Date With a Vampire (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Jeffrey ArsenaultRelease Date(s)
2000 (February 24, 2026)Studio(s)
After Midnight Entertainment, Inc. (Visual Vengeance/Wild Eye Releasing)- Film/Program Grade: F
- Video Grade: B+
- Audio Grade: B+
- Extras Grade: A
Review
Here’s the story: it’s about a woman named Violet who picks up a guy named Chuck from a bar. They hit it off and she takes him back to her classic Tudor estate in the heart of Prospect Park, NYC for some drinks and maybe a little more. Scratch the maybe—she’s in it for the sexy time. Violet and Chuck have sex a few times and during the pillow talk, Violet reveals she’s a vampire and he will be her new sex slave slash blood bank. Meanwhile, an unassociated young woman named Rebecca breaks into the home and sneaks around coming across a vampire monster stashed in the basement of the home. While she stalks around, Violet’s vampiric energy creates a fantasy of the two women having sex. And that’s it. This is a smut film—softcore for sure, but smut nonetheless. Its sole existence is to showcase somewhat attractive people humping on each other. There is no real story and the sex isn’t remotely erotically filmed. I’m no prude, but I have a hard time seeing the value of this film. It was a crash grab to put VHS erotica on mom-and-pop video store shelves in the straight-to-video boom of the late 90s early 2000s.
Joining Date With a Vampire is a second film from its director, Jeffrey Arsenault, titled Blood Craving which is mostly an excuse to showcase a video interview with Caroline Munro, wedged between footage featuring a pair of vampires named Gustavo and Victoria having a conversation about potentially stopping an experiment the two are conducting (and being overseen by a young woman named Jillian) involving a chained-up vampire named Angel. Jillian is draining blood from bodybuilders and feeding it to Angel. Quite the experiment and I’m not quite sure that summary is correct. It’s less smutty but equally convoluted and unwatchable. I’m not a fan of these two flicks; not sure if you can tell.
As with all other Visual Vengeance releases, video and audio isn’t the focus of these releases. Video is from the original video masters and is presented in 1080p at 1.33:1. It looks like low-quality video because it is. Sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 and isn’t professionally recorded and sounds it. There’s English subs if you can’t follow the plots and want to read. Extras include autoplay trailers for Vampire Playmates, Vampire’s Embrace and Vampire Night. On the main film is a commentary with Jeffrey Arsenault as well as a video interview. He talks about the production, the location and the actors. He seems like a nice guy and also seems like he loves what he does. I see you Jeffrey Arsenault. There is also a video interviews with the screenwriter Kevin J. Lindenmuth, the actress who played Rebecca, Cynthia Polakovich, and the vampire in the basement that—spoiler alert—kills Rebecca: actor Joe Zaso. There are also two video pieces focused on the location, one is a piece focused on the owner and who also served on the crew: Location Manager Nathan Thompson: Date With a Vampire Memories and Buckingham Manor Location Video with Nathan Thompson. Thompson is a filmmaker himself and lets us know that. Rounding it all out is an image gallery, the film’s original trailer and the Visual Vengeance trailer.
Technically Blood Craving (2002) is an extra and it’s presented similar to the main feature audio and sound-wise. It too features its own extras: a commentary and video interview with director Jeffrey Arsenault, image gallery, two drafts of the film’s original trailer along with the final version, a Video Vengeance trailer and a sizzle reel for Jeffrey Arsenault’s production company After Midnight Entertainment. Packaging features reversible sleeve art (one side is Date, the other is Blood Craving), a folded mini-poster, the VHS stickers and first pressing limited edition sleeve/o-card.
I am starting to love the energy and attention to detail Visual Vengeance is putting into their releases. I’m finding a few that I love and a few that I don’t like much. They can’t all be winners, but I’m appreciative of the efforts and Visual Vengeance is a label I recommend.
- Todd Doogan