| Once Bitten | |
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| Directed by | Howard Storm |
| Produced by | Frank Hildebrand Dimitri Villard Robert Wald |
| Written by | Jonathan Roberts David Hines Jeffrey Hause Terence Marsh |
| Starring | Lauren Hutton Jim Carrey Cleavon Little Karen Kopins Megan Mullally |
| Music by | John Du Prez |
| Distributed by | The Samuel Goldwyn Company |
| Release date(s) | November 15, 1985 |
| Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.2 million (estimated) |
| Box office | $10,000,000 (domestic) |
Once Bitten is a 1985 American comedy film starring Lauren Hutton and Jim Carrey. It is a vampire-themed comedy about Mark Kendall (Carrey), an innocent and naive high school student who is seduced in a Hollywood club by a sultry blonde countess (Hutton) who, unknown to him, is really a centuries old vampire. The film was Carrey's seventh film and his first main role.
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For centuries, the Countess has collected a stable of young men and women who will accompany her on her journey through eternal night-and youth. While she is immortal, she is required to drink the blood of a young male virgin three times by Halloween each year in order to keep her youthful appearance - a task she finds extremely difficult since good looking male virgins are almost impossible to find in the 1980s, particularly in hedonistic cities.
Meanwhile, high school student Mark Kendall wants to have sex, but is being put off by his girlfriend Robin. One night, Mark and his friends go into a singles bar in Hollywood. Mark meets the Countess and he goes back to her mansion, and after she seduces him he passes out when she bites his thigh. When he wakes up, she pretends they have had sex and tells him that he is now hers. Mark does not realize what she really means, and over the next few days he begins showing strange behavior; having strange dreams, avoiding direct sunlight and even drinking blood (from raw meat). After the Countess gets a second bite, Robin notices Mark's odd behavior and confronts the Countess during a dance-off at the high school's Halloween dance. While it appears that Robin has won back Mark, this is only temporary. The Countess kidnaps Robin in order to lure Mark to her mansion for a final bite before her deadline expires, and it is up to Robin and Mark's friends to stop her. Eventually, in order to save Mark from the Countess's clutches, he and Robin have sex in a coffin while being chased by the Countess's minions, thereby taking Mark's virginity. This renders him useless to the Countess as she has to drink virgin blood. Defeated, the Countess then begins to grow old and decrepit before their very eyes.
The film received negative reviews from critics with a "rotten" score of 10% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 10 reviews. However, it seems to have gained somewhat of a cult following since Jim Carrey rose to stardom in the mid-90's.
In its opening weekend, the film earned $4,025,657 and went on to earn around $10 million domestically (from a production budget of $3.2 million). The film was a straight-to-video title in many countries.