Dez Donahue is a struggling young painter trying to make a living. After being dropped by her agent, she meets with her drug dealer Hadrian, who introduces her to a heavy drug called Diablo. She takes a few hits of it, and soon finds herself in a downward spiral and a growing lust for blood.
Tropes featured in this work:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Courtney's attempt to feed from Dezzy ends poorly and on the receiving end of a stake. Dezzy doesn't care much to hear her beg for her life.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dezzy is dead as a result of sunlight, most of the people she knows are dead and the masquerade has probably taken a bit of a hit...but she finished her masterpiece.
- Bungled Suicide: Dez shoots herself in the head, but it doesn't work, since she's a vampire now.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Dez leaves a voicemail for Courtney laden with them.
- Cranky Landlord: Lance doesn't get much screentime, but when he is onscreen, it's to aggressively ask Dez for her rent money as she's two weeks behind on it.
- Creative Sterility: Played with. Dezzy is late in finishing a commissioned piece because she has a massive block. When she becomes a vampire and piles bodies, she gets much better at it.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Tons of them, owed in part due to that vampires don't have fangs. For starters, there's Lance being killed with a paintbrush to the eye, Clive having his head snapped back to the point where he's very nearly decapitated ...
- Cue the Sun: The film ends with Dez finishing her masterpiece as the sun rises ... and she explodes.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dezzy.Nikki: Don't fuck me, Donahue. You know what happens when you fuck me?
Dez: Nobody cums?
(Nikki chuckles) - Depraved Bisexual: Courtney seems to be enjoying herself in her threesome with Dez and Ronnie.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A deleted scene shows that Ronny chased after and tried to kill the vampire that turned Courtney, which suggests that they actually love each other.
- Fan Disservice: Dez spends a good chunk of the movie naked, and while she looks beautiful, it's usually after she's had a few hits and blacked out, or is covered in blood.
- Fingore: Dezzy bites off a guy's fingers and drinks the blood that sprays out.
- Fully-Embraced Fiend: Courtney says that this is the best way to deal with vampirism. It's also but stated she and Ronny are very, very happy with their vampirism.
- Go Out with a Smile: Once she finishes her masterpiece, Dezzy grins and seems to accept her fate as the sun rises.
- Gorn: Most of it's after Dezzy succumbs to her hunger. Her feedings are violent, not to mention that vampires melt into a puddle of flesh after being impaled.
- Horror Hunger: Dezzy finds herself craving blood to horrific degrees.
- Jerkass: Dezzy is not a nice person. Even before becoming a vampire, she's rude, hateful and downright nasty to everyone around her. One fan who interrupts her at the wrong time is chased off with profanity laden insults.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: You'd think Dezzy might have a warmer side under all the vitriol and nastiness? No, she's just a really terrible person before, after and during her vampire transformation. Her sole redeeming quality is that she's genuinely horrified when she realizes that she's killing people and ineffectively tries to tell Clive to fuck off to save him.
- Mad Artist: Zig-zagged, then played straight at the end. While suppressing her increasing thirst, Dez is able to work on her "masterpiece" just fine, though the mound of bodies appears to be at least partly inspired by her victims. By the end, after she kills Courtney, she finishes the painting while screaming at the top of her lungs, with herself atop all the corpses.
- Made of Explodium: Vampires blow up into bloody chunks when they're caught in the sunlight.
- The Masquerade: Courtney implies that one exists, giving a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Dezzy for leaving a trail of dead in her wake, claiming there are 'rules' and Dezzy is violating them. Never mind that she drained a woman in a public bathroom.
- Morality Chain: Clive is the closest thing Dez has to one after she can no longer control her hunger, and she begs him to leave when he shows up at her apartment. He doesn't listen, and she ends up feeding on him.
- Ms. Fanservice: We get plenty glances at Dezzy naked from both sides. However, as noted above, it's almost never under pleasant conditions.
- Not Using the "Z" Word: The closest that happens to it is when Hadrian alludes to The Lost Boys.
- Only Sane Man: Clive is the only one who seems to realize what Dezzy's lifestyle is doing to her by the end. He goes ignored.
- Our Vampires Are Different: For one, the word "vampire" is never used. They have superhuman strength, can eat and drink like a normal human, but don't have fangs, leaving their bites painful and messy, can't be killed unless impaled through the heart, and melt upon death. Drugs serve as an appetite suppressor. Sunlight causes them to explode.
- Sanity Slippage: Dezzy begins lapsing into pure madness and after killing Courtney, she loses it, writhing and cavorting about naked and bloodstained as she paints her final piece.
- Scenery Gorn: Almost every second of the movie is spent in a dingy bar or house, with the exception of David's lavish office.
- Sex Drugs And Rock N Roll: The movie uses it as a framing device. Dez' reckless, hedonistic lifestyle is ultimately what leads to her becoming a vampire. There are also plenty of instances of her going to dingy bars where metal bands are performing.
- Through the Eyes of Madness: For a while, it seems like Dezzy might just be under the influence of Diablo, but that's all done in when she lifts a 200-pound man by the neck with her bare hands and tears into him.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Girlfriend, but Clive is a bit out of shape and rather unkempt while Dezzy is gorgeous.
- Understanding Boyfriend: Clive tries to be this to Dezzy, but her issues with addiction, general shittiness as a human being and the eventual vampirism make it pretty hard.
- Vampire Bites Suck: Mainly on account of them not having fangs. No gentle feedings here, and the victim is conscious and in agony as they're torn into.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Dez and Clive, of the romantic partners variety. Though later on, said vitriol becomes more genuine.
