Dark Seduction – review

Director: Greg Travis

Release date: 2015*

Contains spoilers

This is like a glimpse into the Bs of ages past, a black ‘n’ white lesbian vampire film, that’s also a film noire it was release in 2015 but actually filmed in 1984 (I understand) and the film has a psychedelic, comedic edge that throws the entire thing further off kilter.

Don’t get me wrong, however, off kilter can be good and, whilst not the finest movie ever made, there is an ineffable aspect to Dark Seduction that makes it eminently watchable. Some searching on the web tells me that it really was a smashing together of ideas to please a pair of creatives and out of that collision something unusual grew.

Vickie Hicks as Vera

It begins with Dick Jones (Tyler Horn) a hardboiled private eye who has lost his wife, Laura (Stacey Travis, Dracula Rising & Angel), to a multi-millionaire (Joe Alaskey) and found the bottle. Meanwhile, a pair of women named Vera (Vickie Hicks) and Serina (Catharine Simmons) are in a pool trying to entice Frenchie (Gaith Talhouni) into the water but he doesn’t swim. When he succumbs to temptation and they get their way we hear screams off screen.

feeding on Miko

Miko (Hisako Mura) is in the bath when she falls asleep and dreams of her leg being bitten by a male vampire. When she gets out of the bath she finds that her boyfriend Ray (Greg Travis, Lilitu) is too high to do anything. There is a knock at the door and Vera and Serina enter – Ray passes out and the three women go off to a room. When Ray comes round he walks into the bedroom to see the two vampires (with their blooming awful fangs) feeding on Miko. A resultant fight sees Ray killed but not before he knocks one of Vera’s fangs out.

creeping with one fang

A cop friend (Ken Gibbel), gets Dick on the case but he also meets Vera separately, and coincidentally, after she and Serina have a fight. Vera gets it on with Dick (and subsequently falls for him) but also unbeknown to him she bites him (with her one fang). He is hunting down a vampire in LA and has found her lost tooth but doesn’t realise he is turning into a vampire as well… And I think that’ll do as the film, after-all, is a detective noir and should have some layer of mystique.

Tyler Horn as Dick Jones

If this had been released when it had been shot it might have just faded into the mists of time but coming out decades later has actually helped it. The juxtaposition of the detective noir, psychedelic moments, vampires and some absurd comedy works well. The black and white with a grain really works, especially when we contrast it with the overly clean digital black and white often used today. There are some moments that caused a wry grin – Dick being passed a cure for vampirism, a hammer and stake, for instance.

This isn’t perfect, by any stretch, but it might just garner a cult level fan base. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.