Once Bitten

THE BAD:
- Vampires have been overdone in movies.
- While good, the plot line is also outlandish.
- Bad graphics.
- Some aspects of vampirism changed from the norm.

SUMMARY:
Once Bitten is one of the first movies that Jim Carry starred in, and I can see why his career did not take off in the eighties. While I have watched humour and horror movies before, this was one mix of the two that could have been done without, with an odd plotline, weak attempts at humour, and the odd moments where you're wondering if there is supposed to be any horror involved at all.

The plotline is as follows; Jim Carrey's character, then a high school kid, is desperate to get laid, as his girlfriend refuses to perform the deed. In order to get luck, Jim goes with his friends to a bar of sorts to pick up women, in Hollywood, where he meets a beautiful woman who seems to be the answer to all his problems.

However, this woman turns out to be a several-century old vampire, who requires three transfusions of virgin blood to maintain the look of youth as she continues to age. To do this, she must, and this sounds odd, suck the blood of a man three times on the inner thigh, on which the third he becomes a vampire for her use, and she maintains her youth for another year. Her only problem, is that there are far too few virgins left in the 1980s, so the search for one is difficult.

After there first encounter, we follow Jim Carrey along a rocky relationship problem, with the odd interaction with the vampire women, as he begins to show signs of changes, from adverse effects from light to napping in a footlocker instead of his bed. He also begins to mistake blood for juice, and scares small children. Well, more than usual.

During the final dance, his allegiance to his girlfriend becomes clear, and she wants to make sure that the Vampire stays out of it, by confronting her. Upon seeing this happen, Jim and his two friends break into the mansion the Vampire owns to save her, and try to escpae, but, unfortunately, are caught by the vampires. As they begin the ceremony for the third transfusion, they manage to escape, but are cut off by vampires breaking through doors and erupting from the ground, until they are cornered in the coffin room. There, Jim loses his virginity and is saved by the fact that he is now "dirty", all in under a minute.

Alright, the plot is definitely not the best I've ever heard. While admittedly, it is something new to me to hear that she has to suck blood from his inner thigh, the ideal of the only way to save him is for him to lose his virginity is, needless to say, a little odd at the least. I've already said that repeatedly, but I think that it was a loss in the plot area, but it's so different that it tends to draw you in.

Next to that is graphics. Sure, you've got the pale skin, the odd fading of the person in a mirror, but the bat and the outfits used in the movie are pathetic, even for the time. They could have done better, when it came to a bat, and the teeth even look fake from a distance. However, the home that they chose to use was a good one, with some of the best "modern vampire" feels about them, from the entrance room decadantly and outlandishly covered in white to the coffin room, which looks more like a white washed coffin sale from the ages.

Character developement also fits deep into the odd section, but is possibly the best part of the story. At the beginning, you see this kid who is really unsure of himself, and as you see day by day pass, you seem him slowly gain more confidence as his body changes more and more, and at the end, you've got this more macho kid than before. While somewhat common to see in the movies nowadays, it was still well done.

Another place where this movie makes up for it's obvious shortcomings is when it comes to humour. We've got the homosexual vampire who makes the best comments in a drawl manner, references to the vampires be dimwitted and jocks for knocking down the doors instead of opening them, failed attempts to get into woman's pants and the beginning scene, where every car in the parking lot was shaking except his.

In summary, I've seen better movies, and I've seen worse movies, but I can say that better movies wins out by a bit here. With quirky humour and an OK storyline, it's something I would stay up to watch on TV, but not something I would rent for my own enjoyment.