Metamorphosis

Plot synopsis:
=== Part I ===
One day, Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect (the most common translation of the German description ungeheuer Ungeziefer, literally "monstrous vermin"). He reflects on how dreary life as a traveling salesman is. As he looks at the wall clock, he notices that he has overslept and missed his train for work. He ponders the consequences of this delay. Gregor becomes annoyed at how his boss never accepts excuses or explanations from any of his employees no matter how hard-working they are, displaying an apparent lack of trusting abilities. Gregor's mother knocks on the door, and he answers her. She is concerned for Gregor because he is late for work, which is unorthodox for him. Gregor answers his mother and realizes that his voice has changed, but his answer is short, so his mother does not notice. His sister, Grete, to whom he is very close, then whispers through the door and begs him to open it. He tries to get out of bed but is incapable of moving his body. While trying to move, he finds that his office manager, the chief clerk, has shown up to check on him. He finally rocks his body to the floor and calls out that he will open the door shortly.
Offended by Gregor's delayed response in opening the door, the clerk warns him of the consequences of missing work. He adds that Gregor's recent performance has been unsatisfactory. Gregor disagrees and tells him that he will open the door shortly. Nobody on the other side of the door has understood a single word he had uttered as Gregor's voice has also transformed, and they conclude that he is seriously ill. Finally, Gregor manages to unlock and open the door with his mouth. He apologizes to the office manager for the delay. Horrified by Gregor's appearance, his mother faints, and the manager bolts out of the apartment. Gregor tries to catch up with him, but his father drives him back into the bedroom with a shoe and a rolled magazine. Gregor injures himself squeezing back through the doorway, and his father slams the door shut. Gregor, exhausted, falls asleep.
=== Part II ===
Gregor awakens and sees that someone has put milk and bread in his room. Initially excited, he quickly discovers that he has no taste for milk, once one of his favorites. He settles himself under a couch. The next morning, his sister comes in, sees that he has not touched the milk, and replaces it with rotting food scraps, which Gregor happily eats. This begins a routine in which his sister feeds him and cleans up while he hides under the couch, afraid that his appearance will frighten her. Gregor spends his time listening through the wall to his family members talking. They often discuss the difficult financial situation they find themselves in now and that Gregor can't provide them any help. Gregor had plans of sending Grete to the conservatory to pursue violin lessons, something everyone else – including Grete – considered a dream. His incapability of providing for his family, coupled with his speechlessness, reduces his thought process greatly. Gregor also learns that his mother wants to visit him, but his sister and father will not let her.
Gregor grows more comfortable with his changed body. He begins climbing the walls and ceiling for amusement. Discovering Gregor's new pastime, Grete decides to remove some of the furniture to give Gregor more space. She and her mother begin taking furniture away, but Gregor finds their actions deeply distressing. He tries to save a picture on the wall of a woman wearing a fur hat, fur scarf, and fur muff. Gregor's mother sees him hanging on the wall and passes out. Grete angrily calls out to Gregor – the first time anyone has spoken directly to him since his transformation. Gregor runs out of the room and into the kitchen. He encounters his father, who has just returned home from work. The father throws apples at Gregor, and one of them sinks into a sensitive spot in his back and remains lodged there, paralyzing his movements for a month and damaging him permanently. Gregor manages to get back into his bedroom but is severely injured.
=== Part III ===
One evening, the cleaning lady leaves Gregor's door open while three boarders, whom the family has taken on for additional income, lounge about the living room. Grete has been asked to play the violin for them, and Gregor – who usually takes care to avoid crossing paths with anyone in the flat – creeps out of his bedroom to listen in the midst of his depression and resultant detachment. The boarders, who initially seemed interested in Grete, grow bored with her performance, but Gregor is transfixed by it. One of the boarders spots Gregor, and the rest become alarmed. Gregor's father tries to shove the boarders back into their rooms, but the three men protest and announce that they will move out immediately without paying rent because of the disgusting conditions in the apartment.
Grete, who has by now become tired of taking care of Gregor and is realizing the burden his existence puts on each one in the family, tells her parents they must get rid of Gregor, or they will all be ruined. Her father agrees, wishing Gregor could understand them and would leave of his own accord. Gregor does, in fact, understand and slowly moves back to the bedroom. There, determined to rid his family of his presence, Gregor dies.
Upon discovering Gregor is dead, the family feels a great sense of relief. The father kicks out the boarders and decides to fire the cleaning lady, who has disposed of Gregor's body. The family takes a trolley ride out to the countryside, during which they consider their finances. They decide to move to a smaller apartment to further save money, an act they were unable to carry out in Gregor's presence. During this short trip, Mr. and Mrs. Samsa realize that, in spite of going through hardships which have brought an amount of paleness to her face, Grete appears to have grown up into a pretty and well-figured lady, which leads her parents to think about finding her a husband.

Tags: paranormal

Review:
I liked it, though the story should have been more deepened on the dramatic side.This is not one of the horror films, as it is recommended.
Unlike average vampire movies, this film does not center upon fangs or bloody images.
The main focus of the film is upon character and upon exploring the world beyond death.The film could have had the chance of being a runner-up to Interview with a Vampire, had it benefited from a larger budget, a better technical crew and less commercial appetite.While flawed in many areas (epic, acting, and sound track except the piano part) Metamorphosis is worth watching.
The film presents real human emotions through the surreal world of vampires.
An impossible love doomed to be hunted by vampire slayers.The conflict between the evil vampire (Constantine) and the humane one (Elisabeth) is the most spectacular part of the film.
Lambert is great as Constantine (his lines have really some twisted humor), and makes him fun to watch.
I think Irena also did a good job in saving this film, otherwise a bit poor on acting.The Hungarian and German actors share little screen time but enough to make their characters wholesome.
Not a good idea at all to have them around, they block your getting into the Gothic mood.To sum up, if you have intent for a drama based around vampires, then you will enjoy this film.
Being a big fan of Christopher Lambert and of "traditional" type Vampires, I was delighted to hear a couple of years ago that 'Metamorphosis' was happening.Although the writers of 'Metamorphosis' were enthusiastic to portray an "original" take on Vampirism like most modern movies featuring our fanged friends do, they are still beautiful, genteel ladies and gentlemen and not a street-gang speaking in "cool" Buffy-type slang.Mostly shot in Hungary straight after Lambert's 'Day of Wrath,' Christopher clearly enjoys playing the bad guy here, and gives us a performance that I would describe as Lord Rayden in a nastier mood.
Hoffman is everything you could want in a seductive Vampire, and I look forward to seeing her in other things.
Scenes with her or Lambert as the main focus are certainly the most enjoyable in the movie, as the three American tourists (in real life, one Canadian, and two English) aren't very interesting.Corey Sevier is adequate as Keith, but Jennifer Higham and particularly Charlie Hollway are stuck playing irritating, unfunny characters.The rest of the cast is filled out by some suitable looking Hungarians, and the production is assisted by the use of genuine medieval locations.Metamorphosis is a little light on blood and Vampire action, and struggles a bit to keep it's plot moving, but I enjoyed it..
keeping it short this is one of the worst movies i have ever seen and not so much because the setting/idea, but the actors are really..
REALLY bad they are beyond bad exactly how far i don't really know cause i lost sight of em going over the "line of beyond bad"it could have been a great movie with better casting, the 3 tourists sounds like they have the script straight in front of em and they are just reading directly from it without taking much notice of what it says lambert does a so so effort to play the vampire ill admit that and Irena A Hoffman also did a pretty good job and her character felt a lil more believable (as did lamberts) the starting minute of the movie really made me want more as im a fan of keeping original languages instead of having cheesy accents but boy was i disappointed , this flick is a orgasm of cheesy accents , and the whole..
Let's take a closer look: ACTING - practically non-existent, wooden,amateurish overacting; ACTORS - horrible 1990s choice of actors and characters (three utterly annoying American tourists) and Christopher Lambert.
Yes, that Christopher Lambert, who once was a big star (don't ask me how he ended up in this piece of junk); PLOT - makes little or no sense (not to mention the terrible distortion of historical reality and truth); SETTING - probably the only positive think in the whole film; ENDING - clear and predictable after some 30 minutes into the film; etc.
And Mr. Lambert should fire his agent ASAP and start making decent films again..
When you make an American movie in Hungary with the budget to buy an old car, you get a movie like this one.
Amazingly enough, it starred Christopher Lambert and it also had a little bit of originality in the script.Three things were good in the film: the vampire girl was cute as hell, Cristopher Lambert was funny (also as hell, him being a vampire too, heh) when talking to the German girl and making fun of crosses and bibles and the last was that the "romance" in the movie reminded me of Quest for Glory 4, for which I keep a fondness in my heart.The rest was absolutely wasting time.
Not completely unentertaining, mind you, I could watch it and not feel bad about it.Bottom line: for a low budget film, it was pretty good.
Don't expect action, either, as only editing would make the moves of old Lambert and too young Irena Hoffman look anything but slow.
And did I mention Irena looked sexy and reminded me of the vampire in Quest for Glory 4 ?
In the present days, Keith (Corey Sevier) is writing a book about Countess Elizabeth Bathory and traveling through Hungary with his friends J.J.
Keith and Elizabeth fall in love for each other, and after a car accident, they have a supernatural journey with revelations and fatalities."Metamorphosis" is an original romance through time, space, life, purgatory and death.
I am a fan of vampire movies, and I particularly liked this underrated movie.
Hoffman is extremely beautiful and has an excellent performance in the role of Elizabeth, showing a great chemistry with Corey Sevier.
Unfortunately, the annoying and silly characters of J.J. and Kim irritated me most of the time with their ridiculous lines and plays.
Helo everyone!I rented the movie yesterday to watch the mesmerizing Chirstopher Lambert in this adaptation of Blood Baroness Bathory story, who actually existed, and must say I was bitterly disappointed.First, the moving pictures that I've seen on the screen were in poor quality - not the TV seen, but the photography and cinematography were not what you can expect even in low budget movies as this one.
Alone the camera movement tried to capture the mystery/horror atmosphere of the movie, but lightning was just bad - as made from students that just ended their program.Second, the Characters of the movie were mostly two dimensional, with no ability or possibility in script to give them emotional(human,when we are talking vampires) depth.Don't get me wrong; the work of actors was acceptable, but the Characters were boring.
The only ones that stood out were Lambert as the Bad Guy of the story with his performance, that actually had similarity to his Mortal Combat character, and Hofmann as the Elisabeth (the "good Vampire") because she succeeded to grow over the cliché of seductive vampire woman and let me believe that Elisabeth is truly caring about Keith (played by Sevier, who still has to prove himself as an actor).The FX were OK, but the some scenes were just not working as suspense visual vehicles for the audience(for example, when brother Alexander sticks his javelin trough sister's Chaterine's heart and Hihgham character, and they disintegrate, the J.J, played by Hollway, stands in the Picture and is not afraid but amazed that the scene is actually taking place...?)Really, not funny.You see this in experimental footage of movie students.
The white light of the purgatory works OK, but you can see almost the whole time, that it is not...well, that is fx.OK,enough of bad mood.
Although this film departs from the standard vampire flick cannons, it somehow gives the impression of having been made in a hurry (time shortage due to low budget?!).
It contains good ideas, though insufficiently exploited by the script and rather poorly rendered by the technical team: time freezing in one dimension and going on in another, souled vampires vs.
The film is also too explicit at times: instead of having the characters (J.J. for instance) verbalize situations, the filmmaker should have let the audience discover them themselves, by using close-ups and dramatic music tones.
Otherwise, most of the vampire film ingredients have been used: the historical background, the portrait, the Gothic atmosphere, castles and candles, wolves and owls, some blood and torture, some combat.
The film is worth watching because it's different from the Buffy style and the usual midnight sloppy blood sucking.
Lambert is great as usual playing the role of Constantine Thurzo, a charismatic, witty and sarcastic vampire that is not hampered either by crosses or the Bible.
Young Elisabeth is perhaps the most credible character in the whole film, and I impatiently waited for the scenes where she'd appear, feeling bored by the other three youngsters (undoubtedly some casting mistakes).
Hoffman managed to free her character of any demoniac traits.Young Elisabeth is addicted to killing by default, being herself one of her mother's victims.
All in all I liked this film for its romantic intentions, original open ending, and Irena A.
Please, fire your agent.I won't bother detailing any of the story line, because I fear that some poor soul might decide it was worth watching.
The AV club could have made a better attempt at filming it, in fact.There should be a law against movies this bad.
OK, this is a fairly low budget vampire flick but you might want to check it out.
However, you keep watching due to the amazingly SEXY leading lady who plays the female vampire and love interest.
Things really pick up and it gets rocking though when Christopher Lambert takes the stage as a really rotten chief vampire dude.
Also the effects when a vampire gets killed are pretty cool.
Other than Lambert and the dude playing the Russian jerk the acting is kinda stiff.The bottom line is a mildly entertaining semi farce that might help you waste some time.
While traveling to Hungary for research on a book, a man mets the vampiric daughter of the original Countess Bathory and tries to help her in her quest to destroy the last remaining vampire of a rival clan out to kill her for her mother's crimes.An admittedly decent attempt to mix together a romantic vampire storyline with one about dealing with a dangerous member on the loose, it ends up becoming fairly decent when it gets down to it.
The scenes of the rogue on the loose in the grand castle are a lot of fun, mainly because it's a typically grandiose European-style Gothic castle that employs a fairly enjoyable atmosphere through that, where the vampire is enjoying his time with his victims and verbally toying with them and making comments and gestures so as to encourage them on into a hopeless confrontation, and there's some fun from that to.
When I started to watch this movie and saw that it is mostly a Hungarian production, I thought "Well, it will be pathetic for sure".
And some actors played so terribly that I could only laugh.I stopped laughing when Christopher Lambert appeared.
I really enjoyed his acting, and the character he played.
I think he, and the story was which really saved this movie.
The ending, I must say, was surprisingly good.This movie deserves 6, not more, not less..
Not a bad movie, but acting was a little poor.
This movie isn't too bad, at least the special effects and plot were on par to its competition.
The only sad note about this film is something that plagues many could've been good movies...
bad acting.I don't know how Corey Sevier, the lead male actor, has received so many parts in his acting career; his acting is just plain stale and contrived.
Overall, given it's shortcomings in the acting department, the movie wasn't too bad, though was a bit quirky at points.
If you like vampire films you might want to check this one out, though prep yourself for some B-C grade acting with the leads (Irena Hoffman did much better & hot too!)..
If you pay to rent this film you are deserving of the confusing pile of movie about to be seen.
A better way to spend a Sunday, unless you enjoy the torture of movie like this, is to clean the refrigerator, mow the lawn and watch the neighbors cook on a grill they mysteriously have place on the roof of the house overnight..
Horrible movie and I watched it all what was i thinking.
Well where to start with this one, I felt i had to comment on this movie as another person had given it a fairly good review, that person was blind, deaf and extremely dumb.
Terrible acting, terrible casting, terrible script, terrible effects, terrible pacing hmmmm i hope i haven't left anything out.Being a fan of Christopher Lambert for many years and the B-Grade horror genre I cannot express in words my disappointment with this movie.
My 5 year old son has been in a school play that was better scripted, cast, directed and acted.So why have i totally punked this movie, lets begin.
The actors have no acting ability whatsoever (aside from lambert and Hoffman).
The director must have come straight from law school because the guy has no idea how to make a movie.
As for the whole college student idea yeah doesn't work here.Honestly it was never a good idea to make this film, and it is definitely not a good idea to watch it..
If you don't understand the summary line -- watch this movie.Three young Americans travel through a random part of Hungary, because one of them is rather improbably trying to write a book about the Bathory legend.
The story quickly degenerates from here, especially once Christopher Lambert makes a surprise comeback appearance.As the blurb on the back of the DVD says: full of twists.
Too bad they're either incomprehensible, or just blatantly obvious.This film leaves the audience in Purgatory..
It was $3.I went home and printed the box art work and chapters sheet out and watch it last night.There's no one really in it though that I recognized.The film is very quite odd but I enjoyed it.
The main evil vampire (Christopher Lambert) is very witty and charming.The film isn't that gory or profane (like most teenager and vampire films), it's just suspenseful.
I'm not sure why most people hate this.It is a bit confusing and the ending is kind of odd, but I think it was worth $3..
Not Bad. The most interesting thing about this film besides Christopher Lambert (the evil vampire Constantine Thurzo) , who really seems to enjoying himself hamming it up, and the incredibly beautiful vampire Elizabeth (Irena Hoffman),is how religion plays a huge role in this film the concepts of "Purgatory" and the "Creator" (things you never find in a vampire film (unless it involves killing them)).
Here you see Elizabeth with a Cross on, and can go out in sunlight (two things that are generally fatal to vampires).
Spoilers ahead: I know a big flaw is how Keith (Corey Sevier) get impaled prior to going to purgatory, but when he returns, there is no ripped clothing.
But I think you can blame this on this being a low budget film.
The biggest problem were Keith's friends Kim & JJ who bring nothing to the table, and were essentially useless to the film, and the fact it did not know if it was serious or a comedy.
I basically give it a 5 because of Lambert, Irena Hoffman, and a different idea on the positive side, versus the big flaw, Kim & JJ, and poor execution of the great idea..
This is one of the worst vampire films I have ever seen.
WHY did Christopher Lambert's character (who was British) call Elizabeth Bathory's daughter a tourist while they were IN Hungary?
He's the sort of character that is frowned upon in role playing games for being uncreative and contrived.The more you think about it, the less sense the film made and it over explained simple things like the term clinically dead.
This felt like a Syfy original movie, that's how bad it was.
On the list of bad vampire movies this goes up there with the Twilight films, Dracula 3000, Queen of the damned and the Fright Night remake, just bad.This was so bad I was tempted to shut it off many times while watching it.
I mean hero never questions this or even considers that it might have been wrong to kill innocent people just because of who they were related to or are we just supposed to assume that everyone in Christopher Lambert's character's blood line is evil by default?
This film is so bad that not only are the heroes utterly questionable (But apparently it doesn't matter because they're in "lub" yes, I said lub instead of love there) and the Gary Stu completely sympathizes with the poor, misunderstood Blood Countess but also no one working on this film seemed to care about what they were doing.When the main character wakes up from purgatory (now turned a vampire because he spent too much time in the realm between life and death and would have died completely if he wasn't turned) he was impaled but somehow there was no bloody hole in his jacket.
(He'd have been all right if he had just returned to his body in time but he took too long so she made him a vampire to save him...) If this was a plot in a role playing game I was taking part in I'd have called the person who came up with it stupid.If you want an interesting vampire romance just go watch Bram Stoker's Dracula.