Eternal
If you have ever heard of Charles Busch’s Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, this film is its artistic alter ego. So many movies involving vampires these days go in one of two directions (both far away from Bram Stoker’s original re-invention of the legend) - either goth-rock toughies or embarrassingly cheesey suavesters. Eternal is a psycho-sexual trip into the obscure legend of Hungarian Countess Erszebet Bathory, who has surfaced in today’s online fetish world. Just by being true to the legend, as if Erszebet had truly lived, and by exploring how a taste for flesh in one form can translate into a taste for flesh in many forms, Eternal is an interesting work, an erotic thriller with a supernatural bent.
Freshman filmmakers Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez thankfully shed any lily-livered impulse to flavor Eternal with that sterilized form of dangerous that informs scenes like the blood-shower in Blade - just a slightly more extreme form of expression after tongue piercing. It is refreshing for the victims to be in real danger; for their predators to have real obstacles to overcome in their hunt through the Sapphic wilds of Montreal, and I am sure a large demographic doesn’t mind the graphic sex either.
The whole movie is pretty stylish and classy, appearing more expensive than it probably really was. While sometimes the sex stuff seemed a little gratuitous, after seeing the whole movie I am not sure what I would have cut; it all actually serves the plot. I don’t recommend watching it with your grandmother, but it’s not really a date movie either. Stoker’s Dracula, of course, symbolized Victorian horrors of the sensual, of syphilis, and of animalistic attitudes. Erszebet is more overt in her sexuality than Stoker’s Count, but these are modern times. In order to shock, one must exceed - and she does., and in spectacular locations as well.
Caroline Néron is a sexy and ageless Erszebet, cold, sinuous and wise as a serpent and yet you can feel how warm her skin is when she makes her deadly move. Conrad Pla, as Ray Pope, reminds you of a dozen more famous tough guys than himself, initially, but I found he had a really unique take on the character and how his character gets overpowered (or not) that I appreciated more upon reflection than while I was watching it. Very few characters are sympathetic (if they are, well, they don’t last long), and no one changes or learns anything in the end. This is a little frustrating, narratively speaking, but it is also the unchanging life of the truly immortal. How can a being with hundreds of deaths under her belt change her mind about what she eats now? It’s not like she has vegan choices. Eternal lets Erszebet and Pope have their animal selves without judging them; they will pay, but they will not change. It’s very different. Check it out, if you have the chance.
MPAA Rating Not rated; pervasive sexual activity, violence, language
Release date 8/26/05
Time in minutes 108
Director Wilhelm Liebenberg & Federico Sanchez
Studio TVA Films/Regent Releasing
