The Psychopath and the Lady Vampire – review

Director: Marcos Lomelí

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

A new Mexican film that manages to belay the low budget to some degree but, at the same time, lacked something at its core. It wasn’t around the photography, which whilst not perfect hid behind the conceit of (almost) found footage – in that there is plenty of footage that is being shot by the primary character. It was more in story and lore, as we’ll see.

The film starts in POV as a camera is carried around an apartment. Eventually a door is opened and we see a woman draped in red (Maggie Perfecto) lying on the bed. The camera is carried round the room and when we see her face she awakens and asks what the f*ck the cameraman is doing.

filming her slumber

She doesn’t seem overly concerned, offering the cameraman – who will be revealed to be Efrén (Diego Mackeprag) – the opportunity to lie with her. She notes his silence, and the fact he didn’t shut up the night before, and suggests that he might be having erectile problems and mentions pills to help with that. Taking his shirt, she goes to the bathroom and starts the shower. We do see her showering (from a modest angle) and the camera work does jump from what Efrén is shooting to a more traditional 3rd person camera view.

cleaver

We see a circuit of the apartment once more, again looking through his camera. He plays with a couple of knives in a block but he leaves them and opens a draw, extracting a cleaver. He goes to the bathroom and it seems as though we are going to get a pov version of the famous psycho scene but the camera tumbles as she punches him and we see him for the first time, lying on the floor. She punches him more and suggests the world would be better without him but then decides to leave and call the cops. A kick to her leg, a grab of the cleaver and she is dead.

Diego Mackeprag as Efrén 

Now, first off – the cleaver. The effect of it buried in her chest looks brilliant – props to the sfx guys. What we could have had, hereon in, was a black comedy with Efrén portrayed as inept in his hunts but, although there is a degree of that, it was never really played on in that sense. The scene moves to Efrén talking to camera and admitting he is a psychopath – born that way (a debatable point, as I’ll touch on) and he has decided not to hide anymore, relieving a weight he has carried… except, he does hide who he is, the films are for him and when he thinks he might get caught he destroys keepsakes and hides his predilections. He makes a point of saying he never bed-wet, tortured animals or was a pyromaniac.

Efrén and Tika

His filming is interrupted by a constant door ringing that eventually becomes a knock. It is a young woman called Tika (Karen Mendoza). He has invited her over to discuss a YouTube collaboration. He has 400 followers on his channel, she 4000, and he has suggested they team up and he will pay her 2000 pesos (roughly £90) per video – starting with two per week with her acting as hostess for his cooking show. She ignores the cooking part but goes on about doing dance routines until she gets a call and has to leave. It appears that he follows her and we get (captured on his camera, with no real clue as to how he was not spotted) her life drama, meeting her girlfriend but being called by her abusive ex-boyfriend who is also her child’s dad. The thing is, all this background seemed subsequently wasted.

stalking prostitutes

Later, he pulls his car up by her on the street, honking his horn until she looks and explaining who he is (it makes it feel like some time has passed) and offering a lift. Her bus arrives and she gets that instead. We then see him pick up a prostitute (Lupita Pérez). He has hidden his camera in the back of the car, and his cleaver, and drives off for a BJ. When she is down on him and he grabs the cleaver, he says “no mom” but this is not played on anymore. Presumably his psychopathic hatred of women then has a source (and the Psycho reference earlier is more apropos). A figure (Iyari Martínez) stands before the car the flash on her phone going off as he butchers the prostitute.

filming the murder

Back at home, whilst washing blood from his face, the woman with a camera enters (through a window) and then opens and closes the apartment door (to make him think she came in a conventional route?) She films him, reversing the power he has and confronting him. She has film of his crime and eventually he throttles her, he goes over to his camera in the room and we see her sit up behind him and, after confronting him, is out the window. She is, of course, the vampire of the title. Following this he meets a woman, Ramona (Jessica Martínez Otero), searching for her missing daughter – he denies knowing her, though Ramona believes she came to him for a job interview. He kills Tika after an altercation (we see him take her body into a dismembering room ala Dexter), starts being haunted by the ghosts of his victims (but only those he killed that we saw) and is eventually grabbed and bitten by the vampire.

attacking the vampire

And this is where the story goes wrong. For a start off we don’t know why the vampire takes an interest in him or why she cares about his crimes (though she does make mention of things that indicate she finds his murders misogynistic). She has teamed up with Ramona to get a confession out of him (though a reason why either character would work with the other seems lacking) but we discover later that, as her slave (the vampires have a compulsion to obey the one who turned them), he must obey her so the convoluted path to confession (which doesn’t work anyway) seems odd. It would have made more narrative sense if Ramona had been Tika’s mother and the film was nonlinear or edited so she was only introduced after Tika’s death, but it is clear she wasn’t, and so we have a narrative gap of a kill being unseen that had an imperative plot impact. It just felt there was characterisation and plot aspects missing – plus it also seemed that he was the most lackadaisical serial killer when it came to evidence and therefore his continued activity/freedom didn’t actually read well. Apparently, there were packing boxes full of body parts and yet there was no stench when people came to the apartment.

fangs

Likewise, the lore feels patchy. Though we don’t know her reason for helping Ramona, turning him would seem to be more to make him a slave for her after his confession. In truth it is revealed that it was half-turning him, though it is not explained what would make him a full vampire (and whether that would free him from his slavery). Garlic and sunlight work (though the sunlight was indicated by actor reaction and not prominent sfx) but he can’t leave the apartment because something is on the floor (later ‘salt road’ is mentioned, which hasn’t translated awfully well but salt and vampires is quite an unusual mix). It is almost like an invisible barrier that hurts to touch (and in the subtitles this is described as having a ‘force field’ noise) but when the salt is removed, he still can’t leave – protection plants, he’s told, but we are never told what sort of plants. We do know vampires can be filmed.

the vampire confronts Efrén 

It’s a shame. Diego Mackeprag acts in an overtly friendly sincere way that fit the character and reminded me of Sting’s performance in Brimstone and Treacle. Whilst this worked, he struggled, I felt, to emote the darker shades of the character. An exploration of his motivations (especially around his mother, as it seemed a cheap plot contrivance to have him say he was simply born that way and then add the mother line in as a throwaway) and also the impetus for the vampire’s actions was desperately needed. The film was generally lacking in locations (mostly using the apartment bar some minimal external scenes). As mentioned, the cleaver wound sfx was good but we generally saw little in the way of gore (at one point someone with a stabbed neck manages not to bleed out over the floor). This could have been a lot better with expanded sfx, more exploration of the titular characters and better plotting generally. I am going to stick with the original thought of 4 out of 10 though, as I have written the review, I feel that is too generous.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Subspecies V: Bloodrise – review

Director: Ted Nicolaou

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

There is the subspecies fan in me that was (and still is) so excited for this late entry into the series but, if I am honest, it isn’t perfect. That said the original films weren’t perfect either, but they are an institution. It is also the best-looking thing to come out of the Full Moon stable for some time.

So for the uninitiated you can read about the previous films: Subspecies, Subspecies 2: Bloodstone, Subspecies 3: Bloodlust & Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm, as well as the remarkably good spin off Vampire Journals. Technically the films Decadent Evil & Decadent Evil 2 are in the same universe.

Circe in labour

This film is a prequel to the Subspecies films and starts with Circe (Yulia Graut), an immortal sorceress, birthing a child – she is, of course, the character Mummy from the earlier films. The voiceover tells us that the child, fathered by the vampire prince Vladislav (Kevin Spirtas – who was a character, Mel, in Subspecies 2 & 3), was prophesised to be the killer of his father. It looks as though Circe was preparing to kill the baby with a demon slaying dagger, though perhaps having second thoughts, when Templars invade the cave she is in (the child needing to be dismembered and the parts cast into the Black Sea to destroy him).

Marius and Radu

Having staked Circe (which won’t kill her) they take the child and cut his fingers and points from his ears, use holy salves to make his features pass for human and indoctrinate him into the church, training him as a monster slayer. This is all well and good until the adult Radu (Anders Hove), as they name the child, enters his father’s castle with his fellow Templars. In there he fights with Vladislav who realises who he is and vanishes through shadows (vampires can far travel through shadows). Circe confirms his lineage before vanishing too. He and the monk Marius (Petar Arsic) have lost their quarry but have retrieved the bloodstone, which contains the blood of saints.

Denice Duff as Helena

Radu realises there is life in the castle and find a woman, Helena (Denice Duff, who famously played Michelle in films 2-4 and was also in Vampire Resurrection), who begs they spare her child Stefan (Jakov Marjanovic) – Radu’s half-brother. Marius urges Radu to kill them but the knight suggests they are innocent and, having checked Helena’s neck for bites, he takes them with them. Helena tries to seduce the knight, the monk leaves them and then it becomes apparent she cannot go in the sunlight and, whilst not fully turned, she has been bitten in the thigh. Eventually she turns on Radu bites him and feeds him her blood. Vladislav, at that point, retrieves her and the boy.

Ash and Ariel

The film gives us vignettes as it hops forward through time, and there is plenty for the fan. Helena being the image of Michelle ties into the earlier entries well and we see the creation of the vampire Ash (Marko Filipovic), along with his sister Ariel (Stasa Nikolic), Ash appearing in film 4 as a character and being the central antagonist of Vampire Journals. However, whilst there are a lot of moments, there is not a strong central plot. There are aesthetic changes. Clearly Radu is much older looking than he was in the earlier films because it has been twenty-five years since Hove played the character. However, as vampires (in some lore) can age and become younger that’s ok. Like in the other films he has unnaturally long fingers – but these looked a bit rubbery and rubbish.

Anders Hove as Radu

Vladislav’s design has changed – from Angus Scrimm’s longhaired vampire to this Nosferatu inspired design. However, his fate seems somewhat changed (perhaps, vampires are notorious for not staying dead but he was certainly the vampire in charge in the first film and gets stabbed, stabbed stabbity stabbed in this). The photography, especially locational photography, was really nice in this (though cgi crosses on top of real-world castles look a bit bonk). The biggest issues were in pacing and in the fact that this could have done with a strong central story rather than just the vignettes. For the Subspecies fan this is necessary, it might be a bit too fan-centric for the casual viewer. As a fan 6.5 out of 10 seems fair.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Witch's Night Out

Directed by John Leach and released in 1978 this was a strange Halloween animated special that sees the people of a town who have really forgotten how much fun Halloween can be. The kids, Small (Tony Molesworth) and Tender (Naomi Leach) have bought masks to scare people when they trick or treat and the adults, Goodly (John Leach), Nicely (Fiona Reid, Blood & Donuts), Malicious (Catherine O'Hara) and Rotten (Bob Church) decide to hold an adult’s Halloween party in the abandoned house on the edge of town.

the townsfolk

The house isn’t as abandoned as they thought, being a home to a witch (Gilda Radner) who had been despondent because she is never called on at Halloween any more. She intends to make an appearance at the party but the kids are unhappy because everyone knew who they were and they scared no one. The witch pays a visit to them, and their babysitter Bazooey (Gerry Salsberg), and offers to turn them into the monsters for real. Small becomes a werewolf, Tender becomes a ghost and, after initial misgivings, Bazooey becomes Frankenstein’s Monster.

They visit the party but scare the townsfolk too much. Then (having discovered the kids are missing) the townsfolk hunt down the monsters not knowing they actually are the kids.

bikini vampire

So, vampires? Well, at the end when all is sorted out the witch offers to trun everyone into monsters for Halloween. Nicely wants to be a vampire, and is turned into a bat winged, bikini wearing vampire on screen for a second or so. And that’s it, a fleeting visitation of a bikini vampire (or at least someone turned into one for Halloween). The cell animation looks dated but cool nonetheless, the style is weirdly unique and the whole thing is of a time but, I’m sure, has a soft spot in the hearts of those who viewed it when released.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Kuntilanak 3 – review

Director: Rizal Mantovani

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

This is the third in a series that could have realistically been called Kids vs Kuntilanak. I’d looked at the first in the series under the heading Vamp or Not? as, whilst the Indonesian kuntilanak is analogous to the Western vampire, the depiction in movies is not always so. For this reason the second film was explored through its tropes as there wasn’t anything vampiric going on.

demonstrating powers

This film is vampiric – there is energy vampirism – it has also taken the franchise and directed it well away from the others in the series. It follows Dinda, one of a group of orphans, and the original actress, Sandrinna Michelle, has been replaced by Nicole Rossi (the other kids are played by the actors from the first two films). In the last film we discovered she was of the kuntilanak worshipping Mangkujiwo bloodline and she killed the kuntilanak at the end of that film. This has left her with powers and at the head of the film we see her as the siblings, especially Miko (Ali Fikry), are being bullied, losing her temper, levitating rocks and psychically flinging them at the bullies.

making new friends

However, after a prank gone wrong sees her hospitalising Ambar (Ciara Nadine Brosnan) and Panji (Adlu Fahrezi), she asks their foster mother (Nena Rosier) if she can attend a special school – there is no address but as soon as she asks, the school phones. So, what we then have is her attending this school for kids with powers and the film kind of morphs into Harry Potter meets the X-Men. At home Miko and Kresna (Andryan Bima) see something online about the school, a missing kid and kuntilanak (so much for a secret school) and so find the school and sneak in. A good teacher helps them blend in as they are trying to protect Dinda from the bad teachers.

feeding on energy

What we discover is that the wife of the (deceased) founder of the school has merged with a kuntilanak (so, to a degree, we have vampiric possession) and this keeps her young but only if she feeds on a kid. This occurs once per year. However, being the last Mangkujiwo (I’m assuming direct bloodline and not sect, which is active) and a kuntilanak slayer, if she feeds from Dinda it’ll hold her for eighty years. The school is mostly staffed by members of the sect. When the kuntilanak feeds we can see the energy drawn from the victim.

the kuntilanak

The film side-lines two of the kids and introduces some new friends at the school but really did nothing within the narrative to build a friendship – they were just immediately friends. The film also eschewed an older (adult) sister altogether. The idea that Dinda was developing into something special because of her brush with the supernatural and her heritage wasn’t a bad one – the school itself felt like a lazy amalgam of the franchises I mentioned and the plot relied on a massive suspension of disbelief (such as no-one knowing the evil headmaster was evil). Not a great ending to the series, but at least we got actual vampirism. 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Count Abdulla: Season 1 – review

Director: Asim Abbasi

First aired: 2023

Contains spoilers

Appearing from left field, this UK series was produced for ITV – not known for being a bastion of quality entertainment. This station-heritage is probably why it came from left field, ITV is well and truly off my radar. But… it has vampires and had to be seen, and so what I got was a short series (it’s a typical UK 6-episode season, with the episodes fairly short as they fit into a 30-minute slot with adverts), which mixed humour and vampires, some adult themes and a lens that used a British-Muslim focus.

Kathy hunting

In the opening of the episode, we see two young Muslim men attacked by Kathy (Jaime Winstone, Daddy’s Girl) a vampire who likes the taste of virgin blood but extracts the blood by hypodermic to avoid the chance of turning them. The use of hypodermic extraction also means an assumption, when in hospital subsequently, of drug use; handily obfuscating the real cause and undermining their story.

mother and son

Abdulla (Arian Nik) is a doctor of Pakistani heritage who isn’t the best Muslim; he avoids going to Mosque for instance. He lives with his mother (Nina Wadia) and whilst there is a definite loving relationship she is trying to push him along traditional Muslim lines (despite the fact that her true outlook is a little less rigid) in order to get back in with the Aunties. They have been on the fringe of the community after Abdulla’s father vanished off.

costume

Now that Abdulla has qualified as a doctor it seems the perfect time to show him off and she is given an Eid celebration invitation from members of the local Mosque. However, the new moon coincides with Halloween and he has arranged to go to a Halloween party being thrown by fellow Doctor, Amrita (Manpreet Bambra). Amrita is Abdulla’s unrequited love, but she seems to be going through a phase of dating white guys (and later we discover she presents as traditionally Sikh to her parents, hiding from them that she is dating outside her community). Nevertheless, Abdulla shows face at the Eid celebration and then dons a vampire costume and sneaks off to the party.

biting Abdulla

There is a moment in the Halloween party where Amrita’s boyfriend (Robert Eades) pitches up in a colonial soldier’s uniform and it is taken by the mostly minority ethnic guests as offensive (as it celebrates colonialism). I have seen an online complain about this, claiming it is a racist joke (against white British), which is a complaint born from the blindness of privilege but also misses the point that it sets up the further joke (and main plot point) where Abdulla meets Kathy at a bus stop, afterwards, and she levels the same costume complaint at him as he is appropriating a vampire look (with plastic fangs and lightened face). Their argument leads Kathy to lose control and bite him.

drinking from a blood bag

Turning only happens about 1% of the time, but of course it happens here and the jokes through the series do surround Abdulla’s new craving – drinking blood is not halal. Kathy is looked down on by many local (elitist) vampires due to her socio-economic status and they also code as racist (and Kathy has always had a thing for Asian men). Abdulla is in danger because a vampire may only make one progeny (and Kathy has already done so) and if he does not die by her hand then the coven will kill both of them. She works as a dominatrix and this then leads to bedroom farce threads stemming from people assuming they are in a relationship (with an assumption of her being his fiancé as boyfriend/girlfriend relationships are haram).

biting Shafi

There is also a queer aspect that centres around Abdulla’s cousin Shafi (Sia Alipour) – a bit of a wide boy who thinks of himself as an Iman, relationship councillor, exorcist (he assumes Abdulla is possessed by a Djinn at one point) and later a vampire slayer, he is drawn as a manly man. Abdulla starts to notice his neck, however, and eventually does bite him. Whilst this queer aspect is understated, and directly fed from a Freudian reading of the vampire bite, it was an interesting undercurrent to add into the series.

Jaime Winstone as Kathy

And I really did like the series. Arian Nik was perfectly cast as Abdulla with just the right amount of wide-eyed innocence to carry the role. Nina Wadia is always a pleasure to watch and Sia Alipour was genuinely funny. Jaime Winstone made for an excellent vampire and juxtaposed perfectly against the (not too often seen) snobbish vampires of the coven. The use of the Muslim lens was really well done but the drawing in of Abdulla’s lackadaisical approach to his religion and the Sikh aspect through Amrit’s family, along with Kathy of course, showed multicultural Britain generally but especially honed in on younger generations becoming genuinely multicultural in outlook and looking to balance the desire to both honour tradition and embrace a wider societal outlook. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Dc Vs. Vampires: All Out War Part 1

Written by: Matthew Rosenberg, Alex Paknadel, Pasquale Qualand, Guillaume Singelin & Emma Vieceli

Illustrated by: Neil Googe, Pasquale Qualand, Guillaume Singelin & Haining

First Published: 2023 (THB)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: One of the last secret, underground human cities is facing total annihilation and its leader—John Constantine—must plan a suicide mission to assassinate a key lieutenant in the vampire empire!

The survivors of a horrifying vampire attack, led by Deathstroke, take shelter with Talia al Ghul. With intel from a hero recently saved from vampirism, John Constantine prepares them for a (suicide) mission, while Midnighter goes through every scenario in his head and finds out the dark truth. Meanwhile the mysterious vampire Lord Cinder has become aware of their plans and prepares a surprise...

You won't want to miss this thrilling companion collection to DC vs. Vampires!

The review: I had thought, when I saw this companion piece to DC Vs Vampires was due, that this would be a one-shot volume but actually it is the first of two parts set after the world has fallen to the vampires. However, it is not a single story. As well as the core story, which starts with Deathstroke, Damage and Blue Devil taking Batman’s body to one of the few remaining Lazarus pits. The vampires have destroyed most of them but Deathstroke believes the resurrection of Batman could, at least from a morale point of view, help turn the tide. They are attacked by vampires of course, and the vampire Azrael falls into the pit – and it turns him human. That pit is useless as it's been used, but they realise the pits were a cure…

However the first story in the volume is one about the resistance, including vampire Robin, looking to attack Nightwing (the vampire leader). Robin – Damian Wayne – holds no loyalty to Nightwing, as we saw in the main volumes. We also get a short Batgirl strip and part 1 of Dark Birth – which plots out how Nightwing became turned.

With so many stories enhancing the already brilliant DC Vs Vampires this is a great companion piece. There are a variety of art styles within, all of which worked for me, but the volume is perhaps only one for those who have read the main two volumes. 7.5 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Rick and Morty: Full Meta Jackrick

Another Rick and Morty season, another fleeting visitation of a vampire. This is episode 7 of season 6, airing first in 2022 and directed by Lucas Gray and Wesley Archer, and is a full-on meta exploration with Rick and Morty (both voiced by Justin Roiland) attacked by Previously Leon a parasitic creature from the Meta Reality. Escaping his venomous influence they chase him through the fourth wall into the Metaverse.

During the episode we do get a constructed moment where Jesus (Christopher Meloni) faces his “previously on” and we see him, for a moment, battling Dracula. And that is it, a truly fleeting visitation yet again.

The episode's imdb page is here.

Dracula Vs Jesus

Ghetto Goblin – review

Director: Jordan Harland

Release date: 2013

Contains spoilers

For this South African film that was originally titled Blood Tokoloshe and I owe Simon Bacon thanks for putting me on to it. What we get is a low budget film that has the issues one would imagine from a low budget film but also some fascinating lore, an interesting look at religious relations in a post-colonial country and a coded simile for sexually transmitted disease.

creating the Tokoloshe

The Tokoloshe appears in Bane as a variant of the Tikoloshi. The Tikoloshi is described as being from the folklore of the Xhosa people of Lesotho – which is encircled by South Africa. The description of the creation of the creature in Bane partially matches the creation of it in this – disinterring a corpse and removing its eyes and tongue. In this it also involves removing the ears – but misses elements such as the very act of creating the creature meaning the death, within a year, of a family member.

bite marks

A much bigger difference is that the Tikoloshi is said to have a giant penis (that it slings over its shoulder) and takes payment for its services by raping women and draining their energy – making it an energy vampire. In this the Tokoloshe attacks girls and women, biting them (and leaving vampire like marks) and the blood it takes fills the calabash associated with the creature. The owner whispers into the calabash with his desires (mostly money and sex with women) and must thank the Tokoloshe when it provides. If the blood in it is spilt or dripped even then the girls it provides for its master will disappear and the calabash must never fully fill.

Msimbithi Mahamba as Mthunzi

In this the owner of the Tokoloshe is Mthunzi (Msimbithi Mahamba) and the opening of the film shows him creating his supernatural creature. He has been told the secret by a Sangoma, or traditional healer and mystic, called Bheka (Siphiwe Masinga) and we see Mthunzi with a woman and then picking up money from a counter and whispering thank you to the Tokoloshe through the calabash. We also see the creature move through the township via a pov camera and an attack on a girl (an incident that Bheka is brought to). When Mthunzi wants even more money, we see a young girl attacked in her bed and the creature leaves vampire bite like marks on her neck.

headline

The girl’s mother, in the first instance, presents her daughter to a journalist (Itumeleng Mokoena) and this leads to a headline that reads “Tokoloshe drank my daughter’s blood!” – a headline that seems to amuse Mthunzi when he sees it. She then takes the daughter to local Christian priest the Reverend Simon (Simon Msizi Nwamba). Simon believes the attack must have been by an animal and will brook no discussion about the supernatural creature. As more women are attacked, he organises men to hunt an animal and this leads, eventually, to the killing of a scapegoated dog. The way the Christian priest and the Sangoma are drawn is one of the more interesting aspects of the film.

Sangoma and priest

The two do come together, though this is despite the fact that Bheka actually knows for certain it is a Tokoloshe and exactly who created it, facts he singularly fails to reveal to the townspeople. To be fair, he does nearly say how he knows what it is but is interrupted – although we don’t know if he would have been honest. Interestingly the Reverend, who is a priest of the coloniser’s God, always speaks to the township in English, whereas Bheka speaks only in the local dialect (I’m not 100% sure which language it is but potentially it is isiZulu). Bheka offers people traditional wards and Simon does eventually come to believe, when he sees the Tokoloshe with his own eyes (and gets covered with gore as it murders a victim). He does try and ward it with a crucifix at one point but it doesn’t work.

The Tokoloshe

The Tokoloshe is mostly invisible but when it appears it has a primate like face, with red eyes, is surrounded in shadow and is seen at one point as a shadow behind a screen. It speaks to Mthunzi, calling him greedy and, when the calabash is perilously close to filling, chastises the man for using a straw to try and drink the blood (lowering the level without spilling the blood). The Tokoloshe turns on its creator eventually, determined to kill the women it enchanted into sleeping with Mthunzi first. Given that these women were innocent victims of Mthunzi’s lust, the desire to kill them ahead of his creator means that the Tokoloshe can be read as representing an STD. Mthunzi has also fallen in love with one of the women, Boithumelo (Petunia Gabrielle Modisapodi), and so wants to spirit her away to save her.

shadow of the Tokoloshe 

There is almost a symbiotic relationship between the Tokoloshe and its creator – which may be why the creature wants to continue its evil ways taking out Mthunzi’s lovers before turning its attention to him, as killing him will be deadly to the creature. The film effects aren’t the best in the world but the design of the Tokoloshe means that it is rather effective despite the lower budget. We get some bloody moments with the Tokoloshe causing the calabash to bleed and the blood covering the floor beneath the cabinet it sits in. However, the story seems to have gaps and some logic leaps – how a viewer reads Bheka is either as almost sociopathic (the situation is ultimately his fault and he knows how to end it but, despite confronting Mthunzi, he does not end the situation) or the character’s actions are not plotted well. I am plumping for the former.

Petunia Gabrielle Modisapodi as Boithumelo 

This is never going to be classed as a great film, beyond the holes/gaps mentioned, the acting tends towards the amateurish and the direction lacks a tension that would raise the film up. But, nevertheless, it is incredibly interesting and worthwhile for the use of an indigenous folklore and for the interesting post-colonial lens (with the way language and religion is used). At the time of writing, in the UK the film is free to watch on Plex and carries English subtitles for the local dialect parts. 4 out of 10 tries to balance the low budget issues against the interesting aspects.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: The Dead Hour: Alcoholic Vampire

The Dead Hour was a series showcasing short films dating to 2010 and all the short episodes were directed by Daniel B. Iske. The episodes are opened with a radio DJ, Raven (Melissa Holder), introducing them like a story told to her listeners. The short is the episode proper and this one is part of Season 1 (in the way Amazon have split the series into seasons).

In this case the short starts in clubland and Vic (Nic Roewert) is with a woman and eventually it ends up back at his place, where he delays the inevitable by getting her (and himself) another drink. Soon, however, he is chowing down on her neck. You see, Vic is a vampire and Vic is an alcoholic.

Vic finds his bliss

Sunlight seems only to make him wear shades, though that might be his hangover. In his fridge are bottles of blood dated with their previous owners’ names. He takes one bottle and a bottle of vodka and makes a real blood, Bloody Mary. Vic is an alcoholic and he drinks because he can’t stand doing what he has to do to survive.

bite

It was a nice take. Often vampirism is used as a simile for addiction but it is more unusual to have the addiction be a coping mechanism for the vampirism. Vic is attending a 12-step group but it really isn’t working (after all, he hasn’t been able to address the underlying problem). The film is short, true, but suffice it to say that he manages to find a solution to his dilemma, eventually…

The episode's imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Classic Literature: The Vampyre Bride

Written by Edwin Roberts and released in 1850, this was one of the stories that struck me in the excellent anthology Night’s Black Agents. The story was originally published in Reynold’s Miscellany. It is interesting because it's a fictionalised version of the Erzsébet Báthory story.

This is hinted at, at the start of the story, by it saying, “The events of which the following story derives its origin had their genesis in certain terrible facts which occurred in Hungary in the beginning of the last century” – or “based on true events” as many a modern movie might claim. This was, of course, inaccurate as Báthory lived 1560 to 1614 and her acts (if they happened) did not occur in the 18th Century.

Nevertheless, this is recognisably Báthory though she is renamed Countess Gouvina, a socialite who is famed for her lavish entertainments. Eventually, however, her social events begin to be avoided and she finds herself in love with a Prince Wladimir – a younger man who does not seem to reciprocate her feelings. She looks to find a methodology of becoming younger and consults witches and, having been told some secrets, discovers the truth of them as she gets blood on her hand, having smashed a mirror into a young maid, in a fit of rage.

Unlike the death count attributed to the historical Báthory, Countess Gouvina is listed as having killed no less than 300 maidens. Her undoing comes when her men kidnap a young peasant woman, but the girl's plucky suitor realises where she has been taken to and decides to rescue her. He gets the authorities involved after the rescue, having seen the Countess’ depravity. From his perspective we get the commentary: “To the brink of that murder pool, where the vampire-woman—as the frenzied youth thought her—drank of living blood, and bathed her limbs in its sanguine tide.” This connects the Countess with blood drinking as well as the more famous pastime and it is a very early connection, of course. Just a note that I checked the quote in a digitized version of the Reynold’s Miscellany,* the modern book actually typos this, replacing “tide” with “title”.

*The linked document is the 1851 collected Reynold’s Miscellany volume V.

Children of the Night – review

Director: William Stead

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

Children of the Night is a feature directorial debut for William Stead and, whilst it does do things wrong, it is an impressively shot budget film. Set in the Second World War it absolutely strives to overcome its budget and creates quite an interesting story with a wonderfully queer aspect.

It starts in a trench and at first we just hear the sound of battle and then we see, staring forward, Jim (Harry Giubileo) and the first thing I thought was shell shock – the film brilliantly realising, in a shot and actor’s expression, the horror of war. The trench is under attack, the order for retreat has been sounded but… As we see the attack the opting to show part of the battle (rather than mimic it with visual and sound effects within the trench only) was a bad choice. The cgi planes and armoured vehicles were poor. To be fair, it wasn't a repeated mistake.

cloaked figure

Jim fights against his own fear as he moves, he is thrown in a blast and comes round to see a figure in the trench, back to him in a red velvet cloak… the figure starts to turn and then things turn to black for Jim. When he comes round, the men around him are dead until he realises that Bob (Jay O'Connell, Vampire Virus) is alive with an injured leg. Getting closer he realises his comrade has a gash to the neck also. The radio is broken and so he patches Bob up and they make their way through the countryside trying to find their troops.

Harry Giubileo as Jim

Their journey takes them to a church at night, Jim stepping on an unearthed corpse as they approach. In the church the religious Jim, in desperation, fills his canteen from a holy water font (of course that will come in handy later). They detect movement outside and hide when German troops come in with an injured man. Jim speaks various languages and so picks up that he was attacked by something with yellow eyes. He doesn’t pick up on the word Nosferatu. The soldier dies and the Germans leave taking him to be buried.

monstrous hand

They continue their journey but Bob is suffering and Jim goes to soak bandages in a river. We see a monstrous hand reaching to his shoulder (he thinks it’s Jim) and then he realises there is a stranger there, Louis (Ivan du Pontavice). Louis is a French civilian from close by but the distrustful Bob has Jim tie him up. Jim shows kindness but, in the morning, Louis bonds are gone and Jim is injured at the neck again and unconscious. Jim, thinking his friend has just collapsed, takes Louis up on bringing Jim to the farm his father, Francois (Johnny Vivash), owns. Of course Louis and Francois are vampires (feeding off soldiers) – Francois has become distrustful of the British as well as the Germans as a British barrage killed his wife. Louis and Jim are attracted to each other and I’ll cover that off before touching on the vampires.

Jim and Louis

There is a love story at the heart of this and it is generally really well done. There is a palpable chemistry between Louis and Jim but this sometimes goes astray as that chemistry may not have been as apparent in some of the situations, as danger made them concentrate at the tasks at hand, whilst the actors keep that feel going despite being shot at, for instance, when Germans hunt the vampires down. Nevertheless, generally it works brilliantly. That brings me to homosexuality and the British military.

love story

Jim talks about being kicked out of home at fifteen due to his sexuality and turning towards becoming clergy until war broke out and he was drafted. He says that some of his unit knew and gave him some level of stick for it (there is a homophobic jibe by Bob in dialogue). It is true that gay and bisexual men were called up for service in WW2 and no issue was made of their sexuality by the powers that be, as they needed warm bodies to throw into battle. Afterwards, however, they were treated shockingly and until 2000 a man found to be gay or bisexual in the British forces was arrested, imprisoned and then dishonourably discharged. The UK military did not change because they wanted to but because the (European) courts forced them to and I believe it remains one of the great shames of the UK forces.

burnt by the cross

The vampires in this can walk in daylight but can’t change form into their bat-like monstrous guise until night falls. A bite that kills seems to turn a victim (there is a vampire returned from death but also several German ones who have changed into monstrous form but appear dead – what was going on there wasn’t clear). They can be burned by crosses and holy water (and yet we see crosses in the farmhouse and worn by a vampire) and can bless a room that causes the vampire to need to be invited back in. That was interesting, though the invitation would seem to be non-verbal – leaving the door open for them was enough. Louis is 800-years old.

vampire

The effects could miss. In shadow/darkness the monstrous form of the vampire was good. In decent light they seemed overly rubbery (a set of talon festooned fingers wobbled like the rubber they were). We get a burial that wasn’t even a shallow grave more the actor led on the ground and dirt shuffled onto him – I assume they couldn’t get permission to dig a hole at the location. The war aspect feels small, because of the small cast and limited budget, but better that than to rely on CGI that would have ruined the film. However, the photography is crisp and there is a real sense of trying to pull a quality production together. It is the chemistry between du Pontavice and Giubileo that is the beating heart of the film though. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the production, 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.