Starring: Caroline Haines, Laura Evans, Rachel Waters, Alexander D’Andrea
Written By: Julianne White
Directed By: Catherine Taylor
U.S. DVD Release Date: 6/29/10
Grade: B+

Temptation can be added to the far too short list of compelling and exciting vampire movies. There are countless interesting and thrilling vampire novels and a few good TV series now with True Blood and The Vampire Diaries, but for some reason movies have seemed to always have had a harder time trying to communicate the mindset, blood thirsty nature, and alluring power of the vampire. There are some that reflect the monster well and some that up the alluring factor, but few that really show the monster and the seduction, the weaknesses and the blood thirsty nature, the undead and the immortal nature all as one being. Temptation hits all of these points. The film really concentrates on one human’s transition from human to vampire. We are let inside of her mind, experiencing it with her as she tries to figure out what has happened to her and what her life is coming to.

After finding her boyfriend cheating on her, Isabel (Haines), cuts out of work and tries to drown her frustrations in a night of heavy drinking with the girls. She ends up alone by the side of the road when a middle-aged man offers to give her a lift home. Smashed and against her better judgment, Isabel accepts. After awhile, she realizes that she never told the man driving her where she lives. She feels him eyeing her and knows that this guy’s intentions are far from noble. She tries to make a run for it, but he takes her out in to an alley and rapes her. She is saved by a beautiful young woman, Aurelie (Waters). Barely conscious, Isabel asks for her help. Aurelie responds by saying she doesn’t know what she is really asking, but decides to help her anyway. After killing her rapist, Aurelie bites in to Isobel’s neck and has her drink from her as well; initiating her transformation to the life of an immortal.

Isobel wakes up at home the next day, seemingly extremely hung over. She has to wear sunglasses even in the house and when she tries to go outside, even bundled up in layers of clothes, she can’t bare the sunlight. It simply sears through her and overpowers her. Isobel doesn’t remember much from the night before, but reveals to her sister that she thinks she was raped last night. She doesn’t want anyone to know though. Her memory starts coming back piece by piece, but she still can’t make sense of it. She finds herself at “Temptation”, a strip club, where she finds her cheating boyfriend. She can barely resist his blood. She is drawn to Aurelie, who sees her past lover in Isobel. If Isobel doesn’t feed soon she won’t survive. Meanwhile, she is the prime suspect for the murder of the man who raped her. She finds herself running from both lives, but soon enough she will have to choose.

Caroline Hines as Isabel made it really easy to care about her character as we went through the transformation with her. Hines has an extremely likable and charming quality to her. She seemed very natural on screen. As we watch her it is as if we are there with Isabel as she was going through something very traumatic, confusing, yet equally tempting. Laura Evans did very well as Isabel’s younger sister, Kylie. She was spunky, bubbly, and clearly cared deeply for her sister. She was caught between loyalty and saving someone that was very important to her. Rachel Waters did pretty well as Aurelie, clearly the one in charge of the vampires. She brings out a fierce female figure who seems to only show hate towards most and fascination with a select few; her female vampires. Even with those select few, she doesn’t let her guard down. Her way of life is really the most important thing to her, something she plans on preserving at all costs.

There is a good amount of blood present in temptation. There isn’t just a little bite mark and dab of blood on the neck. Those who die are ripped apart, their flesh exposed. Even those who aren’t have blood soaked shirts, surrounded by puddles, and in front of blood splattered walls.

Some of those killed are just killed for something to eat; nothing personal. There are a number of rapists killed. Men who don’t take no for an answer, who turn sex in to a way to have power over what they think is a weaker individual turns in to bloody revenge. Isabel’s rapist is left cold and bloody, with his face ripped apart. The female vampires take back the power. They use their sexual allure as a weapon just as the rapists have just done. The difference is they permanently silence them. Even those who aren’t rapist are still unfaithful traitors in one sense or another.

We are given two back stories of vampires in the film. This lets us enter their mindset and makes them more believable characters. However, dialogue wise, they do seem a little forced, that they would go in to these long stories of their pasts. Aurelie’s is important as it’s the reasoning she kills one person and gives eternal life to another. It might have been better if we started the movie with her past relationship and what happened to her lost lover then continue with Isabel in the present day. This way it we would have the understanding and immediately identify with Aurelie on some level, instead of have her just tell us what happened.

This was a small thing that didn’t affect the movie much. Overall, the storytelling techniques were very good, allowing us to be part of everything that was going on. Especially with Isobel, who is the character we should feel for the most, we are usually pretty aware of what is going on in her head. Certain lines of dialogue run over in her head, pointing her in the right direction.

She seems to have some attraction to Aurelie, but this starts to blur a little. I would have liked a little more in terms of whether she was struggling to be with Aurelie or if she was too terrified by what she was. When Isobel is trying to remember though, there are flashes of her being turned. They are shown in red lighting, depicting passion and desire. These flashes get Isobel closer to remembering and acknowledging the truth as well as show how she is yearning for the one who turned her; there’s a connection there. Temptation is a bloody, seductive, and thrilling tale of a human girl caught between the brutality and instincts of the vampire world and the accusatory and cruel world she lived in as a human.