Horror Movie Review: Chastity Bites (2013)

Chastity Bites had a lot of potential being a horror comedy surrounding vampires & the infamous Elizabeth Báthory but it ultimately fails to live up to it.

Starring Allison Scagliotti as Leah & Francia Raisa as Katharine, the pair are best friends & social outcasts at their school. Not that it bothers Leah, as she is a self-described feminist & wannabe news reporter. Her desire to get a story has seen her clash several times with the popular clique of girls at the school. This often annoys the quieter & peace driven Katherine who wants nothing more than to be liked & feel important.

Things change though when a new abstinence counsellor arrives at the school. Liz Batho (Louise Griffiths) is beautiful & seductive. She quickly entrancing the popular girls’ mothers with promises of eternal youth. This in turns sees them put pressure on their daughters to join the abstinence club & promise not to have sex which they all do (thinking it’s a way to get closer to the obviously rich Liz).

Much to Leah’s dismay Katharine joins the club too & quickly falls in love with Liz. All she has to do is look deeply into your eyes & you’ll be hers. You see, Liz Batho is no ordinary abstinence counsellor. No, she is Elizabeth Báthory. Still alive, moving from town to town & killing all the female virgins so she can stay young & beautiful.

She has the whole town in her grip, everyone buying into her abstinence club. Everyone but Leah who has an instant bad feeling about her. When they first come face to face, it’s clear that Leah isn’t intimidated by her & that confuses Liz. She can’t shake the feeling that they’ve met before long ago.

Katherine falls further into her thrall & turns her back on Leah believing that Liz loves her. With her best friend gone Leah discovers Liz’s identity & plan so attempts to blow the lid off the whole story but meets disbelief & resistance. The problem for Leah is that she has upset or burned so many people in the town with her stories they are unwilling to even listen to her.

With no-one to back her up she has no choice but to rescue Katherine & destroy Liz herself.

Chastity Bites’ issues lie mainly in its story telling. The rushed plot & disappointing finale results in a deep feeling of dissatisfaction. It’s a real pity because in most other areas the movie is a lot of fun. It’s well acted & the three main leads, Leah, Katherine & Liz are all interesting & fun to watch.

The other cast, the popular daughters & their mothers, are stereotypical of what you’d expect but a couple have fun with it playing up to the notion that they are emptied headed & looks obsessed.

It’s not a particular violent or gory movie but when stuff happens it looks the part. It’s filmed in a way that gives it a TV show vibe. At times it fits perfectly with the brief moments of humour (very lacking in this department).

Vampires haven’t quite become the horror butt of all jokes just yet (unlike zombies) & movies like Chastity Bites are a good reminder that there is mileage in the fanged ones yet.