Customer Reviews

Eternal [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the largely negative press this film garnered from both critics and fans alike, I was expecting very little from it save for a routine dip into second-rate arthouse horrotica. Indeed, I only rented it from the local video store since the film was largely shot in Montreal and Venice, two of my favourite cities. It would seem a pointless exercise at best to even attempt to film yet another take on the Bathory 'Blood Countess' legend since it has already been done to death, and more often than not, quite poorly in the past--the notable exception being 'Daughters of Darkness', the stylish early 70s film starring the inimitable Dephine Seyrig. But co-directors/writers Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez have not only concocted a thoroughly thought-provoking and visually appealing film, but a welcome addition to the 'female vampire' sub-genre that should now be considered at the top of the list. Let it be said that the film does suffer from some inconsistencies among the performances and in the plotline--the latter it would appear resulting from the writers painting themselves into corners here and there. But these minor complaints aside, 'Eternal' is a juicy, noirish horror film that attempts to and succeeds to expand the dimensions of its well-worn themes. Special mention must be given to actress Caroline Neron who plays the lead role of Elizabeth Kane. Her deeply sensual and intelligent portrayal allows her to create a character unique enough to stand, if not alongside, at least nearby Seyrig's Elizabeth in the previously mentioned film and Catherine Deneuve's Miriam of the magnificent 'The Hunger'. I hasten to add that there is a laudable effort with the script to never definitively explain away the femme fatale here as being a vampire in the strict sense of the term. By film's end, the viewer is not sure if she is supernatural or psychopathic or both. Even more enticing is the notion briefly inferred that even is she is indeed Elizabeth Bathory, perhaps that genuine historical figure is simply one of her many incarnations through centuries of bloodbathing. Fascinating! 'Eternal' also provides generous dollops of kinky situations throughout. Last but not least, an exceptionally fine use of music and exquisite cinematography capture Montreal and Venice perfectly. Highly-Recommended.

It's a Montreal homicide detective vs. a 300+ year old beautiful Hungarian "vampire vixen" in this pseudo horror-flick about legendary countess Elizabeth Bathory being under investigation for the disappearance of beautiful young women in Canada. It all starts after one of her pretty victims happens to be the aforementioned detective's ex-wife, and his subsequent suspicion over her involvement leads to an ongoing and relentless search into her activities that winds up at her home in Venice, Italy.

The police drama aspects were OK, but where this film really shines is during those brief moments involving her encounters with the pretty young women she pursues and then eventually drains of their blood. The lesbian aspects are highly charged and incredibly erotic, particularly those at her "party" in Venice! The imagination and erotic creativity are wonderful, but way too short in my opinion! If they were longer I'd give this one five stars for sure!

WARNING: some possible spoilers ahead...

This is a pretty good pseudo-vampire thriller along the lines of the Hunger. It takes historical fact, sex parties and obsession with the taboo and blends them all into fairly decent thriller. The basic storyline is about a cop who's wife goes missing. As he attempts to find out what happened to her, he gets drawn deeper and deeper into the fetishistic world of a dangerous woman who turns out to be Elizabeth Bathory, the famed countess who bathed in human blood to keep her youth. Eternal combines elements of the Hunger, Eyes Wide Shut and Basic Instinct into one movie. Strangely enough, the combination is not entirely unpalatable.

Acting is fairly solid throughout and the movie has some strong cinematography. The director makes some interesting choices and I think the only thing that I hold against him is the fact that he seems to have the same girl-on-girl fixation that so many other guys have. As a result, I had to watch a few more lesbian sex scenes than I would have liked, but they weren't too graphic and most of them ended quickly. I don't know if I would classify this as a horror movie, but if you're looking for a sexy thriller with a little bit of a bite to it, you might enjoy ETERNAL.

"Eternal" totters on being a decent film, but injecting the over-used "gritty, world-weary detective" motif into what would have been an intriguing pseudo-vampiress flick causes the film to repeatedly trip over its own incongruity. Mixing dark, lavish gothic sets and persistently-brooding supporting characters with a bald-headed, unshaven, foul-mouthed, squinting gnome threatening to get a warrant every five minutes keeps tugging the audience out of the horror fantasy and into a bad episode of [insert generic cop drama here].

With unrepentant tenacity, Conrad Pla's portrayal of Detective Pope drags down the performance of everyone around him by a combination of endless profanity and odd outbursts of pointless violence. His character isn't so much emotionally conflicted as prone to randomly-regurgitated emotion. We have to keeping asking the ether, what is he doing in this film? As if to remind us that Pla is, in actuality, a fighter-turned-actor, there is a brief, inexplicable scene of him hitting a punching bag. Either as a poor casting choice or a poorly-written character, the detective's role reduces the potential of this film dramatically.

Rescuing this film from complete mediocrity is the luxurious performance of Caroline Néron; her every motion and inflection seems perfectly timed for proper effect, making each line a mix of duplicity and crippling honesty. Bravo! If you must, see it for no other reason than her.

I came to this movie completely blind, I saw some stills and read about the plot in the great film book 'THE VAMPIRE FILM' by James Ursini and Alan Silver. I found it listed in Amazon.com and clicked the add to cart button and now 'ETERNAL' has now joined my list of favorite vampire films of all time. Filmmakers Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez have updated the Countess Elizabeth Bathory legend and modernized it beautifully. It could almost be an extension of Harry Kumel's excellent 'DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS' as this film takes place in Montreal, Canada and the canals of Venice, Italy. The other reviews included herein have gone over the plot so suffice it to say this film has everything for the Vampire fan with an incredible amount of passion and eroticism. It also contains the hottest sex scenes ever pushing the R rating to its limit but is never exploitive or sleazy ,however they are necessary for the sensuality of the atmosphere weaving among the characters. Caroline Neron as the Countess and Victoria Sanchez as her dog-like assistant are excellent and Conrad Pla supplies the male testosterone as a troubled police inspector who gets imbroiled in the madness. The only problem that I had with the movie is the same one that irritated another reviewer in this listing, that they refer to the Countess with the Dracula name although they never crossed paths and she was not vampiric in the fang-undead sense. Perhaps the Ingrid Pitt Hammer Film title 'COUNTESS DRACULA' which is also about the Bathory legend helped propagate the myth. However, it is definitely one of the greatest Vampire films of the decade and comes highly recommended.

Unlike some Vampire films, especially those focused upon Vampiric Lesbians, this movie actually has a story line. Everyone in the film has ulterior motives and their own psychological issues (worked out sexually).

Originally, I rented this movie, because it looked "iffy," but I decided to purchase the film after viewing it once. This is a dark movie, and the characters play out dark fantasies. Definitely not a Vampire flick for the kids to watch. In fact, I bought it mostly because of the lesbian erotica scenes and "adult" scenes.

I cannot give the movie five stars, but I had to own this movie rather than only renting it.

This movie is a new take on vampirism. The beginning of the movie states it is based on fact. I'm sure those 'facts' are the legen behind the 'Countess Dracula' or Elizabeth Bathory. She supposed killed more than 500 females in order to bathe in their blood for eternal youth.
This movie gives us a plot in the present day where a detective tries to track down his wife who is missing after an encounter with the present day countess. It never divulges what happened to her except to infer that she is dead after her blood was drained by the countess.
My thoughts on this movie are: The plot is an original twist. The return of this countess seeking women's blood who 'want' her. The filming itself is superb, truly eye catching. The acting by the countess is very well done..... too over the top by the pursuant detective. In his more subtle moments he blends in with the story, but those moments are few. The sets are great. The story could have been a bit better.
There is very little tension here, which I found disappointing. It focused more on the lesbian/erotica point. Anne Rice did bring that subject to the forefront however she always maintained an air of mystery and tension with her stories. This one doesn't. I do believe that is what's missing here.
One more thing... the soundtrack is superb! There couldn't have been a more perfect background of music to enrich the story than what was chosen.
All in all... not bad.. but not great. Middle of the road twist on the vampire story.

Finally the Femme Fatale Vampire genre gets some polish, plot and sophistication! Lots of eye candy in automobiles, architecture and lighting. Damn near a Stanley Kubric film: A Clockwork Orange meets Eyes Wide Shut! Great soundtrack. Filmed on location in Venice and French Canada. This film has a much better ending than it's predecessors. You like realistic vampire movies? You'll LOVE this one. P.S. NOT for the Kids!

I was pleasently surprised by this film, a story of vampires that I had not seen before. This has sparked me looking into the other movies about Elizabeth Bathory, like a the classic film "Daughters of Darkness". This story is as entrenched as the Vlad Dracula storylines.
I'm not going to re-hash the storyline like the other reviews, you can read it there. The story has enough spice with several tasteful erotic scenes, and but does get pretty boring following the main cop character around. They needed to focus a little more on Elizabeths character, and the backstory for newcomers like me. Anyway, it boils down to a descent movie to rent, possibly even pick up cheap to own. Not to scary, but enough to surprise you.

The Countess Elizabeth Bathory was born into one of the oldest and wealthiest families in Transylvania. The story is that in 1600, after her husband Count Ferenc died in battle, the 40-year-old Elizabeth was quite vain. One day she slapped a servant girl so hard she drew blood. The girl's blood fell onto Elizabeth's hand and the Countess became convinced that her skin had taken on the youthful appearance of her maid. So the maid's blood was drained so that Elizabeth could bathe in it to make her body youthful. Over the next decade the Countess had 612 women killed so that she could bathe in their blood or take a blood shower. Eventually her secret was revealed and Elizabeth Bathory was tried. Because of her royal connections she was not formally convicted, but instead was walled up in her own torture chamber for three years until she died and the story of the Blood Countess became the stuff of legend.

Elizabeth Bathory has been more a subject of fascination for European filmmakers as seen in "Ceremonia sangrienta" (1973), "Contes immoraux" (1974), "El Retorno del Hombre-Lobo" (1980). More recently she has been incorporated into horror tales in a contemporary setting, "Tomb of the Werewolf" (2004) and "Night Fangs" (2005), but it was "Le Rouge aux lèvres" (1971) that first played with the idea that Bathory had indeed found the secret of eternal youth. It is that tradition that first time writer-directors Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez follow in their 2004 film, "Eternal," which offers more style than substance.

In the world of today we learn that Bathory is living in Montreal under the name Elizabeth Kane (Caroline Néron) and luring her victims to her home via Internet chat rooms. Women show up for some Sapphic loving and instead find themselves part of a literal blood bath. However, her latest victim, whose online ID is Wildcat (Sarah Manninen) turns out to be the wife of police detective Raymond Pope (Conrad Pla). When his wife disappears, he goes looking for her on his own and shows up on the front door of Kane's mansion. Pope has secrets of his own, the most important of which is that he has been engaging in sex and violence with Nancy Cusack (Ilona Elkin), the husband of his partner, Dean (Nick Baillie). So we know that Elizabeth and Raymond have more in common than either one would suspect, and the question becomes what will happen when one, the other, or both of them figure this out.

"Eternal" looks like a better movie than it is become of Jamie Thompson's cinematography and the production design of Perri Gorraro, art direction of Massimo Antonello Geleng and Valma Pfaff, and the conceptual designs of Jean-Francois Mignault. But the physical encounters are decidedly lacking in eroticism, especially for anyone who has seen "The Hunger," and you would think that would be the primary reason for watching this film. Instead the crime noir elements take over for most of the film but ultimately prove to be secondary. After all, Pope knows Kane killed his wife, but proving it or understanding her motivation proves to be more difficult. In the end the biggest proof that this film has more style than substance is when the payoff turns out to be Elizabeth's custom made bathtub (I am not kidding). No wonder a film that should have been hot leaves you so cold, which is why I end up rounding down.

There is another problem in this film in that the Blood Countess is presented as being the "female Dracula." Certainly in terms of Eastern European bloodletting in the 16th century Elizabeth Bathory is the feminine counterpart to Vlad Tepesch, but she is not a vampire in the same sense of being undead, shunning sun light, living in a coffin, etc. Elizabeth drinks the blood of her victims as a prelude to bathing in it, but I see it as being more of a part of the slaying ritual than a necessary part of the blood magic. Liebenberg and Sanchez never do lay out the rules of the game here, but clearly Elizabeth no longer needs the blood of virgins. However, the rules never really come into play, although I have to think that they could have profitably done so to great effect at some point in the film. Instead, things are unclear to the final scene (and beyond).