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"

OK, this is a fairly low budget vampire flick but you might want to check it out. It begins rather slowly, everything seems predictable and unoriginal. However, you keep watching due to the amazingly SEXY leading lady who plays the female vampire and love interest. She is >>>>HOT<<<<< It also helps that the film is pretty well produced, it looks good, very good sometimes. Things really pick up and it gets rocking though when Christopher Lambert takes the stage as a really rotten chief vampire dude. He really brings a lot of energy and his dialogue is zany as heck. I enjoyed his performance and there is some nicely staged action sequences. Also the effects when a vampire gets killed are pretty cool. They sorta turn into this black husk and then flake away like a burning newspaper. Cool. Then, towards the end of the movie it delves into some metaphysical, spiritual, pseudo madness that is kind of dumb but brings some more zany nuttiness to the fun. Maybe it was just me but here is a strong undercurrent of tongue in cheek at work here. The last scene kinda caps it all off and sends you away with a bit of a smile on your face. The Russian couple and a really annoying sidekick steal a few scenes. Other than Lambert and the dude playing the Russian jerk the acting is kinda stiff.

The bottom line is a mildly entertaining semi farce that might help you waste some time. There are some really interesting tidbits throw in like a iron cross at a monastery that trembles when a vampire is on the property, a vampire who says the lord's prayer and declares the bible to be the best selling work of fiction ever. Then there is a creepy grave robbing scene and vampires that bit each other on the neck. Not to bad.

keeping it short this is one of the worst movies i have ever seen and not so much because the setting/idea, but the actors are really.. really.. REALLY bad they are beyond bad exactly how far i don't really know cause i lost sight of em going over the "line of beyond bad"

it could have been a great movie with better casting, the 3 tourists sounds like they have the script straight in front of em and they are just reading directly from it without taking much notice of what it says lambert does a so so effort to play the vampire ill admit that and Irena A Hoffman also did a pretty good job and her character felt a lil more believable (as did lamberts)

the starting minute of the movie really made me want more as im a fan of keeping original languages instead of having cheesy accents but boy was i disappointed , this flick is a orgasm of cheesy accents , and the whole.. "college kids" idea is just.. sad so very sad

the whole movie is a big "could have been" from the beginning (well 1 minute in) to the end

if i had financed this movie id cry long and hard after seeing it.. why you can prolly guess by now

When you make an American movie in Hungary with the budget to buy an old car, you get a movie like this one. Amazingly enough, it starred Christopher Lambert and it also had a little bit of originality in the script.

Three things were good in the film: the vampire girl was cute as hell, Cristopher Lambert was funny (also as hell, him being a vampire too, heh) when talking to the German girl and making fun of crosses and bibles and the last was that the "romance" in the movie reminded me of Quest for Glory 4, for which I keep a fondness in my heart.

The rest was absolutely wasting time. Not completely unentertaining, mind you, I could watch it and not feel bad about it.

Bottom line: for a low budget film, it was pretty good. Don't expect horror in it, the vampiric aspect is mostly a philosophical thing. Don't expect action, either, as only editing would make the moves of old Lambert and too young Irena Hoffman look anything but slow. There is almost no sex and the dialogues are ridiculous. So what did I like about it? it was not as cliché as I expected. And did I mention Irena looked sexy and reminded me of the vampire in Quest for Glory 4 ? :)