Here it is folks! The day you've all been waiting for. A day that I stop in to review an erotic thriller that I actually liked! I know it's painfully hard to imagine but Vista Street Entertainment's Lord Of The Vampires has managed to catch that subtle balance that so many erotic thrillers manage to miss. I have to say that I was leery when I read the story summary but was pleasantly surprised to find a movie that held my attention and was pretty well rounded in the end.

Viktor (Jack Wareing) is a man who seems to be extremely hard to please. Why shouldn't he be? After all he is the lord of all vampires! Unfortunately, his current vampire brides Ravenna (Liana Loggins) and Mercy (Vanessa Sweatte) aren't living (so to speak) up to their full potential. Their entire existence should be consumed by the fulfillment of Victor's needs. Mercy is pretty content as long as she gets to feed and party a little but Ravenna longs for the days when she was Viktor's favorite. Jealousy can drive women to extreme measures. It gets complicated when the woman in question lives forever and is hard to kill!

Meanwhile, a group of thieves who haven't had the best luck in the world gear up for the next big score. Larry (Tom McCafferty), Steve (Corey Manuel), and Denise (Tracy Dillon) are going to rob a convenience store. The store is in a desolate area and it should be a pretty easy job. Things go wrong, however, when a customer walks into the middle of it all. Amanda (Kristen Lueck) sees what's going on and tries to sneak out unseen. Our less than brilliant criminals grab her and in a panic kidnap her so that she can't run to the police.

When Larry's van breaks down (who didn't see that coming) they figure they'll walk back to the nearest house to use the phone. Where they meet Viktor and his brides - they figure they're a little odd but relatively harmless. They don't have a phone but Viktor insists that they stay the night and sort out the car problems in the morning. Larry starts to cook up a plan to rid Viktor of some of his wealth but Viktor has plans of his own. Amanda has caught his eye and Ravenna isn't at all happy about it. The jealousy is mounting and mutiny is in the works. It's hard to say who'll come out on top of this one, folks! The human's out number the vampires but it's hard to discredit a couple of century's worth of experience!

I have to say that I really enjoyed this one. The movie had a slight look of grain and older look to it and it really complimented the mood by giving it a much softer look. Even the effects had more of a vintage feel to them. Instead of looking low budget and cheap, it came across as more nostalgic. It reminded me a lot of Fright Night (1985: Chris Sarandon & Roddy McDowell) and it made the movie that much more fun for me.

While this movie was much less campy than Fright Night, there was still a campy feel to some of it. Most of it had to do with the soundtrack. It went from a gothic erotic sound to classical music in some of the erotic scenes. In fact, the music in the movie is the least constant entity. It gave the feel of a musical at times. It was more Rocky Horror than Phantom Of The Opera but you catch my meaning. In the end, it rounded the movie out well. In places were the dialog was lax, the music filled in and kept it from sounding like an uncomfortable silence.

The story was handled quite well also. In most of the erotic horror/thriller movies I see, the women are portrayed as fairly brainless. They swoon and fall into the arms of the first beast that crosses their path. I don't expect a lot of reality in my horror but it's good to see a little more thought put into the characters and story line. I liked that not every human was so easily seduced. The story here wasn't complicated by any means but it was still well defined and that can go a long way. Remember, the brain is the biggest erogenous zone in the human body. Unfortunately when some men make erotic horror they're thinking with the lower one - and it shows!

There were no special features on the disc I was given. There is a chapter selection menu but that's about all for the extras. The image quality was clear throughout, presented in full frame. This also added to the older look and feel of the movie. Sound was stable throughout, even when the music was pretty loud.

Lord of the Vampires was a whole lot of fun. It didn't take itself too seriously and balanced out well in the end because of it. I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in an erotic thriller with a little something more to offer than just breasts.