There isn't anything special here. It's a bit of T&A inside a weak vampire story. Charlotte Hawthorn (Sharon Hinnendael) is a shy new girl in college with a dark mysterious past. She is on scholarship from fencing. Only she's having hellish visions and waking up in strange places.

Hinnendael is an OK actress, and not much is asked of her. Her character is shy, speaks softly, and shows off her body. She can walk and talk. But she's not doing Shakespeare here. Her roommate Nicole (Kaniehtiio Horn) has a bit more spark. And Victor Webster plays that hot intense teacher. Keegan Connor Tracy plays a witchy mysterious woman. The acting is OK. The story is simple. The big missing ingredient is a sense of style, and a menacing atmosphere. For a horror movie, that's a big deal. This is a better-than-most B-movie.

Well the Twilight saga that I'm quite a fan of is over, so it's time to approach new vampire movies. One of the biggest non-cinema films of the genre in 2013 is "Embrace of the Vampire", a remake of the almost 20-year-old version starring Alyssa Milano. Unfortunately the hopes I put in this one were not really fulfilled. There's not really one single scene that genuinely scared me or had me on the edge of the seat. And I usually like films where the danger is sort of invisible, looking below the surface. The lead actress isn't too bad and the lead actor shows why he's one of the reasons behind the success of "Continuum". Unfortunately the two can't save the shoddy writing. It's the usual "innocent girl comes to new place and faces dark mysteries"-plot which was done so many times and most of the time better than here. Add a couple of the usual sorority girls and challenges (without the humor from teen comedies) and you have the typical example of a film where there's girls of every ethnicity and hair color and a virile guy and a boyishly cute guy, so there's something in there for every viewer's taste. Also, the film is quite explicit, almost soft-porn level: lots of making-out, boobs and even some girl-on-girl action, so you get horny at least if you don't get scared.

The story seemed to be wandering aimlessly between dream sequences and reality, so you never knew what was real and what wasn't. It wasn't as effective as I'd have liked it to be and same can be said for the centuries-earlier-flashbacks and for the final exposure of the vampire. The only scene I at least enjoyed a bit was the group trip to the forest. The setting was pretty good and would have made a great choice for the big ending scene. Instead they switched back quickly to the place full of police investigating what happened. Shame. A good ending can't save a film, but it can surely make you appreciate it more with hindsight and they missed this chance by choosing a far less interesting location for the final scene. All in all, it's really only worth watching for die-hard fans of vampire genre. Everybody else is not missing much.

This movie is pretty plain and simple and it doesn't give anything extraordinary, just a casual movie about vampires, you don't even get to see their fangs... The acting isn't really good, in other words it is bad, all the actors seem unknown, only one was a little familiar. Even the effects in some places look really bad and unrealistic. The main character seems to be making dumb and illogical decisions in some moments and the plot isn't good too...