Tales of Found Footage – review

Director: Matthew I. Schmidt

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers

This is an anthology tale with a reluctant host, Fredrick Michaels (Richard Brogden), who is played as a classical actor not so happy to be hosting three lowbrow horror tales. For a change the anthology is all the work of a single director and, as far as I can tell, the films were made for the vehicle – rather than piecing together previously shot shorts.

All the films are in the found footage genre, hence the name, and I have to say that ghost story #TheChallenge was easily the most effective of the films (at least until the post-story coda, that was unnecessary and hokey). The third story was a tale of Goth girls dabbling with witchcraft, the occult and human sacrifice. That leaves us with middle film – Mail Order Bride.

Ana and Hooch

The film begins with Matt (Matthew I. Schmidt) filming his friend Hooch (Richard Jachner) before he sets out to pick his mail order bride from the airport. Mutual friend Ana (Anastasia Klyuchinskaya) thinks this a really bad idea and is worried about human trafficking as the bride, Nicoletta (Mackenzie Newbury), is from Romania. Who else might be with her, she worries, summoning thoughts of Eastern European organised crime? Matt is utterly dismissive as Hooch has had a long dry spell, romance-wise, and it was his idea. Hooch has been speaking to Nicoletta for several months and is sure she is for real.

arrival

Hooch and Matt drive to the airport, Matt continuing to film, and there is a lengthy section of dialogue (including the fact that Nicoletta is unaware of his Hooch nickname and knows him by his given name). When they get to the airport Nicoletta is there but so is another woman, Mihaela (Jeanette Pacifico). Nicoletta introduces her as a friend who speaks no English, Matt is excited – calculating that he may also benefit from Hooch’s adventure. They take the ladies to a bar. There is pool, shots and a selfie and then it’s time to head to Hooch’s home.

fangs

Now, of course, the fact that Nicoletta and Mihaela are actually vampires is the twist – but you would wonder what was going on if I featured this on TMtV and didn’t spoil the reason for the inclusion. However, to be fair the twist is broadcast for all too see as soon as we hear that the bride is from Romania – we’d be surprised if that wasn’t the twist. What the film didn’t explain was the desire to travel thousands of miles to hunt an American. Perhaps she was already based in the US and the Romania aspect was a VPN powered honey trap – if so the film doesn’t say.

feed

Unfortunately, therefore, the vampire aspect is a bit of a damp squib at the end, we see it coming and the ‘shock’ is pedestrian and handled quite clumsily (essentially through sound whilst the screen is black, moving to a shot of Nicoletta with fangs). What is handled well, however, is the characterisation of Hooch – through the extensive dialogue we come to find the character rather personable but the ground made there isn’t capitalised on when he's attacked. Is it awful? No, not really, the Hooch aspect keeps it above that level but there isn’t much in the way of shock or horror to write home about either. As always, the score is for the vampire section only – 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

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Vamp or Not? Fang

This is a 2018 film by Adam R. Steigert and is brave in the first instance as it is a budget werewolf movie. There was also a question, as I watched it, as to whether one of the main characters is actually a vampire, rather than a werewolf.


However, as the film starts, we get to see that one of the things it does well is gore as we see a man (Christopher Burns Jr.) chained to a chair covered in gore and vomiting. It’s a startling opening and the blood effects are really well done. This then moves into images of medical diagrams as credits roll, until we get into the film proper.

opening gore

Joe (Theo Kemp) is rifling through a purse and then wakes girlfriend Chloe (Melodie Roehrig). They are junkies and are out of drugs. Joe has a gun and a plan – he will rob someone and Chloe has to distract them, when she asks how he suggests by opening her legs. She acts as a prostitute and ends up in the car with a man who also has a gun. Joe shoots him in the head but the murder makes them a measly $50.

Chloe and Joe

They go to see dealer Christmas (Sean C. Sanders) who, despite misgivings, hands over some junk. They go home, Chloe shows her regrets first and in the morning Joe is down too, wondering how his life has hit rock bottom. Chloe mentions an Aunt and Uncle (Doris (Melantha Blackthorne) and Roy Crowley (Patrick Mallette)) that they could visit – she hasn’t seen them since she was a kid and Joe’s ears are pricked when she mentions they are rich.

family home

So, we see them travelling (and scoring) and eventually they come across a broken down car and driver Chris (Jason John Beebe) and his girlfriend Shelly ( Jennie Russo, Hi-8 (Horror Independent 8)). There is no cell reception and Joe suggests they go with them to Chloe’s Aunt’s house, which isn’t far. They get there and meet creepy grounds/housekeeper Harold (Gregory Blair).

dinner party

The Aunt and Uncle are away to lunch but he lets the visitors in, locking the door. Apparently, they like all the doors to be locked (and mention has to be made of the miming of doors being locked without keyholes, using one of the keys from his large bunch). Anyway, soon Aunt and Uncle appear and they are weird and the guests feel trapped. Meanwhile, a local Sheriff (Steve Losey), has found the ID that Chloe (unbeknownst to herself) has dropped at the scene of the murder and gets dying (of cancer) ex-officer William Sanders (Michael O'Hear, Dry Bones, Red Scream Nosferatu & Mostly Dead) to go with him over the county line to look for her.

wolf form

Of course, Aunt and Uncle are monsters and things get weirder and weirder until blood begins to flow. Now they never mention what they actually are, except referring to themselves as monsters, but Aunty is definitely a werewolf. Uncle Roy, however, is perhaps not as easily classified. He suggests that they have been around for some time, the Crowley’s found them in tombs and they took their forms – whether they stole their faces, shape-shifted into their forms or possessed them is not actually answered.

eyes carved out

“Uncle” Roy wears dark glasses and when they are removed, we see his eyes are carved out, the wounds raw looking. Both hide away during the day and both eat raw looking meat. He does produce fangs (top and bottom) but we do not see him turn hairy like Doris and, when he bites Sanders, he says his blood is poisonous due to the cancer. Later they discover Sanders' blood is actively debilitating and beheading kills, that said, all the house residents get up after bullets and so, later, silver bullets are suggested. They don’t actually seem to work on Roy, though he implies this is due to his longevity. However, a face full of holy water burns Roy and that is not normal werewolf behaviour/reaction.

holy water

It is the holy water and the not turning hairy (that we see) that makes me question whether Roy is actually a vampire. He is from the tomb (but so is Doris and, actually, so is Paul Naschy's werewolf in at least one of his classic films), avoids the sun (though we don’t know if he needs to) and is killed by beheading. This makes him feel vampiric to me and I’m going down that line – though it could just be an adoption of tropes thing. The imdb page is here.

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Vampire Slaughter: Eaten Alive – review

Directors: Charles Band & Ted Nicolaou

Release Date: 2018

Contains spoilers

I don’t know what it is about Full Moon Pictures and recycling their material. This is the fourth film in the Full Moon's Bunker of Blood series – in which they put a wraparound animation about the Gore Collector (a really short wraparound in this case) and then recycle a load of clips from their movies.

In this case they recycle the Subspecies series (you can read the reviews of films 1, 2, 3 & 4), the spin-off Vampire journals and the decadent Evil series (reviews for films 1 & 2) – interestingly the first Decadent Evil film recycled 10 minutes of Vampire Journals itself.

wraparound animation

One wonders why they bother, especially with the promise of new original material on the horizon, but it isn’t the first time. They sent my hackles up with I, Vampire: Trilogy of Blood, which took three 90-minute vehicles and edited them down to three 30-minute shorts. This doesn’t even do that and, in some ways, that is the saving grace. Rather than making shorts out of the various films this literally stitches scenes together like some cinematographically-conceived Frankenstein’s Monster.

Radu rises

The down side is obvious, these scenes from full length vehicles are condensed into 90-minutes and so there is no real narrative, no sense of character or character building, no sense of time or geography – this is no more than a clip show. I should also mention that they list the character Mummy in the opening credits as a vampire and add a fang to her on the DVD cover – she was always a witch and there is a clip included that names her as such and makes it clear she is active during the daytime (the vampires are not).

victims to the slaughter

However, on a plus side, there are some very nice vampiric scenes on display – especially the vampire detection ceremony from the first Subspecies film with a white horse and masked villagers – that was a cracking scene and looks great today still. But it still has no context.

vamping it up

In truth I can’t see why someone would watch this unless they are a massive Full Moon fan (and then, surely, they’d watch the actual films) or by accident. Generously it would make a decent backdrop to a horror themed party. I dropped I Vampire to a zero-score due to its pure exploitation of the viewer and the fact it didn’t work at all. With that in mind (and ignoring the fact that this is one of several such clip vehicles) I won’t drop this as low, because the lack of storytelling made it easier to watch than the previous vehicle's butchered storytelling. 1 out of 10 – Full Moon, I love many of the films herein, the score does not reflect their quality at all, but please make new material and stop recycling the old.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

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Capulina Contra los Vampiros – review

Director: René Cardona

Release date: 1971

Contains spoilers

So, I previously looked at a film featuring Capulina (Gaspar Henaine) when he was in his long-standing double act with Viruta (Marco Antonio Campos), that being El Camino de los Espantos. This later vehicle was following the double act’s split and saw Henaine carrying the vehicle himself.

His character in film was one of an affable buffoon but that does, in many respects, work better with a straight character to bounce against.

reading about Dracula

In this Capulina is in his bed clothes, whilst a storm rages outside. We get a little physical humour sketch of a window that won’t cooperate with him and stepping in a chamber pot. Eventually he goes to bed and starts reading a book about Count Dracula… This then moves to a scene where we see the vampire Count Draca (according to the subtitles I saw), who has astoundingly tusk-like fangs, being staked with a wooden lance.

Draca Staked

Draca turns to dust but the lance becomes wedged into the floor. His companion, Pampa (Rossy Mendoza) spends the next 150 years trying to have the lance removed from the floor as it will allow him to revive and regularly has strongmen make the attempt. Later she addresses why she can’t remove it but citing she might get splinters (!) and no consideration of chipping the surrounding stone is made. We essentially get a (barely thought out) stake/evil-equivalent of the sword in the stone.

Pampa calls the agency

Capulina is at an employment agency where he has driven the owner to distraction as he cannot last more than three days in a given job. He wants to be a manager (as they get to sit on their backsides all day). Whilst he is there a call comes from asking for a caretaker for an old house – a call made by Pampa – and he is sent to the vampire’s mansion. Within there he meets a diminutive good spirit called Carbonata, who is the guardian of the treasure there. Of course, he ends up resurrecting the Count as well.

stand-off

What follows is a bit of slapstick, mingled with some absurdist humour. Throwing in vampires means a plethora of really crap bats, which are definitely of the rubber variety. Carbonata is able to transport both himself and Capulina in a blink of an eye and the star is safe to a point as the vampires want to know the secret of the treasure. The Count has a group of six vampire women (referred to as slaves, rather than brides) who Pampa is jealous of and who all wear transparent chiffon over black underwear.

anti-vampire suit

At one-point Carbonata recalls that there is an anti-vampire suit, which is a suit of armour. That might protect the neck from biting but not the buttocks. However when two of the vampire slaves try to bite the neck they lose their fangs. The vampires retreat at dawn and Carbonata suggests pulling the Count into sunlight at one point – so we know it is deadly to vampires. Pampa gives the Count a glass of refrigerated blood, making the point that it is as nutritious as fresh when he pulls a face; she stole it from a blood bank. However, there is little other lore to note.

Gaspar Henaine as Capulina

This didn’t work as well as the early film I’ve looked at and I suspect that the Capulina character needed a better foil. Some of the humour hadn’t aged that well either but there is still a charm in Henaine's performance despite working better in a duo. 4 out of 10

The imdb page is here.

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Interesting Short: Vampyre Theatre

This is a short written by Nancy Kilpatrick and probably straddles that space between short and novella.

This is both positive; the story was a quick, satisfying read, and negative; it feels like the opening of a much wider vista and I want to know more.

I wanted to know more about the characters; Aleron a mystic, Cheryl the newly turned vampire and Nightshade the actor. All of them were gifted with fascinating personality aspects that absolutely hooked the reader. I wanted to know much more about this vampire world, which seemed to have unique elements that feel worth exploring. I wanted to know more about the story, we are teased with the short prose and I wanted that flirtation to develop – hopefully it will.

Like much of the author's work there is an erotic aspect and this contains (and this is a spoiler) what is probably the most erotically drawn vampiric rebirth I think I've ever discovered in a piece of prose – worth the entry fee alone. Excellent stuff.

Short film: Paint the Town Red

Coming in at just the five-minute mark this short film from 2017 was directed by Christopher Andrew Graham and Ariel Hansen and does that thing that short films, when they work, do so well. What do I mean? This is a fine example of producing a story and characters in a short period of time. The characterisation develops through the clever use of stereotypes, acting and dialogue with a side order of broad-brush tropes that relay the story.

If not handled well it can feel cliched or, indeed, just poor. But when handled well (especially with some nice photography) a lot can be packed into a very brief amount of time.

unsolicited tickets

Andie (Allison Klause) and Josephine (Ariel Hansen) are a pair of friends who haven’t seen each other for a little while. They are having a night out together and Josephine reveals that she has tickets to the Club Hobbs Lunar eclipse Party – they came, unsolicited, to her mailbox. Andie asks what Club Hobbs is and Josephine has no idea but is utterly convinced it will be fabulous. When they arrive the doorman (Jesse Inocalla) asks for their names but they are not on the list – all is ok when Josephine reveals the tickets, however.

feeding

Once in the club Andie goes to the bar whilst Josephine nips to the Ladies Room. The bartender (Gigi Saul Guerrero) suggests that Andie looks delicious but, any issue she might have had with the strange greeting, melts away as she discovers that the first round is on the house. Meanwhile Josephine is in the bathroom and hears a sucking sound from a stall, she makes a disparaging comment as she leaves but we see blood trickling down one of a pair of legs visible under the stall-door. She walks past three people appearing intimate on a couch, we see two turn round, blood at their mouths, whilst the third has bloody wounds at the neck. Will the girls figure out what is going on?

Well the way to find out is to watch the short, something I’d highly recommend. The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Lost in Provence

There is a specific skill involved in capturing something worthwhile in a short film. This particular short from 2019 is 21-minutes long and was directed by Christy Oldham and – though it might just be me – it really didn’t display that specific skill and I was left wondering at the point of it.

Mr Snotty Nose

It starts with an “internet sensation”, Mr Snotty Nose – some fella with a Groucho set of false glasses, with snot beneath – who is doing a video diary touring France. A journalist is sent from the USA to France to interview him. An agent mentions vampires, we get a French new report (without subs) regarding missing tourists and vampires, and then she gets chomped (apparently) by said Mr Snotty Nose. That is all…

post production fangs

A short write up for a short film that featured lots of uninspired hand-cam photography and black and white segueing into colour without an aesthetic point. Oh, and post production fangs. Sorry – this one was genuinely poor.

The imdb page is here.

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Vampires of Lore: Traditional Tales and Modern Misconceptions – review

Author: A P Sylvia

First Published: 2019

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Vampire . . . the word immediately conjures up bloodstained fangs, an aversion to sunlight, bats, garlic, and wooden stakes. These undead immortals have haunted our favorite books, television shows, and movies for decades. This exploration of a seemingly supernatural topic delves into past traditions around the world and how those traditions have affected our pop-culture modern-day monster. Explore belief systems as well as origins of various notions we all seem to have about vampires, and unearth the bloody dirt about this mystical creature. Discover differences and similarities between the realm of folklore and what modern media has taught us. Did villagers really use wooden stakes, garlic, and mirrors? What about vampires turning into bats or hypnotizing victims? Did they really cause disease, turn into dogs, and sleep in coffins? Topics are arranged by trait so that the reader can consider each characteristic before believing or dismissing it. So . . . if you're ready, let's hunt some vampires.

The review: There is a trepidation when facing a reference book sometimes. I have looked at them previously – especially ones driven by a desire by a publisher to tap into a pop culture area and where they seem to spend more attention on design (this is a nice hardback volume with fancy, glossy pages) than content – and found myself annoyed. Annoyed by lack of referencing, lack of indexing and, in some of the worst cases, errors by the bucket full.

So, lets cover off what this is about first before looking as to whether it addressed the standard gripes. Sylvia has set a task of examining tropes from the vampire genre (running on a vampire definition in chapter one of a restless corpse, corporeal and blood-drinker, but veering off-piste when there is something of interest to see) and comparing them to extant folklore to see whether those tropes/traits are from original sourcing or a media invention. The working definition established, the book is then split into a further 19 chapters each about a given trait (for example, sunlight has a chapter, as does garlic and mirrors respectively).

The splitting the chapters into trait might have made a lack of index forgivable – except he does index his work, happy days, and each chapter has end-note citations, and there is an overall bibliography. The writing is fairly chatty, but engaging for it, but I would say that the chapters are fairly short and there is certainly scope in some for expansion.

When it comes to accuracy I found (for the most part) that the author had examined relevant sources and was in the right ballpark. There were areas that possibly demanded deeper exploration – so, as a prime example, the conclusion was that a vampire’s ability to fly was from the media vampire and likely a twentieth-century invention (whilst acknowledging a couple of rare folkloric examples, one Russian and one Chinese). However, I would counter argue that flying is referenced in Pepopukin in Corsica (1826) and actively seen in Phantoms (1863). To give the author fair hearing their conclusion is stated to rest around “major vampire-themed works” but Alexandre Dumas père, it can be argued, must be deemed a major source and his Ruthven based stage-play contains stage notes that state, “Lord Ruthven first sits up—then rises completely and having shaken his hair to the wind, he deploys great wings and flies off.” However – having said that (and if the author ever does a 2nd edition I hope they consider the works I have mentioned) this was an incredibly rare moment where I disagreed with the conclusion on an error of fact (or perhaps parameter). For the main this showed a diligence in research exemplified by the marvellous find of a brief reference to the, so-called, Vampire of Snowdon – a tantalising moment from 1890.

So, it is a light volume – it took a day to read – but written in a very readable style and, whilst I believe there was plenty of room for expansion, as a primer for the division between folklore and media this does the job well. 7.5 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

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Accumulator 1 – review

Director: Jan Svěrák

Release date: 1994

Contains spoilers

That the concept of vampirism stretched well beyond that of troublesome corpses with a taste for blood is not only no bad thing but is something we have seen through the media genre from the 19th century onwards. The concept of the energy vampire was a figure clearly seen in early literature forms.

As such this makes this Czech fantasy film, with a romantic comedy heart, most definitely a vampire film but a very unusual vampire at that.

awkward interview

The film starts with surveyors Olda (Petr Forman) and Slezák (Bolek Polívka) on a dam, taking readings and discussing nearby colleague Jitka (Tereza Pergnerová). Slezák wonders if Olda has slept with her yet, and when he says no the other man indicates his intention to do so. They go back to an inn, where they know the TV will show a pop-vox interview with Olda. On TV he is questioned about his thoughts on brothels but struggles to respond or express a view. Slezák takes Jitka to his room.

saved by the emergency services

Olda feels like he has no energy left and, on getting home, vegetates in front of the TV. He actually falls into unconsciousness for three days and is rescued by emergency services who take him to hospital, but the doctors cannot work out what is wrong with him. A man Fišarek (Zdeněk Svěrák) visits his hospital neighbour Mikulík (Jiří Kodet). Olda hears Mikulík suggesting that he doesn’t want to go on and suggests Fišarek visits the young man. Fišarek is a natural healer and infuses Olda with energy – making him come around properly again.

died holding a remote

Fišarek then works with the young man to control his energy as it is at an extreme low, which has caused his condition. He teaches him to draw energy from wood (never from people, especially children, he says – citing the dangers of karma). When Mikulík dies they go to see the body, which Fišarek declares is devoid of any residual energy and seems to be pointing – until they discover he had been holding a TV remote. Mikulík’s daughter Anna (Edita Brychta), arrives just then, and clearly does not like Fišarek – thinking him a charlatan.

the TV Dimension

So, as the film develops Anna, a dentist by trade, and Olda will eventually start a relationship but it is complicated by the danger Olda finds himself in. We discover what that is as the film moves forward. After a scene where Fišarek sends Olda a long-distance energy boost, we see the younger man bouncing around his apartment brimming with energy – until he bounces before the TV set and the glow of the cathode ray touches him and he is immediately drained. Eventually we enter the “TV dimension” and discover what is actually going on (though Olda just knows that the TVs are to blame).

living death

There is a whole world inside the TV and some of it is populated by doppelgangers, including ones of Olda and Mikulík, who seem to live partying through their dimension. The insinuation is that they are created when someone is filmed and fails to fully express themselves (perhaps leaving part of their expression in that dimension, as there is a suggestion later that they truly are a part of the original somehow lost and become independent). They then use TVs to feed from their real-world counterparts. With Mikulík having died, his doppelganger cannot feed and is now becoming energy devoid himself – eventually he is laid to rest (over the side of the Titanic) where he lies, not dead but unmoving (and covered in cobwebs eventually). It is a type of living death.

drained by the cathode ray

In the real world Olda starts having to avoid TVs, carrying a stack of remotes to turn them off (there is a commentary about there not being a universal remote control, probably right for the time this was made) and hording wood to use as an energy source. He is able to see the reach of the cathode ray and manipulate energy enough to energise a lightbulb in his hand or cause a cop to fall asleep. He starts to develop a solution after reading a story to Anna’s daughter about a witch who became younger by forcing a Prince to relinquish his breath (stealing breath can be seen as a euphemism for energy vampirism).

Anna and Olda

This was wonderfully surreal, with a quirky humour running through it. The romance aspect worked well with Petr Forman and Edita Brychta displaying a realistic chemistry – but the romance never overwhelmed the fantasy aspect (or the social commentary about television). The TV dimension had some nice touches, like a cowboy (David Koller) who spoke English and so Czech subtitles appeared in front of him. The film stands out as a fantasy piece but for the genre fan it needs to be tracked down as an unusual energy vampire film that uses a very unusual medium for the energy theft. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

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Interesting Short: Wild Hunt

A short by Nancy Kilpatrick, this sits in the modern world (starting at the Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival) and follows L, a partially sighted fortune teller who truly head the Second Sight.

As we meet her, she is packing to leave the festival when Vlad, a vampire of the Ţepeş line, comes in and demands a reading. She has been expecting him, we discover, both because she was visited by one of his vampiric relatives early in the festival and because her Grandmother had predicted it.

Vlad tries to bite her but cannot penetrate her skin for mystical reasons, equally he discovers other sorts of penetration are closed to him. She knows that if she gives herself to him, she'll regain her sight but it is not the time – but her fate is to go with this, often brutal, vampire. As the story is from her viewpoint the story uses a brevity of physical description, which is stylistically interesting and handled with aplomb.

The vampires are playing a fratricidal/patricidal game and their society is mired in misogynistic and violent tradition. I loved the idea of luring a rival around sites associated with historical figures Peter Kürten & Fritz Haarmann simply as a way of mocking a supernatural vampire. This showed a twisted humour that really worked and could be expanded on – the story, however, is marvellously enclosed and eschews the need for follow up (whilst opening a vista that could also legitimately be explored).

On Kindle @ Amazon US

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The Lake Vampire – review

Director: Carl Zitelmann

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

Hailing from Venezuela, El Vampiro del Lago is a feature directorial debut for Carl Zitelmann and rather impressive it is too. It is part police procedural, which concentrates on a serial killer (or killers) who believes himself to be a vampire… however it straddles that line between supernatural and serial killer with grace and draws the viewer into questioning, along with the characters, whether this is a sick individual or truly a vampire. The film also, through flashback, follows two related storylines and does this confidently.

Miguel Ángel Landa as Morales

The film starts with a radio broadcast about the discovery of a girl’s head and the belief that the murder is part of a satanic ritual. Sat in his home, retired police inspector Jeremias Morales (played older by Miguel Ángel Landa), turns off the radio and retrieves a tape recorder and box of tapes. He plays one and the voice speaks about blood having an exquisite taste and holding a power that even God fears.

book signing

Ernesto Navarro (Sócrates Serrano) tries to get into a house but the key doesn’t work. It is his old home but he is going through a divorce from wife Patricia (Carla Muller). He shouts her, saying he needs his books, and she tosses a box off the balcony. The books are for a bookstore signing but no one is there. Navarro’s book was a cult hit five years before and his agent has strong armed him the signing. A man, obscured in the shot to hide his face, comes in and holds out a copy of the book that Navarro signs.

Maria Antonieta Hidalgo as Zuleima

That night newspaper intern Zuleima (Maria Antonieta Hidalgo) brings back issues of a newspaper to Navarro’s small flat. She is the woman he had an affair with that lead to his divorce and he seems somewhat dismissive of her – if I had a complaint about the film it is that her character seems more a cipher and could have been developed more, though his treatment of her says much about his personality. He is going to write a book about the killer we heard about on the radio - dubbed the Southern Devil.

head in the morgue

Navarro goes to a shoreline where he meets Judge Yolanda Gomez (Julie Restifo). He has been summoned there and it is an active crime scene. The reason for contacting him was the fact that a lot of papers had been burnt there but surviving was his signature from a signed copy of his book (he never pieces that it was from the recent signing, he had signed many copies over the years). This is another Southern Devil attack, with a severed head at the scene but no body. Later, in the morgue, he finds out that the victim must have been exsanguinated prior to beheading. Navarro notices Morales talking to the judge and later goes to the retired policeman’s home.

Eduardo Gulino as Ortega

Morales is reluctant to talk to him but eventually ends up telling him the story of how he caught the Lake Vampire, Zacarias Ortega (Eduardo Gulino), whose crime’s modus operandi was the same as the Southern Devil. The film flips into flashback with a younger Morales (Abilio Torres) capturing the manic, almost wild-man, Ortega. Ortega, apparently, committed suicide after five years in jail but then more crimes occur with the same MO, although a priest (with a large black dog) is blamed. Morales investigation also leads to another blood-drinker from years before - could all three be the same man?

Ortega attacks Morales

There is lore in this – whether it is real or not is irrelevant to some degree. Ortega is described as being inhumanely strong and thoroughly evil. He claims to have discovered the perks of blood drinking by draining himself and drinking his own blood as he did. He also claims to have made a deal with the devil – this deal precludes suicide but, it is claimed, if the vampire is not buried in three days he might come back to life. Navarro’s investigation also leads him to satanic murderous rituals in videos on the darkweb.

at gunpoint

This is a mystery and I don’t want to spoil that – the biggest mystery being, is the new killer the same man and is supernatural agency at work? The film is beautifully shot, with confident scene framing and the flashbacks all feel authentic to their purported period. The acting is excellent throughout but special mention to Miguel Ángel Landa as the older Morales, who is simply superb. Definitely worth seeking out. 8 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US