Love Bite

I happened to stumble upon the 2012 horror comedy "Love Bite" by random chance here in 2024. Needless to say that I opted to sit down and watch it, given my love of all things horror. And I have to say that the movie's synopsis sounded interesting enough.

The storyline in the movie, however, was somewhat disappointing. There just simply wasn't enough of anything happening throughout the course of the 91 minutes that the movie ran for. So writers Ronan Blaney and Cris Cole failed to impress me with what they delivered for director Andy De Emmony to bring to the screen. The narrative was simply lacking tremendously in both the horror and comedy department. And there was a bit too much focus on lewd things, as if the narrative was written by a randy adolescent writer.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, and that is actually something I do rather enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie. And it should be said that the acting performances in "Love Bite" were actually good.

Visually then "Love Bite" wasn't all that impressive. Sure, it wasn't among the worst of special effects movies that I've seen, not even remotely. But the CGI animated werewolf in the movie didn't really look realistic - well, as realistic as a make-believe fantasy creature can get - nor did it look great either. In fact, it looked like something you would find in a late 2000s computer game.

While I did manage to sit through the entire 91 minutes that "Love Bite" ran for, this is not an impressive movie. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend for horror comedy fans, because you have to look long and hard to find horror or comedy here. And it is definitely not a movie that I will return to watch a second time.

My rating of "Love Bite" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.

I happened to catch a screening of Love Bite tonight after the film I was trying to see was sold out. The showing had barely a handful of people and it is easy to understand why with the lack of promotion for this film. Not even a poster picture on IMDb.

The premise of Love Bite is a group of teenagers attempting to loose their virginity in the British seaside town of Rainmouth. Add the desperation factor of a werewolf intent on turning anyone who has not popped their cherry and you basically have the plot for this film.

Watching the film it just came across as poor version of Inbetweeners movie. Jamie (Ed Speleers) and his three best friends Kev (Luke Pasqualino), Bruno (Robin Morrissey) and Spike (Daniel Kendrick) spend their lives hanging around the fairground and chip shop attempting to pull women. At a party Jamie meets American travel writer Juliana (Jessica Szohr) who catches his eye.

As the action between the pair gathers pace a sub plot with werewolf hunter Sid (Timothy Spall) putting doubt in Jamie's mind that Juliana is not all it seems.

Sadly the balance of the this film is all wrong, rather than a good mix of characters you get one (Jamie) that is likable and three others who are foul-mouthed and crude. It makes the film overbearing and sadly it becomes tiring and the jokes lose any humour.

I missed the humour in this film, apart from cheap sauce squirting gags and crude one liners there were only a few laugh out loud scenes that made the film watchable. I guess this film borrows from other toilet style humour films and sort of pulls elements together to try and make something original, but doesn't quite achieve it.

Watching the film you can't help but notice that it was low budget. One scene you see the front of Claton pier as an establishing shot but Claton has been digitally replaced with the name Rainmouth. As Jamie and Juliana walk past you can then clearly see the real name in the background. It is just one of a few examples of goofs noticeable during the film.

I don't think this film will be at cinema's for long, I'd advise waiting for a DVD release rather than spending any money on seeing it on the big screen. Just about watchable, but nothing new original with unremarkable characters. 1/5

Jessica Szohr is very beautiful. That is a fact. Since I haven't seen the TV show she is in yet, I can't say how she is as an actress or judge her in general based on this movie. It would be unfair, because the rating would not be a good one. But that is down to the character she has to portray, which is not much more than being there looking good and saying a few things.

Where the movie really loses, is in its jokes department and character development. Even though they try to be as smart and funny as any other teen sex comedy (with added horror elements), it lacks in many departments. It does pull punches on the sexuality too, when it should at least go and try to walk a like here. It never does, but has all the usual clichés ...

Saw this today, and I REALLY wanted to like it. I wasn't expecting much, but I was hoping for a nice surprise. As it was, I came away reasonably satisfied but disappointed in equal measure.

Firstly, the comedy. Absolutely DREADFUL. It's like the most obvious attempt at ripping off The Inbetweeners ever (which wasn't exactly cutting edge anyway). In all honesty I could have come up with a better script myself. It was juvenile, sad and basically lazy. I didn't laugh once, and I am no hater of toilet humour.

Luckily it was just about saved by the plot, which at the very least kept my attention. Whilst it sounds on paper like a ridiculous spoof of Twilight, it was occasionally captivating and the ending was a satisfying finalé to an otherwise forgettable film.

Wooden acting all round with the exception of the excellent Jessica Szohr (who deserves a lot better than this) and of course Timothy Spall, whom I was extremely surprised to see here.

In all honesty I don't have much to recommend since it is a cheap rip-off on Inbetweeners and Twilight combined, but it was a nice enough day out and it was at least better than the Keith Lemon Film that I had the misfortune of watching last month.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. (So much so that I have now seen it twice.) True there is quite a lot of all the (crude) stuff that other reviewers have mentioned, but there is also a story line that holds together remarkably well for a film about werewolves. In the course of the film suspicion falls on various characters as to which one is actually becoming the werewolf at the time of the full moon. I felt at times I was watching a murder who-done-it. By the end of the film all the earlier 'loose ends' are tied up in a satisfying way that makes logical sense of the script. The film's characters are, to a greater or lesser extent, larger than life (if not downright quirky) - but no more so than might be reasonably expected in a film of comic fantasy. All in all I found this to be a very original story. It was well paced and kept me interested from start to finish. The seaside setting was also refreshing and occasionally provided a picturesque backdrop. In my opinion Love Bite is well worth seeing (at least once). 6/10.