New film news

Mercy Brown is a fascinating myth and, to my knowledge, before now un-filmed. All that has changed with a very low budget 40 minute effort by Dementia Films, the Last American Vampire, Mercy's Revenge. The synopsis runs “In 1892 in the small village of Exeter, R.I., the entire community we're dying from unknown causes, both young and old were falling victim to this infliction. The only thing they all had in common were bites on their necks. One particular family the Brown family had already lost their wife, young daughter, and the older daughter Mercy at the young age of 19 years old. The whole community was fearful, that this was the work of a Vampire.

“Mr. Brown was about to lose his youngest son so, to make certain that Mercy hadn't turned into a Vampire, they unearthed her grave. They found her body in perfect condition and she had blood dripping from the sides of her mouth. Mr. Brown was informed by his reverend, Reverend Moses, that Mercy was indeed a Vampire and the only way to save his son (and the community) was to drive a stake through Mercy's heart, tear it out and dismember her body. Reluctantly, Mr. Brown did what the Reverend suggested and consequently started the folklore; Mercy Brown was indeed a Vampire.

“100 years later, 1992, 6 college kids from the University of Connecticut are driving to the University of R.I. for a party. Its a cold, rainy night; they could hardly see, but the driver Jason, a cocky jock, tells his friends, that he'll get them their safely. As Jason is driving along, he suddenly notices a young woman in the road; he swerves the car to avoid her and ends up crashing beside a house. Jason and his friends are shaken by what they've seen and are stranded. One of Jason's friends, Mark, decides that they need to get help, so they run through the pouring rain and enter the house. The house is very old and there is no phone, so they decide to stay there until someone comes along and notices their abandoned car. Once inside, one by one, they are being killed; the deceased have bite marks on their necks. Could this be the work of Mercy Brown 100 years later... or is Mercy trying to warn them about what happened to her in order that she might prevent further murder?

You can see a trailer here.

I have mentioned Korean movie Thirst before. It is to get a limited US release from 31st July 2009. Whether it’ll get a UK cinema release is unknown at the time of posting but Metrodome have already secured UK DVD rights.

Coming in at a 133 minutes, Park Chan-wook has eschewed much of the traditional vampire lore purposefully. Film in Focus have a few videos available to watch regarding the film, including Park Chan-wook discussing why he played around with the lore.

Last, but certainly not least, is new film Strigoi. This film looks like an absolute hoot, from the trailer I got the sense of a deliciously black comedy that took a more traditional myth pattern as its basis.

The synopsis runs “Vlad (Catalin Paraschiv) investigates a mysterious death in his grandfather’s village that raises questions about land ownership in the community. The trail points to ex-communist bully Constantin Tirescu and his wife, but when Vlad confronts them, he discovers that the richest landowners in the village have become real bloodsuckers.”

There is a homepage and I have embedded the trailer below: