Is Soft-Core ALL She Wants to Do?

I have heard this film described as the greatest of the "naked lesbian vampire orgy on a college campus" genre. Using this as our jumping off point, we can explore it as being a member of this genre.

Its genre dictates a low budget and we make excuses for things like the fact that there appear to be only four buildings in this college and about two dozen students. Likewise, many of the actors appear to be made of cardboard. And two party scenes, taking place on two different days, appear to be the exact same party.

But there are good points. Many of the actors are undiscovered gems, including Charlotte Lewis as a quiet, but promiscuous girl in the dorm. The sets are interesting looking, if often cheap, and the editing and cinematography are clearly labors of love, though occasionally too strange and experimental to be great.

In fact, it is this ambition that most confuses me. Somebody is making a soft-core film that is experimental. It plays games with time, perception and light. I looked into the director, Anne Goursaud. Apparently, she has masters in film from both La Sorbonne and Columbia. She edited works for Francis Ford Coppola, including "Bram Stoker's Dracula." But all that she has directed has been soft-core films.

Then I wonder if she can't get other work. Maybe because she is a woman who wants to make erotic, yet romantic films and nobody will trust her like Steven Soderbergh to make "Out of Sight" or "sex, lies and videotape." I think she should go independent and see if she can make a great movie on her own.

Because "Embrace of the Vampire" has hints of being a great movie. It as though a great director found the script to a Shannon Tweed movie and made it her own. She cultivates a myriad of emotions as the film progresses, twisting us ever so slightly, so that occasionally, we forget we're watching this just to catch a glimpse of Alyssa Milano's breasts. That makes this the closest to greatness a soft-core film has ever come.