The Death That Awaits – review

Director: Richard J. Lee

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

The biggest spoiler would seem to be that this is a vampire film. The IMDb blurb says “A drifter searching for answers to a mystery from her past takes on a job looking after a sick teen who is undergoing a mysterious transformation her family will do anything to stop.” However, the poster (on Tubi) looks clearly either vampire or werewolf (at the transformation start).

More than this, although the V word is never used, it becomes evidently clear that the film is a vampire film very early on. The mystery is more around the drifter, Cassie (Katya Martín), and her past.

So it starts in a darkened house where husband, Reese (Ron Yuan, Night Hunter), is speaking in hush tones to his wife, Angela (Sharon Gardner), about her staying *there* with daughter Nina (Megan Lawless). We see a close low angle of Nina as she comes into the room, asking for mom, blood on her nails.

Cassie and Nina

Cassie is in a rideshare to a very out of the way house with no cell service. She answered an ad and is coming to be the companion to Nina and meets Angela at the house. Nina is ill, she is told, and suffers from night terrors. She is to be her companion through the day but leave and lock the house at night – Angela has promised Nina some autonomy, but she has been known to sleepwalk, hence locking. At night Cassie will use the guest cottage. The first night there is screaming and smashing coming from the main house. Cassie also sees the figure of a man, Jeremy (Cooper Devaney), who seems to glitch into her view – she says not now and he does vanish.

finding a stake

In the morning she enters the house and there has been some damage. She goes to see Nina and a chest falls from above, which Nina catches one-handed before it hits Cassie – in a show of strength. That day Nina has a Doctor’s appointment and her brother, Micah (Tim Gabriel) picks her up for it (Nina wearing dark glasses and covered against the sun). Later we hear that the Doctor is called Dr V (Paul Johansson, Berserker: Hell’s Warrior & Van Helsing) – the name being a tad unsubtle. Cassie cleans and repairs when Nina is out and finds binding ropes and a wooden stake (I said the genre was fairly obvious).

finding Jeremy's journal

So the girls become closer, with Cassie seeming to encourage rule breaking. Jeremy, it turns out, was a friend who had died. For some reason Cassie finds his journal in a secret cupboard in the guest cottage and, whilst answered at the end, this is a significant jolt in the storytelling at the time that feels strange and disjointed. However, it is clear that Cassie knows what is going on with Nina and, whilst the character has more than she is telling going on, it begs a question (unanswered) as to whether the disease of vampirism is a known thing in the world or if the protagonists only know because of personal exposure.

daylight attire

The lore is patchy and, in some areas, underexplored. Mirrors, for instance – we see Nina sat before a mirror and it glitches (a bit like Jeremy glitching into view). This could indicate something around vampiric perception – though she does not appear to be looking at it when it happens. Later she smashes a mirror with her head, off screen, as she couldn’t see herself in it. Sunlight can both weaken and hurt (hence there is an aversion to it) unless fed (it appears), where fire, staking and decapitation kill.

beat the V away

A bite turns (it is claimed) though Nina had bitten Micah without turning him before the start of the film. Nina has been to doctors most all her life, suggesting it is also a congenital condition perhaps. Dr V is trying to cure her by making her act human, forcing sunlight exposure daily, raising body temperature (in the shower), not eating meat (she mentions realising she has bitten the head of a rodent at night when out of control) and literally trying to beat the V out of her – this came across as commenting on real world extreme “cures” (read abuse) for things from sexuality to neurodiversity. It wasn’t perfectly clear but he mentions the danger of drinking the wrong blood and it seems drinking (or having put into the body) vampire blood fully awakens the condition.

Tim Gabriel as Micah

The film relies on the two lead actresses, and they have a chemistry enough to carry their sections. The family dynamics could have done with more expansion and character development – especially Micah, who kind of fell into a villain (and wannabe rapist) mode without enough development to make it anything less than a stereotype. The vampire condition could have done with more background too but overall this was a competent flick and, whilst not perfect, the filmmakers have plenty to build on moving forward. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Interesting Shorts: Nosferatu a Winter’s Tale

Author: Ash Redburn

Artist: Morgan Twiston Davies

First Published: 2024

 

This Cinecrypt comic was backed by myself on Kickstarter and, I have to admit, when it arrived I was slightly taken aback by its brevity (short comic sized, it is essentially a single graphic short story) however, never judge a book by its length. This was a fabulous little read – so long as you allow one conceit to run.

That conceit is there from the beginning. Sister Elizabeth and her horse, Whisper, is traversing the Carpathians to carry food, toys and decorations to villages and is caught in a blizzard. The conceit is that she is blind, with the horse guiding the way, so suspend your disbelief and accept that she would be allowed to take such a journey alone. The horse guides her to shelter, but it is Orlok’s castle and, blind, she cannot see the demonic vampire for what he is.

I won’t go further into the story, but it is dark, really dark and Orlok is splendidly evil. The artwork suits the tale perfectly and adds to the atmosphere. I enjoyed this – it doesn’t seem to be available on the Cinecrypt website yet but, if you get chance, do check it out.

Nosferatu (Cinecrypt Adaptation) – review

I got the Cinecrypt adaptation of Nosferatu as an additional perk with their Kickstarter of a short comic Nosferatu: A Winter’s Tale. The graphic has no publication detail such as publication date, editor etc.

However, it is an excellently put together adaptation, visually beautiful with art lifted from the celluloid. Story-wise it is not entirely film accurate (it glosses over aspects – so, for instance, although we see a Venus Flytrap we don’t see Bulwer’s lecture), but it certainly captures the spirit of the film. There are a couple of moments I want to mention.

Hutter in this is the innocent Hutter of the film and not the greedy, lecherous version that Fisher imagined. I was also struck that in the inn the emphasis for having him stay is most definitely centred on the 'werewolf' (Hutter mentions the Borgo Pass to the innkeeper but not Orlock, the werewolf is still depicted as a hyena). Ellen is often seen as psychically connected to either Hutter (my reading) or Orlock. In this she telepathically tells the vampire to leave Hutter alone and he realises that she can see him over the distance. This further ties with her instinctively knowing she has to sacrifice herself, rather than her reading the Book of the Vampyre to discover this. I was also struck with “Why did you have to kill them”, which references the flowers Hutter brings her as the story opens, becoming a repeated motif. I also thought that it was interesting to bring in Stoker’s physical description (minus the mention of moustache etc) into Hutter’s inner dialogue.

I was very taken with this, visually lovely and spiritually loyal to the film it was well worth getting. 8 out of 10.

Nosferatu – The Real Story – review

Director: Robin Bextor

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

Created, clearly, to cash in on Egger’s soon to be released version of Nosferatu, I have to say that I’d rather have a documentary than a production company like Asylum butchering the character in a low budget film (though that could well happen too). There are a couple of quibbles with this documentary but not too much, if I’m honest. So long as you bear in mind that this was not written and produced for the well-read student of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens and is more an entry level experience.

opening shot

The first irk happened straight away. We get ariel shots of Orava Castle, where the original film was captured. Black and White they are titled as being July 1921. The B&W is too crisp (despite postproduction age lines) and the shots clearly captured by drone. It felt like they were trying to make out that the footage was authentically dated. There is nothing wrong with capturing the castle, such a fabulous location, but wording that made it clear this simulates the time would have worked better (and it's only a small quibble).

Albin Grau 

The film then explores Prana Films, Albin Grau and F W Murnau, the influence of Aleister Crowley, the copywrite issues, and so on. The documentary also looked at Nosferatu the Vampyre the Werner Herzog vehicle. This was quibble number two as the documentary narration (by Ashley Innsdale) suggested it was a sequel – however the talking heads were clear on its provenance as a remake. The talking heads were really good, not too many and knowledgeable on the subject. It did seem strange that the documentary didn’t at least touch on Herzog’s film getting a sequel of sorts in the form of Vampire in Venice.

Stacey Abbott

Other remakes were not touched on, understandably, other than Egger’s and the documentary had little to go on regarding that, other than the trailer. Therefore do not expect any revelations about the new Egger’s vehicle from this particular documentary. Overall this was, as suggested, good entry level Nosferatu studies material. There can, and have, been whole volumes written about the aspects it touched on but such detail would become a barrier for the more casual viewer. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Hellboy: The Crooked Man

Directed by Brian Taylor and released in 2024, this feels like a film to maintain rights to the Hellboy (Jack Kesy, the Strain) franchise but, whilst it gets nowhere near the fabulous first two Hellboy films, it worked better, for me, than Hellboy (2019). This sets itself in the 1950s and locates itself in Apalachia.

It was Leila who mentioned it having a specific vampiric aspect to it – thank you for that – but, before we get to it I should cover the way the film opens; Hellboy and fledgling BRPD field agent Bobbie Jo Song (Adeline Rudolph) are riding a boxcar, transporting a spider that has become possessed. Hellboy starts hearing… something… when the spider suddenly grows to a colossal size and breaks out of its dormancy. Roughly here is where we can see the budget strain as the cgi is not of the highest grade.

Bobbie and Hellboy

Having the boxcar fall off the train, subsequently defeating but then losing the spider, as it escapes into mining tunnels; Hellboy concludes that there is something in both the air and soil that caused the spider to react. That something is the malignant Crooked Man (Martin Bassindale), agent of the devil, a wealthy man who was hung (hence the crooked neck) and now collects souls for the devil, getting a copper coin for each that will, eventually, make him wealthy again. As they explore, they meet Tom Ferrell (Jefferson White) who was seduced by Effie Kolb (Leah McNamara) into dealing with the Crooked Man, ran away and ended up in the army and has returned to set things right. It is with these two that we get the vampirism.

Leah McNamara as Effie

Tom has been told that his mother died when he was away, and his father (Anton Trendafilov) has not been seen for some time. When Effie first confronts Tom, on behalf of the Crooked Man, she is riding a horse and gifts him to Tom, saying he is nearly spent. Tom removes the harness and it reverts back into his (dying) father’s form. So we have some hagriding and with it actual transformation of the victim to horse. The power of transformation is within the enchanted bridle. Hagriding, of course, is a form of energy vampirism. It is a brief moment in film, though at the end of the film we see that Effie has now aged, played old by Svetlana Atanasova. Presumably the defeat of the crooked man (not a spoiler, this prequels the other films) frustrated her ability to use the stolen energy to remain young.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Vampire Lake – review

Director: Daniel Zubiate

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

A micro-budget film there was heart involved, I feel, but it suffers from what I would think was inexperience as much as lack of budget. The story is very simplistic also, at its heart, and so doesn’t necessarily fill the spaces the not overly long running time offers.

It starts with a car in backroads, it stalls and doesn’t restart. The lady driving can’t get signal and so starts walking along the road, eventually able to call someone and ask them to come get her. She continues to walk rather than returning to her car. Someone (unseen) approaches and we get a POV chase and then an off-screen scream. The assailant is clearly the vampire (Addison Foskey) of the title… strangely it is daytime, I say strangely as there is a sunlight rule in this.

Kat and Amy

Charity (Celeste Lee) is at the cabin that belonged to her Grandpa with her friend Tree (Chelcie Sword) and they talk about a recent 'romantic' hookup that Tree had and Charity’s nieces who are coming for the weekend – she hasn’t seen them for a few years. Tree has a gun with her. It is not a great use of Chekov’s Gun as, whilst it is used, it is ineffective and a throwaway moment. The nieces, Amy (MyKayla McCune) and Kat (KayLynda McCune) are driving to the cabin (they are of college age but under age to drink). Amy mentions Kat’s obsession – this will be around the vampire. There is a hitcher (Alan Humphrey) they ignore and he gives them the finger. In honesty he was a pointless character, he does come into it later but is not particularly used effectively. They get to the cabin without real incident.

the group

So, later that night at the firepit Kat tells the myth of the vampire of the lake. Allegedly, if you burn a page of the book of Genesis on the South side of the lake he will appear and have to turn you or kill someone for you – she says she is only interested in discovering the truth but in reality wants the former. She also shows a pendant she got at a vamp-con that will allow a vampire to daywalk and mentions the Vatican’s Book of Salvation – which if you write your name in, in blood, makes it impossible for a vampire to attack you – she happens to have the book. No-one wants to do the 5 mile hike to the lake with her so she sets off alone in the morning.

Addison Foskey as the vampire

So, in shorthand, she summons the vampire successfully, says she wants turning (but he can’t as her name is in the book and needs removing) gives him the pendant (he is stood in the shadow cast by trees and, before the pendent, his hand smokes as it reaches out). She then races home (to get the book or because she realises what she has done) and he goes on a killing spree (mostly off screen) to the cabin. The others, now looking for her, are also on the killing spree list. The vampire displays pyrokinesis and mentions that silver bullets couldn’t harm him (not that the gun had those, and presumably a side effect of the pendent).

a victim

The story is too simple and more characterisation could have been done and, more importantly, more horror and suspense with the killing, the hunting and the hitcher who has been hanging round the cabin and doing nothing until they leave and he breaks in for a shower. The idea that a college (or suspended from college) girl could pitch up at a con and get a real Vatican book (the church connection was not explored) and daywalker pendant took more suspension of disbelief than I could muster. The 4 ladies were personable in the lead roles and I could tell there was heart in it (and some great B roll footage) but that doesn’t save a film. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

A Place Among the Dead

Director: Juliet Landau

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers and a bit of a rant

Back in 2016 Juliet Landau (Buffy the Vampire Slayer & the Yellow Wallpaper) started a crowdsourcing on Indiegogo to fund a vampire documentary called a Place Among the Undead. I was one of the ones who funded this and so, I’m afraid, you are going to get a bit of a potted history of that.

I liked the idea of the documentary, and the campaign page said that many interviews were in the bag. The project seemed to morph after a while, it became a TV series (or probably aimed at a web series, to be honest). Then things went quiet, very quiet. I know that some people got tee-shirts during the campaign but people like me saw nothing (I had opted for a perk of an advance screening for backers and a digital download on release). I realise that crowdfunding comes at a risk to the contributor… but bear with me…

Anne Rice as a talking head

Then, after radio silence for quite some time, Juliet Landau and her partner Deverill Weekes started publicising this film – A Place Among the Dead. Note the subtle title change, not enough to suggest it wasn’t the same project to me, however. In 2020 Deverill direct messaged me via Facebook sending a link to a festival (no actual message just the link). I replied, amongst bumph about a potential clash, “Can I just check whether these would take the place of the perk award ‘Streaming version before it is available for the public purchase’? Also, will the contributor's download be available on the 7th November date?” no reply… no reply, I assume, because this was selling tickets to the screening (not a contributor’s perk). I asked on a few public Facebook fora about the contributors and when they’d get their perks. Never an answer (though for transparency, in the communications listed below I got an apology for not answering and an explanation that they were missed).

Juliet Landau as herself

With the film free to watch on Tubi I thought I’d give it one more go, and in December 2023 I reached out again through the crowdfunding page, asking, “Hi. I've watched the morphed version of this on Tubi now but never, ever received the perks promised (advanced screening and digi download) nor have I received a reply when querying previously. However, I have noticed recent chatter here. Honestly, the radio silence generally is deafening and I would appreciate contact regarding this.” Finally, I got a response via email, signed by Juliette and Dev.

Hi there!
Thank you for reaching out! It is great to hear from you!
The project you watched on Tube is a different project. It is our narrative, scripted, feature film: A PLACE AMONG THE DEAD, which had it had its Worldwide Release October, Friday the 13th!
A lot of our same cast is in the movie.
Our UNDEAD project has evolved and expanded to a phenomenal series now called THE UNDEAD SERIES! (Ed. The series does have its own IMDb page)
Thank you SO MUCH for being a part of making UNDEAD happen!!!!!!!!!!!!
And thank you for your patience!!! It is taking much longer than anticipated but the show is amazing and we could not have done this without you!!!!!!
We'll keep you posted on the UNDEAD release date! And when you’ll get your outstanding perks then!
The series is shaping up so well. We can’t wait for you to see!!!!

in film painting

I was also offered complimentary tickets to a worldwide Q&A, which I politely declined due to time zones. I did, however, respond and suggested that as “There hasn't been a campaign update since 2019. It would be really appreciated, I think, if you sent an update to all the backers, I'm sure they'd all appreciate it.” To date of posting that has not been forthcoming, though they have replied to individual comments on the Indiegogo page (honestly, how hard would it be to send a full update) and one of these replies claims that further footage has been shot. But be that as it may, I have seen the film. It is not the promised documentary, which 12-months after the email exchange, is still not around (I have seen the term mockumentary associated with this film, however) and I do note that the view of the filmmakers is that they are completely separate entities.

a victim

There is synergy, however. Some of those talking head interviews for the original project are obviously lifted into the film. But as for the film itself, in truth it is an uncomfortable mix of these star interviews, police procedural, vanity project, semi-(or perhaps demi-)biopic, and vampire/serial killer film. In the spirit of transparency I will say that, should Juliet or Dev wish to comment on the shape of the documentary and the delays (I do genuinely fear it will never appear, to be honest and would suggest that many of the filmed talking head spots are now out of date), I will gladly give them the platform on this blog to do so and the offer that they can publish a Guest Blog on the crowdsourcing, the genesis of this film and/or the position of the documentary will remain open indefinitely.

interviewing

As it is, however, I cannot really review the film as I would normally. As you can tell I carry a bias due to, what I perceive as, leaving those who supported the original project hanging out to dry – I repeat, how hard would it be to send the backers an email with an update? Not reviewing this in the normal way might be just as well, because the 72 mostly 10* (with a couple of 9*) reviews from IMDb users (all posted between November and December 2020, I assume after a screening) and 5* reviews on Amazon do not reflect what I saw (and, actually, the critic reception was much more mixed and, dare I say it, realistic). The film starts with images of Juliet’s parents, Martin Landau (Without Warning, Ed Wood & Frankenweenie) and Barbara Bain with a dialogue that seems to suggest a systemic psychological abuse of their daughter. This is the semi/demi-biopic element (which recurs through the film in voiceover/stills) and might have been an interesting (non-supernatural) vampiric angle if expanded on – I do not know if the situation and impact was affected for the project or actual reportage. The film main sees Juliet, as herself, preparing to make the documentary with Dev but is soon drawn to Santa Barbara.

Gary Oldman as a talking head

I mentioned the talking heads and the interviews appear to have, in the main, been pulled from the initial work done on the real documentary but, certainly, one with Gary Oldman (Dracula (1992)) does seem to have been recorded for this as he realises Juliet is trying to talk about past events in Santa Barbara and refuses to do so on camera. We then, in patches, get the idea that there were a spate of serial killings there, 15-years before, that somehow Juliet was involved in. Dev and Juliet return just as the killings restart and the main policewoman, Sal (Amy Jennings), is somehow comfortable with them getting involved in the investigation. There is an interview with one of the victim’s mum (Janet Chamberlain) and another with occult shop owner and wise woman, Antonia (Denise Blasor).

taunting messages

Antonia offers a story of a 19th century rogue named Darcel, who murdered a woman to maintain her beauty, was executed and then further killings took place. The inference is that Darcel is both a vampire and a serial killer and is active again. Juliet’s sanity seems to fall down the rabbit hole and, of course, the killer starts playing with her (and probably had some level of contact 15-years before but the film never particularly mentions what her role in the activities 15-years before was). Apparently, he likes to paint canvases featuring his victims and set the paintings to music on video. Honestly though; moments of ‘come in and film this crime scene but don’t touch anything’, crawling down passages in cocktail-lounge-worthy dresses, the whole kit and caboodle really… the story felt off and, as mentioned above, a vanity project. I won’t score, as I say, as I might be lost in my own bias – but it is a vampire film and should appear on TMtV.

The imdb page is here.