Night's Black Agents: An Anthology of Vampire Fiction – review

Editor: Daniel Corrick

First published: 2023

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: The vampire is the most glamorous and iconic of Gothic figures. In Night's Black Agents, editor Daniel Corrick assembles a baker's dozen of tales that trace the sanguinary path of this thirsty, mythical creature from the early nineteenth century, where it acted as an incarnation of fears of libertinism and diabolism, appearing as the Satanic villain in penny dreadfuls, through to the early twentieth century, where it appeared as both femme fatale and homoerotic bloodsucker.

The Review: To use the colloquial, vampire anthologies are a dime a dozen and so if you are starting out with your vampire collection any one will likely be worthwhile, as you get longer in the tooth there needs to be something special about the stories contained within.

All I can say about Night’s Black Agents is… wow. Editor Daniel Corrick has dug up some vampire gold within these pages. There were only three stories within I already had, Polidori’s The Vampyre is a commonly anthologised tale but, of course, as the first English language vampire prose it earns its place. The other two stories are more obscure, those being Dumas père’s the Pale Lady and Ulrichs’ Manor, both interesting and important vampire stories in their own right. However, the book has many more stories, with the volume containing nine Nineteenth Century stories and four from the early Twentieth Century in total.

I’m not going to go too deeply into details but there are some great early use of tropes within. For instance, I have argued that William H G Kingston’s the Vampire; or, Pedro Pacheco and the Bruxa from 1863 represented a pre-Stoker use of transformation of vampire to bat (which others have refuted, I’ll let the reader decide). However Corrick has found an earlier Kingston story from 1846, entitled the Bruxa and featuring the vampiric witch and Portugal again, which has a definitive transformation from (living) vampire to bat (or bat-like creature), making it the earliest example I am aware of to be published in English. Likewise, Edwin F Roberts’ The Vampyre Bride, from 1850, changes the Countess’ name but essentially uses the Báthory story. Both of these will be subject to their own ‘Classic Literature’ blog post in the future.

My congratulations to Daniel Corrick for this collection, it is absolutely essential for anyone who enjoys 19th (and early 20th) century vampire stories or is a student of such stories. 9 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Wrath of Dracula – review

Director: Steve Lawson

Release date: 2023 (scheduled)

Contains spoilers

Director Steve Lawson’s last foray into the vampire genre, Bram Stoker’s Van Helsing, was a strange beast. Making good use of low numbers of locations, it concentrated on a segment of Stoker’s novel and did take some liberties, though not as much as he does in this film. It was, perhaps a tad talkie, had a distinct lack of Dracula himself and, when I reviewed it, blog commentator Octobercynic said “The ending also seemed, to me, to leave the door open for a possible sequel.” Though there are intertextual links, this does not appear to be that sequel

Mark Topping as Van Helsing

So, whilst the primary character of Mina (Hannaj Bang Bendz) has a different actress to the cameo appearance of the character in the previous film, there is a picture (only) of Lucy and it is of actress Charlie Bond who played her in the earlier film and Mark Topping reprises his Van Helsing role, though without beard and, to be fair, the clean-shaven version did read towards Peter Cushing. However, the story doesn’t fit with the previous one particularly well, especially as Dracula (Sean Cronin) does not leave Transylvania, and it is much less novel orientated, ploughing its own narrative furrow.

Mina typing journal

It starts with Harker (Dean Marshall) writing to Mina, who he is already married to, alerting her that he is a prisoner in Castle Dracula. He hides the letter in papers due to be posted to England re the real estate purchases, following which he is pulled backwards by one of the brides – Maria (Ayvianna Snow, Vampire Virus), Frida (Marta Svetek) and Ilsa (Jasmine Sumner). Sometime later Mr Hawkins (Carl Wharton, Saint Dracula) brings it to Mina but isn’t very helpful as Jonathan had signed a waver and they don’t have to help him. She undertakes to go to Transylvania herself.

arriving at Castle Dracula

She uses the hand written travel itinerary she had typed for Jonathan and gets to Castle Dracula when she is intercepted by a man – Van Helsing. A couple of points here did jerk me out of the story, unfortunately. She aims a flintlock pistol at him, recognised as antique in the dialogue, but it went unnoticed by the characters that it was uncocked. A minor thing, perhaps, but then saying that she had travelled overnight from London was just plain wrong – to be fair, later Van Helsing suggested her journey did take time and it may have just been a dialogue error that was missed.

training montage

He persuades her to go to a nearby inn rather than try to get in the castle. Once there he gives her a potted history. In this Dracula, as a man, was seduced by a lamia but his strength of will caused him to make her turn him rather than just kill him. He also mentioned tracking Dracula across several countries over three years – his mention of Shanghai brought my mind immediately to Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires. His thought is that she should return to London, something she won’t do, but he suddenly realises that Dracula’s predilection for beautiful women might gain them entrance to the castle. He offers to train her – and the owning of a Chinese book on martial arts makes this feel less silly than it might of.

brides

The film’s direction, then, is one that has a bit more action; indeed, this might be said to be Steve Lawson’s female-centric gothic take of Dracula by way of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with Mina and the brides taking centre stage. Dracula does make an appearance but it is limited and Van Helsing serves more as support for Mina than anything else. The action isn’t perfect, some moments swaying towards comedic – especially one scene where it appears speeded up slightly, but for the most part it holds the attention. Vampires in this are killed by stake through the heart, decapitation, sunlight or silver bullet – the last again being unfortunate as Van Helsing fashions bullets rather than the spherical shot the flintlock would take. There is a Bagua mirror in Van Helsing’s hunter kit but he only uses it as a mirror and not as a Taoist priest would in a Chinese vampire movie.

staking

Set in the 19th Century, the production makes good use of locations, on a tight budget, to imitate the era and the location – with tight angles allowing location work that imitates the look they needed well. Like the predecessor there is some soundtrack choices that feel intrusive, given their more modern sound. It does get a bit talkie in places, despite the action, but there is a nice staking moment. With the last film I said it would appeal more to novel fans, not so much with this but it will appeal if you liked the last effort but wanted a bit more expansion (action and location). 6 out of 10.

Note the review was from an advance screener. The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Screech of the Decapitated

Directed by Michael Tarzian and released in 2005, Screech of the Decapitated is low budget buffoonery of the highest order that is deliberately so. Below grindhouse standard, it revels in the paucity of its effects and the campy knowingness of the deliberately pantomime acting. And, because it does all this, the film manages to raise itself up by its own bootstraps.

It follows showgirls Raquel (Brittany Petros) and Wanda (Shannon Noelle Garrigus), international showgirls, strippers (not that the film plays the nudity card, to be fair) and part-time jewel thieves and agents. They are in Buenos Aires (actually Burbank, but let’s not quibble), driving along and squabbling when they see a man on the side of the road with an axe. Convinced he might be the serial killer known as the Decapitator they stop the car to confront him – after all he is killing in alphabetical order and only up to “E”.

werewolf

The man seems to be in a trance but then suddenly drops to the floor, starts sprouting hair and then becomes a werewolf (and the werewolves are created by the sfx of plain old, cheap end rubber masks). It will transpire that the werewolves are clones created by the alien Nadir (Ed Flanagan, Way of the Vampire) and his concubine Queen Maquzita (Debbie Rochon). So werewolves, aliens… but where are the vampires you might ask.

old fanged ghoul

After escaping to a windmill and bashing the werewolf with an axe, the women find an old man in the building. Getting him to turn around he reveals fangs and so there are more whacks with the axe. Now he has yellow gunk for blood and is credited as Old Fanged Ghoul (Marvin Morgenstern) – but the lines between vampire and ghoul are blurry and he looks the part. Later they end up in a wrestling match with luchadors and one of them turns into a werewolf but the other turns into a bat – indeed there is also a bat attack when Raquel showers that is described as a vampire bat also.

vampire

The other appearance seems to be at the end when the women pick up a handsome hitchhiker, whose eyes glow red as he shows fangs. Enough, through this, to suggest that we have a fleeting visitation of a vampire or two and some definite crap bat moments. I said this was knowing and it was so knowing that it was just likable all the way through, the leads were incredibly natural and clearly in on the joke but it is probably consumed with a side of your favourite beverage and a group of mates.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: The Heretic’s Curse

A short film that is just over 18-minutes length and I assume directed by John A Benjamin (the film’s credits list him as editor and DP), this was produced in 2015. The film shows all the hallmarks of being a labour of love that fights against a lack of budget. It is most telling in the locations, where a bland room serves as most, it seems, whilst a still of a mansion is the establishing shot. This does have one particular moment that stands out for me.

you will be cursed

The film starts with intertitles that suggest that the last witch trial in America was 1878, but the year is 1877. The intertitle also suggests that the purpose of these was a property grab. We are at Curwen Manor, owned by witchfinder John Curwen (Victor Cox). He has imprisoned cousins (Corinna Pokorzynski and Marissa Brassfield) and seeks a confession through torture. One of them levels a curse at him suggesting he, and his descendants, will be vampires.

stake at the ready

Cut forward to the present day and a man (Ted Valley) sits vigil over a woman (Shana Lang), a member of the Curwen family. Nearby is a hammer and stake and she appears dead. The family Doctor (Anthony Ennis) remonstrates with him and says that the family has a genetic predisposition to catalepsy. He insists on staying the night with her in case she awakens…

staked

There is a staking – though that might be a spoiler, there is a twist – and that was the impressive part of this for me. So often the stakings in vampire films, especially the low budget, are a bit rubbish – but this one looks great – kudos to the sfx person. At the time of writing I couldn’t find an IMDb page. The film is available to watch on YouTube

Buenas Noches, Señor Monstruo – review

Director: Antonio Mercero

Release date: 1982

Contains spoilers

Poor, poor Paul Naschy, to think that, once upon a 1982 he ended up in this; and just to note that his wolf man in this does not use the Waldemar Daninsky name as (according to the IMDb trivia) he “detested the script”.

This had been on my radar for some time but it is only recently I got to see it with fan-subs and, whilst I was expecting a kid orientated flick I was not expecting a vehicle for Spanish kid-pop-group Regaliz, full of cheesy pop songs (with context accurate lyrics) and dance moments. That said, it does have Dracula (Luis Escobar) in it so it deserves its place here.

blowpipe

The film starts with a school trip to the lake. Jaime (Jaime Benet) and Eduardo (Eduard Navarrete) are bug hunting, keeping in touch by walkie talkie (Jaime is unsure as to why they have to use code names). Jaime reports in that he has seen a large lizard and Eduardo tells him not to let it get away. Jaime resolves to use his blowpipe (!) and Eduardo counsels to aim for the tail. Well, he’s nowhere near the tail but he does hit teacher (Rosa Redondo) in the butt. He is chased and, collecting Eduardo as they run, they become lost in the wood. Then the storm hits.

the hearse

So they think they see feet passing by and decide to leave their hidey hole/shelter and immediately run into Astrid (Astrid Fenollar) and Eva (Eva Mariol) – so that’s the members of Regaliz all together. Anyway, Jaime remembers that he has sparklers and so they light them and sing through the forest. Eventually they come to a road and a coach comes past, recognised by the kids as a hearse carrying two coffins and, apparently, driverless. They then spot a castle and go to look for shelter/help.

Luis Escobar as Dracula

In the castle the (currently human) Wolf Man (Paul Naschy) and Quasimodo (Guillermo Montesinos) are bowling with skulls. An alarm wakes Dracula, who grabs his fanged dentures as he leaves his coffin. Frankenstein (Andrés Mejuto) is still working on perfecting his Monster (Fernando Bilbao) and bemoaning that the monsters are no longer feared by the humans. When the kids turn up he decides that they should feed them, give them a bed for the night and then (at midnight) scare them. There is singing and dancing amongst all this and the kids find a surprising ally in the Son of Dracula (Miguel Ángel Valero).

dance routine

This is silly, kids’ fodder and doesn’t have a secondary adult layer to it to keep the parents entertained. The kids look to be having fun but much of the cast, including some of the kids, are dubbed. We get some nice bits, like Dracula taking his dentures out and filing his fangs sharp, and Wolf Man is a reluctant monster despite living with the other monsters. The story isn’t much to write home about – the kids are surrogate for the world the monsters want to terrify and defeat the monsters partly due to the monsters’ pratt falls and partly through the power of song and dance. When ‘rescued’ by a search party no one believes there were monsters there. You can track this down, there are fansubs out there but the DVD is not English subbed. I am sure that for some this will be a film that invokes rose-tinted glasses, for the rest of us 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD (no subs) @ Amazon US

On DVD (no subs) @ Amazon UK

Nosferatu: Adapted from the Screenplay by Henrik Galeen – review

Author: C. Augustine

First Published: 2020

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Come, tour the wild hills and deep, black forests of Transylvania with us. Climb aboard the creaking carriage. We're headed to the Borgo Pass, to Castle Orlok, for a night of terror that will leave you screaming for the dawn... In the acclaimed silent film Nosferatu (1922), filmaking (sic) pioneer F.W. Murnau offered to the world what has been described as the most ""realistic"" vampire film ever made.Suppressed (sic) for many years by the estate of Dracula author Bram Stoker, the film was thought, for many years, to be ""lost."" Indeed, it was not lost, but , (sic) like the undead monster that is its subject, rose again from the celluloid graveyard of antique films, to haunt the world once more. Now, author C. Augustine has adapted the script fo (sic) this horror legend as a novel, one calculated to fulfill the gothic dread promised by the original film, and provide the reader with many dark, disturbing dreams.

The review: This was a novelisation of Murnau’s masterpiece, though not a contemporary one rather a modern-day author took that challenge on themselves and I wish I could be more positive about it.

The title suggests that Galeen’s script was the primary source, though some notable moments in the script, missing from the film, do not appear – most noticeably for me the (not so funny) humorous moments that poked fun at Ellen’s expense within the opening. That said, I wouldn’t have added those into a novelisation either. Whether the author actually worked from the screenplay, or assumed the screenplay from the film, I do not know, but there were also noticeable moments that made it to film that were missing, such as Ellen’s reaction to Hutter cutting the flowers – a moment that has significance to the makeup of her character. I did notice, incidentally, naming conventions changing so Hutter is referred to as Jonathan (which was from the American release off the film) and Ruth ofttimes becomes Annie within the same paragraph.

There were moments I found odd – Galeen’s script mentions the hyena but the intertitles of the film make it clear that it is a werewolf and, were I writing a novelisation, I would have dropped the word hyena and brought a veritable werewolf to life within the page. That said, this volume contains the novelisation from page 14 to 93, with a larger font, and spacious typeset. The room that the author had to play with evocative description has been eschewed and the novel is more novella. There were moments added in from Stoker rather than Galeen, I felt, though I understand doing that.

A curious missing piece was the vampire’s encroachment on Ellen first with the shadow moving up the stairs and then the shadowy hand grabbing her heart. The most iconic scene within the film (arguably) and yet it not there (Orlok enters through a window and then chows down) and yet this substance of the vampire as shadow-stuff is so very important.

The typos are an issue also. If you look to the blurb, cut and paste from Amazon, there are typos aplenty and these were also present on the rear cover so this was an issue within the production of the book. I know that indie book creation carries a risk, the low budgets often excluding the hiring of professional editing, but the book itself had numerous typos, including words garbled - for instance page 51 has both "recognixed" and "entracne", which any word processor would have picked up (for this review, Word not only picked the latter up, it autocorrected it).

I can tell that the author has a love for the film and a desire to capture it in prose, but for me it was a failed if brave attempt. That desire to try deserves a generous 4 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: The Boulet Brothers’ Halfway to Halloween Special

Drag stars the Boulet Brothers (aka as Dracmorda Boulet and Swanthula Boulet) are probably best known for their horror themed drag contest Dragula. Halfway to Halloween is a TV special created exclusively for Shudder and released in May 2023 (half way… you get the picture) that is actually a variety and sketch show. It was directed by The Boulet Brothers with both Nathan Noyes and Michael Varrati directing segments.

I was a little shocked, as I watched it, that there was a lot less drag than I thought there would be. In fact they have a large number of celebrity appearances including Kevin Smith, Matthew Lillard and Barbara Crampton. With a range of comedy-based sketches covering a range of the horror genre.

feeding

The segment that brings about this mention is one staring Dracmorda and Swanthula. In black and white with intertitles, and deliberately looking like a stage, we see them take a blindfolded and bound man by boat to where their coffins are. They feed on him and retreat into their coffins. Within they transform into bat creature type vamps who drive and sing (mime) to Rasputina’s track Transylvanian Concubine.

bat mode

That’s it, a musical number but with some great visuals (the coffins are fabulous), but no real story as such. It’s pure horror drag done for the small screen.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Shudder via Amazon UK

On Demand @ Shudder via Amazon US

The Slayer Chronicles - Volume 1 – review

Director: Tim Russ

Release date: 2021

Contains spoilers

There is an elephant in the room of this Tim Russ (probably best known for playing Tuvok in Star Trek Voyager) directed film. I realise that it is based on a novel that was published by the production company of the film, but when you call the book/film Slayer, when the vampire slayer is a woman, when she is referred to as the Chosen One and when the Slayer abilities come with the passing of the previous Slayer (albeit down familial lines), then you should really expect people to wonder if this is just a riff on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In truth this does take its premise from that, there is no escaping it, but does try to build something different within its run time.

attacking Marna

Marna (Marina Hutchinson) is in a ballet school training a young girl when she gets a text from Cody. She, in a fairly good natured text, accuses him of ghosting her but his responses, and the flowers that are then delivered, convince her to meet with him at 9 PM, in 'their place' – which turns out to be a lighthouse some distance away. She texts to see where he is and gets no response but sees a figure behind the car. She calls out but then panics, gets into the car, fumbles her keys and gets yanked from the car (damn those convertibles for the lack of driver protection) and fed upon.

a vampire

Now before we go on; Marna turns out to be one of several people to have gone missing and a news report suggests that hacked social media has been used to lure many of them. That seems a tad convoluted to lure a victim, as does sending flowers. There is no indication in the narrative that the social media belonged to a previous missing person (which would have been a major point of investigation one would have thought). I would have liked for the film to explain why the vampires were using that method of lure.

vampire kids

Anyway, we see Raven (Madison Russ) and Sam (Aaron Mann) on a couch and she is talking about a film. She then realises that she hasn’t seen Sam for some time and he suggests that he is not there in a traditional sense, mentions astral projection and then vanishes. Elsewhere Mike (Craig DeLuz) gets a message and calls Jordan (J Parker Grove). A viewer of their paranormal investigation livestream show has suggested a location. They go to it, enter the abandoned looking (bar the light upstairs) and are attacked by vampire kids. Jordan (who has the stream) manages to get out and into a barn, releasing a girl in a cage. Papa (Richard Tyson, Blood Immortal) enters and Jordan suggests they are being watched by millions, to which Papa is delighted. The rescued girl vamps out and attacks Jordan.

Madison Russ as Raven

Raven gets a call from her cousin Lisa (Shannon McCabe), who apologises… she had been trying to find a contact. Raven’s mom (Wendy Bosley) died a month before. Later, at a martial arts class, Raven speaks to her best friend Kelley (Tabitha Ward) about this – she had not seen her mom for a long time. The conversation continues in a café and Kelley, a counsellor and lightworker (in her spare time) warns Raven that change is coming into her life. Monsters, asks Raven (which is a leap). Among other things… like vampires… goes the even more on the nose reply, and here we have a big problem with the story.

touching the veil

Kelley is part of the Circle, a group of people who protected the Veil (between the living and the dead), of which the Slayer is a primary member. Sam is a member of this also, trained as a kid by Raven’s mom (as Raven was, though she has forgotten), he turns out to be a comrade of Kelley, and brings Raven (out of the blue) her mother’s bequest to her. Logically, at some point, you think Raven is going to say… wait, Kelley, you were grooming me and y’all knew where I was but couldn’t be arsed telling me that my mom had died until a month later… The trust would clearly be low, but none of that actually happens.

Richard Tyson as Papa

The other members of the circle, who we meet, are two-dimensional cannon fodder bar the one who clearly doesn’t like Raven, but the reasons for this dislike are not voiced and Raven doesn’t ask (we get a shorthand excuse for her behaviour at the end but there was no build to this exposition, bar her projected dislike). This is the biggest problem with the film, the story makes leaps, avoids obvious character reactions (Raven is down with all this way too quickly) and this harms the storytelling. For instance, there is a kidnapped, unturned, girl who is ‘the key’ but we don’t know why, just that she is. Papa’s goal is to rend the Veil and take over the world.

dusting a vamp

The vampires are drawn quite well, with an almost feral nastiness to some of them, glowing eyes and zero humanity getting in the way. They are destroyed by sunlight or a stake to the heart and dust on death (the effect isn’t brill but you can live with it). The vampire hunters have guns that are never explained and seem to fire a powder containing projectile (I assume garlic). I have to mention that the DVD transfer isn’t brilliant and can lead to some visual distortion (such as pixilation, most noticeable on an overhead tracking shot of Marna’s car at the head of the film.

Raven and Sam

Despite the narrative issues, and the derivative nature of the premise, this was still entertaining. Issues with doubled up dialogue (within a single scene) aside and the uneven nature of the acting, we vacillate from the effective (especially Richard Tyson) to the distinctly average, there was a nub of an effective film here that needed better pacing, certainly, and more time dedicated to characters and plot points. 4 out of 10 seems fair.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

DC Vs. Vampires vol. 2 – review

Authors: James Tynion IV and Matthew Rosenberg

Artist: Otto Schmidt

First Published (THB): 2023

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: The nightmarish second arc begins! The Earth is now cloaked in darkness as the victorious vampire empire has taken full control.

Pockets of humanity can still be found, and they struggle to live but hope fades with every darker day. The leaders of the last surviving resistance force-Green Arrow, Batgirl, and Supergirl-hatch a desperate plan to save the world…or die trying!

The review: If you have not read Volume 1 then please note this review will contain major spoilers to that volume.

detail

Enemies have become allies, both amongst the survivors of the vampire apocalypse and amongst the vampires under the vampire king, with most of the vampires obedient to his will.

At the end of Volume 1 the king was revealed to be Nightwing during a devastating attack on the Bat Family, with Batman slaughtered. With Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Superman all turned it seems the war has been lost before it begins. Burning off forests to cause a particle cloud cover that has turned day into night Sugergirl has lost her powers.

Humans are being farmed and the meta-human survivors might have a strange alliance but are also at odds with one another. Constantine is looking at the bigger picture, Green Arrow is determined to focus on an individual level and liberate a blood farm in Smallville and Batgirl wants to penetrate Gotham to kill Nightwing in his capital. There is a plan afoot to get Supergirl into space allowing her to regenerate and then clear the atmosphere, meanwhile Harley’s blood has been found to be poisonous to vampires. Finally, not all vampires are loyal to Nightwing and Robin wants to see his father’s killer dead.

So, as you can see the graphic novel packs a lot in. The action is brutal and there is no guarantee of survival for any established character – indeed volume 1 saw many turned and many others dead. The writing is sharp and on point and the artwork is of the highest quality. It jumped some points that could have done with being fleshed out. For instance, an attack on the House of Mystery is about to initiate and then we see the aftermath – that the survivors had their memories scorched answers why, but for the reader it was a jump. Likewise starting volume 2 after the fall of Earth is understandable for brevity and the fact it was a limited comic run but the fall could have been addressed more. Without being explicitly tagged as such, this is clearly an Elseworlds story and there is a further side-volume due (All Out War) that may fill in some of the gaps between volume 1 and 2. 8.5 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Parasite Lady

Chris Alexander is back and although I am looking at this 2023 release as a short film, given its 42-minute running time, one might argue that it is possibly the most-Chris-Alexander feature to date. Regular readers will know that I have a soft spot for Alexander’s avant garde filmmaking and he has a style that, whilst reminiscent of some of the 70s genre greats, he has developed over the course of his films and, whilst I will say that some of the colour palate and photography in this drew my mind to Mario Bava’s vivid lighting structures, this was recognisably Alexander.

Arrielle Edwards as Miranda

Narratively sparsely simple the film opens inside a rundown motel, with a coffin, a window in the lid showing the occupant’s face. Though such a coffin has been used since, it brought Vampyr to mind. The occupant is a woman, Miranda (Arrielle Edwards), her features striking, indeed actress Arrielle Edwards is very striking throughout, a testimony to both the actress and the cinematography. There is a moment where she smiles later in the film that is absolutely uncanny. Her fingers emerge from the coffin, pushing the lid up. She sits…

attack

The film follows Miranda, from her moments in the room, to her ghosting through a seedy amusement park (with a Castle Dracula sign high above and a themed attraction). She picks up victims from the park and it's notable that they are blonde and reminiscent of the one who turned her, Lady Death (Thea Munster, Necropolis: Legion). Her victims seem mesmerised, walking back to the motel behind the vampire, and she opens their necks through her sharp nails. Lady Death seems to haunt her, manipulating her. Whether she is in any way there, connected telepathically or simply a delusion is never answered.

uncanny

The vampirism is passed through oral exchange of blood. Though she sleeps in a coffin, Miranda can walk in the daylight and has a reflection. When asked what they are, she says “We wake. We walk. We drink. We go on.” They can die if they want to, though a vampire can kill another vampire. The lore is limited as is the dialogue and the narrative, though simple, is skilfully presented through the visuals as much as anything. I was struck, more so than I think I have been before in an Alexander film, by the soundtrack. Discordant it matched the photography very well. This is arthouse filmmaking and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The imdb page is here.

The Witch with Flying Head – review

Director: Jen-Chieh Chang

Release date: 1982

Contains spoilers

This is an interesting, low budget Hong Kong & Taiwan originating movie, which states at the beginning that it is looking to the folklore of Java – so the creature within would be a leak, the Indonesian variant of the Thai krasue or Malay penanggalan (though the name is not actually used). The version I saw was from a VHS rip.

It begins with Yu-Zhen, a young woman, at an altar praying for blessings upon her father. Her two handmaidens stand close by. The audience sees a snake on a roof, it drops to the floor transforming into a man, Jia Chu-An (referred to as a snake demon in dialogue). He ejects a further snake from his mouth, which crosses the courtyard and up her dress! An internal organs' close-up suggests that it has got into her body and she is in agony as a result.

the leak attacks

He walks up suggesting he can save her and gives a handmaiden a bottle of medicine. Dubious at first, she does give the medicine to Yu-Zhen to relieve her agonies. Elsewhere we see two men walking the streets. A leak comes at them, the head clearly Yu-Zhen, with bottom jaw sprouting fangs and her viscera dangling beneath her – she attacks and kills the men. We then see the head fly home and integrate back into her body. Jia Chu-An then visits Yu-Zhen's family and explains that she has been poisoned but he will cure her in return for her hand in marriage. She rejects him.

attacking the rapist

She tries to commit suicide (by head butting a wooden pillar) but is stopped and the family call in monks (interestingly Buddhist monks, rather than Taoist), to no avail as her monstrous form defeats them. Unusually, she breaths fire as part of her attacks and also fires different coloured rays out of her mouth. Another suicide attempt (by hanging) and she and her handmaidens move to a distant rural area to avoid people. Unfortunately, she does attack some travellers (who, to be fair, deserved it as they were awfully rapey) but there is an intervention from an old wise man who gives her a partial cure – so she only transforms on the 15th of each month – and promises to find a permanent cure.

the old wise man

Part of the old man’s gift is a box they can magically trap her in so that she is not loose when she transforms. Meanwhile another traveller, Tang Ming-Kuan, is targeted by a female snake demon. He is warned to run from the area as she will drain his energy and then devour him. He happens, whilst pursued, across Yu Zhen’s home and the box is used to trap the snake demon, freeing him. The two fall in love and marry, but with a promise that he cannot see her on the 15th day of each month. Eventually the snake demon woman will escape and, whilst helping with her vengeance, Jai Chu-An will catch up to Yu Zhen… 

fire breathing

The film was fairly fun but needed to thicken the horror atmosphere around the melodrama. There were some bits that needed answers, such as her pregnancy (the film jumps from them being interested in each other to her giving birth, we get the drama around that and then we jump forward several years to where the child is walking and talking) – enquiring minds want to know if the womb made up part of the viscera and thus the foetus was taken flying after prey, or whether she was left in her mother’s body?

the snake demons

I mention melodrama and it is laid on thick, with Jai Chu-An perpetually letting off false sounding evil laughs. I thought the pace was a tad lacking, but this is an interesting take on the folklore, whilst the filmmakers would seem not to be totally steeped in it and this leads to some of the variations. Not the greatest HK or Taiwanese horror film, but worth watching nevertheless. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: The Creep Hunters

Directed by David Lester Mooney and released in 2022, this film comes in at a scant 9:24 and yet manages to pack in a story narrative that is cohesive and makes sense.

The film follows a group of online vigilantes in Northern Ireland, I would hazard, who find online groomers, engage them and then go out and catch them on live stream.

As the short starts they are in a car, waiting for the latest creep, who has been online chatting with them but believes he has been chatting to a 12-year-old girl. They get a ping on a phone as he says he is here, here being a badly lit car park. When working out who the creep, named John, might be there is a consensus that it is the short fellow on his own.

the hunters

They go out and confront him, with large built Gary acting in an intimidating way. John seems softly spoken and keeps repeating, “Sorry”. Gary is perhaps rougher than he should be and they make a citizen’s arrest when another man comes over. He is called Steven and, though told to back off, he sticks awfully close, saying he is a fan of the stream. Eventually Steven manages to get a punch in. As they try to bind John’s hands, he cuts the female member of the crew and then Gary’s face with sharp nails and runs into an alley.

John is a...

They follow, and it isn’t much of a spoiler to say that they have bitten off more than they can chew. This time around they have found a groomer, certainly, but he is not after sexually abusing the correspondent so much as… well what would we call a man who nails sharpen to talons and teeth become sharp also… This was neatly put together and is definitely worth a watch, though there are some triggering themes.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Bleed 4 Me

This 2011 film was directed by Joston Theney and it’s, let’s be honest, not brilliant. The premise sees a chess game between the devil and, well its never said but presumably God gave powers to the demon hunters in this, as they do have powers. The primary hunter is Ramona (Tonya L. Harris) who has taken over from Lady Jasmine (Brinke Stevens), and we also briefly meet Lady Black (Tiffany Shepis). This is a world were the good have to take an ‘ends justify the means’ stance.

Also in the plot is scientist Cassie (Mariana Evans), new in town due to a job opportunity (there is a side bar of personal issues that I won’t go into). Now the story gets confused about what the devil is up to – there is talk about him possessing (that never seems to happen, though he can speak through those he controls) and harvesting blood to make a new corporeal body (this is not why this gets an honourable mention). However, it seems he has set his sights on Cassie – though exactly why isn’t massively clear, something about the end of the earth, yadda, yadda, yadda…

hunters

What seems to happen is that he phones someone (though TV and radio can be used) and sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and ‘activates’ them. You see everyone has a little bit of the devil inside them and the nursery rhyme puts them in his power… So much for free will then. Nevertheless, he is after Cassie… and yet never just phones her (you’d have thought that would be a cinch, I mean one assumes he can find who is looking for and does activate her boss), which gives Ramona chance to be involved.

Tonya L. Harris as Ramona

So why vampires? Well Ramona tells Cassie about a particular sort of Demon that is the soul of a person in Purgatory that the devil allows to return corporeally to Earth in return for some chaos and bloodshed. She describes them as a plague and then states they are vampires. And that might have been it, simply mentioned in passing. But later a soul returns (who turns out to be Ramona’s sister) and Lady Jasmine wants to (re)kill her, but she hasn’t turned yet as she must drink the blood of the one who brought her back… We don’t see her turned. So, a fleeting visitation of a (nearly) vampire.

The imdb page is here.

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