Sexe, mensonges et Vampires

James Franco and Tori Spelling are barely in this and definitely shouldn't be on the poster/box, Emily Meade should! This movie is mostly lesbian lifetime style boredom and barely horror at all, the coolest part is when a girl is covered in blood otherwise this movie is a bologna sandwich gone wrong!

As a Lifetime movie, not least of which a (in title only, as I'm told) remake of a "classic" 90's Lifetime movie also starring Tori Spelling, this brings the camp but only in small doses. If you also go into it expecting that James Franco directed it you'll be sadly mistaken - he wrote the "Television Story" though not the script, is an exec producer along with original star Spelling who appears here too and has an extended cameo as the director of the Macbeth in the movie - and of all things I now wish that Franco had directed it.

Maybe he knew this material was beneath him in some way, despite wanting to dip his toes into the world of teenage seduction and violence and other nefarious things (just as he dipped his toes ever so much like a spaz in General Hospital). What he gives us here is not some story of an abusive relationship, at least not at the core. It starts with a young woman, Pearl, being turned into a vampire and killing her maker, though she is now joined with three other goth-vampire ladies looking like rejects from The Craft (a movie this wishes it could be by the way).

Then cut to five years later (for... reasons?) and Leila George (Leah) is a college student who loves the first Twilight book (but not those awful sequels, heavens no!) and tries out and gets the lead as Macbeth (because #Feminism). She meets Pearl - a photographer who "lives her life in the lab" - and the two fall in love... but then the vampire stuff comes to life - will she or won't she turn her new love - and things unravel from there. And story wise it's not so much a question from daughter to mother as it is a "Mom, get out of my life, I'm Lesbians with this girl! Sheesh, didn't you see the hashtag with feminism?" But mother knows best, right? There's a lot of weak story stuff here, and the worst part is that the director - who at first until I looked up the info I was sure was Franco under a pseudonym, but alas Aitkenhead has other credits - things she's making something cutting edge and spiky.

I wish the movie had gone further into the camp or into the subplot of the film which shows that the three main vampire chicks go to frat parties and take out douches who try and date rape girls. How cool does that sound, especially as a hardcore, bloody, no-holds-barred exploitation flick (or sexploitation for that matter)? Instead we get this half-assed treatise about being queer, and it's not at all subtle about it. There's a college professor who pops up from time to time (and I'm certain it was meant for Nicholas Brendon, aka Xander from Buffy, as this is discount Nicholas Brendon incarnate), and spells out the themes as they happen. Actually one of the good moments with aforementioned vampire attack at a party is mucked up by narration about being gay and this lifestyle being reflected somehow in the, uh, supernatural, and it feels hollow and false if it's trying to be something real, and hokey if it's trying to be over the top.

Mostly, tonally, this is pretty flat, though it has some moments of camp (in part due to, I'm sure also no accident, a much younger/less talented James Franco clone in Nick Eversman's Bob with his howlingly funny facial tics), and a game Spelling as the mother. But by the end, for all of the blood (or was that grape jelly at a few points) and sex (surprisingly lots of skin for as TV-14), I wanted it to stop, and even at this the movie couldn't get itself straightened out as the final five-seven minutes are a mess. As far as major Hollywood people coming into the airy, dopey but in its own bizarre way integral Lifetime movie world, I say skip this and seek out last year's intentional homage/spoof A Deadly Adoption with Will Ferrell and Kirsten Wiig.

If you feel like cringe, irritation, laughable scenes, a movie to watch because it is so bad ? Look no further. This is your movie !! Super annoying. You'll have a blast.

"Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?" delivers plenty of suspense and melodrama, but it's a mixed bag. Tori Spelling and Ivan Sergei give memorable performances, and the film builds an eerie atmosphere that keeps viewers on edge. However, the plot can feel predictable, and some scenes are unintentionally over-the-top, making it hard to fully invest in the characters' plight. With big budget movies, you expect more. Despite its flaws, it has undeniable '90s cult appeal, providing a nostalgic watch for fans of TV thrillers. While not groundbreaking, it's an entertaining guilty pleasure with enough tension to keep audiences watching.

Right, well for some reason I had mistaken this movie for another movie, so I was in for a bit of a surprise when I sat down to watch it. But mind you, the surprise was not an unwelcomed one, because I actually ended up enjoying this movie.

First of all, I must say that I was thrilled to see James Franco on the cast list. However, it was a shame that he was only playing a minor supportive role in the movie, as he could definitely have amped up the movie if he had been given a larger role and more screen time. And when I saw Tori Spelling's name on the cast list, a shadow fell over me. Yeah, I am not a fan of hers; must be a residue leftover from the "Beverly Hills 90210" days. But I am happy to say that she is well past that image and she actually performed quite well in "Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?".

The storyline was actually enjoyable, and I was definitely not expecting that this was a vampire movie. Turns out that it was actually an entertaining movie, and writers James Franco and Amber Viera definitely delivered a vampire movie with enough creativity and new-thinking to it that it managed to stand out from your average generic and run-of-the-mill vampire movie that come a dime a dozen.

I wasn't familiar with Leila George prior to this movie, I think. And I will admit that she definitely carried the movie quite well with her performance, and he had some nice help from co-star Emily Meade.

"Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?" turned out to be a genuinely good movie, and a very surprising one at that. So I was entertained. Sure I was.

My rating for this 2016 movie is a six out of ten stars. And I will say that "Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?" is a movie that is well-worth taking the time and effort to sit down to watch, especially if you like vampire movies and want a vampire movie that brings something new to the genre.