Once Bitten

In a neon-lit, late-1980s Los Angeles backdrop, the Countess, a 400-year-old vampire, commands a shadowy army of young vampires who accompany her on a centuries-spanning quest for eternal youth. Her immortality hinges on a grim ritual: she must drink the blood of a male virgin three times before Halloween each year. In a city built on excess, virgin prey feels increasingly scarce, pushing her to unleash her minions to scour the streets for a fresh target as Halloween draws near.

The hunt centers on a virgin high school student, Mark Kendall, Jim Carrey, who struggles with the idea of losing his girlfriend, Robin Pierce, Karen Kopins. To turn his luck around, Mark and his best friends, Russ and Jamie, head to a Hollywood singles bar, hoping for a night of luck and a carefree fling. Unbeknownst to them, the Countess’ agents sense Mark’s pure potential and drag him to her mansion where she seduces him and bites his thigh, leaving him unconscious. When he awakens, his memory of the night is wiped clean, and the Countess cleverly convinces him that the encounter was real, even though he insists he has a girlfriend. She preempts any doubts by pressing for another rendezvous before he leaves.

Back at school, Robin overhears Mark describing the encounter to his friends and begins to worry. A chill runs through him as he starts changing: he avoids direct sunlight, drinks blood from raw meat, and dreams of the Countess draining him dry. Despite the strange symptoms, Mark and Robin reconcile, and a trip to her workplace—the clothing store—ends with another unsettling reunion when the Countess appears in the fitting room. After Mark rejects her advances, she bites him again and vanishes.

During the Halloween dance at their school, the Countess crashes the party, and a surreal dance-off ensues between the women and Mark. The Countess leaves defeated, and Mark realizes that something is terribly wrong: he has no reflection in mirrors. Seeking answers, Robin visits a local bookseller and learns a chilling detail about how female vampires drain their victims: by biting the inner thigh to extract blood.

The Countess escalates her plan and abducts Robin to lure Mark to her mansion for the final, decisive bite. Accompanied by Russ and Jamie, Mark infiltrates the mansion, frees Robin, and discovers that the Countess never had sex with him—she only drained his blood. The four teenagers are soon captured, and Mark is strapped to a chair as the Countess prepares a third attempt. A daring breakout follows: Robin, Mark, Russ, and Jamie flee through the labyrinthine house while the Countess’s minions close in. In the chaos, Russ and Jamie are seduced by two of the Countess’s female followers, creating a tense diversion.

They stumble upon a room filled with coffins, where the Countess confronts them. The couple makes a desperate stand, and, in a cruel twist of fate, Mark and Robin end up having sex inside a towering coffin. The Countess, angered and bereft of her “perfect meal,” watches as the clock strikes midnight and she ages rapidly, fading from a youthful beauty into an elderly woman. Her loyal manservant, Sebastian, reassures her that other virgins exist, but the Countess doubts she will find one again. With her power waning, Mark and Robin escape, continuing their defiant bond inside the coffin, while the fate of immortality, and the Countess’s centuries-long hunger, hangs in the balance.

What remains at the heart of the tale is a simple, human connection that outlasts the night: a young couple clinging to each other as the supernatural world collapses around them, discovering that love—and a clean, untainted moment of intimacy—can pierce the cold veneer of immortality. The film blends camp, romance, and suspense in a way that keeps the myth of vampires both familiar and refreshingly cheeky, anchored by memorable performances and a keen sense of 1980s decadence.

Last Updated: November 22, 2025 at 15:58