The results are surprisingly good. There is a fair story to the film and none of the erotic set-pieces seem contrivedly grafted on or forced as they are in many of these films – the sole exception is a lesbian encounter between Madison Clark and Angelina High in an alleyway. The rest of the scenes generate considerable erotic heat. The film is cast with people who can not only remove their clothes but can also act. Kevin Spirtas is particularly well cast in this regard. With his handsome good looks, goatee, bared chest under an open shirt, and composing piano music and touching black roses to his lips, he suggests a broodingly sensual melancholy at the heart of the film. Madison Clark has just the right degree of appealingly vulnerable sweetness as the corrupted innocent. With sharply boned face and unusually silver blonde hair, Angelina High has a marvellously predatory presence as Kevin Spirtas’s vampire sister. Thankfully, she does not let the part go camp as many straight films would be wont to do.

One of the most imaginative parts of the film are its small touches of fantastique. In erotica, most fantastique elements tend to be forgotten and treated with prosaic lack of imagination. The vampires here are accompanied by some intriguing touches – Angelina High’s negligee flying up onto her shoulders off the floor (in a simple but effective frame reversal), her tattoo that changes colour, roses dying in Kevin Spirtas’s hand, Spirtas’s mysterious appearances floating outside Madison Clark’s window and most appealingly his being able to tap people on the shoulder while standing down the length of an alley. There is also a superbly eerie and unusual score, principally reliant on violins, accompanying the erotic scenes.

This was followed by two disappointing sequels Embrace the Darkness II (2001) and Embrace the Darkness III (2002).

(Nominee for Best Musical Score at this site’s Best of 1998 Awards).
 

Scene from the film here:-