Addicted to Murder: The Sequels – review

Authors: Kevin J. Lindenmuth, Ron Ford & Todd French

First published: 2012

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: After the success and wide distribution of the first ADDICTED TO MURDER movie in 1996, writer/producer Kevin J. Lindenmuth wanted to shoot a larger budget sequel. He came up with the idea for THE LAST VAMPIRE and hired frequent collaborator Ron Ford to write the screenplay. However, that was not to be. So Lindenmuth proceeded to make a micro-budget PREQUEL, TAINTED BLOOD, keeping in mind that he would make this “Final ADDICTED TO MURDER movie” one day.

While a lesser sequel to the first two movies was made, BLOODLUST, this screenplay remained unproduced. Then, itching to do a follow-up years later, Lindenmuth agreed to let screenwriter Todd French take a stab (and puncture) at it. Keeping in mind THE LAST VAMPIRE script, as well as the continuity of the first three movies, ADDICTED TO MURDER: REDWORK was born. Alas, there was not a producer for this script, either. Now that a decade has passed fans of the ADDICTED TO MURDER trilogy can discover how the series finally ends...

The Review: God, so the saying goes, loves a trier and Kevin J Lindenmuth is nothing if not that. A maker of low budget films, one often suspects that his vision is way too big for the budgets he attracts.

I have reviewed all three Addicted to Murder films on the blog, in the past; the first one I rather enjoyed – despite it being fatally flawed. Those flaws were born of budget in the main. More budget would have allowed for effects that matched the director’s vision, better locations and a higher calibre of actor. Be that as it may, and notwithstanding rather enjoying the film despite itself, when reviewing it I couldn't ignore the flaws. However the next two in the series were simply very poor films – something I think the blurb to this book recognises.

However, because they exist, Lindenmuth has (as far as possible as there were some logic holes in the two later films) not ignored them as he brings the series to an end.

In this book he presents scripts for the final two films and it is here that I struggle with this review as, clearly, scripts are neither novels nor films. From having read the scripts I really did like the way he has taken the stories. He has taken the idea of main antagonist, Joel, being a tainted blood; passing immortality to victims who are possessed by the demonic dark ones – becoming rotting undead dedicated to destroying the vampires. I found that the script explained this in ways that the filmed episodes failed to do properly.

That said, it is probable that any resultant films would be poor if made with the sort of micro-budgets the predecessor films had but that is the joy of looking at a script – you can build the images of the ensuing flick in your mind with no expense spared. The other thing to take into account is that this book will only be of interest to fans of the Addicted to Murder series. If you are one of these fans then the book is a must have, if not then how much you would want it, and how much you get out of it, will vary. Taking all that into account I have given the release 6 out of 10.