''Once Bitten'' is a 1985 American

teen Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the te ...

horror

comedy Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...

film, starring Lauren Hutton, Jim Carrey, and

Karen Kopins Karen Kopins Shaw (born October 10, 1961) is a former American actress and former model. Early life Kopins was born on October 10, 1961. Kopins attended Ridgefield High School and graduated from Marymount College before moving to California to ...

. Carrey has his first major lead role playing Mark Kendall, an innocent and naïve high school student who is seduced in a Hollywood nightclub by a sultry blonde countess (Hutton), who unknown to him is a centuries-old vampire. While the movie underperformed at the box office, it has since become a cult classic.

Plot

Being 400 years old, the Countess has collected a stable of young men and women who accompany her on her centuries-old journey through eternal life and youth. Though she is immortal, she is required to drink the blood of a young male virgin three times by Halloween each year to keep her immortality and youthful appearance. She finds this task increasingly and extremely hard, since attractive young male virgins are almost impossible to find in the 1980s, particularly in hedonistic cities, in this case, Los Angeles, California. Meanwhile, virgin high school student Mark Kendall wants to have sex, but is being put off by his girlfriend Robin Pierce. One night, Mark and his best friends Jamie and Russ go into a singles bar in Hollywood. Mark meets the Countess, goes back to her mansion and after she seduces him, passes out when she bites his thigh. When he wakes up, she pretends they have had sex and tells him that he is now hers. Mark does not know what she means and, over the next few days, begins showing strange behaviors: having strange dreams, avoiding direct sunlight, and even drinking blood (from raw meat). After the Countess gets a second bite, Robin notices Mark's odd behavior and confronts the Countess during a dance-off at the high school's Halloween dance. While it appears that Robin has won back Mark, this is only temporary. The Countess kidnaps Robin to lure Mark to her mansion for a final bite before her deadline expires, and it is up to Robin, Jamie, and Russ to stop her. Eventually, to save Mark from the Countess's clutches, Robin and Mark have sex in a coffin while being chased by the Countess's minions, thereby taking Mark's virginity, bringing him back to normal. This renders him useless to the Countess as she has to drink virgin blood. Defeated, the Countess then begins to grow old and decrepit before their eyes. The Countess's assistant, Sebastian, tells her not to worry as there are other virgins in the world despite the fact that the Countess doubts she will find another virgin. The movie ends with Mark and Robin continuing to have sex in the coffin.

Cast

* Lauren Hutton as the Countess * Jim Carrey as Mark Kendall *

as Robin Pierce *

Cleavon Little Cleavon Jake Little (June 1, 1939 – October 22, 1992) was an American stage, film, and television actor. He began his career in the late 1960s on the stage. In 1970, he starred in the Broadway production of '' Purlie'', for which he earned both ...

as Sebastian, the Countess's manservant * Thomas Ballatore as Jamie * Skip Lackey as Russ * Richard Schaal as Mr. Kendall, Mark's father * Peggy Pope as Mrs. Kendall, Mark's mother * Megan Mullally as Suzette

The Countess's Vampires

* Jeb Stuart Adams as World War I Ace Vampire *

Stuart Charno Stuart Charno (born September 29, 1956) is an American actor. He has been a stand-up comic and has starred in film and on television. His first role was in the 1981 horror film ''Friday the 13th Part 2''. Other notable appearances of his include ...

as Cabin Boy Vampire * Robin Klein as 1960s Flower Child Vampire * Carey More as Moll Flanders Vampire * Glen Mauro as Twin Vampire #1 * Gary Mauro as Twin Vampire #2

Release

The film was released on November 15, 1985 on 1,095 screens, and opened at number one at the U.S. box office, grossing $4,025,657 for the weekend. It eventually earned around $10 million in the United States and Canada.

Critical reception

''Once Bitten'' received polarizing response from critics; on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 10% based on 10 reviews, with an average score of 3.3/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film received a score of 64 based on 4 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Janet Maslin of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote that it "has a lot more stylishness than wit." Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' called it an "extreme rarity" for its subtle and hilarious sexual humor in a teen film. Rita Kempley of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' described it as "a sappy, sophomoric sex farce" that uses dated humor.

Home media

The film was first released on VHS in 1986 and on DVD on August 26, 2003.

Scream Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released the film on Blu-Ray on February 10, 2015. Scream Factory: Spirits, Vamps and New Year’s Classics On Blu-ray!
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References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Once Bitten (1985 Film) 1985 films 1985 comedy films 1985 directorial debut films 1985 independent films 1980s comedy horror films 1980s fantasy comedy films 1980s sex comedy films 1980s teen comedy films American comedy horror films American fantasy comedy films American independent films American sex comedy films American teen comedy films 1980s English-language films Films about virginity Films scored by John Du Prez Films set in Los Angeles Films shot in Los Angeles Films with screenplays by Jonathan Roberts (writer) The Samuel Goldwyn Company films American vampire films Vampire comedy films 1980s American films