falls into the usual rut of Universal's later horror films, losing the mood in the busy plot, but the smooth style and Holden's dignified performance lift "Dracula's Daughter" above most Universal sequels.
"Son of Dracula" It was perhaps inevitable that, after playing the Wolf Man, Frankenstein's monster, and the Mummy, Lon Chaney Jr. would round out his horror resumé with a turn at the great bloodsucker himself (not, as the title would suggest, his son). Looking dapper and dignified under the cape, if not exactly threatening, Chaney plays Count Alucard (that's "Dracula" spelled backwards), a mysterious Carpathian summoned to America by a "morbid" heiress (Louise Allbritton). Eric Taylor's script is rather clunky, but the story (by horror specialist Curt "The Wolfman" Siodmak) is often quite clever, playing like a supernatural twist on a psycho-thriller. Allbritton's frustrated fiancé Robert Page accidentally "kills" her while trying to shoot Alucard (who imperiously stands up to the hail of bullets) and then goes stark raving mad as he watches the dead rise to life and the living disappear in wisps of smoke and morph into creaky stage bats.
Future film noir legend (and Curt's brother) Robert Siodmak ("The Killers") does wonders with the swampy, misty Deep South setting despite his obviously threadbare budget, transforming the usual clichés into moments of inspired melodrama. Only the clumsy antics of the skeptical cops and the plodding exposition spouted by an old Carpathian doctor (he just happens to be the local MD) get in the way of this moody minor horror gem. "--Sean Axmaker"

Theatrical: 1996

Studio: Dimension

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 108

Summary: It's nonstop thrills when George Clooney (THE PERFECT STORM, THREE KINGS) and Quentin Tarantino (PULP FICTION) star as the Gecko brothers -- two dangerous outlaws on a wild crime spree! After kidnapping a father (Harvey Keitel -- U-571) and his two kids (including Juliette Lewis -- NATURAL BORN KILLERS), the Geckos head south to a seedy Mexican bar to hide out in safety. But when they face the bar's truly notorious clientele, they're forced to team up with their hostages in order to make it out alive!

Theatrical: 1958

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 81

Summary: After Hammer Studios' tremendous success with "The Curse of Frankenstein", they struck a deal to adapt Universal's catalog of classics and set their sights first on "Dracula". Christopher Lee removes the monstrous makeup from the earlier film and makes his entrance as an elegant, confident, altogether seductive Dracula, a frightening figure of flashing eyes and erotic allure. Peter Cushing, with his hawklike profile and piercing eyes, turns his rationalist intensity to Van Helsing: man of science as crusading vampire hunter. Director Terence Fisher and screenwriter Jimmy Sangster make a few changes to Bram Stoker's tale; gone are Renfield, Transylvania, howling wolves, and transformations into bats. The Count is an old-world aristocrat firmly ensconced in a castle in England and Van Helsing a crusading vampire hunter who plots his demise with an elaborate plan. This is the first film to really mine the erotic appeal of vampires: Dracula seduces Mina and Lucy like a devil tempting good to the dark side through sex--more suggestive than explicit, but daring for 1958. Lee is electric as the ferocious Count, despite his limited screen time, and Cushing turns Van Helsing into a virtual swashbuckler of a hero, leaping and diving through the climax like an aging action hero. Cushing reprises his role in "The Brides of Dracula", while Lee absented himself from the series until 1966's "Dracula: Prince of Darkness". "--Sean Axmaker"

Theatrical: 1963

Studio: Image

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 78

Summary: Italian horror godfather Mario Bava almost single-handedly ushered in a whole new genre with this moody mix of murder mystery and kinky horror. The prolific cinematographer made his (uncredited) directorial debut when Riccardo Freda stormed off the set with the picture only half finished, leaving Bava to rewrite the script and complete the picture in two days. It became the first Italian horror film since the silent era and a classic of the genre.
The vampire of the title is not a literal bloodsucker of Dracula's lineage but a mad-scientist twist on the legend of Countess Bathory. In this modern take, the bodies of beautiful young women drained of blood leave the police baffled, while an ambitious journalist traces a chain of clues back to the familial castle of the aging Duchess Du Grand and her beautiful niece (the elegant and sultry Gianna Maria Canale). Set in Paris but shot in Rome, it's a handsome little black-and-white picture that belies its 12-day schedule with gorgeous locations, shadowy lighting, a stylish elegance, and a couple of startlingly effective transformations executed with brilliant simplicity. In later films, such as "Blood and Black Lace" and "Lisa and the Devil", Bava's style would develop into an elaborately choreographed dance of death in black shadows and glowing color, but here he's smooth and suggestive, a model of restraint that looks to his "official" debut, the striking "Black Sunday".
The DVD features a clean, sharp B&W widescreen transfer, with a photo and poster gallery (including stills from the scenes added to the "Americanized" version of the film entitled "The Devil's Commandment") and a collection of Mario Bava trailers among the supplements. Extensive liner notes and a director biography are provided by Bava historian Tim Lucas. "--Sean Axmaker"

Theatrical: 1992

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 112

Summary: Marie has two appetites, sex and blood. Her career as a vampire is going along fine until two problems come up, she is interrupted while feeding on Sal (the shark) Macelli and she begins to develope a relationship with the policeman who has been trying to put Sal away. Sal wakes up in the morgue very confused and very thirsty. He goes back to his old haunts and begins to create an organized crime family of vampires while Marie and her policeman lover hunt him.

Theatrical: 1974

Studio: Anchor Bay

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 83

Summary: Count Dracula journies to a remote Chinese village in the guise of a warlord to support six vampires who are dispirited after the loss of a seventh member of their cult. At the same time, vampire hunter Prof. Van Helsing happens to be lecturing in the country and is persuaded by villagers to help them fight this curse of the ages.

Theatrical: 1982

Studio: Image

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 91

Summary: One of cult director Jean Rollin's most successful and commercial films. Cut to bits by Britain's state censors, this is the rarely-seen complete version. "The Living Dead Girl" takes in resurrection, despair and a desperate addiction to blood. A dark, beautiful and tragic film presented here in all its gore-filled glory.

Theatrical: 1986

Studio: Media Asia

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 89

Summary: Modern grave robbing "archeologists" find perfectly preserved specimens from the past of a man, a woman, and their child. Unbeknownst to the scientist and his two bumbling assistants, these are vampires immobilized only by the paper spells pasted on their foreheads. While transporting the child to a buyer, its spell blows off and the vampire child escapes and befriends some local children. Eventually, the parent vampires are also awakened and escape, but by now the local herbalist is on their trail to destroy them.

Theatrical: 1987

Studio: Tai Seng

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 88

Summary: The Vampire Master joins forces with another fellow priest (with his two pet "ghosts" along for the ride) to defeat an evil witch and her henchman, whose goals are to defeat the human race. The priests must also overcome the odds of the separation between humans and ghosts.

Theatrical: 1988

Studio:

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 96

Summary:

Theatrical: 1987

Studio: Anchor Bay

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 94

Summary: The word "vampire" is never mentioned in "Near Dark", but that doesn't stop this 1987 cult favorite from being one of the best modern-era vampire films. It put then-unknown director Kathryn Bigelow on Hollywood's radar and gave choice roles to "Aliens" costars favored by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron: Lance Henriksen is the leader of a makeshift family of renegade bloodsuckers, nocturnally seeking victims in rural Oklahoma; his immortal gal pal is "Aliens" and "Terminator 2" alumnus Jenette Goldstein; and Bill Paxton is the group's deadliest leather-clad ass kicker. Fellow traveler Jenny Wright lures Okie farm boy Adrian Pasdar into the group with a love bite, and he's soon turning toward vampirism with a combination of frightened revulsion and relentless desire. With Joshua Miller ("River's Edge") as the youngest vampire, "Near Dark" is Bigelow's masterpiece of low-budget ingenuity--a truck-stop thriller that begins well, gets better and better (aided by a fine Tangerine Dream score), and goes out in a blaze of glory. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2007

Studio:

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 90

Summary:

Theatrical: 1922

Studio: Image

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 94

Summary: An unauthorized production of Bram Stoker's work (The legal heirs didn't give their permission), so the names had to be changed. But this wasn't enough: The widow of Bram Stoker won two lawsuits (1924 and 1929) in which she demanded the destruction of all copies of the movie, however happily copies of it were already too widespread to destroy them all. Later, the Universal studios could break her resistance against this movie. Count Orlok's move to Wisburg (Obviously the real "Wismar") brings the plague traceable to his dealings with the Realtor Thomas Hutter, and the Count's obsession with Hutter's wife, Ellen the only one with the power to end the evil.

Theatrical: 1979

Studio: Anchor Bay

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 107

Summary: Werner Herzog's remake of F.W. Murnau's original vampire classic is at once a generous tribute to the great German director and a distinctly unique vision by one of cinema's most idiosyncratic filmmakers. Though Murnau's "Nosferatu" was actually an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Herzog based his film largely on Murnau's conceptions--at times directly quoting Murnau's images--but manages to slip in a few references to Tod Browning's famous version (at one point the vampire comments on the howling wolves: "Listen, the children of the night make their music."). Longtime Herzog star Klaus Kinski is both hideous and melancholy as Nosferatu (renamed Count Dracula in the English language version). As in Murnau's film, he's a veritable gargoyle with his bald pate and sunken eyes, and his talon-like fingernails and two snaggly fangs give him a distinctly feral quality. But Kinski's haunting eyes also communicate a gloomy loneliness--the curse of his undead immortality--and his yearning for Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) becomes a melancholy desire for love. Bruno Ganz's sincere but foolish Jonathan is doomed to the vampire's will and his wife, Lucy, a holy innocent whose deathly pallor and nocturnal visions link her with the ghoulish Nosferatu, becomes the only hope against the monster's plague-like curse. Herzog's dreamy, delicate images and languid pacing create a stunningly beautiful film of otherworldly mood, a faithful reinterpretation that by the conclusion has been shaped into a quintessentially Herzog vision. "--Sean Axmaker"

Theatrical: 2007

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 88

Summary: An ambitious and well-produced film from New Zealand, this film is set in an alternate history where vampires and humans peacefully co-exist. Vampires are used to save humans from disease and humans volunteer their blood to sustain vampires.

The vampires also hold a role like that of priests.

Oddly too, all are male.

All is well until one is born who wishes to feed directly from humans in the more 'traditional' vampiric-film way

Saffron Burrows plays a cop sent to track this way-ward vampire down, along with the help of a vampire played by Dougray Scott. It's kept a state secret that there's a rogue vampire - the public can't know that there's an imbalance in their society

Although I thought great attention was paid to production values I was not impressed by the plot.

The rogue vampire seeks to spread disease which turns people into zombies akin to Dawn of the Dead - where they go on a rampage. This for me was too strange!

Theatrical: 1998

Studio: Manga Films

Genre: Vampire

Duration: 192

Summary: The real truth about their mysterious adversary--a vampire--would "rip your mind's fragile hinges," the death's-head CEO of a secret society (Christopher Adamson) warns a human henchman. Your mind's fragile hinges have little to fear from this vampire-action-sexploitation hybrid. Director-writer-editor Jake West desperately tricks up his one-man opus in tech glam: sexpot Lilith Silver evolves from 19th-century vampire victim to modern-day hitwoman in black-and-white, color, freeze-frame, fast and slow motion, cartoon FX, overblown Freudian dreams.
There "are" moments: in the James Bond-style credit sequence, Lilith's fanged mouth yawns wide, disgorging a veritable blizzard of razor blades. And in the black-and-white prelude, West's camera looks down on his voluptuous vampire, sprawled on a bed, the only color the scarlet drenching her dress, bloodying her mouth. But "artsy" razzle-dazzle can't distract from "Razor Blade Smile"'s overall failure to arouse horror, lust, humor, or any other redeeming response. First-timer Eileen Daley makes Lilith so "soignee" and hip it hurts; her femme fatale's couture runs to multizippered, skintight black leather, shades, fur hats; the picture's completed by ebony mane, cheekbones to die for, and an extraordinarily mobile mouth with alarming overbite. Lilith kills time at a vampire/goth bar, shagging lesbian or stud, but what she really lives for are century-long power games played with the love of her life--er, death. This cynical horror flick punctures the very conventions that are the genre's lifeblood: encouraging egregious mugging and milking portentousness from every remark, "Smile" reduces the primal sex-death themes of authentic vampire fiction to kiss kiss/bang bang/bite bite. "--Kathleen Murphy"