DRACULA'S DIRTY DAUGHTER

(a.k.a. MISTRESS OF SEDUCTION)

A man sneaks up outside a house and watches a blonde get dressed. He races away after fearing she's spotted him - but she's more interested in the nubile girls in her back room, getting it on with each other.

The man darts past a parked car. We stay with the car as the sultry redhead Vamparina (Alysabeth Clements) emerges from its boot. She strides to the nearest public telephone and makes a call to Tanya (Michelle Tebow). Vamparina is replying to lonely student Tanya's personal ad, looking for a friend to share experiences with.

It's the middle of the night and Tanya's only half-awake, so she unwittingly gives the caller her address. Moments later, Vamparina is in Tanya's bedroom seducing her with baby oil and a vampiric bite to the neck.

The girls talk into the early hours of the morning, Vamparina telling Tanya that she's in town to hunt down the man that killed her father. She shows Tanya a photograph of the man, who recognises him as film student John (Thomas Martwick, DECAMPITATED) - her ex-girlfriend's brother.

Later that morning, Tanya and Vamparina pay John's sister a visit. She won't give them his address, but Vamparina reads it from her mind anyway.

Tanya and Vamparina drive round to John's digs, which he shares with Matt and Patrick. Following a dispute, Patrick leaves moments before the girls arrive. Vamparina offers to move in to his room to share the rent costs. Now that she's found John, her intention is to steal his soul - in order to do this, she must first make him fall in love with her, then tear out his heart.

But first she gets rid of Tanya, whose constant questions about her new vampiric powers have started to irritate Vamparina. She replaces her with another hot blonde - Kristal (Kellie Brown).

Then it's back to John's place, where he and Matt (Justiz Donaldson) gradually grow suspicious of their latest flatmate, due to an endless succession of gorgeous women that she takes to her locked room, and the fact that both have violent sexual fantasies about her. They decide to investigate further. As does Patrick (Josh Dirmish), who gets wind of the fact that his replacement may be a vampire, enlisting the help of John's sister and her lesbian friends to look closer ...

DAUGHTER is a curious blend of minor gore and softcore porno that doesn't really push far enough in either direction to make an impression with either audience.

What DAUGHTER does have is a half-decent script that manages to be occasionally witty, at times poking fun at the self-conscious Goth crowd who are most likely to be watching it. The performances are enjoyable for being spirited. and deliberately hammy in a pleasant enough way.

The direction, on the other hand, is flat and unimaginative, while the sex scenes - all lesbian save for Matt and John's respective dream scenes - are lengthy tame affairs, shot in soft focus with corny red lighting and throbbing electronic music. And for anyone looking for beaver - be forewarned, there is none on show here. None whatsoever. What DAUGHTER does have though is an apparent fixation with women rubbing fluids into their bare breasts - blood, soap, baby oil ...

From a horror perspective, there's not a great deal on offer. The script (wisely) avoids trying to be scary in favour of gentle humour, and the gore is low-key - until a surprisingly blood-soaked finale. A miniscule budget dictates that there are minimal FX - Vamparina's hairstyle will have cost more than DAUGHTER's "special effects".

This disc houses the uncut film in a decent 1.33:1 transfer. Images are reasonably sharp while colours are bright and vivid. The English 2.0 audio is similarly good in standard.

Although there's no scene-selection menu, the film can be navigated through by way of 12 chapters.

Extras include 5 minutes of cast auditions which are quite interesting to watch. Oddly, the female cast look better here than when made up on film.

A 13-minute Behind The Scenes featurette is essentially a selection of outtakes, bloopers and extended takes, offering more nudity.

Finally we get a 7-minute sampler clip from 42ND STREET PETE'S BUSTY STAG COLLECTION and 11 trailers - for movies such as GRINDHOUSE TRASH COLLECTION and DRACULA'S DIRTY DAUGHTER itself.

Not nearly as bad as I'd feared, DAUGHTER survives thanks to its wry script. It's not a masterpiece (it's not even a good film) but it's a cut above a lot of the movies of this ilk. Decent disc, too.

Review by Stu Willis