Village of the Vampire – review

Director: Roberto D'Antona

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

I fail, and always have, to see the point in dubbing a movie – bar some accessibility reasons. For each movie where the dubbing is well done, there are many more, like this Italian vampire film, where the dub is mistimed and poorly voice acted. It must be cheaper, surely, just to subtitle the original recording?

Not that the dubbing on this film, also known as Caleb, is the only issue. Overly long and poorly paced the film drips with melodrama – but little of the investigative side the plot promises. That said it does have some great vampire images through its length.

Elena and friend

It starts with a street in the dark and two women – one whose name I didn’t catch and the other Elena (Erica Verzotti) – who are running from something in their nightclothes. They stop and the first says *he* is in her head. Suddenly she vanishes and then Elena sees her dead on the road. She is grabbed by the vampires… Cut forward... Rebecca (Annamaria Lorusso) is a famous journalist and Elena’s sister. The latter has been missing 3 months. Rebecca is about to take leave but tells her editor that she is going to meet a source first, who might have information about Elena.

Annamaria Lorusso as Rebecca

She goes to a medieval restaurant and is taken to the contact. He waxes lyrical about being a fan – he sounds creepy stalkerish and the bad dub-dialogue and poor voice acting probably doesn’t help. Would it sound better in the original Italian? Probably, though he’d likely still seem creepy. Nevertheless, he gets to the point, he has found a file belonging to Elena (a wannabe journalist) who went into the mountains looking into a series of missing persons, her companion was his sister-in-law. Everything centres on a village called Timere – a village not on any map. Rebecca decides to holiday there.

Marta and Gaspare

Once there she finds an insular village (with no cell reception) with plenty of weird characters. The local inn only has two rooms, luckily one was vacated that day. In the morning she meets Gaspare (Francesco Emulo) and Marta (Natalia Moro), the couple staying in the other room. He is a horror novelist and they came to Timere by mistake. After seeing him on the street under an umbrella, in the sun, they also soon meet Caleb (Roberto D'Antona), a philanthropist who everyone in the village appears to love. He invites them to the ballet performed by a troupe he invited to the village.

A bite at the ballet

At the ballet he chomps down – because he is obviously the vampire – on a woman in a box, who seems to welcome his toothsome ministrations. Backstage, after the performance, the vampires eat the troupe (at this point we see only Caleb and his companions Cora (Nicole Blatto) and Anastasia (Susanna Tregnaghi) but there are more). Rebecca starts having strange hallucinations often involving blood and her sister. And, given the fact that the film is some 160 minutes or so, it takes its sweet time getting to a resolution – a resolution involving a group of vampire hunters we don’t see until late into the film.

out in the day

Lore-wise there isn’t too much to report. The local wine is produced with drops of Caleb’s blood in it – so, as one wine drinking character says, if they are bitten but not drained they will turn. Drinking the blood of the dead is poisonous to a vampire. Holy water is like acid and crosses ward (though Caleb makes a cross spontaneously combust). They are sunlight sensitive but we don’t know how much. Caleb was turned by a business man in Transylvania who said that “the blood is the life” – likely an oblique inference that it was Dracula and now we get to Caleb's backstory.

vampire hunters

This was handled really badly. Rebecca and Gaspare escape his clutches and meet the vampire hunters and we are rushing into the finale (having dragged our feet getting here) when they decide to tell his backstory – we already had the bit about his sire in dialogue – and move into flashback covering his childhood, being sent to Transylvania, getting back but not his time in Transylvania. We get the tale of an abusive father, who murders both puppies and Caleb's love, and it just grinds the pace to a halt. A one-minute piece of dialogue would have sufficed. The film was too long without this flashback – it needs editing out, desperately (notwithstanding Rebecca referencing it later).

the imagery works

I can’t really comment on the acting due to the dub – I can say the voice acting was on par with some of the worst from the seventies and the syncing to the actual dialogue was very hit and miss with some terrible moments of words and a moment later the mouth moving. Annamaria Lorusso did, for the most part, shine visually and I hope her actual dialogue delivery was as good as her physical acting. On the other hand, with all that said, there were great visual vampire moments. It just desperately needs the original dialogue, subtitles and an extensive appointment with an editor. 4 out of 10 reflects that the melodrama was there and a view that a half-decent film might lurk if the issues are addressed.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Creepshow: Model Kid (S2 ep1)

From the modern reimagining of Creepshow comes this story that was in season 2 episode 1 paired with the story Public Television of the Dead (which was, incidentally an Evil Dead related story staring Ted Raimi). Model Kid was first and was directed by Greg Nicotero.

The episode was a classic monster episode but was mostly orientated towards Gillman and the Mummy, with a fleeting visitation of Frankenstein’s Monster. However there was enough vampire aspect to warrant an honourable mention.

dressed as Dracula

The opening has a black and white, silent feature. A woman on an altar, a man rescuing, an attack by the Mummy and Gillman intervening with the mummy. As a voice calls out as mum (Tyner Rushing, Lovecraft Country) announces herself home. Gillman’s black and white flashes blue and we see Joe (Brock Duncan) is painting his model whilst watching the home cine film. He is dressed as Dracula – with face painted, a black widow peaked wig and fake fangs (so first reason for the honourable mention, acting as a vampire). We discover that he is bullied and that his Aunty Barb (Jana Allen, the Bleeding) and Uncle Kevin (Kevin Dillon) are there.

Gillman & the Mummy

It becomes apparent that he dislikes Uncle Kevin – mostly as Kevin himself is a bully, a man filled with false machismo and, we discover later, a domestic abuser. However they are moving in – partly because Kevin has lost his job and partly because mom is due her next course of chemo. Unfortunately, in a rather touching moment, Joe and mom watch a movie together and she passes peacefully with them cuddled. Of course, his Aunt and Uncle are now his guardians but perhaps there is a way Joe can deal with Uncle Kevin? After all his friends are monsters…

Joe with fangs

So, I won’t spoil how he is dealt with but in the last minutes we see Joe, blonde locks now black, fangs in his mouth and, as the comic book that comes up in the last frame tells us, the fangs are newly grown. So, for a fleeting moment, we see Joe turned into a vampire. And this segment was good fun, using the classic monsters and nostalgia to make an effective little vignette.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US via shudder

On Demand @ Amazon UK via Shudder

Short Film: Slayer

This 2018 Czech film by Dimitri Kanjuka is a 10-minute short that was part of the 2018 Screamfest and, at time of writing, is on YouTube but available in the US and not necessarily in other territories. It is filmed with a nice quality of photography, a nice slice of class and a steampunk mentality.

It starts with quite a stylised opening credit sequence through which we see the eponymous slayer (Jaroslav Picka) preparing for the evening’s hunt.

vampire

Out into the night and, after following the sound of slurping, he comes across a vampire (Roman Dvorak) leant over his victim. The vampire is neatly drawn, blood slathered over his face, long hair and an animalistic feel, which contrasts well with the slayer’s steampunk attire. The slayer puts down his lantern with a thump, getting his prey’s attention and produces a pistol and a stake. The vampire lets out a guttural cry…

vampires

The cry is answered and soon there are more vampires than you could shake a stick at. However the slayer is not the only vampire hunter either… The short is mostly a well-choreographed fight scene, vampires versus slayer(s) and doesn’t need to be anything more. Of course the question is who will win – mortal or undead?

The imdb page is here.

Shin Tetsujin 28: The Curse of Dracula – review

Directors: Katsuyoshi Yatabe & Tetsuo Imazawa

First aired: 1981

Contains spoilers

Shin Tetsujin 28 was a 1980s anime based on the manga Tetsujin 28-go and adapted for the States as The New Adventures of Gigantor. It follows the adventures of Shotaro Kaneda (Eiko Hisamura) who controls a giant robot.

Shotaro is part of the ICPO (essentially Interpol) and the robot can be summoned to where he is but he needs to control it by remote control otherwise, so it needs to be in eyeline. Why a child is left with this responsibility… well, probably best not asking. The anime is very much aimed at kids, with the child protagonist. However, it does not shy away from death.

standing over victim

This episode starts with a castle and a car driving through a forested area. Something over the windshield distracts the driver and he stops. He sees red eyes in the night and then bats start swooping towards him and he gets back into the car, but the bats attack the vehicle as he drives and he crashes. He crawls from the wreck and is swamped by bats, which bite him – his skin pales. Dracula stands above him, laughing and vowing death to the ICPO.

Inspector Otsuka & Shotaro

Shotaro is briefed by Inspector Otsuka (Kousei Tomita) about the death, which occurred in Lancashire, England, and was not the first agent of the ICPO to be killed by what appears to be bat bites. He and Shotaro, along with Tetsujin, are to go to England to investigate. On arrival they meet ICPO agent Kengamu who tells them that an eye witness has recognised Dracula. When they protest that Dracula isn’t real Kengamu admits that they unearthed Dracula’s grave in an investigation some three years before – when we see the scene, bats escape the opened coffin – but had somehow forgotten about that.

bat attack

Shotaro, Otsuka and Kengamu go out to investigate but are soon besieged by bats and call on Tetsujin. Now what use a giant robot is in that situation, I’ll come back to. Before we go there, I will say that Kengamu is killed by one of the bats and so, as mentioned, this does not shy away from death (indeed Shotaro and Otsuka find a cave whose walls are lined with the corpses of victims). What I don’t intend to go into is exactly what Dracula’s grudge is nor his vampiric credentials.

Tetsujin attacks robot mummy

What I will say is that, whilst Tetsujin looks a tad silly trying to swat bats his presence is not wasted. At one point he is attacked by what could only be described as a large kaiju – what that was doing in a lake in England is anyone’s guess. Also, Dracula has a giant robot mummy at his command (well he would, wouldn’t he) and they also fight… As for the episode, well ultimately it is fluff (but fluff coming from the part of the series where they added in a horror derived element – the following episode had zombies in Rio at the centre of it). The animation looks aged, but on the other hand that gives it a retro feel. If you like 80s anime, and you can get over the conceits, it is a way to pass just under half an hour. 4 out of 10 for the episode.

The episode's imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Hellkat

Directed by Scott Jeffrey & Rebecca Matthews and released in 2021, it was only as I sat down to write this article that I realised that the directors were also responsible for Bats. It is odd as this, like the other film, is tied to very limited sets but manages to work with them that little bit more.

It is guilty of stretching the story out, as it is fairly simple, and having some gaps in the narrative, but it is able to hold itself together cohesively that little bit better. The fantastical setting, once we realise we are in a fantastical setting, allowing the viewer to forgive much more than a real world setting.

driving

It starts with sounds from a fight arena and then we see Katrina 'HellKat' Bash (Sarah T. Cohen) driving, she smokes a cigarette and later a joint and the background is clearly matted onto the side window to give an impression of driving but looking so obvious. Later, when we realise where she is, or rather isn’t, hindsight allows us to realise this wasn’t so bad. Indeed, it may have even been deliberate. The car overheats and she gets out the car, packs her meagre belongings (mostly a packet of weed) into a bag and walks.

Jimmy's demon face

A car pulls up behind her. The driver, Jimmy Scott (Ryan Davies), offers her a ride. The nearest town is 60 miles away. Once in the car he comes across as rather evangelically Christian – a cross dangles from the rear-view mirror and his conversation is geared towards discussions of the church. He pulls over, when they reach town, but keeps her door locked and knows her name – he says he’s been looking for her. She grabs a gun and he transforms into a demonic visage and she shoots. She escapes the car and, once out of sight, he comes around. Despite the fangs he is definitely demonic rather than vampiric.

drunks in the bar

After a curtailed visit to the bus station (a segment that probably meant more to the filmmakers than it communicated to the audience) she ends up at a sleazy bar, cleaning up bodily fluids in return for tequila, smokes and a drunk tank to sleep in. One aspect I haven’t mentioned is that Jimmy asks about a scar on her neck, between tattoos. She was unaware of it and it dawns on us (and her more slowly) that she is dead and this is not earth.

vampire?

Where is she? It's not clear; possibly a demon ruled purgatory (and one with two moons). Jimmy owns the bar, indeed everything there, but is clear it isn’t Hell – Hell is where you go if you fail there. He wants Katrina to fight – she was a Mixed Martial Arts fighter when alive but killed herself leaving her son behind (and apparently negligently killing a family as her still smouldering cigarette burnt the building down). Once she has agreed she is placed in the ring with a monster. Having won (just) she meets other souls having to fight and it is amongst the opponents that we come to the honourable mentions.

bite

It is human fighter Grizz’ (Serhat Metin, Vampire Academy) turn to fight and his opponent has that bat/vampire look that is common within the genre. During the fight it manages to bite down on Grizz’ neck, though the human is eventually victorious. The film doesn’t say this is meant to be a vampire but the description feels right. However it is only a fleeting visitation.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Wrong Place, Wrong Time – review

Director: Justin Price

Release date: 2021

Contains spoilers

Action heist film meets vampires in a film that doesn’t contain the heist – honest. This is one of those low budget efforts where the director is also the producer, the screenwriter, as well as the cinematographer and, as such, becomes an abject lesson in why these roles should, often, be fulfilled by separate people. It’s all a matter of checks and balances on the artistic process, the ability to look at the roles independently and as director, for instance, see where there is a script issue and get a rewrite.

Nevertheless, we are where we are, so let’s see what we’ve got.

gunfight

We start off in a gun battle between masked robbers using sub-machine guns and FBI and SWAT. This is the nearest we get to a heist (though this is, we discover, the escape from the mini-heist to enable the main heist). The gunfight seems visceral enough, practical effects used helps, but its not that exciting; the number of law enforcement low and both sides as accurate as… well lets just say a lot of ammo is spent before the crew, who are mostly in the open, take the cops out. There are odd moments too, a bystanding mother has her head blown off, covering her young son in blood. Leader of the crew Solomon (Alex Ryan Brown) takes his mask off and delays the getaway in order to give him a pep talk.

Solomon and Sage

But they do make their escape, going to the back of the building (I guess) to pick up another crew member Gabriel (Mike Markoff). He is watching a security guard (Orvalle Jr.) who is injured and, just before they get to him, kills the man in cold blood. When he gets a querying look from a crew member, he says the guard had reached for a weapon. It is obvious that his holster is empty... So let’s meet the rest of the crew – there is Sage (Franziska Schissler), Solomon’s sister, Kira (Olivia Rivera) and James (Chase Garland). The place they have just ripped off is a cartel facility and James whines that the take is low. Solomon shows codes he retrieved – that was the true goal, they steal a data stick the next day and they’ll have billions.

finding captives

So the film gives us a little background on the characters curtesy of James who rats them out and hands files on them to the cartel – except for Gabriel as he can’t get a dossier together on him and describes him as a ghost. From this we jump to after the proper heist (which we never see), they are trying to get away but Gabriel is mortally wounded and so they pull into a remote house and home invade. When they search the house, they discover a woman and her daughter, hands tied and feet chained, and sitting silently in the kitchen. Sage finds a tracker on the car (so they know they’ve been ratted out), they have two hostages from the heist – one killed straight off the bat and the other, a young woman, kept as insurance. The daughter screams at this and manages to bite Solomon’s arm before she is subdued and the pair are put in a closet. Then the owner of the house, Luther (Timothy McKinney), gets home and guess what he is…

manbat form

So, nonsensical things happen. Kira is sent into the garage to look for a car – with Luther. The garage is huge and filled with loads of vehicles (most of which didn’t look roadworthy). He quickly tears her face off and rips her spine out, but no one seems to bother looking for her – there is a mention of she should be back and that’s it. The data stick is in a pendant that seems to have belonged to Luther (or his past love) – that was a coincidence that was poor and was then not explored in detail. Gabriel has scars and the mother has identical ones – so he is somehow connected and (without being visited by a vampire) turns when he dies, which made no sense. Kidnapped young woman knows tales of these creatures from Serbia and is more than she seems – again it seemed too contrived.

staked

The lore we get mentions Babaroga – a Serbian version of Baba Yaga, but Luther is no ‘old woman with horns’ though he does have a man-bat form and can fly. However, in this Babaroga are described as “Creatures who feasted off the livestock” who after time became Daya or “The devil of three faces.” This was relayed by the young woman’s grandmother to her, who also said that they are always men and the condition is punishment for wickedness. Sunlight, garlic and stakes are mentioned (and Gabriel is killed with a table leg and melts with what I described, as I took notes, as “a wibbly wobbly sound effect”). They cast no reflection and a bite can turn a victim into a familiar – referred to as a ghoul.

assailant not reflected

The story jumped around, aspects (as mentioned) were contrived (and unnecessarily so, as they were in the ‘Wrong Place, Wrong Time’, as the title states, the tying of Gabriel and Sage to the vampires was unnecessarily unwieldly) and others made little sense. We never got enough character development to give a monkey’s about them and the tension was not built as it should have been. The acting wasn’t great and so, again, the viewer has no sympathy and there wasn’t the emoting needed to build into the missing tension – Sage in a car being attacked by man-bat Luther and him climbing through the front, whilst she tried desperately to get out, could have been a heart pounding moment but was simply pedestrian.

Not great, but the practical effects worked well for the budget. 2.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: A Tale of a Sassy Little Girl

Directed by Francesca Nobili, this stop-motion animation from 2017 is less than 3-minutes in length and is a neat little foray into imagination.

The sassy little girl is in bed when there is a knocking at the window. It turns out this is because the skeleton of a pirate is tapping with its hooked hand that it then scraps down the window pane. The bedroom door opens and a mummy comes in, whilst the skeleton opens the window.

the vampire

The open window allows a bat to fly in, which transforms into a vampire. The little girl with no more ado, gets out of bed and pulls a small keyboard from under it – but what could that possibly do against the monstrous trio? Well the answer is embedded below but I do want to reproduce the dedication on the film’s vimeo page: “I want to dedicate this video to all the little girls, young girls and women out there who face their own "monsters" every day, and remind them that they have the strength, the courage and the creativity to fight and win”.

The imdb page is here.

A tale of a sassy little girl from Circle Entertainment, LLC on Vimeo.

Vampire Holmes: Season 1 – review

Director: Yoshinobu Sena

Release date: 2015

Contains spoilers

Vampire Holmes was a smartphone game that this anime series (of 13 episodes) was created to advertise. Just because a series was designed specifically to advertise another thing does not necessarily make it bad… it being bad makes it bad.

The episodes come in, mostly, between 2 and 3 minutes (and that includes opening and end credits. The slightly longer episodes are extended with actual adverts for the game. The opening credits are, however, the (not really so very-)saving grace as these at least have vampire imagery – fangs, fang marks and crosses abound.

Holmes and Hudson

The actual show sees Hudson (Nobunaga Shimazaki) take the case of the missing Marybeth to the financially bankrupt Holmes (Yoshinobu Sena) – who seems to do nothing with it. Also appearing on occasion are Christina (Ayahi Takagaki), Holmes’ landlord and Kira (also Ayahi Takagaki) a talking demon cat. The only suggestions of vampires through the anime series is the idea that Holmes will melt in the sun during the day (never actually shown) and him collapsing due to anaemia.

the twisted box

A werewolf does come into things – and at the end Holmes seems to have dealt with that and found Marybeth, it’s just… we don’t see any of that. We just get a series of chaotic images using normal anime and chibi style. The one moment where the series became clever was where Holmes opens a ‘twisted box’ and he becomes almost Picasso-esque in design and Kira moves from Chibi to realistically drawn – the fourth wall is broken as this is explored but in episodes that barely last two minutes it isn’t for long.

Christina

As for getting the DVD… well, let’s just say I hadn’t realised that this was what I was going to get and may well have avoided it had I known. The 2 out of 10 this is getting is for the twisted box concept, otherwise the score would have been much lower. This is one to be avoided unless you are a collector of all things vampire (and then we are really talking a name and the credit imagery) or a collector of all things anime.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Scare Me

Not to be confused with the horror portmanteau film also called Scare Me from the same year, this is sort of a portmanteau film starring, written and directed by Josh Ruben. I say “sort of” because it involves the characters telling stories and acting them out, rather than moving to filmed segments that represent the stories being told. On the director & cinematographer commentary it is described as they “shot a play with sound design” and I think that is as good a description as any. Whilst that might sound odd, it is the sort of idea that relies on an excellent cast and, in that respect, the cast did a stellar job.

Fanny and Fred meet

Fred (Josh Ruben), newly estranged from his wife, has taken a break from his job in an advertising firm and has headed to the Catskills Mountain to follow his dream of being an author and write a werewolf novel. Jogging the first morning he meets Fanny (Aya Cash) who is also renting a cabin to write… but she is the bestselling author of zombie novel Venus (in which the zombie outbreak effects women). Fred is clearly a little jealous.

trying to scare Fanny

That night there is a power outage and Fanny appears at his cabin. Now, suffice it to say that both characters are flawed. Aya Cash has described Fanny as narcissistic, and Fred has definite issues, plus his emerging insecurity as he feels that his manhood is threatened. Nevertheless, they start to tell each other scary stories – the genius of the film being that they are simply telling them but moments are added in where we, for instance, might see a werewolf’s hand or, at one point, get sirens and lights. Eventually pizza is ordered and this is delivered by Carlo (Chris Redd).

vampire/zombie attack

So, for the reason for an honourable mention here. Fred has heard of Fanny but not read Venus, Carlo, however, is a big fan. So, drugs having been taken, Fanny and Carlo act out Venus. It is whistle-stop (apparently much more was shot but the editorial decision was to make this particular telling breakneck) but at the end the mom of the story turns and Fanny appears from behind the couch with fangs attacking Carlo’s character. Fred is nonplussed – not getting why the mom would suddenly be some sort of zombie vampire. Fanny corrects him by saying that she didn’t use those terms explicitly…

fangs

And that’s it, a blink and you’ll miss it moment of a character in a film acting as a character in a book who is a vampire (or a zompire perhaps). The film, however, is great fun as a whole and this is driven by the three primary actors who are all excellent. The Blu-Ray release has the commentary I mentioned, mini-interviews with Josh Ruben and Aya Cash, a behind the scenes gallery and an outtake reel, a podcast episode and a music video of a musical number from the film… did I mention that they have a musical moment? Worthwhile and proving you don’t need a whole bunch of fancy effects and gore to make an excellent genre piece.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Bleed With Me – review

Director: Amelia Moses

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

There has been a wave of recent vampire films that, in a pacing way at the very least, feel similar; Rose: A Love Story, My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To and now Bleed With Me.

Of course, the central premise of the films are not the same with the other two containing a form of vampirism that might be supernatural or simply a disease and which to a greater or lesser extent use tropes like avoiding sunlight. Not so with this where the question is not what the vampirism is but, rather, is there vampirism at all.

sleeping in the car

The film starts with a car journey. We see Rowan (Lee Marshall) led, slumbering in the back of the car. The camera leaves her briefly to watch the car enter the icy lot of a roadside store. From Rowan’s point of view we see front passenger Emily (Lauren Beatty) exit the car and stand by the car as driver, and Emily’s boyfriend, Brendan (Aris Tyros) brings coffee to Emily. The journey is then resumed, again we see from Rowan’s slumbered position the passage of trees as they drive. Eventually, in the dark, Emily wakes her – they’ve arrived.

Rowan and Emily

The destination is a holiday cabin owned by Emily’s parents, secluded in woodland (and a deep layer of snow). Rowan works as a receptionist at the same place as Emily and – after a couple of meetings (including an intervention for Rowan with a sleazy co-worker) – they have become friends and so Emily has invited her to the cabin for their break. It becomes apparent that Brendan feels it an intrusion but, in fairness, takes it in his stride and makes the best of it.

Lee Marshall as Rowan

As they cook dinner on the first night Rowan cuts her finger and Emily kisses the blood up – Rowan seems somewhat perturbed by this. They drink, play cards but as Rowan tells the story of being stalked by a customer from work she seems to pass out. Emily and Brendan carry her to bed but, when Rowan awakens, she sees a figure that looks like Emily sat on her bed. Fully awaken, and no-one there, she goes to the bathroom to vomit. Emily comes in and, as they speak, we see that Rowan has scars on her arm from evident older self-harm.

seeing a shower of blood

As the film progresses, filmed firmly from Rowan’s viewpoint, she becomes convinced that Emily is drugging her (Rowan becoming ill through part of the stay), cutting her and drinking her blood. Certainly, new cuts are appearing on her arm. The trouble is Rowan might not be a credible witness and the film does a great job in keeping what is true obfuscated. Rowan's objective credibility might be damaged by her fever, and what she sees may be a fever dream, but also she may (or may not) sleepwalk and as the film progresses we discover that the story of the stalker was fundamentally inaccurate. As for Emily, there is certainly things in her past – she lost her sister as a child and suffered a breakdown later because of it and she is described a couple of times as “in recovery”, though never revealed for what (it may be the breakdown or something else).

Is Emily drinking blood?

I will not spoil this any more than I perhaps have – though I think the above is spoiler light. The film is a character study and the two primary leads are both excellent (not ignoring Aris Tyros but the film is about the two women and his role is more a foil). The pace is, however, fairly languid – hence me likening it to the other two films at the head of this review. What is missing is perhaps some stronger atmosphere of suspense, but sometimes Rowan breaks that in seemingly letting her paranoia go for a moment and we wonder why – but then the inconsistency is another reason for her lack of credibility. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK