Date With a Vampire (2001): If you spent any time wandering the aisles of a mom-and-pop video store, you know the vibe of SOV (shot-on-video) movies, produced during a time when digital cameras were making everyone with a tripod think they were the next Jean Rollina, and many of them are!

Date with a Vampire mixes softcore erotica with horror. Directed by Jeffrey Arsenault, written by Kevin J. Lindenmuth and featuring an appearance by cult East Coast horror actor Joe Zaso, this is Violet (Lori Thomas), a vampire who brings men home for both pleasure and someone to drink. 

We follow Violet (Lori Thomas), a vampire who operates with a very specific business model: bring guys home, give them a little hospitality and then turn them into a liquid lunch. It’s a simple life, really.

Enter Chuck (Robin Macklin). Violet gives him a love bite so potent it triggers a psychotropic hallucination involving a sapphic encounter with Rebecca (Cynthia Polakovich). Poor Rebecca doesn’t last long, though. She ends up as a snack for a basement-dwelling creature played by East Coast indie legend Joe Zaso (5 Dead on the Crimson Canvas).

Somehow, this film’s hour-long runtime still seems much longer. Perhaps that could be the fault of a movie all in one or two rooms, with long dialogue and multiple extended softcore scenes. That said, I would have totally rented this in 2001 if my local store had a better selection than what we got. And I applaud the lo-fi feel of this!

Blood Craving (2002):

Director and writer Jeffrey Arsenault kind of owned the SOV-era erotic vampire shelf, if there was one in your video store, if not through sheer force of will than through how many of these movies he made: Crimson Nights. Crimson Kisses, Crimson Desires, Vampire Playmates 2, Date With a Vampire and this film.

Originally a sequel to his movie Night Owl, this has a short run time. The most jarring and, frankly, delightful part of the experience is that a massive chunk of that runtime is dedicated to an interview with the legendary Caroline Munro. Yes, that Caroline Munro, the Bond girl and Hammer Horror icon. Finding her in the middle of a grainy, ultra-low-budget SOV vampire flick is like finding a vintage Bordeaux inside a juice box. Consider me shocked, pleased and slightly confused as to how she ended up here, but I’m certainly not complaining. 

Inspired by Joe D’Amato’s Emanuelle and Françoise, this stars Tiffany Helland as Jillian, who is really great in it. As I said at the top of this, some filmmakers in this era may have aspired to Jean Rollin-style movies. This one gets close, and with a bit more story, it could overtake the lead film in the Visual Vengeance set, Date With a Vampire. 

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This Visual Veneance release features an SD master from original tape elements, commentary with director Jeffrey Arsenault; interviews with Arsenault, Kevin J. Lindenmuth, Cynthia Polakovich and Joe Zaso; location videos; an image gallery; an original trailer; commentary and interview on Blood Craving with Jeffrey Arsenault; an After Midnight Entertainment: trailer reel; Visual Vengeance trailers; a reversible sleeve featuring new Blood Craving art; a folded mini-poster and a limited edition O-Card by Rick Melton. Get it from MVD.