poolandrews Review of Love at First Bite

Love at First Bite (1979)

"Without me Transylvania will be as exciting as Bucharest, on a Monday night!" OK spoofy horror.

[4/10 · 18 March 2005]

Love at First Bite starts in Transylvania at Count Vladimir Dracula's (George Hamilton) castle. A female Government official (Lidia Kristen) informs Dracula that they are going to take possession of his castle and turn it into 'a training camp for our young athlete's' & that 'we will be back in 48 hours with trampolines', unfortunately this is about as 'funny' as Love at First Bite gets. Dracula feels he has no choice but to leave. So along with his very annoying servant Renfield (Arte Johnson) Dracula decides to head for New York to find a woman he has become convinced is the reincarnation of his lost love, a successful fashion model named Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James). Once safely in New York and checked into the Plaza, Dracula goes about trying to find Cindy by first sending Renfield to Cindy's agent (Susan Tolsky). Eventually Dracula discovers Cindy will be at a disco and makes sure he is there too. Dracula introduces himself to Cindy at the disco and with his strange quirky charms working their magic Cindy falls for him. They end up at Cindy's apartment where Dracula bites Cindy on the neck, and they have sex two and a half times apparently. While discussing her feelings the next day with her Psychiatrist Dr. Jeffery Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin) he finds out about the bite and says that she has been bitten by a Vampire & also that he is a descendant of infamous Vampire hunter Van Helsing. Rosenberg, along with NYPD Lieutenant Ferguson (Dick Shawn) sets out to stop Dracula before he permanently turns Cindy into a blood-sucking immortal Vampire! Meanwhile Dracula & Cindy fall in love with each other and decide to escape New York, but will this unusual love story have a happy ending? Directed by Stan Dragoti I must admit that I personally didn't find much to laugh at in this comedy/horror spoof. The script by Robert Kaufman tires hard with one-liners coming thick and fast but they just aren't that funny. The physical slapstick doesn't work either, someone being hit by a broom and then pulling a silly face before they fall over just isn't amusing as far as I'm concerned. Love at First Bite is the sort of film that thinks Dracula drinking the blood of a drunk and then becoming drunk himself and singing & a woman being shown a mouse who then runs away screaming is funny. It isn't. Having said that I did smile on occasion and the film definitely has a certain innocent charm, although the film does contain some bad language. George Hamilton as Dracula is great & extremely likable, I really wanted it to end happily for the guy! On the other hand I hated Arte Johnson as Renfield and Richard Benjamin as Jeffery Rosenberg who both play it so over-the-top it's embarrassing. Susan Saint James as Cindy the love interest is OK. On a technical level the film has a nice look throughout and obviously had a fairly handsome budget, I've no complaints about this side of things. Dracula's trials and tribulations while trying to survive a late 70's New York are mildly amusing but again nothing that really made me laugh out loud. There is a fairly fun taxi/police motorbike chase towards the end as well. Some of it is far too silly for it's own good too. Overall I don't regret watching Love at First Bite but maybe it's just not my type of film. I can't in good heart call it a bad film but at the same time I can't really say I enjoyed it when I didn't. I'll leave the decision up to you.