Watch out for vampire vixens prowling your local watering hole, like Cynthia Bond in 1990's Def by Temptation. Written by, directed by, and starring James Bond III, this plucky little film, featuring an early performance by Samuel L. Jackson, really had me rooting for it until it stole its best effects scene from Videodrome.
Bond III plays a religious lad, training for the ministry, named Joel. He goes to New York City to visit his brother, K (Kadeem Hardison), who's a famous actor.
The chemistry between Hardison and every other actor he's paired with, in any scene, is terrific and the best part of the movie. I really felt the affection and mild rivalry between the brothers. Later, K teams up with Dougy (Bill Nunn), the cop trying to stop the vampiress who's been seducing and killing men. Hardison has great chemistry with Nunn and Cynthia Bond. The scene where he figures out she's a vampire because she has no reflection in the mirror is great.
That wall art is a nice, subtle touch.
The editing is really odd and it feels like a lot of scenes end too soon. Some sequences of shots feel crammed together. The film's at its best when it just stays on pairs of actors talking.
Then K encounters a haunted television that starts sucking him in.
And I thought, "Oh, it's a homage to Videodrome." But it kept going, not just taking the initial head-in-the-TV shot but also entrails bursting out of the TV and a face trying to escape the TV.
Videodrome was not well known in the mainstream so this just feels like theft, especially since it didn't tie in very well to the vampire storyline.
Still, it's a pleasure watching these actors work. Samuel L. Jackson's part is too small but it's nice seeing him.
Def by Temptation is available on The Criterion Channel.
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