Review: Love Bite, 2012, 15

Title: Love Bite
Rating: 15
Cast:
Jessica Szohr ... Juliana
Luke Pasqualino ... Kev
Timothy Spall ... Sid
Ed Speleers ... Jamie
Robert Pugh ... Sergent Rooney
Summary: Teens are going missing in the dead-end seaside town of Rainmouth. While Jamie's friends are obsessed with losing their virginity (in two cases) and getting as many girls as possible (Kev), he's bored and looking for something special. Jamie meets Juliana and falls for her. His first problem is she might be the werewolf that is killing virgins and the second is that he's a target because he just can't seem to lose his virginity.

This film it terribly British and it's the kind of horror movie that made me hide behind a cushion because of secondary embarrassment rather than horror. That being said, it made me laugh out loud so many times I lost count and it was entertaining and the ending was  sheer genius. There aren't many movies where I don't have it completely worked out way before the end.

This comes under my heading of it's so bad it's brilliant.

The thing is you're supposed to cringe and think a large percentage of the characters are losers, because they are. When the whole premise of the film is werewolves eat virgins, therefore don't be a virgin, you know it's going to be full of failed sex and bad innuendos. It's kind of an explicit, modern version of a Carry-on film with teenages. Kev (Luke Pasqualino) is the Sid James character, thinks he knows everything about women and doesn't and always after dipping his wick and Jamie (Ed Speleers) is the straight man of the piece like Jim Dale in Follow That Camel.

I suppose that would make Juliana (Jessica Szohr) the Joan Sims or Barbara Windsor character, but she's much more kick ass than that.

Ed Speleers is great as Jamie and seems to spend a good percentage of the film in quiet resignation or mortal embarrassment. He's sweet and a bit romantic and dependable and totally cannot catch a break. The girl he falls for might be a werewolf, the local police sergeant seems to have it in for him and his mum is a pothead and her B&B only runs because he does most of the work and so it's very easy to love him as a character. He also gets his kit off several times which is very nice eye candy :). (This is a film with equal opportunities nakedness, of which I totally approve.)

The teenager characters in this film are all as stupid as each other, the girls coming off just a little better than the boys, but not by much. This, however, is the point and all the actors pull it off beautifully. The boys especially are idiots, but they're kind of endearing in their own way and have absolutely not concept of what is actually going on (or girls). The scene in the arcade with the dance game is genius and so very, very funny.

Quite possibly the only completely competent character in the whole thing is Juliana, because even Jamie is a bit of a wreck at times, but that's what makes it funny. Jessica Szohr plays her as beautiful, sexy and knowing exactly what she's about and I really liked her.

Timothy Spall is also as good as ever as the bit batty werewolf hunter.

This film made me go 'oh god no' a lot and then laugh really loudly because it was just funny. It's hard to pinpoint why I enjoyed it as much as I did, but I have to admit that I did. I'm actually considering purchasing the blu-ray. When the end arrives it turns out that a rather chaotic plot has actually been put together  really well and makes perfect sense. All the character motivations are spot on and I was impressed because it was well thought out.

I don't think this is an instant classic, but the comic timing is beautiful, the characters actually start to mean something as you watch and the acting is good. I really enjoyed this film, even if I did have to go hide behind my computer screen so I could kind of watch round it because my second hand embarrassment alarm was going off all the time.