I've always loved my vampires with a little bite and animalistic prime to them like "Near Dark" and "The Lost Boys" which is a good explanation why Catherine Taylor's "Temptation" wasn't a complete win for me. People who love their vampires romantic and schmaltzy with an air of decadence may enjoy what Ms. Taylor has in store for them with her UK Import vampire thriller that focuses more on the romantic and sexually raw aspects of vampirism over the monstrous aspects. "Temptation" is pretty much a younger modern more feminine version of "Vampyros Lesbos" with a hint of Anne Rice for good measure. While it's not the worst movie ever made, it surely isn't the best vampire entry in the genre as it takes great measures in speeding through its story to get to the blood soaked orgy that ensues in the London landscape. Isabel is a distraught young woman looking for a night out and while partying with her friends gets drunk. She's picked up by a man who volunteers to take her home and chases her through an alley raping her and viciously stabbing her. As fate would have it, Isabel is saved mid-rape and begs for help from the mysterious red haired woman who rescues her and she's "helped" by being turned in to one of her vampire minions. With overtones of lesbianism and repressed sexuality, Isabel's own sexual urges are unleashed thanks to this mistress who visits her in her fantasies and our young protagonist begins to evolve in to a predator of the night. With wicked shades of blues and reds to indicate the atmospheric London landscape, Taylor definitely knows how to depict her city as something of a barren hunting ground. The sad fact of the story is that we never quite get to know character Isabel all to well.

We later discover the villainess is named Aurelie a femme vampire who is building an army of young female vampires because... she likes hot women, apparently. Meanwhile we have to sit through the clichés of Isabel's transformation which includes an aversion to sunlight, a super ability to hear heartbeats and an animalistic sexual lust. Of course the entirety of the movie is used as a metaphor for sexuality as Isabel has to choose between more pain and woes with her disloyal boyfriend, or unabashed orgasmic sexual pleasure with women. All of whom do nothing but sit around naked, drink, and suck each other's blood. Vampire monotony seems kind of cool to me. Moving on, not surprisingly Isabel is the spitting image of Aurelie's first love and she wants her in her life, so she sets out to find her instead of just kidnapping her, turning her, and waiting until she's properly morphed in to a demon of the night. But that would be a logical thing to do and we wouldn't be able to sit through... melodrama, and over the top officers inspecting the vampire cases, and even more girl on girl that is well shot but little else. I honestly wish I cared about anything and anyone in this picture, but sadly enough I just didn't. It's all so derivative and cliché and dull to enjoy even as a time killer in the vampire genre.

It's pretty much glorified soft-core porn with an exploitative touch Jess Franco would be proud of featuring gorgeous women, hot vampires and gorgeous women as hot vampires. In spite of those benefits "Temptation" is never as good as it could be with sub-par performances, endless clichés of the sub-genre, and a story that doesn't go anywhere in ninety whole minutes.

• For more information on "Temptation," visit the official website.