What do you do when you can't sleep? Stay up at night and watch a vampire movie, of course. On 5 January 2021, I watched one that was entirely new to me, and which I thoroughly enjoyed. Based upon an original play by Malcolm Marmorstein, who also directed this film version, it was an engaging vampire-themed comedy fantasy from 1993 entitled Love Bites: The Reluctant Vampire.
Unexpectedly, its star turned out to be none other than British pop singer Adam Ant, the literal Prince Charming of the 1980s New Romantics movement. He plays 300-year-old vampire Zachary Simms who oversleeps in his coffin, as you do, and belatedly wakes up in 1992, only to find that a house has been built over the building that formerly housed his crypt, and is inhabited by a feisty young woman named Kendall Gordon (played by Kimberly Foster).
Far from being a sinister fiend, however, Zachary is very much the wide-eyed innocent, fanged but friendly, an ingenue fascinated by modern technology and modern-day Los Angeles, and both bewitched and somewhat bewildered by just how headstrong 1990s women seem to be in comparison to the demure damsels from his long-bygone time period.
Romance soon blossoms, especially when Zachary reveals to Kendall his desire to be devampirised, which can take a year but is achieveable, and will render him fully human once more. Needless to say, all sorts of complications ensue, not least of which is the arrival of Nerissa (Michelle Forbes), the toothy seductress who turned him into a vampire in the first place three centuries ago and despite having subsequently deserted him has now had a change of heart and wants him back, much to Kendall's anger…
Incidentally, one could be forgiven for wondering whether the supposed ability of a vampire to remain forever young if transformed into one from a human when still young may actually rub off upon anybody playing the role of a vampire. For I was amazed to realise that although he looked little more than 20 when playing the very youthful-appearing Zachary in this 1993-released movie, in reality Adam Ant was actually almost 40 years old at the time! That boy's got good genes, to quote what my late mother would always say if she saw someone who looked a lot younger than their real age.
Love Bites: The Reluctant Vampire is yet another of those charming, easy-to-watch fantasy movies from the 1980s-early 1990s period that should have been much more successful than they were.
I watched this movie in its ex-rental big box videocassette format, but at least at the time of my posting my present review here on Shuker In MovieLand it can be watched for free on YouTube by clicking here.
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