The Night Eternal – review

Authors: Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

Release date: 2011

Contains spoilers

The blurb: The nail-biting vampire thriller from the world-famous director of Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy.

The night belongs to them, and it will be a night eternal…

After the blasts, it was all over. Nuclear Winter has settled upon the earth. Except for one hour of sunlight a day, the whole world is plunged into darkness. It is a near-perfect environment for vampires. They have won. It is their time.

Almost every single man, woman and child has been enslaved in vast camps across the globe. Like animals, they are farmed, harvested for the sick pleasure of the Master Race.

Almost, but not all. Somewhere out there, hiding for their lives, is a desperate network of free humans, continuing the seemingly hopeless resistance. Everyday people, with no other options – among them Dr Ephraim Goodweather, his son Zack, the veteran exterminator Vasily, and former gangbanger Gus.

To be free, they need a miracle, they need divine intervention. But Salvation can be a twisted game – one in which they may be played like pawns in a battle of Good and Evil. And at what cost…?

The review: So, first there was The Strain, which I rather enjoyed. Cinematic in its construction, hardly surprising with the great director del Toro involved, with a CSI-vampire vibe. Then came The Fall. Running perhaps that tad better than the first book it was an excellent read.

Now we have had The Night Eternal, the wrap up of the series and… well… this is going to spoil the first two books so look away if you haven’t read them yet…

…At the end of book two the Master, the über-vampire controlling the apocalyptic outbreak, detonated nuclear power stations that had been built over the birth places of the other ancient vampires, consigning them to dust, and all their broods too as they are all symbiotically reliant on the first from their line.

It is two-years on and the world is enslaved, bar Britain (which was a cool if odd throw-away), the nuclear winter has caused sunlight to be limited to just two hours per day and the only thorn in the Master’s plan is the resistance (made up of the rather flawed characters from the first two books) who happen to have a sacred text that might be able to reveal the masters birth place, something he himself does not know, and thus allow them to do unto him, what he did to his brothers.

There was, of course, an underlying mythology to the first two books that strayed from the scientific. If it strayed then this has diverted. We discover that an angel went rogue at Sodom and Gomorrah, drank the blood of humans and then another angel. God had the angels chop him up and bury his body parts – and it is from these that the blood worms emerged and birthed the ancients and it is those parts being destroyed at the birthing sites. We shifted from a supernatural element to a full on theology and I have heard a lot of folks complain about this.

I suppose it does take some getting used to. Especially when, the once very scientific and now strung out junkie, Eph starts having divine inspired visions. However I could live with it. But…

There is no other way to describe it, the book was a slog. Perhaps I was in the wrong mood? It’s possible, but it was an effort to make myself persevere and I can’t really tell you why, just that it was. It wasn’t as though I didn’t actually enjoy the book when I was reading it, but put it down and I was reluctant to pick it up again.

This has left me feeling disappointed with the book, but I don’t know exactly why. However it is a book you’ll want to read if you have read book 1 and 2.

5 out of 10.

Damn Nation – review

Story: Andrew Cosby

Art: J Alexander

Release date: 2005

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: The United States is locked down against a terrible threat. However, the barbed wire and border patrols aren’t there to keep an enemy out, but to protect the rest of the world from a devastating plague that’s transformed the nation’s populace into bloodthirsty nocturnal predators.

This land is their land… …from sea to shining sea.

Now, a team of scientists trapped somewhere outside of Buffalo claims to have found a cure, and it’s up to a Special Ops unit sent from the President’s current headquarters in London to retrieve it. Little do they know, not everyone wants to see America back on its feet.

From writer Andrew Crosby, creator of UPN’s Haunted and the Sci-fi network original series Eureka, and Eisner-award nominated artist J. Alexander comes a vampire thriller with surprises under every manhole cover, and the dark truth that not all monsters fear sunlight.

The review: Some blurbs are rubbish but this one actually takes the entire need to describe any of the story found within this graphic novel. A recommendation from Halek, this is another post-apocalyptic vampire story. However this is unusual in that the outbreak has been contained in the US and so the other Nations are still up and running.

After a brief prologue, sourcing the outbreaks origins, we follow the Black Ops run into the country, to rescue scientists who claim they have the cure. The blurb actually spoils the twist, I think, but it wasn’t one that you’d not see coming anyway.

We actually see little in depth with regards the vampires. Sporadic, violent attacks occur from twilight. UV rays attack the virus and so they emerge not when it is dark but when the sun is down. They are violent, driven, feral creatures.

The artwork is superb throughout with J Alexander really capturing a mood. However, my main gripe is the story, not in what is there but in what is missing. The book is thin; it felt we had just moved into a vast arena when it was all over. Clearly it was aiming for a sequel (the virus is mutating) but it could also have put some extra padding through the story we got as well. The brevity of the book keeps the score down but it was still worth a read. 5.5 out of 10.

Ninjas vs Vampires – review

Director: Justin Timpane

Release date: 2010

Contains spoilers

Sometimes a low budget film has heart, it might not be the best film in the world but you can see that the filmmakers enjoyed what they were doing. Ninjas vs Vampires is like that, it does much wrong, some right but has a big old beating heart at its centre.

This is the sequel to Ninjas vs Zombies and, I must admit, I have not (as of the date of this review) seen that film. More regarding the ninja’s characters, how they became ninjas and other background is likely in that film. I am also aware that it was at the end of that film that one of the ninjas’ number, Lily (Carla Okouchi), was turned into a vampire (probably enough for an honourable mention in the future).That said, this lack of viewer knowledge did not trip the film up.

Aaron and Alex

After credits showing a vampire attack we meet Aaron (Jay Saunders) and Alex (Devon Marie Burt). He is messing with a video camera and they have been best friends for years. He asks her to be his girlfriend… and crashes and burns. His hurt is short lived, however, as then they are attacked by vampires. Just as it seems the end is nigh, ninjas appear and kick vampire butt.

staked

The first complaint comes in here. There was way too much reliance on cgi for blood and vampiric demise – especially as it looked cheap and nasty, but never mind. The ninjas kill all the vampires and one of their number, Ann (Melissa McConnell), who happens to be a witch teleports the ninjas and Alex out of there leaving Aaron down for the count.

Carla Okouchi as Lily

Why leave him behind? Plot expediency (and the excuse that there has never been more than one survivor before). Anyway, he goes to Alex’s home and she is there but has no memory of events past the point when he asked her out and, it transpires, cannot retain the idea of vampires in her head (this leads to some on-running gags). Aaron goes to his friend Reefer (Justin Timpane) who offers him a clue to the truth. He should go to the comic book store and watch the guy in there, Cole (Cory Okouchi). Aaron follows him and sees him with Lily and Ann. He is approached by Kyle (Daniel Ross, Mrs Amworth), and thinks Kyle is a delivery guy – when in fact he is the fourth ninja.

training

Aaron is caught, but leaves a panic stricken voice mail for Alex. They try and question him and realise that he cannot have his memory wiped. Alex turns up at their base, due to the voice mail, and Ann makes the decision, against Cole’s order, to turn Aaron into a ninja (this is an occult act and yet he then has to have weapon training, one would have thought the skills would have magically appeared in his head). Unfortunately the vampires, led by Seth (Kurt Skarstedt), are about to declare war.

bad sunlight fx

The vampires drink blood and fry in sunlight – but can wander about in daylight by the use of judiciously held blankets. Their headquarters has magic glass (which is a 1000 years old but looks like modern glazing!) that prevents them frying during the day. Ann has a pendant that Seth wants as it will make him invincible and truly immortal. Staking and chopping their heads off seem fairly good ways to kill vampires. They need inviting in, unless a vampire lives in the house, and take the memories and powers of their victims. Lily is weaker than other vampires as she does not drink human blood.

Maximillian and the Bishop

I have mentioned bad CGI. Dialogue-wise the filmmakers clearly tried to go in a Kevin Smith type of direction. This works for the ninjas, who seemed comfortable in their roles. However, if the acting was good on that side of the house, the vampires were pretty universally badly acted. The budget limitations are all around, in the cgi, in the day for night shots and in the costuming. One masked vampire, the Bishop (P.J. Megaw), looked okay. However the post-apocalyptic roman look for vampire Maximillian (Will Stendeback) looked awful, cheap, silly and plastic – the acting was pretty dire in that case as well.

Jay Saunders as Aaron

Despite the problems, however, as I said at the beginning the film had real heart. Jay Saunders has a wonderfully expressive face and the dream sequences he was given were genuinely funny. I think 4 out of 10 is on the generous side but the big ol’ heart deserves it. The imdb page is here.

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf – review

Director: Eric Bross

Release date: 2010

Contains spoilers

This was a 2010 film that aired in the UK in 2011 and was made for Nickelodeon. As such it was a kid’s flick and relied on the famous ‘the boy who cried wolf’ storyline (though in this case, even if he had never cried werewolf (or more accurately monster) I doubt he’d have been listened to, but never mind).

Victoria Justice as Jordan

It starts off with Jordan (Victoria Justice) struggling into her house (which is for sale) with her bags of groceries. The lights in the house are out and, grabbing a torch, she heads down to the breakers. Once there she is accosted by her little brother Hunter (Chase Ellison) in a monster mask. He takes her photo as she screams – it is a typical Hunter prank. Jordan has invited neighbour Ms Carlsberg (Anna Galvin, Blood Ties) to dinner as an attempt to get her dad, David (Matt Winston), dating again. A further prank from Hunter puts paid to that.

brooke shields as Madame Varcolac

So, we have Jordan the ugly duckling (as it were) trying to act as woman of the household, Dad struggling to make ends meet and Hunter missing his mother more than he perhaps says. Then they get a document and letter left with them to tell them that Uncle Dragomir (who they had not heard of), over in Wolfsberg, Romania, has died and they are set to inherit his estate, including his castle – so it is off to Romania and into the care of housekeeper Madame Varcolac (Brooke Shields).

Jordan's eyes change

Jordan meets a boy – Goran (Steven Grayhm) – the only trouble is that he is a butcher and she is a vegetarian. David meets realtor Paulina (Brooke D'Orsay), who is saccharine sweet and looking to get him to sell the castle. When the internet router goes down Hunter and Jordan find a secret lab and, due to some messing around by hunter, a vial of blood is smashed and Jordan steps on the broken glass. The blood is from a lycanthrope and Jordan is infected.

the wolf

Hunter searches for a cure and Jordan starts eating meat, loses her allergies and becomes athletic and sassy. He discovers that she has to be cured before the end of the first full moon or she will be stuck as a werewolf forever. They find an ally in Madame Varcolac, who tells them that, as well as a scientist and the inventor of karaoke, Dragomir was a werewolf.

Paulina Vamps

They also discover that Paulina is a vampire and is trying to get the castle for herself. A thousand years before the vampires had tried to take over the world but Dragomir had defeated them with an army of werewolves – the battle taking place on the site where the castle was built. Paulina wants to take the castle and then the world. Will Hunter get his dad to believe him?

caught in the sun

In this the vampires are definitely evil and the werewolves good (and Britney Spears is a werewolf too). However the vampires are also drawn in quite a bungling, comic way. We discover little about them. There is a suggestion of garlic allergy and we see that they burn up in sunlight. Of course Varcolac is a variant name for a Romanian revenant but Madame Varcolac is not one of these.

The film was okay, from an adult perspective, it was fun to see Brooke Shields in her stern Romanian governess role but it was all way too predictable. However I am sure that the target audience will get a kick out of it. Unusually the werewolf effects were quite well done. We could have done with more vampires though. The score takes into account the target audience, 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Renfield the undead – review

Director: Bob Willems

Release date: 2010

contains spoilers

I saw this at the 2010 Bram Stoker International Film Festival and really didn’t like it. Put on as the last film on one of the nights, the filmmakers had given a new cut to the organisers and it just went on and on. By the end I reckoned it needed about an hour shaved off.

From what I can tell the DVD edit seems to have half an hour shaved off but it is still too long, too ponderous. The trouble is that it is the flashback material, referencing loosely Bram Stoker’s Dracula, that could actually be easily cut and, unfortunately, that contains some of the most interesting stuff – if a rather unconvincing Van Helsing (K.R. Kretz).

resurrect the master...

The film is bookended by a woman in a bar being picked up by a man, who can read thoughts, going to his and her picking up the comic book of Renfield the Undead. The contents are therefore the film. It begins with a rather unconvincing puppet (or so it looked to me) suggesting that the way to bring the house of Dracul back to power would be to resurrect the master. The trouble is, where are his remains? Bayou City, USA perhaps.

Roxy Hixon as Mina

A couple are out, getting ready to make out on the blanket, on the ground – not to go getting all country on you. They fail to spot the vampire, Quincy Harker (Tyler Tackett), crawling all over the roof of their car until he engages them, tossing the man (Andrew Peacock) aside and attacking the woman. The man, for his trouble, is attacked by Mina Harker (Roxy Hixon). Yes this is Mina from Dracula and her son Quincy, Later we hear that Jonathon (Andrew Adams) left Mina when it became apparent that Quincy was part vampire. Mina refers to Count Dracula (John Stevens) as Quincy’s father.

Cranston puzzling over the crimes

Cranston (Paul Damon) is a Brit working homicide in Bayou City, for some reason. He has a violent phobia of bugs and the city seems to have been crawling with them recently. He is the lead on the Bayou City Butcher case – a serial killer in their midst. This is one of the things I disliked about the film… location. Cranston’s office looked like a converted living room rather than a cop’s office (and, to be ultra-picky, the whiteboard misspelled exsanguination). Cranston’s partner Landon (Calvin Lafiton) has a theory that perhaps the murders and the bug infestation are connected.

Renfield attacks

Out in the city a man picks up a whore. They go down an alley and, after some rapid head, she is about to leave and he tries to rape her. She stabs him, but is chanced upon by Renfield (Phil Nichols), now a vampire and still quite mad. He chows down on the woman and then takes her head… he is the Bayou City Butcher. The makeup re Renfield actually grew on me, whilst it looked fairly false at first it had a comic book quality to it and I liked the Nosferatu-esque quality.

autopsy on the Captain

The last main character to meet is pathologist (and friend of Cranston) Dr Bonnie Johnson (Keli Wolfe). When we meet her she is carrying out an autopsy on a Captain Max Schreck (Patrick Slagle) – yeah, I know, a reference too far. He has throat injuries, rope marks where he lashed himself to the wheel of a ship, a crucifix still in his hand and has been drained of blood. Bonnie suggests it’s like something out of a vampire story (but somehow hasn’t made the same observation with regards the Butcher, as the suposition of the Butcher being a vampire is never mentioned before vampirism being revealed to the cops). Why this scene? I don’t know, it really didn’t work so well as it seemed superfluous referencing of the Demeter scene from the source novel.

fly form vampire

(Still rather too) long story short. Renfield has Dracula’s remains, Mina and Quincy want to resurrect him and Renfield takes a shine to Bonnie. The flashbacks to what happened to Renfield through the Stoker story (which was still published in this universe) are the most interesting points. Renfield seems to have a bug aspect to his vampirism. One of his victims turns into a bug vampire and he is knocked out by an injection of bug killing chemicals.

John Stevens as Dracula

Most of the acting was, at best, average – though Nichols did have a whale of a time as Renfield and nailed the madness aspect of the character. The worst thing about the film is, however, the length. It still needs cutting down and tightening up through the editing process. That said, I enjoyed this more than I did last year and the score has risen up to 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Umbrage: the first Vampire – revisited

I reviewed Umbrage some time ago, from a screener, but the UK DVD is now available and I decided it was worth a revisit. Why? Well, for one thing I felt there might have been some editing differences – albeit small ones they might affect the film, which in turn might affect my score.

Honestly, I am not sure if there were any edit changes but it certainly felt tighter than when I first saw the film. There are still issues within there and I stand by a lot of the comments made in the original review. However I found myself feeling that the score I gave the film was a little on the low side. As such I have decided that the score should actually be 6.5 out of 10.

I will also say that Umbrage has proven to be a popular film with regard correspondence, with several people emailing me with questions about the film prior to its distributed release. This had, I feel, mush to do with Doug Bradley’s presence in film and I do hope those correspondents have now had chance to see the film and hope they enjoyed the experience.

Pun mesec nad Beogradom – review

Director: Dragan Kresoja

Release date: 1993

Contains spoilers

The title translates to Full Moon Over Belgrade and this was a film produced in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as was. It certainly is a rarity and is an example of a vampire being used allegorically as the film is (not subtly) an anti-war film and one wonders if the vampires are real or, indeed, who the true vampires are.

The film begins with bums in a night time street, walking past whores. A Rolls Royce pulls up a woman looks at the men. It seems she selects them all and takes them all with her but it is just the fantasy of one of them. Eventually they come to a club where a band plays. As we look at the band we realise that the bums are all band members and they watch themselves. This was actually the Serbian band Piloti and cut is called on a video. Aleksa (Dragan Bjelogrlic) was watching the shoot and leaves. One of the bums offers him a drink that he refuses. The fact that the bums watch themselves perform on a stage, the bums part of the video and yet somehow separate to the band, underlines the surreality of the film and the concept that nothing is what it seems.

Djordje and Aleksa

Aleksa works on an occult/new age type magazine but he is aiming to get a scholarship and move to England. He and his friend Djordje (Nebojsa Bakocevic) attend the funeral of Milorad (Slobodan Ninkovic), a young man who had worked on the magazine with them until he was drafted into the army. It is a military funeral though it is said that Milorad had no blood left in him. Djordje suggests that Aleksa asks for a transfer to the night shift as he is more likely to be picked up by the military as a draftee if he works days. He asks for the transfer.

in the library

The first night he is working with Djordje and a woman called Madam Kosara (Ruzica Sokic). She is an eccentric who only works nights. It is suggested that Djordje has been working on the voncimer, her library, cataloguing the books therein. When Aleksa’s father is made redundant Aleksa goes to see his girlfriend, whom he hasn’t visited for a month, as his father has signed Aleksa’s draft papers. He asks her for a place to stay but she has a new boyfriend. At work he discovers that Djordje has been mobilised – in other words taken by the military police. He is enticed to stay with Kosara by being shown a supposedly missing book that forms part of her library.

in a tine coffin

Of course, things get weirder and weirder. He starts to see Milorad who tells him to run away from Kosara. Milorad states that he is a vampire now but can only come to Aleksa in his dreams as he was buried in a tin coffin – something that prevents him physically rising. Later Djordje is brought back for buriel. He is in a tin coffin also, and the view-plate lets us see that he has fang marks on his neck. He too starts to visit Aleksa’s dreams.

a light nibble

Ultimately the vampires (as well as Kosara there is her husband Alimpije (Rade Markovic)) are representative of the state, forcing young men to spill their blood on the battlefield, destroying dreams through wars. The ending of the film is incredibly dour but getting there is a surreal journey that includes a party of the dead and Kosara selling off goods to survive.

On odd film, but fascinating – offering a glimpse of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia through the eyes of protest. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Blood and Bone China

There are times when something appears online that is both astounding, beautiful and free. Kudos to director Chris Stone who, over 2011, brought the Victorian Gothic back to the vampire genre in the sublime Blood and Bone China. Now that all 12 episodes are available online (with a completely re-shot episode 1) I felt it time for an honourable mention.

Richard in trouble

The series is set in Stoke-on-Trent in the year 1897 (yes, the year that Bram Stoker first published Dracula) and Stone manages to recreate that Victorian setting incredibly well. It begins with Stoke doctor Richard Howell (Simon Hooson). He writes to someone, telling them of disturbing discoveries he has made. He fears that his letters are being intercepted and so begs his correspondent to meet him at the place they first met. He stands in a street when a woman approaches him, later revealed to be Victoria (Lara de-Leuw). At first she solicits him and then, when the tactic fails, she eye mojos him. He manages to break free from her spell as she tries to bite him.

blood at mouth

He runs, pursued, until he passes through a tunnel and sees, ahead, a figure. He shouts a warning but the figure is another vampire (Ryan Callaghan) and Richard is trapped. Over in rural Buxton, Richard’s brother Newlyn (Anthony Miles) is a vet, and not a particularly good one. When we meet him he is pitting his wits against a rather tenacious border terrier, and coming off second best. He is approached by a man, later revealed to be Alexander Pyre (John James Woodward), who has come to tell him of Richard’s death.

John James Woodward as Pyre

When details are offered, Pyre cannot say that Richard is dead – for certain – as no body has ever been found. He is one of many in Stoke who has disappeared without a trace. Newlyn agrees to go to Stoke but to find his brother, not investigate his death. When they reach Richard’s home, the door is ajar. They go in and explore the property and Newlyn is accosted by a large book judiciously applied to his head. His assailant is Anna Fitzgerald (Rachel Shenton), who is a reporter for the Sentinel (she writes under a male pseudonym). It was to her that Richard had written.

Hemlock and Anna

Pyre shows her a package containing a bone china tea set, the thing that was recovered from Richard’s attack. Some of the set is broken and much blood-stained, but Anna recognises it as Hemlock China. It is a particularly fine and cheap china made by recluse Linus Hemlock (David Lemberg, who was also in the video for Moonlight by Lesbian Bed Death). He has a weekly gathering of the Stoke elite and Newlyn is encouraged to attend as the “new doctor” with Anna accompanying him as his wife.

bathing in blood

Of course we have already seen that there are vampires about and they are, indeed, associated with Hemlock China. Victoria is revealed to be Hemlock’s lover. We also see her bathing in blood in the first episode and she attacks Anna and Newlyn – causing Pyre to reveal himself as both Newlyn’s long lost uncle and a professional vampire hunter. Tracking vampire activity along the canals brought him to Stoke.

vampire attack

The vampires are controlled by their creator – unless the creator happens to set them free and, when controlling them, their eyes become entirely black. Sunlight, presumably, has an effect but we do not see it in action. Silver (in the form of a plated stick sword and silver bullets) are effective against the undead. There is some suggestion of crosses warding the undead but the absolute effectiveness is not revealed. Not every victim who is turned (rather than disposed of) survives the turning process.

strange death

Of course, a stake through the heart will kill a vampire and there is an incorporation of an actual true story, about a man dying due to his anti-vampire precautions.

Blood and Bone China is the best vampire orientated web serial that I have seen. I have no hesitation in saying that. Professionally shot, edited, costumed and performed, my only question to Chris Stone is when is he going to make it available to buy on DVD, cut into a feature?

The imdb page is here and the homepage is here.

Vamp or Not? The Fades

The Fades was a BBC series that I was told I should see and was, luckily enough, able to catch up with. Let me start off by saying that this was, on the surface, a ghost series but these ghosts had a pedigree going back to some fine Euro-horror – whether the writers knew it or not. It was directed by Farren Blackburn and first aired in 2011 (there was an unaired pilot dated from 2010).

It follows the fortunes of protagonist Paul (Iain De Caestecker, the Little Vampire) Abandoned by his father, undergoing therapy and detested by his twin sister Anna (Lily Loveless). He and his best friend Mac (Daniel Kaluuya) are the school geeks but it is their odd quirkiness that actually carries the series, in its early part.

Iain De Caestecker as Paul

The first episode sees them in an abandoned shopping centre at night when a woman called Sarah (Natalie Dormer) is attacked and murdered by a creature and her companion Neil (Johnny Harris) takes a pot shot at Paul. Sarah and Neil are Angelics, humans with powers above and beyond normal humans – for instance Sarah is a seer and another Angelic Helen (Daniela Nardini) can heal the injured. All Angelics can see the fades.

a soul ascends

The fades are souls of the dead that are earthbound. There are certain points on the earth known as Ascension points, places in nature where the souls of the dead can ascend (to whatever lies beyond death). The trouble is that many ascension points have been lost due to urbanisation and over recent years some of the dead simply do not ascend. Earthbound and aging in spirit form, burned by the touch of the living and unseen by all bar Angelics they become bitter towards the living.

he wasn't expecting that

However, because they have no substance they cannot interact physically with the world and so the fact that one is able to kill Sarah is worrying to say the least. Needless to say, Paul discovers that he is an Angelic and, indeed, not just an Angelic but an über-Angelic. As things progress he discovers that he has healing powers, he dreams the future and he also sprouts wings (at the end of a vigorous teenage solo activity, as it happens!)

John reborn

They discover that the fades are eating the flesh of the living and this is giving them the ability to touch the physical world. The main fade is John (Joe Dempsie), a man who died in the Second World War. We see him cocoon eventually and when he emerges he is reborn whole. Indeed, better than whole as he discovers he is now immortal. However the reborn fades cannot eat human food and must eat human flesh and drink human blood, they are filled with a ravenous hunger. John hatches a plot for fade domination.

blood transmuting spirit to flesh

When we hear about how he accidentally became physical again we discover it is when his wife, whom he had silently watched for decades, contracted cancer and killed herself. John sat below her slashed wrist not wanting to move, whilst the blood spilt on him and burned him and, where it burned, he developed new tactile skin. This puts me in mind of the film La Vendetta di Lady Morgan, where ghosts drank blood to manifest physically. Also, for the best Euro-horror example of vampiric ghosts, you need to check out Castle of Blood.

a reborn fade is killed

So, what we end up with are truly immortal creatures (though no one tries dismemberment as a killing method) that became physically whole and young again through drinking blood and eating flesh. They are filled with hunger and become weak when starved. When in fade form their teeth seem to become sharp, though they return to normal when they are reborn. The Z word is mentioned in series and dismissed, and honestly they are too darn sentient for that label. Paul discovers he is able to destroy them and they burn up and explode.

Whilst the filmmakers may not have been aiming for it, they did create something that I would say is vampire genre. It was also a good watch thanks, as much as anything, to the performances of Daniel Kaluuya and Iain De Caestecker. The imdb page is here.

Vamperifica – review

Director: Bruce Ornstein

Release date: 2011

Contains spoilers

I often caveat horror/comedy films – and will do so again – with the observation that comedy is difficult to review as what one person finds funny another person may not. However, when we saw Vamperifica at the 2011 Bram Stoker International Film Festival the film certainly wowed the festival. Not only did the organisers award the movie best horror/comedy film but the audience also voted it as best film of the festival.

To the film’s further credit I found myself enjoying the film even more when I re-watched it for this review.

fangs

It starts with a quick potted history of the vampires in this film. The vampires, some two hundred years ago, were hunted by the church and had become a dejected race. Then one vampire, Raven (Darwin Shaw), rose up and turned the tide. He slaughtered humans until he eventually faced a warrior priest in battle. He defeated the priest but was mortally wounded. He prophesised that his soul would return, reborn as a human, and tasked the vampires Campbell (Creighton James) and Emily (Bonnie Swencionis) to find him and turn him. With his death the vampires were dejected and the race, now, stands at the brink of extinction.

Martin Yurkovic as Carmen

Then the film plays “Barbie Girl” as we meet our protagonist Carmen (Martin Yurkovic) and his best friend Tracey (Dreama Walker). They are in a diner arguing over the merits, or from Tracey’s point of view lack of them, of the ‘c’ word. They ask waitress Maria (Maria-Christina Oliveras) her thoughts on the subject, provoking her ire and causing Carmen to leave her a tip consisting of a note that says “F*ck you”. As they leave they arrange to meet in the park the next day – after Carmen has an interview for a stage role he auditioned for. They don’t notice Campbell and Emily watching them.

dream of Raven

The interview does not go exactly the way that Carmen envisioned it, with the director Josh (Josh Alexander) suggesting that Carmen can’t act and refusing him a role. Once out of the interview he is approached by Campbell but has little time to listen to the stranger who has approached him. But, when sat in the park with Tracey, he notices that Campbell and Emily are stood close by. Suddenly Tracey and Carmen jump, dropping their coffees, when Peter (Jeff Ward) sneaks up on them. He is a friend from school who has just returned from college. Later, when we see Carmen dream, we see the three as kids, we see Tracey defending her friend and then the dream turns to one of Raven feeding causing Carmen to bolt awake, believe he sees a shape in his room (Campbell and Emily who quickly vanish off) and sit up all night holding a baseball bat.

Campbell and Emily

Of course the two vampires stalk Carmen and then turn him but they want him to leave his human friends behind (and Emily becomes jealous of Tracey, as she was Raven’s lover). Carmen, for his part, starts murdering anyone he had a problem with and his sloppiness – leaving bodies behind – cause Campbell, particularly, to wonder if turning him was the right thing to do. However it is within the character of Carmen – and the excellent performance by Martin Yurkovic – that the source of the comedy is found. Carmen is a very camp, gay man, abandoned as a baby by his mother (who left him a keepsake of a locket and little else) he hides behind bitchiness.

Carmen turned

Yurkovic, once Carmen has been turned, flits between camp and sinister with consummate ease and makes it so that, no matter what Carmen is doing, the audience maintains a sympathetic view. Interestingly Carmen’s sexuality is not played on in-film. There is one throwaway line about being stalked by a man and Tracey exclaiming ‘finally’, but he simply is who and what he is. Not that the comedy begins and ends with Carmen, all the primary characters are interesting and funny and the actors do a fine job. The character of Emily was a personal favourite and Bonnie Swencionis has a mesmerising screen presence.

bleached eyes

The vampires can go out in daylight – sunblock is mentioned – they are massively strong and fast. The fangs are retractable and their eyes can change colour. Emily actually has pure white eyes where a priest bleached them but causes them to take on a hue normally, choosing only to show their true state to those she is closest to. Holy items burn the vampires and a stake through the heart kills – the vampires exploding into a gory goo. When a vampire is near a sleeping human they can cause the human to have bad dreams and awaken, this is a human defence mechanism. The name Sarah Michelle Gellar is offensive to vampires.

dance number

The film has a musical number, with Carmen performing the track ‘Hah, Bloody Hah’ which worked really well in the context of the film - indeed for me it's up there in 'top musical numbers' with Let's Do It in Tank Girl. All in all the film is a delight to watch, improves on a repeated watch (which of course is a good thing) and has one of the best comedy vampire characters for some considerable amount of time. This is all caveated with the warning I gave at the head of the review about the personal nature of comedy.

For me, however, Vamperifica deserves 8 out of 10. The imdb page is here.

film poster taken from Dread Central.com