Short Film: Work Sucks!

This is a 2019 short film directed by Chris Ruppert and coming in at 15 minutes. It is played for laughs and thus the rubber body parts and laughable fangs actually work within the farcical concept. As the film starts, however, we get a huge amount of screaming and said body parts appearing.

A phone call wakes a man (Ian Anderson) and, receiving an address, he gets ready to go to work. He is a cleaner of blood and gore and he zips his coverall above a I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker tee-shirt then heads to the basement, where a slaughter has taken place.

Aj Nutter as Renfield

There is some time taken with the cleaner playing with body parts as he cleans the mess until, eventually, he notices something he shouldn’t have missed – a whole body. He gets out an electric saw and takes a hand, when the man (Aaron Ruppert) comes round; not dead at all. His existence is soon known by the boss, Dr Acula (Chris Ruppert), who sends flamboyant vampire Renfield (Aj Nutter) over to help with the disposal…

To get an idea of just what could go wrong, take a look at the short, which I’ve embedded below. The imdb page is here.

Blood Vessel – review

Director: Justin Dix

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers

Though released in 2019, this hit VoD in 2020 hot on the heels of Subferatu. Unlike the former this is set at the end of the war (rather than displaced in time) and is played seriously, whereas Subferatu is played entirely for laughs. The connection, therefore, is the idea that both take place on Nazi ocean-bound weapons of war.

In fact, I was struck how this owed some of its chops to Death Ship, which itself was a Naziploitation flick with a ragtag set of survivors adrift at sea and coming face to face with horror rather than rescue. Again, there is a difference, in that whilst this was on a budget it clearly aspired to be more than the product of its limitations.

in the raft

So, it starts with scenes of a life raft containing allied survivors of an attack. Intertitles tell us that the close to defeated, Nazi forces took up a position of attacking merchant and hospital vessels and survivors in order to demoralise their enemies. Then we meet our survivors. There are American ship cooks Lydell Jackson (Christopher Kirby, Queen of the Damned, The matrix Reloaded, Salem’s Lot, Daybreakers & Preacher) and Jimmy Bigelow (Mark Diaco), Russian sniper Alexander Teplov (Alex Cooke, also Preacher), Aussie soldier Nathan Sinclair (Nathan Phillips), British Intelligence officer Gerard Faraday (John Lloyd Fillingham), British nurse Jane Prescott (Alyssa Sutherland) and the Captain, Malone (Robert Taylor). They are adrift and rations are low.

the ship approaches

At night a ship comes out of the fog; it is German but it seems unmanned – though Sinclair seems to see a girl (Ruby Isobel Hall) on the prow, though he doesn’t mention it. The ship is passing them and potshots are taken, looking to hit metal cabling. Teplov, revealing for the first time that he can speak English, takes the gun and hits the cable, causing it to sheer and offering them a purchase. They pull themselves alongside and start to climb up a rope ladder – Faraday struggling as he has an arm in a sling. The last to climb is the Captain, but the rope ladder breaks and he falls, and subsequently he is torn apart by the propeller

veins on wall

So, as a storm suddenly starts up, they start to investigate the ship. They discover that Faraday had hidden rations in his sling and, when the scouting party search the (red glowing) bridge they find that the wheel is chained and discover a body. The body was interesting as his veins seemed to be growing out onto the wall of the bridge. Except, whilst it looked interesting, it wasn’t then explored as a concept. They find more bodies, burnt (and one with fangs) and a little girl, Mya (who was the one stood on the prow). At first she seems scared and feral – she bites Jane – but then goes with them. She speaks a language they don’t understand (the word for family is recognisable though), though Teplov knows it is Romanian.

the patriarch

So, on the vessel (now wearing Nazi uniforms, as their clothes were soaked) they find occult writings and also a store room where there is a fearful German (who ends up getting killed after killing one of them) and a box of Nazi gold plus what we would describe as a deluxe vampire killing kit. There are also ornate coffins, chained and stored in crates; a greedy survivor opens one – revealing a bat faced vampire, credited as the patriarch (Troy Larkin) and named as strigoï by Teplov. We get the lore that they can read minds and are shapeshifters, a bite turns and a mirror shows their true form. The coffin contains his wife (Vivienne Perry) and, of course, they are the family Mia mentioned.

Jane and Sinclair

The film does much with little. The ship is nicely claustrophobic, and there are some nice (if broad brush) characters. When we see the Patriarch in the first instance, he seems quite rubber-faced but the effect works better once he is up and animated. Most of the performances work within their broad-brush stereotypes – with John Lloyd Fillingham almost channelling Donald Pleasence, and Sinclair and Teplov proving two of the most engaging of the characters. The film doesn’t do much that you wouldn’t expect but it is a solid watch. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Vamp or Not? Death Ship

B movie horror fare from 1980 and directed by Alvin Rakoff, this was, I guess, partly a naziploitation film and certainly was a strange beast of a premise with a ship that seemed to be alive. My friend Leila suggested this might be a Vamp movie in the same way that I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle and Upír z Feratu are also vampire movies – in that we have a vampiric machine at the heart of the film.

Having settled down to watch this I became, as the film progressed, less convinced until close to the end where a line made me see where Leila was coming from. There was also the use of a trope that, whilst not exclusively Vamp, certainly originates from the genre. It was fair, I thought, to examine this as a ‘Vamp or Not?’

George Kennedy as Asland

So, things start with a vessel and a voice, speaking in German, stating that the enemy is in sight. The best way to describe it is that the ghost ship gears up to ramming speed. Cut to a cruise ship and we meet some of the passengers and crew. Firstly, Captain Ashland (George Kennedy), who is a bit of a terror to his crew but who is retiring after this trip. As well as him we meet his replacement, Trevor Marshall (Richard Crenna). The outgoing Captain hates doing the social thing with the passengers but he is forced, by professional obligation, to go to the party that is in full swing.

Saul Rubinek as Jackie

At the party the two Captains sit at the table with Marshall’s wife, Margaret (Sally Ann Howes), and kids, Robin (Jennifer McKinney) and Ben (Danny Higham). Margaret has Robin take the tired Ben back to the cabin. Also at the party we see crew member Nick (Nick Mancuso, Nightwing) and passenger Lori (Victoria Burgoyne) sneak off for some ‘how’s your father’ and we get some input from party compere Jackie (Saul Rubinek). Finally, Ashland speaks to passenger Sylvia Morgan (Kate Reid) before being called back to the bridge, who have detected the ship that is on collision course.

death ship

Try what they might the ship rams them and we get disaster movie scenes in montage with the idea that the cruise ship sinks quickly. We then see a raft with all the Marshalls, Jackie, Sylvia, Nick and Lori on. The obvious question was, in separate locations as the kids and lovers were, how did these particular passengers and crew all make it onto a raft (and it isn’t a lifeboat, mind) and why no one else – it is glaring, unanswered and quickly forgotten. Something is in the water and a hand breaks the surface. They pull Ashland out of the water – absolutely worse for wear. They drift until the ship (that unknown to them, rammed them) suddenly sneaks up behind them. At this point I was thinking this was a “they’re all dead and this is some form of afterlife” plot – not the case.

boarding the ship

So, after shouting for attention to no avail, they drift past a boarding ladder. They climb it, but as Nick and Marshall help the Captain up the camera cuts to the machinery of the ship, which starts to move – indicating cognitive action on the vessel’s part – and the ladder tilts and falls away. Luckily Lori manages to drop a rope ladder and they get onboard, but not without the ship dousing them with something – perhaps oil, perhaps bilge – as they climb, presumably trying to make them lose their grip. Following this the ship seems to catch Jackie in metal cables. He is hoisted, swung over the ocean, dunked then dropped – the anchor comes up and the engines start…

murdering Sylvia

From our point of view, what is important here is that we here a ghostly voice with German accent speak (telepathically, presumably) to the insensible Ashland – saying that he is the new captain of the ship. Later, when Sylvia’s face becomes lumpy (for want of a better description – possibly due to eating boiled sweets she finds), he murders her by strangulation at the ship’s urging, all the time seeing a disobedient sailor rather than his erstwhile passenger. Ashland is the embodiment of the trope I mentioned.

frozen victims

One might think that a Captain (and he dons a Nazi Captain’s uniform) is in charge of a ship but we need to remember this ship has been ghosting round the oceans for roughly forty years and presumably without a captain or crew for much of that and so does not need someone in charge. Indeed, Ashland is not in charge – though he thinks he is – the ship will not let him change course, for instance, if it doesn’t suit the ship. Ashland is very much the ship’s servant; in vampire genre parlance he is the ship’s Renfield. There logically must have been other servants as we see a freezer with past victims dangling and frozen – though Ashland seems to prefer burial at sea.

blood shower

The ship itself was a Nazi interrogation ship and is dedicated to its fascist origins – playing a film reel of Hitler at one point. We see no Nazi crew (they are long gone) it is the ship that is the Nazi. It can drop and weigh anchor of its own volition, the engines work – though the dials are all on zero and the source of its fuel is not revealed. It can also lock doors and, at one point, showers Lori in blood. Having Ashland just gives it a pair of hands (and the ability to shoot a rifle). So, why vamp?

homicidal ship

Well I struggled with this. The ship was supernaturally active but I didn’t see the immediate connection until Ashland declares that the ship needs blood, telling Marshall that it needs the blood of his family. Indeed, Ashland categorically states that its survival is dependent on getting blood. Of course, Ashland is mad, but this seems to be the primary command to its Renfield – get me blood. How it uses the blood is not revealed. We do see someone crushed in the cogs of the engine but there is no obvious indication that this feeds the ship. I wondered whether we get to see it using blood as fuel – we don’t – and one might argue that showering Lori in blood would therefore be a waste, unless of course it is recycled through the shower drain.

Into Eternity

So, is it Vamp? I think it all goes down to whether the viewer trusts the mad Renfield character’s exposition. If Ashland is correct when he says that ship needs blood to survive, then possibly yes. Even if the word blood actually means life generally, and the ship needs to take lives to survive, then there is an argument that it is surviving off victims’ life energies. Ashland gives a hint of immortality; when asked where he plans to sail her, he responds, “Into eternity, Marshall. Eternity.” Again, we need to caveat this with the fact that he thinks he is the master when he is clearly the servant and that he is mad. The problem is, this is an unashamed B piece and detailed discussion of underlying themes was not in the script as filmed.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Strange Events – review

Director: Oliver Park (segment)

Release date: 2017

Contains spoilers

Strange Events is another horror anthology that compiles previously made short films and, to be honest, I’m still a little split over this sort of film. Whilst I love a good anthology/portmanteau film there seems something a little cheating at just stitching shorts next to each other rather than creating a bespoke anthology. On the other hand, this type of anthology does certainly bring the viewer shorts they might not otherwise see.

In this case the short is entitled Vicious and I have classed it as vampire due to a makeup effect – possibly I shouldn’t have, but it just seemed to fit.

getting home

So, Lydia (Rachel Winters) returns home to discover that her front door is unlocked. She takes a knife and looks round the house but finds no-one and nothing out of place. Her search makes us see a sympathy card, and photo, referencing Katie (Isabelle King) – a blurb for the short letting us know that they were sisters. Eventually Lydia goes to bed.

hand

What we get then is a slow rise where Lydia’s sleep is disturbed by noises, ghostly events, bad dreams, the view of a sinister woman (Katie) that is possibly nothing more than pareidolia and a mysterious figure (Alex Holden). Rachel Winters does a good job at emoting panicked terror and it builds to an inevitable confrontation/jump scare. But what of the vampire?

vampire

At a point in the film a figure comes out of the dark on all fours and it is Katie. Now, from Lydia’s dream we know she had light coloured hair and here she becomes dark. It is interesting, therefore, that in Dracula Lucy’s hair is described as having “sunny ripples”, which is evocative of (and taken by some as) being light coloured but when undead she is described as a “dark-haired woman”. Katie’s face has changed – the makeup reminiscent of that used in Buffy her eyes now white orbs and her teeth sharp. It is just a moment but led to review.

Fear

So, the short is effective in what it is trying to do, largely down to Rachel Winters, but what it is doing feels quite pedestrian – the nocturnal terrorising of a woman by forces known and unknown. It is only twelve minutes, so doesn’t outstay its welcome and the photography and direction is competent. As part of the greater whole, for the anthology, it holds its own. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Acts of a Vampiric Nature

This is a 12-minute short that was directed by Tinofara Michael Hapaguti and released in 2015. There is a bit of an Edvard Munch theme to the short in that the painting Love and Pain, also known as Vampire, is used within the film but also that there is an opening narration (Adam Behr) that is a quote by Munch and I’ll reproduce in full:

“From the moment of my birth, the angels of anxiety, worry, and death stood at my side, followed me out when I played, followed me in the sun of springtime and in the glories of summer. They stood at my side in the evening when I closed my eyes, and intimidated me with death, hell, and eternal damnation. And I would often wake up at night and stare widely into the room: Am I in Hell?” (n.d.)

skulls

Whilst this is narrated, we get a flow of images, including a stone angel and skulls, all of which are beautifully photographed. Once the quote has finished, the title has been displayed, we meet Max (Stephen Critchley) – the credit of Max’s surname being Dreyer obviously reaching to the wonderful Vampyr. He awakens in bed and puts a light on, the room seems to be a closet, the bed taking up the entire space. On the door opposite is a glamour poster but, when he attempts to pleasure himself, memories of being with a woman (Lizzie Aaryn-Stanton) destroys his ardour.

outside

He steps into the living room, puts on music and opens a door that leads outside. He steps into the night, contemplating it. But again, he is interrupted by memories, this time of being stood in the same place, during the day, with the woman. On returning to his apartment he washes his hand (a nail brush is used to scrub his palms, intimating OCD possibly) but he sees the woman moving past in the mirror.

transfusion

Back in the living room she seems to be there and calls him by name. He has an NHS fact sheet, there is a chair and a stand, a fridge that contains bags of blood. He intends to transfuse himself but the woman wishes to help – something he refuses, he will do it himself. The question becomes who is she? Is she real? A projection of memory? Or perhaps a figment of guilt? The answers are embedded below.

Love and Pain

I rather liked this as the filmmakers decided to use a blurred narrative that had enough hooks to lead you through the story but was vague enough through the running to allow an edge of mystery, the solution to which was not difficult to see but was satisfactorily revealed. The blurring also came to the wider world drawn – giving hints of a wider story without entirely presenting them.

The imdb page is here.

Short film: Punishment

This was a short film directed by Saowalak Jokthong, Manoon Nutchada, Noppavit Nonsiriwong and Peerapol Taiyaithieng, which is a whole lot of directors for an 8:18 long film. The film itself is silent, simple, very stylised and set in, what I guess is, a school or college.

bitten

We see three women, one walking the halls, one in a dark room (type of set-up) and one checking supplies in a lit room. The last woman does not notice the first walk past her door. The first heads into the dark room and then corners and bites the woman in there… The last woman will, however, walk in on the attack and be first horrified and then fascinated by it… wherein lies the punishment?

That’s the rub and you can find out in the short, embedded below. At the time of writing I couldn’t find an IMDb page.

Honourable Mentions: 3-D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy

The Sex and zen films are Chinese softcore flicks that stand on the cusp of falling into the adult categorisation but, certainly in this case, actually fall on the side of bedroom farce (to a point). This outing was released in 2011 and was directed by Christopher Sun, watched in 2-D it was one of those releases where you could see shots gratuitously set up for 3-D that perhaps didn’t translate as well directorially without that technology.

This was based loosely on the 17th century Chinese novel The Carnal Prayer Mat and it was Leila who suggested that there is a vampire aspect to the film – which there is.

The film itself follows the scholar Wei Yangsheng (Hiro Hayama), who is critical of the hedonistic goings on of the Prince of Ning (Tony Ho, Sifu Vs Vampire). He attends a meeting with his friend Dique (Kai-Man Tin), to meet his buddy’s prospective wife, Yuxiang (Leni Lan Crazybarby). However, Yangsheng and Yuxiang fall for each other and it is they who marry.

Hiro Hayama as Wei

She is rather passionless and he suffers from premature ejaculation (and is under-endowed it is later revealed) and so their sex life is unsatisfactory. Dique helps him gain entry into the Prince’s pleasure palace, but rather than uncover evidence to ruin the Prince he is quickly lost in the decadent lifestyle and introduced to a woman who can balance his energies enough to allow prolonged sexual congress. He ends up indebted to the Prince, agreeing to serve him for ten years, and divorced (though the two actually love each other).

Vonnie Lui as the Elder of Bliss

So, vampire? The Prince is expecting a visit from the fugitive known as the Elder of Bliss (Vonnie Lui). Yangsheng vocalises a perceived slight because he isn’t there and the Prince suggests a visiting woman entertain him. She has a strange snake-like piece of costuming wrapped around her leg but soon it becomes mobile and is revealed to be her ornate, carved genitalia, which she whips around as though it were a tentacle, both smashing a servant and lifting a cartwheel. It is then revealed that the Elder of Bliss is androgynous, though actually they seem to present as female with a male voice.

the teenage victims

The Elder retires back to their home, after the exertion of the demonstration, and Yangsheng follows desperate for the Elder to teach him some of their secrets. When he and his manservant enter the home there is a group of elderly people who call the Elder 'Godfather'. It transpires that they are all teenagers whom the Elder has fed upon, consuming their yang to boost their yin. The Elder agrees to help Yangsheng in return for a favour to be disclosed later (to which he foolishly agrees) and his servant, who will be used as food. When we see him next, he too is elderly.

servant is preyed upon

So, an energy vampire consuming one form of energy to boost another and causing premature aging in their victims. As for the film itself, it is softcore – we get nudity and simulated sex – with a thin story, a great cartoonish performance by Tony Ho and bedroom farce comedy – however the mood of the film darkens as it goes on and both rape and sexual violence replace the bedroom farce, making it uncomfortable as a watch later into the film. The Elder of Bliss is not in the film that much and so I’ve held this to honourable mention for what amounts to a fleeting visitation.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Bio Raiders – review

Director: Tommy Leung

Release date: 2017

Contains spoilers

This was an odd one. I read it was a vampire film and was prepared for it to go down the more usual kyonsi movie route. Then, as I watched, I felt it was perhaps more a zombie flick and was tempted towards writing a ‘Vamp or Not?’ when bam… it was full on western styled vampire. Unfortunately to get to the vampire I will have to spoil a primary twist but feel no guilt – as the IMDb blurb for the film already spoils it (despite the blurb not actually matching the film plot).

It also stars some very familiar faces from Hong Kong cinema as we’ll see. However this film did feel like it was done on the cheap, certainly compared to some of the films they have been involved in.

figure in red

So, it starts with a voice over about a flower that herbalists speak of that can replenish blood and heal people, that herbalists have searched for as it is very rare. We then see a herbalist, Li Yao Shi (Siu-Ho Chin, Mr Vampire, Rior Mortis & Vampire Cleanup Department - amongst many) gathering herbs at night. He seems haunted by a figure in red… He comes around, trussed up and knelt before a home shrine with Pearl (Hu Xiang-Zhen) sat by him. She is the daughter of a man whose life he saved and has decided she will marry him. She tried to force him through the ritual and then takes his reluctance as an indication he wants to go straight to the bedroom.

the zombies

She drags him to the bed, still trussed, but he tells her that he loves another. She has taken a flower shaped hair pin from his pocket and rightly surmises it is a token and places it in her hair. She continues her carnal assault (in the tamest sense) until there is a knock at the door. Eventually, after more knocking, she goes to answer it and is faced with two strange looking robed blokes with painted faces. Pearl and the men fight and Li realises they are zombies. He gets loose from the bed and manages to stop them with needles (in a form of acupuncture of the undead). However, the mastermind of the attack makes his presence known, with a group of soldiers behind him.

Richard Ng as Master Mo

Brother Lei (Billy Lau, also Mr Vampire, also Rigor Mortis & Haunted Cop Shop - amongst many) was a student with Li under Master Mo (Richard Ng, Also Rigor Mortis, also Vampire Cleanup Department & Mr Vampire 3) before they were both expelled. Lei is now working for a general and the son (Eddy Law) thereof, who is also a general, has been shot and is dying. Lei has come to force Li to help save the young man. They are taken at gunpoint to the general’s mansion. Whilst there, Li discovers that Lei has also taken Master Mo – but the man seems to be suffering dementia – and his daughter, and the love of Li’s life, who is referred to as Junior Sister (Liu Jia). However, she still looks as young as when they were expelled, whereas Li and Lei have aged normally – this is put down to the skill she was taught by Master Mo.

Eddy Law as Young General

So, the young General is dying and is poisoned and becomes a poisoned corpse – essentially a zombie going after all his officers and a nurse, who are all turned and are pretty much dumb as rocks (though horny too). However, after they make the Master’s fabled elixir, there is a change in the young general and he now craves blood. Without the addition of the flower mentioned at the beginning the elixir heals but cannot replenish blood and the recipient craves blood. Aha, thought I… that’s vampiric and whilst he acts like a zombie, he may be a vampire or at least a zompire.

vampire revealed

However, we also get tale of a plague years before… which was actually a series of vampire attacks. Eventually, having thrown unwarranted shade at Master Mo, the film reveals that it is Junior Sister, whose life was saved with the elixir decades before but made her a vampire (there is a hint this is tied with the moon, but that is not explicit) and when she reveals herself she is depicted pretty much as a western vampire – though her fangs are really widely spaced. So, what is the journey like getting there?

Li and Pearl

The film is played pretty much for laughs and the primary source of the humour is Pearl and her obsession in respect of Li and her jealousy. Some bits are genuinely funny, others bizarrely so (such as using acupuncture to make her breasts inflate for one minute so she can use them to batter zombies) but she was also the issue I had with the film. She was really shrill (purposefully so) and the performance threatened to give me, as viewer, a headache at times. It was unfortunate and, had the performance been knocked down a notch or two it may have really worked.

Billy Lau as Lei

More amusing was Billy Lau as the duplicitous, untrustworthy Lei, who worked the scenes like the pro he is. Both Pearl and Lei pretty much used Li as straight man and foil and again Siu-Ho Chin worked the scenes with great aplomb. Richard Ng was fairly under-used in the present-day scenes but was central to flashbacks that we got through the film. The effects were low key and the film felt cheaper than it might have done, especially when compared to films like Rigor Mortis. Scoring it, I’m somewhat torn but can’t get over the Pearl character. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

Phantasmagoria 2: Labyrinths of blood – review

Director: Cosmotropia de Xam

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

I haven’t seen the first film, that this is the sequel to, but despite having two primary characters in common I doubt it matters. The first film, from what I can gather, was a possession/exorcism-based film with the character Valentina Creepax (Mari K.) the subject of the film. If the film had the same amount of narrative exposition as this film then I’ve probably summed it up.

That said, such narrative can be eschewed when pursuing an arthouse sensibility, it is true, however despite the fact that this is the case here and despite the fact that it most definitely homages Jess Franco - actually filming in some of Franco’s recognisable locations – this is actually hamstrung by the lack of narrative and by some truly dreadful performances (which I’ll get too).

purple blood

Starting with the Valentina character, with imagery of her eyes gouged out (a recurring image with more than one character) and then cutting to a vampire with a girl, whom she manhandles like a limp doll and bites. Her blood is purple – purposefully so. It seems vampires have purple blood, in order to contrast the blood type with Valentina’s red (virgin) blood, for reasons that soon become apparent.

Mari K. as Valentina

We see Valentina sat on a bed, surrounded by dolls. She reads from a book and her words tell us the basic lore/narrative premise of the film. That the vampires seek to create one by mixing their blood, virgin’s blood and holy water, to create a beast that is under their control and impervious to religious iconography, who will bring innocents to them. Yes, you’re right. It sounds awfully convoluted, as does them sending a doppelgänger of her so they can get her virgin blood.

at the lake

We get to a point, in the deliberately over-exposed digital filming where we see Valentina languidly pursued, climbing a tree to get away from her vampire pursuers and eventually going into the lake/pond. How she then washes onto an ocean’s beach is not explained and expected to be accepted within the arthouse form – perhaps it represented moving from one world to another? I’m probably being generous; and the art never captivated me enough to allow it to wash over me oblivious to the narrative failings. She is rescued by the Contesse (Rachel Audrey).

Rachel Audrey as the wise woman

It is here that the film totally lost me. As the Contesse spoke to her I wrote in my notes, “wooden”. The Contesse does give more background, talking of the prophecy of Baba Yaga, connecting the story into Dracula and talking about the new race of vampires that is due to be created. The Contesse (who is a vampire herself and this is revealed later) suggests that Valentina consult a wise woman in a nearby cave – also played by Rachel Audrey. In this case Audrey is made up with prosthetic clay to make it look like she has no eyes, but in fact looks like she has prosthetic clay on her face.

fangs

Elsewhere on the island another character from the first film, reporter Diane Cooper, is continuing her story (from the first film). Now as I watched I was absolutely struck by the awful acting not realising at first that Cooper was also played by Rachel Audrey. Now, there is a success in characterisation, I guess, as Cooper and the Contesse were clearly different characters but – and I hate being horrible – there was nothing else positive to report. If her performance as the Contesse was wooden, the Cooper performance combined wooden and grating.

Dracula café 

The film really lost me due to these performances. The look of the film was interesting, the re-treading of Franco haunts was entertaining, the stop outside the Dracula café was amusing enough but the fact that we were in the presence of Diane Cooper threatened to remove the amusement. The confused (ill-explained) narrative didn’t help and the art aspects didn’t feel sincere enough to escape pretentious. That said, whilst I normally like vampire arthouse, it is a sub-genre that is love it or hate it and I suspect this might be the same. Unfortunately, this one fell in the latter camp for me. 2.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.