Metamorphosis

Being a big fan of Christopher Lambert and of "traditional" type Vampires, I was delighted to hear a couple of years ago that 'Metamorphosis' was happening.

Although the writers of 'Metamorphosis' were enthusiastic to portray an "original" take on Vampirism like most modern movies featuring our fanged friends do, they are still beautiful, genteel ladies and gentlemen and not a street-gang speaking in "cool" Buffy-type slang.

Mostly shot in Hungary straight after Lambert's 'Day of Wrath,' Christopher clearly enjoys playing the bad guy here, and gives us a performance that I would describe as Lord Rayden in a nastier mood. As usual, his character is a mix of dark and light, but I wish the script had allowed a bit more of an insight into his character as the write-up on the official site indicated there might be.

Irena A. Hoffman is everything you could want in a seductive Vampire, and I look forward to seeing her in other things. Scenes with her or Lambert as the main focus are certainly the most enjoyable in the movie, as the three American tourists (in real life, one Canadian, and two English) aren't very interesting.

Corey Sevier is adequate as Keith, but Jennifer Higham and particularly Charlie Hollway are stuck playing irritating, unfunny characters.

The rest of the cast is filled out by some suitable looking Hungarians, and the production is assisted by the use of genuine medieval locations.

Metamorphosis is a little light on blood and Vampire action, and struggles a bit to keep it's plot moving, but I enjoyed it.

In the Seventeenth Century, while Hungary is fighting the Turks, the population of a small village in the Carpathian Mountains faces the evil Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Adél Kováts), accused of drinking and bathing in blood of virgin women. Count Thurzo (Gábor Koncz) imprisons the Countess in the tower of a monastery and brings her daughter to live with him. In the present days, Keith (Corey Sevier) is writing a book about Countess Elizabeth Bathory and traveling through Hungary with his friends J.J. (Charlie Hollway) and Kim (Jennifer Higham) researching her life. While trying to find the monastery, he meets the gorgeous and seductive Elizabeth (Irena A. Hoffman), who guides the trio to the place. Keith and Elizabeth fall in love for each other, and after a car accident, they have a supernatural journey with revelations and fatalities.

"Metamorphosis" is an original romance through time, space, life, purgatory and death. I am a fan of vampire movies, and I particularly liked this underrated movie. The story is not gore, actually it is a romance, and maybe that is the reason to have such a low User Rating in IMDb. The unknown actress Irena A. Hoffman is extremely beautiful and has an excellent performance in the role of Elizabeth, showing a great chemistry with Corey Sevier. Unfortunately, the annoying and silly characters of J.J. and Kim irritated me most of the time with their ridiculous lines and plays. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Metamorphosis"

Helo everyone!

I rented the movie yesterday to watch the mesmerizing Chirstopher Lambert in this adaptation of Blood Baroness Bathory story, who actually existed, and must say I was bitterly disappointed.

First, the moving pictures that I've seen on the screen were in poor quality - not the TV seen, but the photography and cinematography were not what you can expect even in low budget movies as this one. Alone the camera movement tried to capture the mystery/horror atmosphere of the movie, but lightning was just bad - as made from students that just ended their program.

Second, the Characters of the movie were mostly two dimensional, with no ability or possibility in script to give them emotional(human,when we are talking vampires) depth.

Don't get me wrong; the work of actors was acceptable, but the Characters were boring. The only ones that stood out were Lambert as the Bad Guy of the story with his performance, that actually had similarity to his Mortal Combat character, and Hofmann as the Elisabeth (the "good Vampire") because she succeeded to grow over the cliché of seductive vampire woman and let me believe that Elisabeth is truly caring about Keith (played by Sevier, who still has to prove himself as an actor).

The FX were OK, but the some scenes were just not working as suspense visual vehicles for the audience(for example, when brother Alexander sticks his javelin trough sister's Chaterine's heart and Hihgham character, and they disintegrate, the J.J, played by Hollway, stands in the Picture and is not afraid but amazed that the scene is actually taking place...?)Really, not funny.You see this in experimental footage of movie students. The white light of the purgatory works OK, but you can see almost the whole time, that it is not...well, that is fx.

OK,enough of bad mood. The Idea of "time is slower in purgatory" and the visualization of it was really good.It worked in building the suspense and it worked as the idea of "follow the white light" was finally clear.

I've seen films shot using phome cameras that are better than this. This was just a BAD movie. The acting was terrible. What was Christopher Lambert thinking. Not that he's a critically accalaimed actor or anything. The writing was terrible. Scenes were stitched together with some not making any sense in sequence of events. I love vampire movies and some of them are pretty cheesy but entertaining at least. Not this film.

If I could have given negative stars, I would have. WHY, Mr. Lambert, did you choose to do this?!? Please, fire your agent.

I won't bother detailing any of the story line, because I fear that some poor soul might decide it was worth watching. Suffice to say that a high school creative fiction writing class could have come up with a better story. The AV club could have made a better attempt at filming it, in fact.

There should be a law against movies this bad. Or, at least stiff penalties for having the gall to call this "entertainment."

The acting was HORRIBLE. The plot was AWFUL. There was NOTHING redeemable about this waste of time at all.

I think I'd rather have a root canal. Or chew glass.