The association of Dracula with symphonies is old indeed, stretching back to 1922 and Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens. Like the classic picture this independent effort is a (mostly) silent movie, which relies on imagery and soundtrack for impact. I found the film cut into its three chapters (entitled Jonathan, Lucy and Mina). A complete running time on IMDb suggests it has also been cut into a feature, I assume by stitching the three parts in order.
The film itself is a fairly accurate re-telling of Dracula, with important differences that I will explore (so the spoiler warning stands) and I intend to be rather picky with some of the criticism – not out of pettiness but because I was greatly impressed generally and therefore, even though some of these criticisms were unavoidable, I intend to highlight so that any future effort can be even better.
Harker in the hotel
We begin with Lucy (Dakotah Stymiest) looking out to sea from a cliff, we get flashes of a face (belonging to Dracula (Joel Ross)) and almost subliminal flashes including that of Lucy lying bloodied and dead on a bed. She is joined by Mina (Mercedes Peters) and both girls look genuinely anxious. We find out later that Mina and Lucy are cousins in this. Cutting to candles in the dark and, at a table, Jonathan Harker (Nathan McFarlane) reviews papers. A caption informs us that it is 1910 – lifting the setting out of the Victorian era but still period (I’ll return to this) – and the black room allows us to imagine the surroundings of a set that budget would likely not allow for.
Harker taking his leave of Mina
Captions highlight parts of Jonathan’s papers and we see he is to meet Prince Vlad Dracula – the choice tying this version of Dracula to Vlad Țepeș. He has a picture of Mina with him and remembers their parting. These scenes did seem to invoke Hutter leaving Elen in Nosferatu. I’ll come back to this but whilst the house they use (Mina and Lucy live in the same house with Lucy’s Mother (Suzanne Short)) might seem the part there are little tell-tale modernisms that sneak through. For instance, the light switch in the parting of Jonathan and Mina scene. Also the shirt and trousers Jonathan wears in a picnic scene during this montage feel modern.
Harker locked in his room
Jonathan’s journey to the castle is shown in shorthand and inside they have done their best to try and disguise the sets they are using, but the staircase is at odds with the stock castle interior footage (I assume it is all stock footage, anyway, but it does fit in very well on a photography level, just mismatches in architectural style with the scenes they shot on set). We get the shaving scene, which could have done with a basin of water to make it feel authentic, Dracula psychically causing the mirror to break rather than throwing it. Jonathan is eventually locked in a room and a stronger criticism is that the room (which comes across as a room in a house) is very different in look to when we see it at night with the brides (Beth McRae, Abi Reinhart & Shelly Smith).
the brides
I assume the brides come to Jonathan and it is a fantastically drawn scene. They approach slowly, at first appearing to be two until the third is revealed behind the others. The filmmakers used lighting and lack of it to great effect and the brides surround him, ready for their meal when Dracula intervenes. However, the brides are not simply cowed, they return and return for him, trying to reach past Dracula until they are given a baby – and they are given an actual baby not a sack with the insinuation of a baby inside. Their feeding is bloody.
Bride slayed
I’ll wrap up the critique of part one by revealing a couple of plot changes that are stylistically and narrative important. Firstly, Jonathan kills the brides. This is important as Dracula will not return to Transylvania in this re-imagining, so the crew of light will not pursue and therefore Van Helsing (Dennis Hunt) will not destroy them. It’s also important to note that Jonathan clearly knows how to kill a vampire. Can I tell you how much I love the staking scenes in this film? Visceral, bloody and realistically drawn. The staking scenes make watching this worthwhile on their own. The other change is that, following this, Jonathan dies (presumably of thirst or starvation) holding Mina’s picture.
speech bubble
Part two starts in Whitby and uses the advances of Lucy's three suitors as comedy and the music reflects this. We get all three suitors from the novel – Quincy (Shawn Nickerson) brings flowers, Jack (Jason Boyle) chocolates and Arthur (Sheldon Garland) an engagement ring. One change with the suitors is that Arthur is a Lord at this point. When each of the suitors enters we get one of the two pieces of dialogue – though not spoken. As each one comes in a speech bubble appears with their names and animated hearts and it is silly and not becoming of the rest of the film. Be that as it may Dracula also comes to the house also (note it is daytime, rightly fitting in with the book’s attitude to sunlight) and Lucy is fascinated but Arthur intervenes and sends him away. As there is no direct narrative explanation we are left wondering – Dracula had taken possession of Mina’s picture for a while in the castle, we assume therefore it is her he is hunting and so why he distracts himself with Lucy is unknown.
Quincy, Jack and speaker
Another critical point at this stage is around the anachronistic elements within the house. I assume they moved forward to 1910 to suggest that light bulbs might be fitting in the locations and generally they do well to avoid modern trappings that wouldn’t belong. It is likely they just hoped no-one would spot the smoke alarm but there are things they forgot to move. So when Lucy goes to bed after Vlad’s visit she has an electric clock radio by the bed – to be fair this was missing in later scenes and so would seem to be filmed by accident without realising it was there. Also missed was what appeared to be a modern speaker on a cabinet behind Jack and Quincy. My reason for pointing this out is so the flimmakers will, perhaps, be able to avoid such things in future efforts.
Lucy's death
So Lucy becomes a victim and it is Mina who writes to Van Helsing and here we get our other (spoken) dialogue as she narrates her letter. We discover that Seward has given her transfusions (from Arthur, Mrs Westenra and Mina). She will, of course, eventually die but she is survived by her mother leading to an emotional scene at the funeral, which was well done. She then returns but it appears that Dracula actively summons her from the grave in a nicely realised scene. We do get Bloofer lady aspects and this brings me to Lucy’s staking.
Lucy staked
It was realised very differently from the book. The coffin opened and empty, Lucy walks into the crypt with her newest infant victim and is pushed back to the coffin by the cross. However, when Van Helsing goes to stake her, Arthur intervenes and has to be pulled away from him. The staking itself is as good as that of the brides (albeit that her collar opens and closes between ‘being staked Lucy’ and ‘Lucy in repose’). Quincy vomits during the staking and Arthur goes to touch the cheek of a suddenly unbloodied corpse – however I do not think this is a mistake as the scene jumps between ‘Lucy in repose’ and ‘Lucy violated’ as though Arthur only sees the good and not the carnage.
Dracula and Mina
Which takes us to the part entitled Mina. She becomes the victim of course and what I noticed in both cases was the attacks were filmed in a dark space, rather than shown in their room, and then we cut to the victims sat up alone in bed – as though the attacks were in some other-space. However, we have an issue. Mina is being attacked but we have no Jonathan to bridge the knowledge gap of the identity of the vampire and where the vampire might be. By killing Jonathan, the filmmakers had to create a mechanism for the Crew of Light to be able to find the monster. Suddenly we cut to Renfield (Ian Estey) and he becomes our narrative mechanism. We see Seward take some notes and as well as covering the fact that Renfield is eating flies and spiders he notes the madman's use of the word vampyr. Dracula kills the lunatic but we don’t know why (other than he did it in the book and we need a mechanism) and Renfield writes Dracul in blood before dying.
deus ex machina
We next see the Crew of Light going to the property acquired in England. We still have a problem though. Dracula was announced at the Westenra House – if Mina didn’t realise this was the same man who Jonathan had left to do business with (as much as she was worried about him) we can’t believe that she would suddenly realise and know where the property was (though it isn’t directly suggested this happened, but it was the logical implication). Also, whilst Renfield is a psychic barometer for vampiric activity in the book, it occurs throughout the novel’s England sections. Renfield’s sudden very brief inclusion and the use of him as the narrative mechanism is a deus ex machina that was frankly sloppy.
Dracula
As I’ve spoilt everything else I will say that there is a twist with Dracula’s staking that was fantastic and, other than that, the staking was as viscerally good as the other vampire slayings in the previous chapters. So, no chase back to Transylvania but the inclusion of all the suitors and the general structure/focal characters – Jonathan, Lucy, Mina – made this feel quite loyal to the novel. Some of the changes were well done – Jonathan dying in Transylvania felt right in this re-telling – but other bits not so much – the aftermath of Jonathan’s death on the story narrative was, as just discussed, not brilliantly handled.
Mercedes Peters as Mina
But the power of this is in the imagery and soundscape. The music works well, creating themes that weave through the film and nothing feels out of place when it comes to that sound. There is even a really nicely used moment of silence adding to one of the Lucy scenes. The photography is well done and some of the imagery is done very well. I was impressed particularly by the expressiveness shown by Mercedes Peters. The coquettishness displayed as Lucy might have been misplaced if it were not for the fact that the suitor scene was played lightly with an air of comedy (though it was Peters’ reactions to Lucy that helped cement that) but Stymiest was good as Lucy fell ill. I liked the use of portraiture and close-up, especially around Dracula, and some of the camera angles were very interesting – though some seemed born out of necessity (hiding the parts of sets that should remain unseen). I will mention that Jonathan failing to break a window with a tray was probably down to repeatedly hitting the central frame not the glass – this seemed silly but the source was probably a need to not break the glass in whoever’s house they were in. However, many of the issues were born of budgetary constraint and, despite painting themselves into a narrative corner (and avoidable anachronisms), I was impressed. 7 out of 10.
The Blurb: This supernatural fusion tale twists and twines along as Devi Trevathan, the world's only Prime Channel (and herb-growing, immortal horticulturist), comes to grips with her critical new role.
Nefarious forces and dueling romantic distractions vine around her, causing plenty of trouble and strife. New revelations about the tricky vampires she helps sheds light on their ancient mysterious ways as well as the special relationships with their human ‘bonded’.
Can Lord Alec Gregory, Devi’s 'Champion' and facilitator, keep her safe and on track after horrifying events? And what of the magical wild card, Demetrios? Can the strange new friends Devi makes along the way help save them all from the looming mysterious apocalyptic plans of 'The Brotherhood'? From Washington DC, to New Orleans, to Crete, Devi and The Vitaortus are in for a tasty, tangled, dangerous ride!
Regular readers will know that I adore Viy and have a soft spot for the filmed versions. The Russian 1967 movie, Viy, is one of my favourite films.
This is a strange beast for a few reasons. Firstly, although it had a theatrical release this is actually chapter 3 and 4 of an on-running series, which was preceded by Gogol: the Beginning. The intention is to run the full series as a TV season in Russia after the first 3 of 4 2-episode parts are released theatrically. I hadn’t seen the first film (ie chapters 1 & 2) so there were aspects to this I wasn’t au fait with – but rest assured you’ll pick up the inter-relationships as you watch.
Alexander Petrov as Gogol
The chapters are loosely based on Gogol’s work but Gogol (Alexander Petrov) himself is a character – a special investigator working on an overarching case of girls being murdered by a demonic horseman (Valery Rybin). Gogol has powers (he, for instance, has visions) and a drowned girl, now a water nymph called Oksana (Yuliya Frants), is prepared to teach him how to use his powers – though she is interested in him and jealous of the married Lisa (Taisiya Vilkova) who is an unrequited love. The first story in this release is Enchanted Place, a story of magic, demons and ritualistic murder.
staked
The second chapter is the one based on Viy and it is recognisable but very loose (with a major piece of the horseman puzzle going on alongside). The witch in this is a young woman and we do not see her in the form of the crone, as we do in most straight versions of the story, nor does she hagride anyone. The Blacksmith’s daughter (Martha Timofeeva) sees her using magic (levitating dumplings) and also sees a dog being bled (to paint runic marks identifying the location of victims on behalf of the demonic horseman). This leads Gogol to her but, when he enters her house, a mysterious stranger is stabbing her in the heart with an aspen stake. Her assassin knocks Gogol out and escapes.
silver nail
As well as being staked, the witch has been nailed through the hand with a silver nail (in order to incapacitate her whilst she is staked) but both the nail and (definitely) the stake feel more vampire genre to me. Gogol deduces that the assassin was conducting a ritual and he will return to finish it. He does and he is captured. The assassin is Khoma Brutus (Aleksey Vertkov) but in this he is no ordinary Seminarian, rather he is an exorcist with some outstandingly athletic combat moves. By the removal of a magic wooden hand (I am aware of how that sounds) he is able to escape and take Gogol prisoner – convincing him that they must finish the ritual in the church, force the witch to summon the demon Viy and then deal with the greater evil.
at throat
So, there isn’t a three-night vigil in the church, rather it is a one-night ritual but what is interesting is that the witch, when she resurrects (bearing in mind the stake is removed), does produce a mouth full of fangs and her nails lengthen into quite the weapon. We also see her bite a throat and there is blood around her mouth. So, whilst we do not get the actual blood drinking episode that is mentioned in the original story or the energy vampirism (from her at least), which is common in film versions of the story, we do get imagery that is definitively vampiric and I would say she very much has that witch/vampire thing going on.
the witch
I really enjoyed this – despite not seeing the first two chapters. The acting was good, the effects were too and although the kung fu moves of Khoma could be deemed as a bit much the overall atmosphere and look of the show is fantastic. No overt vampirism in this but definitely tropes and enough, given the source, for me to just go with it as a vampire in the film. It left me wanting to see the whole series. 7.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
DVD and Blu-Ray available on e-bay at time of review.
Facebook friend Prodosh recently suggested three Bengali films I might like to check out. A quick google was actually successful in uncovering two of those three, with English subs. This is the second of the two I found that I’ve watched/reviewed. Listed as Rakter Saad on IMDb, Prodosh did warn me that this was a turkey but also informed me that Rakter Swad translates to Taste of/for Blood.
And it is every inch the turkey, I’m afraid, though it conceptually plays with the genre quite nicely, at least in a couple of places. It owes a debt to a film 60 years its predecessor, though be warned that checking that film will utterly spoil the twist in this one (which I may end up spoiling anyway, as it goes).
woman with the body
So, it begins with a view of an old woman leaning over the motionless body of a young boy. A mob of men are running towards her and she flees but they eventually catch her and she cries that she is not a witch. Her son tries to stop the mob from killing her but they drag him away and a woman tries to intervene to no avail. The first blow is to fall as we cut to the opening credits and the bizarre use of music – the credit soundtrack is a dance/disco instrumental version of Jeff Lynne’s the Eve of the War, which then moves into an equally strange instrumental version of Blue Monday and back to the Eve of the War.
child victim
After the credits we get a dinner with the Chief of Police and newly transferred senior police officer Mitra. Mitra’s wife and his sister, Ronnie, are also at dinner. Ronnie has just got into college. Mitra’s meal is cut short when he is called out to the attack. The men are still around their victim and the old woman is barely alive. After a couple of random moments of police brutality, Mitra asks what has happened and then berates one of his officers for not sending the woman to hospital. At the hospital (referred to as a nursing home in the subs) he asks the cause of death of the boy and is told blood loss.
the hospital
Back at the station a man is telling the others gathered there that the woman was a witch and used her long tongue to draw the blood from the chest of the child. When Mithra arrives there he berates his officer for sending the woman to the nearby nursing home and not the more distant Government Hospital. He then listens dismissively to what the men have to say. They suggest she drank the blood not only of the child but of ten children, this one being the latest (note there is no follow up on this rumour of mass infanticide). Having consumed the blood of ten she can now kill herself on the night of the new moon (that night) and then possess who she chooses – turning them into a vampire.
Ronnie, is she possessed?
So, that night the woman dies following a dive through the hospital window. Now the film deliberately does not show us this but any sense of mystery might be confounded by the POV camera going to her room, indicating an assailant who murders her… though perhaps this is a double blind or, even, perhaps the folklore is wrong and she just needs to die rather than killing herself? Be that as it may there is a rash of murders that follows and the victims are exsanguinated.
skeletal hand
The vampire’s method is interesting, strangling the victim and then sucking the blood from the chest (though when we see a young boy attacked the blood appears to be at the neck). We do see an attack involving a woman with a skeletal hand (though it looks really false) and a messed up face. However the police are sceptical and we might have a serial killer who acts like a vampire, a vampire (and the victim of vampiric possession) or something else altogether.
vision of a vampire
Ronnie, unfortunately, becomes utterly convinced that she is the vampire – with evidence putting her at two of the crime scenes (in the case of Bobby, a young child who is murdered, she has blood on her hands that Mitra washes off before anyone sees, rationalising that there was blood everywhere and she innocently got it on her; in the case of her new boyfriend, the circumstantial evidence is that she had been with him just prior to the murder). Ronnie is described as being prone to an overactive imagination and also prone to mental health issues. We see her freak out when she has a vision of a vampire – that might just be daydreaming or hallucination.
yes there is song and dance
The film overstays its welcome, considerably, coming in with a running time of 2 and a half hours it really could have shaved an hour off that comfortably. The twist pay-off is unsatisfying. There is a huge amount of dodgy police activity – seduction (though the affections seem to be mutual) whilst undercover and so lying about identity, police brutality, destroying evidence and even coercion to search a room (on a case that would seem to have nothing to do with the film we’re watching). The story doesn’t hang together well and despite some interesting aspects, such as the strangulation, the feeding from the chest and the possession concept, I found this one to be poor. 2 out of 10.
When is a vampire film not a vampire film? There could be a few answers to that but today we are looking at the segment La Grosse Mort. The short had been in the anthology Monster Pool: Seven deadly Sins as the segment Lust, also. As for this anthology, the film has a formula where it alternates between a horror short and a scene of hamsters being cute – and I’m not kidding.
So, what do I mean, not a vampire? The creature in this segment is vampiric but there is a specific play around it not actually being a vampire in film, as you’ll see.
eating energy
It starts off with a woman, Cassandra (Rhapsody Blue), searching through a dating website until she comes to Tim (Jake William Smith). They meet in a club, he seems shy and perhaps clumsy and she seems sexually dominant. They leave with a specific aim of having sex. She is atop him when we see a tail behind them. Who it belongs to is, at first, not clear until its pointed end jabs her in the back, piercing her flesh. It pushes her down to Tim who draws her lifeforce from her (so an energy vampire), killing her.
producing a stake
We see many accounts on the dating site become inactive and then see Tim walking and talking to Anne (Kaleena Jay). They seem to be getting on but she is worried about the area he has taken her to and asks that he not attack her by the dumpsters. He says it isn’t his thing, unless she wants him to, when she suddenly elbows him in the nose causing it to gush with blood. He laments her choice, suggesting that they had made a connection, but she has a stake and she buries it in his chest.
alas, it will not work
There are some sarcastic pain sounds and then laughter. A stake won’t work, he jibes he’s not a vampire. He is, Anne insists, but he corrects her and states that he is an incubus. Now the incubus has less association with the vampire genre than the succubus but the former is the male version of the latter and he is definitely an energy vampire at the very least. Of course he might not be the only creature haunting the night. As for the segment, it is good fun and centres on a lesser used entity, 6 out of 10.
This is a short 2018 animation, directed by Pasquale Encell and Steve Encell, which features three stories and comes in at roughly 18 minutes.
The animation is described (on Amazon) as displaying “different styles of the very cool Thai style Anime” and was, I would say, quite ‘motion comic’ and the art functional. The stories themselves are from the Sangre De Cristo vampire hunter universe. The first two feature a gunslinging vampire hunter named Jack and are set in a ‘Wild West’ setting, the third is modern day.
The first opens with a voiceover from Jack suggesting that within 24 hours of arriving at Sangre De Cristo he has killed 4 gunmen and 1 vampire – and he didn’t even know that vampires existed 24 hours ago. He notes that he is now drinking vampire blood and he can’t imagine life without it (so presumably it is addictive). Jack, his dog, a priest and a Native American woman are about to enter a vampire’s mansion.
vampire hunters from story 1
If we discover that a heart shot will kill a vampire, it is in the second story that we discover that neither beheading nor sunlight will kill a vampire. Indeed, we see a beheaded vampire continue to function happily until its torso is staked. In this second story Jack and (presumably another hunter) Iron Lotus are raiding an outlaw hideout to steal the vampire blood the outlaws have (unintentionally) acquired.
the feed
The last story was the most interesting. A modern day, rich vampire uses social media to groom young ladies and lure them, where they can be kidnapped. Once kidnapped they are restrained with shock collars but treated to organic food, purified water and purified air, for the length of time it takes for them to have two periods, so that they will be a pure (and more tasty) meal. The latest victim is a virgin…
fangs
The last story really piqued my interest but generally there were issues with some of the plotting (fire arrows are ok but a metal arrowhead wouldn’t be used, for instance) and we needed to see more around the other two stories, the characters and how they interrelated. The voice acting was functional and no more and some of the dialogue was simplistic. All that said it was worth a watch, especially for story #3.
Facebook friend Prodosh recently suggested three Bengali films I might like to check out. A quick google was actually successful in uncovering two of those three, with English subs. This is the first of the two I found that I’ve watched/reviewed. The title of Nishi Trishna translates as Night Thirst.
Prodosh suggested that they were both turkeys but, be that as it may, this had some interesting moments and you’d be forgiven for thinking that Nishi Trishna was some thirty years older than it actually is – this is down to the black and white photography that offered the film a visual feel (for me at least) of the Gothic horror films that came out of Mexico and negated the impact of the hideous leisurewear that was sometimes on show.
Mili dies
The film starts with a carriage thundering through the night as a song plays and the subtitles inform us that the song is Thirsty Night. A photographer, Tony, takes pictures of Mili as the carriage idles in the town. A couple of guards question the mute driver and he suggests that they are going to the airport (through the medium of mime). One of the guards spots a coffin in the carriage and suggests that it is smuggling when Mili screams. She is found dead, marks at her throat as the carriage thunders away and Tony cries for them to go after it.
Fangs on show
In the graveyard Mili is being interred (which, interestingly, seemed to be a Christian burial) when the priest notices one of her hands is out of the coffin. They fully open the lid and she seems quite dead but the priest pulls her lips back to reveal fangs. She is buried but, as they are leaving, the cross marking the grave is literally blown out of the ground, the force throwing it away from the plot. The priest tells Tony to be careful as her death was mysterious. Mili's vampiric self does enter into this but is not really story central.
gypsy camp
So, a group of young people intend to go on a trip. One of them, Santana, is the daughter of the hospital administrator Doctor Banerjee – her boyfriend Dr Anjan Das works for her and has to ask for leave. Also going is Paul (Prasenjit Chatterjee) but his employer asks him to go to Gorchampa Palace en route as a mysterious occupant, Mr John, has goods for sale. When they arrive in the region of the castle, there is a gypsy camp near-by and Paul meets Shimli (Moon Moon Sen), a gypsy woman with reasons to go to the Palace of her own. She accompanies the friends and, very quickly, she and Paul fall in love.
Mr John
I won’t go into the story any more as it is flimsy enough as it is without me stamping across it in my size nines. Suffice it to say that Mr John is not the vampire, rather he is the vampire’s servant. There seems less than adequate reasons for everything that goes on; the vampire seems only motivated by the thirst for blood and, whilst there are connections to some of the characters, it does seem that there is no overarching master plan. What is more interesting, however, is the source of the vampire and some play with gender.
the vampire
Gender first. It is made quite clear that vampires crave blood from the opposite sex, with male vampires attacking females and vice versa. This is, of course, hetro-normative and places the symbolism of the attack well and truly into the sexual. However, when we get to the vampire’s origin story – which seems to be vampiric possession of a corpse – we hear the story from Doctor Banerjee. She very much becomes the wise vampire hunter, the Van Helsing, guiding the young vampire hunters in an unusual gender reversal for that role, which was definitely nice to see.
staking
The vampire himself was a corpse and was the subject of an occult experiment gone wrong and was partly rotten due to his cadaverous origin – the makeup wasn’t fantastic but the black & white will have helped a tad – the fangs were on the side of ridiculous. He slept through the day and was active at night but there was no indication that he would be destroyed or weakened by sunlight. He had full-on eye mojo, was warded by religious artefacts and could be killed by a stake to the heart.
eye mojo
The film was flimsy, which was its biggest issue, closely followed by suffering from low production values. But I was intrigued by that Mexican gothic feel and loved how they gender swapped the wise elder even though the attacks were hetro-normalised. However my interest around that was likely piqued because of some gender-queering that has gone on in a couple of Indian Dracula based novels, which Prodosh has switched me on to. Indeed this did owe some of its broad brush plot points to Dracula to the point that it felt as though it had borrowed from the classic novel. The film as a whole probably only deserves 3 out of 10 but, for the reasons laid out, it is worth a track down.
On a genre level, are ticks enough to be classed as vampires and thus make a film part of the vampire genre? It is a dilemma I’ve struggled with. For instance, I explored Attack of the Giant Leeches and whilst I was still conflicted I think I ultimately went ‘Vamp’ partly because of their unnaturalness and partly because they were intelligent.
In this case the film does contain the v-word in the title, these are intergalactic visitors but most importantly they indicate that the creatures have empathy (for their own kind). It is also a terrible, terrible movie.
out in t'woods
Starting in the woods we meet George, who has just been sent back to the car to get a tent by his girlfriend Frieda. Back at the campsite he can’t find her and struggles with the tent (muttering to himself in an unconvincing manner – though the lack of conviction may be in the acting, the dialogue writing or, to be absolutely honest, both) until there is a crack of a branch. He goes to investigate and finds a crate that he declares to be a shipping crate from outer space, opens it and is attacked by a large tick.
pitchfork
Out on the road a graduate returning home after college runs over a tick, causing it to burst. We move to a farmer wondering what happened to his cows (we do not see dead cows but do see a couple of bovines nonchalantly wandering around). He is attacked by ticks, pitchforks a couple and is then killed. We then see a man talking to his fiancée on the phone, whilst driving. He is going to pick her up (she turns out to be the farmer’s daughter and a goth) and elope to Vegas. He runs over something (a tick), checks it out and is then attacked by another tick and dragged off. Yes the wee guys are apparently strong.
graduate attacked
The graduate gets home but mum and dad aren’t there. The house phone is down and he hasn’t got a cell signal so wanders around looking for a bar on his mobile phone and eventually calls his brother – he has a bad feeling, he confesses... Meanwhile Susan, the goth, is sent to look for her dad. She is attacked by ticks, legs it (and is pursued) and eventually finds her boyfriend’s body. Then there is a couple, with a brother and sister, heading out to meet George and Frieda. The brother finds the crate and is drained (his hand is inside the crate and he acts as though he can’t pull it out, eventually falling down, white in the face - in a rubbish piece of film-making). The remaining campers leg it and, eventually, they all end up at the graduate’s house.
tick empathy
The house is under siege, ticks throw themselves at windows (eventually breaking the basement window and getting in that way). During all this we see the graduate shoot one with a BB gun, it pops and we see another tick reach out to it. The puppetry and puppets are rudimentary – there is a giant one at the end, which we see only parts of. When the ticks throw themselves at victims they are literally thrown from stage left. We also get a camper suggesting that she saw a spaceship – something she never said earlier and something we don’t see in the woods. We do see a ship of the intergalactic company that lost the crate – that is basically rotating lights.
The acting and dialogue is awful but I do like to find a positive. There is a weapon collecting scene and the soundtrack accompanying it is really good and suits the scene. Other than that, there is little about this to make me recommend this. 1 out of 10.
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