Overview: Violet is a vampire who hungers for sexual pleasure as much as her victim’s blood. By night she prowls the city, luring both men and women into her web of lust and murder. Her latest unsuspecting prey, Chuck, is a lonely young man she meets in a smoky bar and draws into her orbit with a mix of charm, sensuality, and mystery. But what begins as flirtation soon becomes a hypnotic seduction - leading him straight into her bed and trapped in her world of erotic indulgence and eternal hunger.

Produced during the booming heyday of the shot-on-video era, Date with a Vampire captures a unique moment when softcore erotica and horror overlapped on the shelves of late-1990s and early-2000s video stores. Directed by Jeffrey Arsenault (creator of the cult vampire favorite Night Owl), written by prolific filmmaker Kevin J. Lindenmuth (Addicted to Murder) and featuring an appearance by cult east coast horror actor Joe Zaso (5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas), together they craft a stylish, lo-fi vampire tale that perfectly captures the raw, experimental creativity of New York’s no-budget horror scene of the time.

First time ever on blu-ray and includes bonus SOV erotic horror film Blood Craving (2002).

Blu-ray Verdict: Chuck meets an attractive woman at a bar and follows her home after a short period of enticement. Appearances are that Violet lives in a roomy house all to her own, but that was a point of confusion for much of the film. You will notice them shutting doors behind themselves for privacy. The chivalrous gentleman insisting on going down into the wine cellar in the lady’s stead, it being too dangerous, just causes further bafflement.

Pleasantries are exchanged over a length of time (with a number of macabre double meanings), then the characters move on into the bedroom for some equally padded lovemaking. Why the extended discussion? So the girl can say, Look, I’m not a floozy since we talked for twenty minutes before I laid you. Anyway, it just illustrates that scenes in this movie are loooonnnnggggg. Get used to the fact or flee screaming like banshees!

After the shower scene (turn on the fan, the steam is in the way!) more porkin’ and smorkin’ and dorkin’ and horkin’ ensues and Violet bites her boy toy through the carotid artery. Chuck gets up and examines the wound, then remains amazingly calm while fussing about her undead nature. It is only when he attempts to descend the stairs that any weakness manifests. The unlucky bachelor faints and dreams about a lesbian encounter between Violet and Rebecca. Two reasons make this remarkable: 1. Rebecca has yet to enter the film. 2. We later learn Chuck’s real motives (I’ll get to those in a moment).

Rebecca is trying to find her way into the house about now. Indeed, a protracted number of scenes establish this fact. Okay! I get the idea; she’s searching for a way in. Egad. Eventually (and the sequence does that word much justice) she finds a way in and locates a comfortable bed to nap upon; hence the nickname Goldilocks.

The young female intruder wakes to find candles burning in her room but does not immediately flee. Instead she showers, then pokes around in the basement until a lurking vampire jumps out of the darkness. Munch, munch, gurgle, gurgle - no more Goldilocks.

Date wise has been a mixed success so far. Sometimes Chuck is denouncing his soulless companion and others he is trying to give her an orgasm. When yet another morning comes she urges him to seek refuge from sunrise in the basement. I’m hardly an expert on being a member of the Nosferatu genus, but buying really thick curtains (heck, soaked in sunblock too) would be high on my list of errands. Unfortunately, it seems that Violet has underestimated her new plaything and will have to play the ultimate price. Chuck knew she was a vampire since they first met; he has been awaiting a chance to destroy her.

The acting is not so bad. Of course, this is when the script allows and does not call for ten minutes of Chuck and Violet rubbing against each other. Image quality reared its ugly head a number of times, but what caught my attention was Chuck’s underwear. Don’t go getting any weird ideas in your head. You see, he has sex several times with the insatiable vampiress and redresses in the same skivvies after each encounter. A laundering nightmare would best describe that undergarment, in my humble opinion! [A.B.]

COLLECTOR’S EDITION CONTENTS:
Region Free Blu-ray
SD master from original tape elements
Commentary with director Jeffrey Arsenault
Interview with director Jeffrey Arsenault
Interview with screenwriter Kevin J. Lindenmuth
Interview with actress Cynthia Polakovich
Interview with ‘Basement Vampire’ actor Joe Zaso
Location Manager Nathan Thompson: Date With a Vampire Memories
Buckingham Manor Location Video with Nathan Thompson
Image Gallery
Original Trailer
Bonus Film: Blood Craving (2002)
Blood Craving Commentary with director Jeffrey Arsenault
Blood Craving Interview with director Jeffrey Arsenault
Blood Craving Image Gallery
Blood Craving: Original First Draft Trailers
After Midnight Entertainment: Trailer Reel
Visual Vengeance trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring new Blood Craving art
Folded mini-poster
Optional English subtitles
Limited Edition O-Card by Rick Melton - FIRST PRESSING ONLY

Official Purchase Link