You Know the Flick Where Alyssa Milano Lays Around Topless

To label 1995's Embrace of the Vampire Alyssa Milano's coming of age flick is a gross understatement; she is topless, flaunting her near perfect milky white breasts in almost every other scene after all. One needn't wonder why Milano decided to do Embrace; it was a natural transitional movie catapulting Ms. Milano from girl to woman and semi-serious actress.
    
Milano's most well known role when she shot Embrace was as Samantha in Who's the Boss?, which had wrapped in 1992.  She went on to do a few TV movies (including a turn as Amy Fisher in '93, and big screen releases like Confessions of a Sorority Girl (1994) and Deadly Sins (1995)) they failed to kick-start her film career, so again Embrace of the Vampire is a natural procession.  Exposure, even the naughty kind is still exposure in Hollywood.  Embrace took Milano into the realm of soft-core B-movie genre, wherein her performance mattered less than her form.     

The Story

Directed by Anne Goursaud (Red Shoe Diaries, Poison Ivy II), in Embrace of the Vampire Milano portrays 17-year-old virgin Charlotte Wells who is being seduced by a vampire (Martin Kemp - EastEnders) in order to own her virgin soul on the eve of her 18th birthday.  Charlotte reminds him of a princess he once loved long ago before he was made as a Vampire by three topless blood suckers.  If he fails to bed her he will go into an eternal sleep; who knew Vampires had an expiration date!
 
Chris (Harold Pruett) is Charlotte's long suffering, but faithful boyfriend, who longs to deflower the young curvaceous nymph, but holds fast to their love.  They sleep together, but never touch.  The Vampire must break the bound of their love so that Charlotte will give herself to him willingly.  To that end her haunts her in her dreams and herein corrupts her virginal mind and causes her to do all manner of things she would not ordinarily do, most of which involve baring her breasts.    
   
My Thoughts

Embrace of the Vampire is pretty much a non-starter and ends up being a not so smart update of the Dracula legend.  As such Embrace embodies none of the intelligence, sophistication, pacing, or logic of any of the movies that have followed the theme.  

Charlotte's and Chris's love is not tragic love story; Embrace of the Vampire reads instead as a poor excuse for a lot of sexual images and long lingering shots of Milano's breasts.  

Rachel True portrays Charlotte's best friend Nicole, Charlotte Lewis (The Golden Child, Sketch Artist) portrays a lesbian photographer, and there are cameo appearances by ex-Playboy centerfold Rebecca Ferratti as the Princess of old, and Jennifer Tilly as a sexy female Vampire out to seduce Chris.

Checking in at just over 90 minutes, Embrace of the Vampire is worth it only if you want to see copious amounts of Alyssa Milano and little else.