Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis (2007)

This is a strange movie. It starts off as a vampire flick, complete with a flashback to the past that explains it’s connection to the Elizabeth Bathory legend. After then flashing forward to the present day it introduces us to some American students that are traveling to the old Bathory castle to do research. Well at least one of them is, the other two just seem to be there to annoy everyone. They unknowingly interrupt a vampire that is finishing someone off. This leads to a couple of things. One she becomes their guide and falls in love with one of them and two the person she was killing becomes a vampire and shows up to cause trouble later. Toss in a subplot about the Christopher Lambert character being the last descendent of a family that the Bathory family has cursed and an odd bit about dimensions and you have Metamorphosis.

To be honest this isn’t a very good movie. The story is very slow to start with and takes far too long to get to anything interesting. After the flashback and a short sequence where the character named Thurzo (played by Lambert) we have to sit thru the introduction of the American students. This is by far the weakest part of the movie. The characters aren’t interesting, the dialogue is pretty bad, and the acting is less then stellar. Why do so many movies fall into the trap of the ugly Americans? You have characters here that barge into a funeral go up the priest and bug him about the appointment they had! Oh and you know that you are in trouble when the vampire movie you are watching contains the line, “Don’t worry I don’t bite.”

Though I will admit that when they finally get to the castle things pick up a bit. The story switches gears here a bit and moves away from the generic vampire flick that it was trying to be and tosses a few twists at the viewer. I won’t spoil them here, but they are interesting. I think that the real reason that the end of Metamorphosis is more interesting is due to Christopher Lambert. I wouldn’t say that his performance is good, but the man does know how to play an over the top villain. I’m not sure if it is because the rest of the cast is so weak, but watching him chew up the scenery was fun.

I also want to give the filmmakers some credit for finding incredible locations. This is clearly a lower budget shot on digital flick. But the locations, especially the castle, gives the movie a much bigger feel then it probably should have. There are also some decently choreographed fight scenes that involve some “Vampire Fu” that were fun. Clearly there was some talent behind this movie.

As you can tell there are some things with Metamorphosis that are decent. But the movie is hamstrung with bad acting by much of the cast, and a story that is really boring for more then half the movie. So while I did enjoy some of it, I can’t really recommend the movie. It is hard to get thru and just doesn’t have any re-watchablility to it. This is a movie that could have used much more Christopher Lambert, and how often do you get to say that? For more information on where you can check this one out head over to http://www.mtivideo.com/

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer