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This hot
and sexy
thriller is smart enough to rise above its genre trappings,
while still
delivering enough guilty pleasure to keep you hungry for more.
“A completely decadent
delight for lovers of the vampire genre,
Eternal
is sexy and thrilling.
-- Frameline
A captivating
thriller...Power, obsession, and death; Eternal embraces
them all
--Kevin Ranson, MovieCrypt
(click here for the full review)
Atmospheric,
chilling, and very stylish!
One the most sexy vampire
films in all eternity!
There is plenty to sink your teeth into in this
movie.
--Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
(A) stylishly
kinky exercise
in blood-soaked eroticism...
Neron is perfect as
the striking and cucumber-cool countess...
handsomely mounted and
uncommonly slick
--Ken Fox, TV GUIDE
click here for the full review
Stylish and
classy
--Karina Montgomery, Cinerina
click here for the full review
Multidimensional characterization and dialogue
elevate this film far,
far above being just a vampire movie.
--FilmThreat.com
Eternal is an opulent-looking, erotic, quasi-vampire
movie that’s
reminiscent of the 1979 version of Dracula starring Frank Langella —
it’s very much about lethal seduction,
the desire for eternal life, and
eluding justice...
It’s a gorgeous film,
stylishly lensed....
Eternal is a red-ripe, overwrought fetish
feast that’s
sure to
entertain fans of the lush, romantisized vampire genre.
--Staci Layne Wilson, horror.com
click here for the
full review
Eternal’s excellent use of locations, ornate set
dressing and
sexy
costumes hits the right decadent-sinister note.
--Variety
It’s sexy and seductive and
it’ll get deep beneath your skin.
David N. Butterworth, Where's La Boeuf?
click here for the full review
Directors Liebenberg and Sanchez wanted their film
to walk a fine line
between commerce and art, and succeeded brilliantly.
--Bloody-Disgusting.com, Fantasia Film Festival 2004, Montreal Closing
Film
ETERNAL is a stylishly sexy
and erotic
vampire thriller that will get a rise out of even the dead!
- Joseph B. Mauceri, FEARSmag.com
All the vampires ever to
rise from
Universal and the Hammer Studios combined
couldn't match the sensuality and sexuality of ETERNAL.
- Joseph B. Mauceri, FEARSmag.com
This vamp has one heck of a bite!
ETERNAL is real hot and steamy erotic vampire thriller.
- Joseph B. Mauceri, FEARSmag.com
I would have
been offended if I wasn't having so much fun watching.
--Jack Matthews, NY Daily News
click here to read the review
Caroline Neron’s cold and desirable character
evokes images of Sharon
Stone, in Basic Instinct.
--Écran Fantastique, France’s leading horror & sci-fi
magazine
By mirroring the personality traits of the
conventional
“hero” and
“monster”, Eternal blurs the line between goodness and evil.
--Fangoria Magazine
“Kudos to the sex orgy scene near the end!
I think it was more
effective, in terms of capturing social decadence
and sexual
temptation, than Kubrick’s similar orgy scene in Eyes Wide Shut.
--Offscreen.com
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Review:
Eternal by Kevin Ranson, MovieCrypt
Power,
obsession, and death; Eternal embraces them all.
Raymond Pope
(Conrad Pla)
is a vice cop in Montreal looking for a missing woman. His
investigation leads him to the mansion of Elizabeth Kane (Caroline
Néron), a woman of means, presence, and
stature. Both Pope and Kane are powerful people used to others doing as
they are told, but Pope quickly realizes he has underestimated Kane…
and finds himself fascinated by it. What follows is a story of sex,
murder, and obsession as Pope pursues Kane by every means at his
disposal, but as he draws closer, it becomes less clear whether his
motivation is to arrest her, possess her, or become her next victim.
The media
included for Eternal describes the character
of Raymond Pope as having “questionable morals.” That’s a nice of way
of saying that Pope has a violent job that requires him to exercise
complete control to execute, then forces him to unwind by placing
himself in dangerous, carnal situations that he must know will
inevitably get him into serious trouble. Actor Conrad Pla (looking
eerily like Billy Zane and Vin Diesel combined at the genetic level)
portrays Pope with the appropriate amount of strength, passion, and a
certain amount of requisite brooding, talents necessary to play off of
his ethereal adversary.
The object of
Pope’s
obsession, Elizabeth
Kane, is regally portrayed by Caroline Néron.
Every captivating moment she appears on screen fills it with her
phenomenal presence and timeless beauty (equally conveyed with
phenomenal sets, lighting, and cinematography). Like her brief and
calculated appearances to others, her words are equally succinct. A
possible yet fantastic explanation offered for Kane’s motives (and very
existence) is hinted by way of an historical account of the real-life
16th Century Countess Erszebet Bathory, a woman who bathed in the blood
of over
650 women to keep her appearance youthful and her life eternal. While
the similarities are uncanny, all characters stop just short of saying
that the two could be one and the same.
In direct
contrast to
Elizabeth Kane is Irina, played
sadistically by Victoria Sanchez. Irina is
useful to Kane, taking care of Kane’s
mundane chores and even surfing Internet chatrooms
trolling for potential victims. While Irina
could have just been a punk Goth girl with death on the brain, she is
instead Kane’s mirror opposite, an impatient killer more interested in
the thrill than the hunt. In spite of this, Irina
serves Kane because she idolizes her even if she doesn’t like her, and
there’s always the promise that Kane might offer something more later
as reward for faithful service.
There are
more than a few
similarities
between this film and 1992’s Basic
Instinct: a manipulative seductress who may or may not be a
murderer, a detective in pursuit that isn’t sure what he’ll do even if
he can tie the evidence to the criminal, and secondary characters dying
in the crossfire. Eternal
spins the concept a little wider with Gothic locations and lavish sets
that hint at something more ancient and immortal, providing a brighter
and more dangerous flame for Pope to be drawn to. Is it his mind, his
life, or his soul that is truly in jeopardy?
A few
questions still remain
unanswered at
the conclusion, but the unrated Eternal
is still a captivating thriller that takes more than few unexpected
turns. No twist ending here; an immortal obsession only lasts an
eternity.
(a
three skull
recommendation out of four)
http://moviecrypt.com/?p=530
HORROR.COM
While Eternal is pretty much a murder-by-numbers suspenser with nothing
overly unusual on the surface to polarize audiences, I have seen some
extremely disparate reviews on this film — it’s either 1 sneering star,
or an impassioned 10. I don’t feel that strongly about it, but I did
like it quite a bit.
Eternal is an opulent-looking, erotic, quasi-vampire movie that’s
reminiscent of the 1979 version of Dracula starring Frank Langella —
it’s very much about lethal seduction, the desire for eternal life, and
eluding justice. Although it starts off with a ‘based on a true story’
blip, Eternal is a horror/fantasy fashioned after historical figure
Erzsébet “Elizabeth” Báthory (August 7, 1560 — August 14,
1613), the Hungarian countess who murdered 612 girls and women in order
to bathe in their blood and soak in their youth.
The film opens at night on an opulent wooded, gated estate in Montreal,
where a beautiful brunet with the username Wildcat (Sarah Manninen) has
just arrived to fulfill some promises made in a naughty online
chat-room. The lady of the manor, Elizabeth Kane (Caroline
Néron), wines, dines, teases and tempts her latest conquest
before brutally slashing Wildcat’s throat and immersing herself in the
red tide.
Meanwhile, the chat-room chippy’s husband, Detective Raymond Pope
(Conrad Pla), is enjoying a depraved sexual escapade of his own and is
oblivious to her disappearance until it’s too late. Before long the
stories intersect and Pope goes after Kane for the murder of his wife,
Kane leading the chase from the mansion, to the city’s most dangerous
upscale sex club, to a masked ball of death in Venice, Italy.
Shot on location in the above-mentioned Montreal and Venice, Eternal
makes the most of its locations and sets. It’s a gorgeous film,
stylishly lensed by Jamie Thompson and peopled with attractive leads.
While Pla is not traditionally handsome, he’s got a bad-boy spark that
is a nice foil to Néron’s sleek, catlike beauty. Playing the
“Renfield” role (as a gothy girl called Irina) is a seething Victoria
Sanchez, who pouts and preens as she noshes the scenery. The classic
cars, exquisite attire and meticulously detailed props add immensely to
the sensual atmosphere of Eternal.
There are lots of twists and turns throughout the story — none
particularly unexpected, but fun nevertheless. Some of the characters
do outrageously stupid things — but it’s a hoot to witness their
passionate blunders. Some of the peripheral acting is rather weak; one
character in particular is supposed to be a native Italian but sounds
more like a cross between Father Guido Sarducci and Bob Marley — but
Eternal doesn’t need to have a Shakespearian cast to get its point
across; it’s about ambiance, not technical perfection.
Ably directed by first-time helming team Wilhelm Liebenberg and
Federico Sanchez,
Eternal is a red-ripe, overwrought fetish feast that’s sure to
entertain fans of the lush, romantisized vampire genre.
= = =
Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson, horror.com
TV GUIDE
You're soaking in it
Hungary's Countess Erszebet Bathory, the 16-century royal psychopath
whose beauty regimen included bathing in the blood of hundreds of
virgins, has been sadly underrepresented in horror movies. True, her
dark shadow has fallen over such lesbian-vampire classics as DAUGHTERS
OF DARKNESS (1970) and COUNTESS DRACULA (1971), but her filmography is
nothing compared to those of her mad, bad and very dangerous to know
brethren Vlad the Impaler and Gilles de Rais, the inspirations behind
all those Dracula and Bluebeard movies. Luckily, writer-directors
Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez help redress this terrible
wrong with this stylishly kinky exercise in blood-soaked eroticism.
After having disappeared for hundreds of years, the immortal countess
has resurfaced — in Canada, of all places — looking as youthful as
ever. Now going by "Elizabeth Kane" (the smoky-voiced Caroline Neron),
the reclusive beauty and her homicidal sidekick, Irina (Victoria
Sanchez), prowl online chat rooms and lure bi-curious women to their
elegant Montreal manse where they empty their victim's veins into
Elizabeth's bathtub. In what turns out to be a serious lapse of
judgment, Elizabeth exsanguinates the wife of Raymond Pope (Conrad
Pla), a vice cop with a few vices of his own. Pope's kinky extramarital
activities involve guns, belts and his partner's wife, Nancy (Ilona
Elkin). Pope, who's more concerned with whether or not his missing wife
has run off with another man than if she's alive or dead, finds
Elizabeth's address on his wife's computer and pays the bloody countess
an unwelcome visit. Elizabeth receives the thuggish cop with
aristocratic sangfroid, wounds his macho pride by telling him that,
yes, his wife did come looking for some girl-on-girl action, then sends
him on his way. But she's not done with him yet: Knowing he'll soon
return, Elizabeth and Irina scheme to neutralize whatever threat he
poses by framing Pope for the string of murders they themselves have
committed.
The ending doesn't really work, and Pla tends to overplay what's
already a larger-than-life character, but Neron is perfect as the
striking and cucumber-cool countess. With a few subtle nods to the more
erotic entries in the vampire canon — the films of Euro-horror
stalwarts Jean Rollin and Jess Franco seems to be particular favorites
— the film is handsomely mounted and uncommonly slick, often with
blood. — Ken Fox TV GUIDE
NYC MOVIE GURU -- Avi Offer
ETERNAL (Not Rated)
Release Date: August 26th, 2005 (NYC-Village East Cinemas) by Regent
Releasing/Here! Films
The Cast: Caroline Neron, Conrad Pla, Sarah Manninen, Victoria Sanchez.
Directed by Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez.
BASIC PREMISE: Detective Raymond Pope (Pla) is looking for his missing
wife which leads him to uncover the hidden world of vampirism.
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: This is not your traditional vampire movie. It is
a mixture of a crime thriller, horror, and even has plenty eroticism.
The plot is very simple and even predictable at times, but what make
this film really work are the wonderful set design, costumes,
cinemagraphy, and musical score. Conrad Pla's acting is mediocre as the
detective, but his mission to find his wife is very exciting. Caroline
Neron is very well-cast as Elizabeth Kane, who happens to also be a
hungry vampire. The scene when she rises from a bathtub soaked in blood
is a classic! She is simply gorgeous and bites into every single one of
her lines. Most of the violence occurs off-screen and none of it is
shocking. The atmosphere is what really makes this movie chilling
without going overboard with blood or guts. It is interesting that this
movie is loosely based on a true story from the 16th century about
Countess Elizabeth Bathory who really bathed the blood of more than 650
women. It is hard to imagine that this story could be real, but the
possibility alone makes it quite frightening.
SPIRITUAL VALUE: The bond between the detecting and the vampire becomes
somewhat thought-provoking because despite that he trying to kill her,
he is mesmerized by her beauty and power. The very final scene
justifies just how manipulative and seductive this beatiful vampire can
really be.
INSULT TO YOUR INTELLIGENCE: Mostly predictable plot.
NUMBER OF TIMES I CHECKED MY WATCH: 1
THE BOTTOM LINE: Atmospheric, chilling, and very stylish! One the most
sexy vampire films in all eternity! There is plenty to sink your teeth
into in this movie.
RECOMMENDED WAY TO WATCH: Movie Theater (1st Run)
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THREE STARS (out of four)
Eternal
By David N.
Butterworth, Where's La Boeuf?
Here’s something
they don’t always tell you in the travel guides: the bustling, affluent
metropolis of Montreal is awash with blood-sucking lesbians!
And by
“blood-sucking” I don’t mean financially draining. I’m talking the real
McCoy here: blood suckers as in vampires. Lesbian vampires. And
Canadian lesbian vampires to boot!
Eternal
is Canadian filmmakers Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez’s
modern-day take on the Countess Elizabeth Bathory legend. As the
original story goes, Erzsébet Báthory
(1560-1614) was a Hungarian countess–a mentally unstable bisexual
Hungarian countess to be more accurate–who liked to bathe in the blood
of some 650 virgins she had previously tortured and mutilated,
believing such a practice to be the conduit to eternal youth. The juicy
Bathory tale has been the basis for many a lusty horror fest over the
years–I for one remember Hammer’s Countess Dracula from 1971
with Ingrid Pitt as the well endowed bloodsucker.
In Eternal,
the mysterious Elizabeth “Erzsébet” Kane (Caroline Néron)
might just be the immortal countess in question. She owns a painting of
Bathory for one thing and often asks her evil henchwoman-in-training
Irina (Veronica Sanchez) to prepare her bath.
From her
palatial Québec mansion guarded by imposing iron gates and a
rotten rotweiler, Erzsébet rules on high, welcoming in the
sexually curious and emotionally confused. One such victim is Wildcat
(Sarah Manninen), who draws up in her sleek Citroën Pallas as the
film opens and is quickly and easily charmed by Erzsébet’s
duplicitous hospitality, with red wine the potable of choice.
“I’ve never done
this before,” Wildcat informs Erzsébet nervously. She means
“I’ve never had sex with a woman before” but what she might as well
have said is “I’ve never had my throat slashed and blood drunk by a
woman before,” a prospect Erzsébet kindly obliges.
Wildcat’s
philandering husband, detective Ray Pope (Conrad Pla), shows to
investigate his wife’s sudden disappearance and is himself instantly
seduced by the wicked beauty. The film eventually takes us to Venice,
where Pope attends a titillating costume ball like the one in Kubrick’s
Eyes Wide Shut, only this one seems more conducive
to the plot (and the costumes are a lot better!).
Liebenberg and
Sanchez’s film benefits from lavish production values–sumptuous
interiors and elegant exteriors are de rigeur–and solid
performances by Néron and Pla, who treat the otherwise
hard-to-swallow screenplay simply as an extension of the latter day
detective thriller. Both actors are commanding screen presences,
fine-featured individuals with grace and grit. Néron exudes the
same raw sexuality as Theresa Russell or Kathleen Turner in their
heyday with a little Gallic intervention and former kickboxer Pla has
the look and cannibalistic tendencies of a Canadian Roland Gift.
There’s also a
sympathetic turn by Liane Balaban as Pope’s babysitter cum auto
mechanic.
Canadian horror
films are few and far between and Canadian vampire pictures an even
rarer breed so take the opportunity (if you can) to enjoy Eternal,
an erotic thriller that favors eroticism over thrills. It’s sexy and
seductive and it’ll get deep beneath your skin
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NY Daily News
Eternal
At the Village East (1:48). With Caroline Neron, Conrad Pla. Not rated:
Nudity, sexual situations, violence.
It's creepy, it's atmospheric and - with a nod to "Eyes Wide Shut" -
it's nasty erotic. But how much girl-on-girl and mix-and-match bondage
sex can you take in one low-budget French-Canadian snark about a
vampire who has gone butch because women's blood is purer than men's? I
would have been offended if I wasn't having so much fun watching.
The victims of the centuries-old Slovakian blood countess - known in
contemporary Montreal as Elizabeth King (Caroline Neron) - are
choice-blood donors, picked for the vitality and youth that
neck-to-fang transfusions will confer on her. But when she hooks up
with the bi-curious wife of a cop (Conrad Pla), the countess knows
she's not in Slovakia anymore.
It's impossible to overstate the silliness of all this, but it would
still be a decent Halloween trick - if it were Halloween.
Jack Mathews
August 26, 2005
Eternal
Karina
Montgomery, Cinerina
If you have ever heard of Charles Busch’s Vampire Lesbians
of Sodom, this film is its artistic alter ego. So many movies involving
vampires these days go in one of two directions (both far away from
Bram Stoker’s original re-invention of the legend) – either goth-rock
toughies or embarrassingly cheesey suavesters. Eternal is a
psycho-sexual trip into the obscure legend of Hungarian Countess
Erszebet Bathory, who has surfaced in today’s online fetish world. Just
by being true to the legend, as if Erszebet had truly lived, and by
exploring how a taste for flesh in one form can translate into a taste
for flesh in many forms, Eternal is an interesting work, an erotic
thriller with a supernatural bent.
Freshman filmmakers Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez thankfully
shed any lily-livered impulse to flavor Eternal with that sterilized
form of dangerous that informs scenes like the blood-shower in Blade –
just a slightly more extreme form of expression after tongue piercing.
It is refreshing for the victims to be in real danger; for their
predators to have real obstacles to overcome in their hunt through the
Sapphic wilds of Montreal, and I am sure a large demographic doesn’t
mind the graphic sex either.
The whole movie is pretty stylish and classy, appearing more expensive
than it probably really was. While sometimes the sex stuff seemed a
little gratuitous, after seeing the whole movie I am not sure what I
would have cut; it all actually serves the plot. I don’t recommend
watching it with your grandmother, but it’s not really a date movie
either. Stoker’s Dracula, of course, symbolized Victorian horrors of
the sensual, of syphilis, and of animalistic attitudes. Erszebet is
more overt in her sexuality than Stoker’s Count, but these are modern
times. In order to shock, one must exceed – and she does., and in
spectacular locations as well.
Caroline Néron is a sexy and ageless Erszebet, cold, sinuous and
wise as a serpent and yet you can feel how warm her skin is when she
makes her deadly move. Conrad Pla, as Ray Pope, reminds you of a dozen
more famous tough guys than himself, initially, but I found he had a
really unique take on the character and how his character gets
overpowered (or not) that I appreciated more upon reflection than while
I was watching it. Very few characters are sympathetic (if they are,
well, they don’t last long), and no one changes or learns anything in
the end. This is a little frustrating, narratively speaking, but it is
also the unchanging life of the truly immortal. How can a being with
hundreds of deaths under her belt change her mind about what she eats
now? It’s not like she has vegan choices. Eternal lets Erszebet and
Pope have their animal selves without judging them; they will pay, but
they will not change. It’s very different. Check it out, if you have
the chance.
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