Date With A Vampire Blu Ray Review (Visual Vengeance)

Date with a Vampire is a 2000 erotic vampire film produced and directed by Jeffrey Arsenault (Blood Craving, Night Owl, King of the Vampires, Crimson Nights, Crimson Kisses, Crimson Desires, and Vampire Playmates 2) as Gregory Cabot. It was written by Kevin J. Lindenmuth (Vampires and Other Stereotypes, Blood Red Moon, Werewolf Tales, Twisted Tales franchise, Addicted to Murder franchise, Rage of the Werewolf, Alien Agenda franchise, and Screaming for Sanity: Truth or Dare 3). Violet (played by: Lori Thomas from End of the World, Stab 2, Crimson Nights, Creepy Tales, and The Big Day) 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 (played by: Robin Macklin from Teach Me, Rome ’98, and Morning Glory) is a lonely young man she meets in a smoky bar and draws into her orbit with a mix of charm, sensuality, and mystery. 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!!!! Date with a Vampire is more bang than fang. It still has supernatural and vampire elements to it but it’s mainly a softcore feature. Director Jeffrey Arsenault is a veteran at mixing both of those sub-genres behind the camera. It feels like it was inspired by Jean Rollins. The stunning Lori Thomas is the seductive Violet here. She convinces all of her guests to come over where she continues her thirst for blood in the big city. She manipulates them for their deadly one night stands which includes both men and women. She’s an addict for both of these compulsions. Robin Macklin is her next unlucky victim Chuck at the nightclub. His life is changed forever after spending a night with the mysterious woman and no one is safe. The rest of the supporting cast includes Joe Zaso (The Wolf of Wall Street, Nikos the Impaler, Guilty Pleasures, and 5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas) and Cynthia Polakovich (Daddy, Tinsel Town, Nocturnia, and Vampire Playmates). Jeffrey Arsenault kept this low budget production very simple. It only had a few locations and actors in the whole thing. It doesn’t really worry about a plot or some complicated angle, it’s all about the sleaze. There’s several extended sex scenes in Date with a Vampire, every female here shows off her body with no hesitation. That’s what dominates the screen and running time for this. There’s some vampire violence and gore every once in awhile but don’t expect much with this one. I’ve never heard of Date with a Vampire until now but I can see it doing good on Cinemax late at night when it was originally released 26 years ago. It’s decent but it’s nothing new to either vampire or softcore films. Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Visual Vengeance in association with Wlld Eye Releasing! This 1080p (1.33:1) uncensored transfer is from a newer restoration from an SD master of the original tape elements. Date with a Vampire is extremely low budget but it sticks to a few locations so it kinda works in it’s favor. It has an English Digital 2.0 track on the disc. It has plenty of moans and sexy time moments but that’s about it when it came to the action. All of the dialogue is very clean, the tension is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. It has a little over 3 minute “Interview” with director Jeffrey Arsenault. He chats about shooting on digital for the first time after always using film in the past. It was inspired by some independent Roger Corman productions with a similar vibe. He goes over some of the challenges of switching up formats. It has the little over 11 minute “Interview” with screenwriter Kevin J. Lindenmuth. He said he was told that they needed it in the vampire world and based on 2 people. Anything after that, he came up with the rest of the script. He chats about his process and how he set this up. I didn’t want anything dull so he made sure to turn it up when it came to entertainment value. It has the little over 7 minute “Interview” with actress Cynthia Polakovich. She chats about starting out in theater. She goes over her early training and experiences. She goes over her character for Date with a Vampire plus some other projects that she worked on over the years. It has the little over 22 minute “Interview” with actor Joe Zaso. He chats about how he got the gig. He talks about the location and filming other movies there. He can’t exactly remember when he met the director but their paths always crossed. He said he was just willing to work on whatever he could at the time. It has the almost 2 minute “Date with a Vampire Memories”. It’s an interview with location manager Nathan Thompson. He chats about the main casting being completely opposite of each other so it actually worked with them together. It has the little over 6 minute “Buckingham Manor Location Video” with Nathan Thompson. He talks about how he ended up working with Jeffrey Arsenault. He’s the owner of the main location for Date with a Vampire. He goes over it’s history and shows it off a little bit here. It has almost 3 minutes of an “Image Gallery”. It has the “Original Trailer” for Date with a Vampire. It has a variety of Visual Vengeance related “Trailers” including one for Date with a Vampire. It has the almost 30 minute bonus 2002 horror short film “Blood Craving” from director Jeffrey Arsenault. It features Tiffany Helland (The Skeleton Key), Leslie Slemp (Bikini Bistro), Francesco J. Caputo (Chez Risqué), Michael Naselli, Julio Rivera, Israel Monrroy (Snitch in New York), and Frances Lozada (Wu-Tang: An American Saga). A few guys are brought in by a female vampire. They want sex but she just wants their blood for survival. Blood Craving has a conversation with legendary Scream Queen Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me, Starcrash, The Abominable Dr. Phibes franchise, Maniac, Dracula A.D. 1972, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, Faceless, Slaughter High, and The Last Horror Film) in the middle of it. I wasn’t expecting that so it’s a nice surprise for this. It’s a low budget vampire movie but it’s not sleazy like the main film on this home video release. It mainly just teases. It has an “Audio Commentary” with director Jeffrey Arsenault. It has a little over 2 minute “Interview” with director Jeffrey Arsenault. It was made as a follow up to his biggest project Night Owl. It was made in two days. It was filmed as a full length feature, there’s a few different extended versions but he didn’t think any of the other cuts worked. It mixed with Night Owl in the longer editions, he says those made Silent Night Deadly Night 2 look good compared to it. It has a little over a minute “Image Gallery” for Blood Craving. It has a few original “Blood Craving”. It has an After Midnight Entertainment “Trailer Reel”. It comes with a slipcover, Date with a Vampire artwork, Blood Craving artwork, retro sticker sheet, and a mini poster. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!