The Beautiful Killers – review

Director: Marcus J Henderson

Release date: 2023* 

*Date via Amazon

Contains spoilers

I hate to do this, I really do. As I watched this film my heart sank at the thought of writing what I quickly knew would be a negative review. I try and find an angle to see the good in a film but in some cases, this being one, there isn’t a nail to hang that hat on. Equally, however, I also dislike spending money on a film and finding no real redeemable qualities within it.

opening

After opening cards (such as a rating card) with a real antiquated look we see a pair enter a poorly lit room. One is exultant, they have clearly just pulled off some kind of crime. The larger exultant one, a man, goes to retrieve something and turns to see the smaller (unclear in the bad lighting but soon revealed as a woman) has pulled a gun. As the screen turns black, she fires multiple times (the sound of the gun is weak). We see her exit the room into a corridor, she will appear at the end of the film, her connection to the general ‘plot’ is not really explained.

Siron Collier as the bartender

A woman (Jennifer Chandler, I think) enters a bar and is greeted by the bartender (Siron Collier). At this point I really started to notice the dialogue was very unnatural in timbre. She has come to the area to see Anna, though she seems to be missing. The bartender suggests that she might need something and hands her a bottle with a dropper top and suggests two drops under the tongue will protect from the beautiful killers – later this becomes less protect from attack but it will prevent turning. The film then is him telling her stories of the beautiful killers.

Jennifer Chandler as the traveller

At first I struggled to understand who each set of peeps were and their connection to a plot I couldn’t fathom. But, as it went on, I realised that there are several different stories, some connected some not, all of which feature the female vampires dubbed as the Beautiful Killers. As for a plot, I still couldn’t fathom it and, by the end, I realised that was because there wasn’t really an overarching one (bar vampire gals attack multiple people). There seems little sense in this.

vampire fortune teller

So, for instance, we get three young adults entering a store and it is clear it is a fortune teller's place. The reaction and hostility of the one whose fortune was to be read made it impossible to understand why she was there. Eventually she walks out with her mates, then she decides she will get her money back (we never saw her pay as far as I could see). She goes in on her own, the lighting has become red, the fortune teller is feeding off a guy on the floor and she then chases after the girl who has literally nipped outside and then cowers close by and so is got. There was no point.

blood spattered vampires

A woman who has just been made partner (she says on the phone) is approached as she sits in her car by a girl who wants to know where the nearest town is and then the driver is attacked when the girl suddenly lunges from the back seat (having teleported into the car?) We cut to what appears to be the driver's friends having a drink. A knock on the door and the vampire girl is there, she asks to use the phone and then asks to use the toilet (and so is invited in). The house owner goes to check on the girl and is attacked by her and screams, which the friend fails to hear and then is attacked herself.

kissing over a victim

Then, at another house, there is a knock on the door and the mother (who is with her daughter) doesn’t open it but gets a gun. The point in knocking (and gaining an invitation) is then completely lost when the vampire girl (the same one as before) lets herself in the house (presumably through the back door). Mother and daughter escape and get a storeowner to unlock his door and let them in for shelter. After the most awkward exchange, the dialogue really excruciating, the vampire girl walks on in and attacks the store owner.

feed

I could go on. We rarely get names, and we certainly get very little characterisation. The effects are poor, the dialogue (as mentioned) feels far from natural, the performances are amateurish. It is all a shame as I’d love to get a single element I could hold up as even a little interesting or good. At one point a couple of lesbian vampires manage to have a less than erotic liaison over a victim’s corpse, whilst a friend of the victim watches, and the viewer realises that it has even missed the mark on a sexploitation level.

I am really sorry, filmmakers. This one missed on all levels for me. 1 out of 10 as I like to think that it was a labour of love (even if it didn’t come across as such). At the time of writing I could not find an IMDb page.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short film: Blood-Bubble Bushes

The 2018 series Junji Itô: Korekushon translated selected examples of Junji Ito’s horror manga into anime, the core series having 12, roughly 24-minute, episodes each containing two segments. The anime is available in Japanese and dubbed into English but, despite a couple of segments that fit to the blog, I decided that reviewing the series as a whole was probably not the way forward. Rather, I’d look at pertinent segments as short films in their own right.

Interestingly this was one of the most overtly vampire related stories by Junji Ito, of the ones I have been thus far exposed to, and as one would expect it is remarkably inventive, creating a wonderfully weird trope within it. As such I will fairly much spoil the story to explore it.

the boys

We meet Ansai and Kana after a car incident that leaves them broken down (off road for some unexplained reason). They walk through a forested area looking for help, especially a phone so they can call for a mechanic. They eventually come across a shelter under which a group of boys sit, the boys seem grey-eyed and somehow off. They ask them is they have a phone and they say no and are generally unhelpful, though they quietly snigger at the adults.

fangs

As the couple walk away, looking for a town or road, Kana hears something and realises that the boys are following them. They turn to face them and one of the boys runs at them, managing to whip Kana across the face with a thorny vine, cutting her skin, before being pushed away by Ansai. The boys rush them, their mouths fanged. We then see the aftermath, the boys gone but Kana bleeding at the leg, face and neck. She suggests that her blood was licked and one of the boys bit her and it seems the same biting occurred to Ansai though the wound is never concentrated upon.

the man

They reach a village but it seems deserted. There is red splattering up walls that Kana hopes is paint. They find a puddle of blood with something, like a piece of fleshy matter, in the puddle. Ansai is still hopeful that they might find at least a single resident still living there and they do. Invited into his house, he binds Kana’s wounds and, though he has no phone, offers them a place to stay for the night.

the fruit sprouts 

He also tells them the story of his lover – a woman he claims Kana reminds him of. Though he loved her dearly, she was depressed, convinced he and everyone else wanted to abandon her. She even claimed that her blood wanted to leave her and eventually slit her own throat. The man grabbed her and drank from the cut and, subsequently, branches grew from it and the fruit appeared. The round fruit containing her blood and the more fruit grew the more she was drained to a husk. The fruit became the last thing he had of her.

the villager

The couple go to bed but Ansai awakens and Kana is not there. He goes looking for her and finds a room full of bushes containing fleshy fruit. The man appears, saying this is all he has left of his love, and Ansai demands to know where Kana is. The man denies knowledge, suggesting she should be in their room and exits. Before he leaves, Ansai hears someone pleading for help. He sees the dishevelled body, almost mummified, of a man from whom one of the bushes grows. He tells Ansai that the man had come to their village and spread this strange plague, planting the villagers there as a blood crop – we have, here, a unique take on the blood farm concept that appears in the genre from time to time. Ansai finds Kana and tells her they must leave, the man seems calm about this, simply saying that they will be back.

those who ate their own fruit

In a flashback to the conversation with the villager/bush, we see him telling Ansai that the one way to prevent becoming a bush, once it has sprouted (it is implied that the bush grows from the location of a vampire bite), is to eat all of its fruit yourself. However, that changes the feeder into one who thirsts endlessly for blood, including the blood of others. It is clear at this point that the boys from the beginning where not only from the village but had done this to themselves. Once again a Junji Ito story treads in unusual, dark spaces and this leaves us with an unusual vampire tale.

The episode's imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mentions: Debbie Does Demons

Ah, Donald Farmer, director of many a poor film… this is his 2023 opus and, whilst rubbish, it is so knowingly so that one almost can take it as a self-styled meme and appreciate it for that. The primary reason for having the mention is that the central antagonist is named Carmilla Karnstein (Jessa Flux) – the name obviously coming from Carmilla and her look owing a tad to Franco’s Female Vampire - though in this she is a witch.

The opening credits actually seem quite well shot, a low tracking through a graveyard that has a feel of film of a more 60s/70s pedigree (and added pops and scratches). The cuts to shenanigans with rubber demons probably breaks that a bit but this is a rule of thumb for the movie – all the demons look blooming awful.

Carmilla grabs an innocent

We get some detail about the witch Carmilla, from the witch herself, and then we are in the show Debbie Does Demons (named, of course, for one of the most famous of adult movies). Debbie (Angel Nichole Bradford) is the host of a horror show and the next scene would seem to be presented on the show (except that the Carmilla character is played by Flux and thus it might also be a flashback). If the former then we can forgive the fact that the nun and monk outfits are clearly cheap end Halloween costumes of modern material and, as well as a cape, Carmilla wears some very modern briefs (and nothing else), this also allows a forgiveness of the very shaky camerawork (as the show is on the cheap) if the latter, then it’s poor.

the possessed monk

Anyway, Carmilla has grabbed a woman in period dress and is promising to use her virgin blood in a rite that will allow her mother, killed by witchfinders, to possess the innocent's body and finish the work of bringing Hell on Earth. Her plan is foiled when grabbed by a monk – who is a witchfinder – and a couple of nuns. However, she then decides to pass her spirit (mouth to mouth) into the witchfinder, who subsequently spits blood onto a nun and is now Carmilla… the story ends, Debbie ends her show.

the friends

Four friends Lauren (Morrigan Thompson), Jan (Dixie Gers), Ashley (Roni Jonah) and Adam (Adam Freeman) are watching the show (bad scripting later makes incorrect names be used – Ashley is called Angela at one point – and things be forgotten, such as Lauren forgetting that the Debbie Does Demon show exists after making her friends watch it). Lauren knew the episode was about Carmilla, announces she is a descendant thereof and suggest contacting the witch through a ouija board. As soon as it works Adam and Ashley leg it to their rooms upstairs and Lauren has a seizure. Jan runs to her room and is first to meet Carmilla who manifests in the shower, as you do, because… boobs (though they are out through 95% of her screen time anyway).

attack of the vampire nuns

So, Carmilla turns Jan and Adam into demons (who actually just look a bit like really low budget zombies whose makeup comprises of blood round the mouth) and Lauren has to find a way of unsummoning the witch. But, whilst I have mentioned this because of the use of Carmilla's name, there are two scenes to mention that are part of the Debbie Does Demon show. The first is linked as a piece on a haunted mansion, but instead we see a priest with a stake go to a building, be let in by nuns who are more in fetish dress than holy vestments – and they call the place the Church of Hallowed Holes. We see a woman (presumably vampire) get out a coffin and the priest attacked by nuns (who were previously licking blood from a naked nun) and consequently put in the coffin. It’s definitely a vampire scene with no narrative to speak of.

the succubus

At the end of the film, we see another part of Debbie’s show that has adult film maker/star Newt Wallen (Les Price) go with a crew to a burnt out building where his father had tried to summon a demon to have sex with and the place had burnt down. Newt is going to try and summon the demon, a succubus (Roxie Rose), for the same reason. She appears and then bites his bits off as the woman with him shows fangs. All in all, the two scenes are just fleeting visitations. The film itself is rubbish, but so knowingly rubbish it was actually not as bad as it should have been.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Trasharella – review

Director: Rena Riffel

Release date: 2009

Contains spoilers

Trasharella is one of those films that leaves me wondering where to begin. A vanity project, essentially, for director/writer/producer/star Rena Riffel, the film is comedic, sleazy, grindhouse-esque musical with a vampire, Count Smokula (Smokey Miles credited under the name Count Smokula, Tales from the Crapper).

The film starts with the radio telling us that starlet Becky Bardot (Jade Paris) is missing. It then centres on Helena Beestrom (Rena Riffel) a starlet wannabe who has moved to Hollywood and is staying in her Aunt’s apartment whilst she holidays overseas. The film starts with her in audition and then she asks the casting director about the Hollywood Vampire.

in a past life

The director goes into a prolonged rant about the vampire, suggesting that he takes the form of a cat and sucks ambition, beauty and talent from wannabe starlets (this being in part reminiscent of Viereck's The House of the Vampire) and the only way to escape it is by being a superstar. Fleeing back to her apartment Helena reveals that a fortune teller told her she would never make it in Hollywood due to a curse emanating from a past life. Apparently trash is the way she can break the curse.

death by Barbie

In a flashback to that past life, in Paris, we see her former self befriend a cat but it becomes jealous, becomes the vampire and curses her. In the modern day we see her struggling with Count Smokula, a Jewish presenting vampire who does, indeed, turn into a cat. Eventually we see her kill the vampire by repeatedly stabbing him with a Barbie doll. However you can’t keep a good vampire down and Helena (or Trasharella after she creates a superhero suit out of bin bags and dons a Betty Page wig) seems to be suffering a breakdown.

Smokula

The story hasn’t much more than that in it, the narrative confused and subsequently confusing. Rena Riffel is very personable on the screen but the filming is (possibly deliberately) poor and most of the performances are amateurish (and there are some amateurs) and the effects virtually non-existent and those there are, are hidden by the poor straight to video quality. This is one that may get cult status but I didn’t get it. 2 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Night of the Caregiver – review

Director: Joe Cornet

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

A low budget horror film with a limited cast, Night of the Caregiver has a demonic entity at its heart but definitely aims for a vampiric aspect. There is a reveal to be spoilt in this review as I explain why it’s a vampire film but, to be fair, it wasn’t a shock when it happened and the viewer is in on it (without being explicitly told what’s going on) long before the primary protagonist knows.

Joe Cornet as Eckhart

Juliet Rowe (Natalie Denise Sperl, Succubus: Hell-bent) is a caregiver who has taken an additional, one-time job on, on top of her job as a hospice nurse. However, we first see her during said moonlighting job, sleeping and then woken as a demonic hand brushes her and then see her panicking in the night. Following this we cut to 13-hours earlier and New York detective Eckhart (Joe Cornet), out of jurisdiction, visiting paranormal expert Dr King (Eric Roberts). Eckhart’s mother went missing years before and he has tied the disappearance into an LA urban legend.

Natalie Denise Sperl as Juliet

Juliet’s girlfriend, Pam (Anna Oris, Spooky+), is not impressed at losing their Friday night horror movie watch but concedes the point when Juliet points out that they need the money. She arrives at her client’s house, in the middle of nowhere, but no-one answers the door. It’s open and she enters, calling out, and finds the patient, Lillian Gresham (Eileen Dietz, the Last Slay Ride, Creepshow 3 & Monsterland), baking cookies. As they get to know each other we discover that Lillian has heart cancer but her vitals, taken by her normal caregiver, seem too good to be true, she refuses the taking of further vitals and she doesn’t take medication.

Juliet and Lillian

Nevertheless, and despite it being all sorts of strange, Juliet settles her down for the night and starts to experience ‘events’ – the phone sometimes doesn’t work, lights flicker on and off, Lillian vanishes and reappears and she sees a demonic entity. Putting things down to tiredness, at first, she gets more and more spooked until, eventually, she realises that Lillian is the source of her trouble (which is, of course, the reveal I mentioned). She genuinely did have heart cancer and it was untreatable but she invoked a demon, named Ayish.

Ayish revealed

The demon made a deal with her. She was infused with an alter ego – the demon sharing her body and giving her its powers. To maintain her life, she has to kill an innocent once every 13-years, before the night is over, and she chooses caregivers as they are good (and therefore innocent) people. She has to suck the victim’s blood as part of the deal and so it is this extended life (she started this some 65-years before), with blood drinking, that makes this a vampire film. It should also be mentioned that failing to fulfil her part of the pack means the demonic infusion will be burnt out with the morning sun.

attacking Eckhart

The film isn’t a bad little horror watch. The twist was palpably obvious, unfortunately, and the detective was virtually pointless except for the end intervention – which they could have had with the girlfriend (she offered to come over when called and Juliet was freaking out and then, as contact was lost, she could have driven over and served the same function as the detective – and it would have made more sense). Sperl did a fair turn at the victimised caregiver and Eileen Dietz was the professional you would expect, toying with her victim. The exposition was crowbarred in. Not the greatest flick ever, but passes the time. 4.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

Honourable Mention: Fables for the Witching Hour: Vol 1

This was a portmanteau film from 2023 and the wraparound section was directed by Minh Collins. It is this section that interests us, as none of the segments featured a vampire. Indeed, they were all a little more Tales of the Unexpected than Horror segments, if I’m honest.

The wraparound sees lab worker/scientist Tina (Madison Willow) staying late at work as she had these stories to bring us. Her co-worker, Layla (Lorren Cackowski), warns her not to stay too late and to be careful going home – she’s leaving for a hot date.

blood from the fridge

As the stories progress, we see brief moments of Tina beginning to freak out as she suspects someone is in the building with her. She eventually calls Layla who leaves her bed to take the call. The call fails, Tina sees… the janitor... and Layla goes to the fridge to get a drink and she retrieves a glass with a thick red liquid. The camera returns to the bed and her beau has two punctures on his neck… And that’s it, Layla is a vampire and it is a fleeting visitation.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Classic Literature: A Fool There Was

I have, of course, looked at the 1915 film A Fool There Was and decided the female vampire, played by Theda Bara, was indeed a vampire in the energy vampire sense of the word as well as a Vamp. I was aware that the film’s origins were based on the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name published in 1897 and, in its turn, the poem was based on a painting by Philip Burne-Jones, titled The Vampire, itself unveiled in 1897. What I was unaware of was that the film itself was based on a play by Porter Emerson Browne, who also created a novella of the same name – both dated to 1909. It is the novel I am touching on here and my thanks to David Annwn Jones and his book Vampires on the Silent Screen, from where I garnered this information.

The book is certainly deeper than the film, we actually meet main character John (who becomes the Fool), his (to be) wife Kate and best friend Jack as children. This, of course, adds more depth to the characters. We also observe, in Europe, the vampire as a baby. She has a name in this, Rien (which is French for nothing, offering her a spectral identity), and we see her unmarried mother die. This seems to be just after childbirth and at that point the father appears in her life for a very short moment. He is clearly an immoral man of, we discover, aristocratic blood and he gives her a name and nothing else. This birth out of wedlock and conception through (implied) immorality would seem to be the source of her ‘evil’. She is brought up by her grandmother, who is drawn very much as the crone.

As she grows older (not given an age, but still young) we see a stranger meeting her as she sits in the woods, naked (and described as a nymph) as she watches the stand off between squirrel and snake, with the former mesmerised. The stranger’s horse snorts and the squirrel escapes. She turns her attention to him and as well as being described as having dead black hair, she is clearly tied to the snake we have just seen (which could tie to the lamia). His horse bolting takes him away but it is mentioned twice that he crosses himself.

The father returns later, having taken a tour to see his families (indicating he fathered several illegitimate children) and, it is suggested, he was also the stranger so it is actually the third time he meets her. Now an adult she walks with a breast exposed. When he sees her, her gaze holds his and her walk towards him – described as sinuous – causes him to back away until he steps backwards off a cliff. The book then follows the film, though we don’t see other Fools, prior to John, bar Parmalee – the young man who commits suicide before her. He is called young Parmalee but described as having, “unnatural forced age”. The book gives her a sense of the uncanny, she seems to have a power through her gaze and her Fools age unnaturally (and I read that as her eating their energy). Although she is likened to a snake at times at another point she is described as having “long, lithe limbs in the easy relaxation that is of the panther, or the leopard.” This, of course, ties her to felines also.

We see John hit her at one point, “full upon the vivid crimson lips—and a little of their crimson seemed to leave its lair. It trickled down upon the dead whiteness of her skin…” which is a very vampiric description. Equally John is left, after her extended ministrations, as “a palsied, pallid, shrunken caricature of something that had once been human… John Schuyler had hands—not nerveless, shaking talons… This sunken-eyed, sunken-cheeked, wrinkled thing was not John Schuyler…” and this description shows a much more marked effect than the film could.

The film, of course, quoted the Kipling poem in intertitles but this actually has the characters quoting the poem - and using it to describe Rien - which was wonderfully meta. I decided that the film was actually a vampire film, though the film was also that which popularised the cinematic Vamp. This, more so, builds a vision of a mythic creature. Whilst different, her ‘sinful’ heritage (the unmarried mother and libertine father) brought the parentage of energy vampire Harriet Brandt, from Blood of the Vampire to mind. Like Harriet she has travelled to feed, though whilst Harriet came to Europe from the Caribbean, Rien travels to the USA from old Europe and corrupts her good men.

On Kindle @ Amazon US

On Kindle @ Amazon UK

Vampire Nymphets – review

Director: David Stojan

Release date: 2021

Contains spoilers

A Mexican film, with no real dialogue (though there are recordings in English of what sounds like alleged Satanic cult survivors) this is a tough one to review due to its highly experimental nature and even tougher to do a blow-by-blow as there is little projected narrative. Essentially my summary of the plot would go a little like, a girl (Valeria Hernandez) is in the city, reading about occult matters. She goes to a cemetery, where another girl (Angela Garza) and man (David Stojan) drug and kidnap her. The kidnappers happen to be vampires, who then torture her until she is under the illusion that she is a vampire too…

Valeria Hernandez as the girl

Better, in this case, to reproduce the DVD blurb: “In a city ruled by the underworld, a religious fanatic teenager is worried about the recent rumours of demonic gangs and cults. She takes a trip to the cemetery to take flowers in remorse for the car accident her friend recently had, unaware the cemetery is territory of a female gang faction known as the Vampire Nymphets whose adored leader is a male vampire.

kidnap

“With their supernatural powers they lead her into falling for their spells and she ends up being kidnapped by them and taken to their safe house which is hours away from the city in a cursed land habited by witches, demons and werewolves where the gang operates an underground brothel.

Angela Garza as the vampire girl

“The young girl has trouble fitting in with the other vampires of the gang because of her religious past, she is then given potent hallucinogens and is in a constant state of confusion and begins to remember she was kidnapped and abused.

“Her nightmare begins when she wakes up the next morning and her transformation wears off into a dark abyss of hallucinations, satanic sacrifice and the evil spirits of the forest.”

cheap plastic fangs

The film runs for 60 minutes and is an assault of imagery, often disturbing or vampiric, with effects over scenes and an industrial soundtrack that adds a layer to the film. The difference between the two vampires and the girl is highlighted within the fact that they have fangs (and decent build prosthetics) and she wears Halloween style plastic fangs when she thinks she is a vampire.

David Stojan as the vampire man

The lack of narrative and experimental edge makes this reminiscent of the more experimental work of Chris Alexander though this is darker and more disturbing, which also brought Visions of Suffering to mind. I scored that film as “?” and I am in the same quandary here. There is a vision, that much is clear, and the blurb actually resonates with the film, though the film does not exactly provide the content of the blurb itself as you watch. If you like your films highly experimental, and dark, then this will work for you. If that turns you off, or you demand a clear narrative then turn away.

The imdb page is here.

Sammy Slick: Vampire Slayer – review

Director: Christopher Leto

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

Sneaking onto Amazon’s VoD, comes Sammy Slick: Vampire Slayer and I have to admit I like the artwork, a little reminiscent of the art for I Had a Bloody Good Time at House Harker but with a definite sense of style.

Artwork aside there is some decent photography in here, a sense of professionalism for an indie (and, I understand, crowdfunded) flick but there are aspects that are a little off also and I get the feeling the filmmakers could have tidied some aspects up a little and exploited other aspects a bit as well.

Klein Wong as Sammy Slick

The setting is Ybor City, Florida and we see a man, soon to be revealed as the eponymous Sammy Slick (Klein Wong). He realises that someone is trailing him and just before a street corner goes into a run. The pursuer chases and finds Sammy stood waiting. After suggesting that the guy doesn’t know who he is, he stakes him. He gets into the entrance area to a building and another vampire stands before him, two come up behind. He fights the first, staking him, and the other two run away.

breaking the fourth wall

In the building is his office and his secretary Ash (Ariella Aegen) tells him he has an appointment. In his office he breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience and explains that he is a vampire hunter and a private eye and goes through some of the lore. They have fangs, drink blood, don’t reflect and need invitations. However, they like garlic, can go out in sunlight, are very charming and have a weird lavender aroma. He uses a custom silver stake (as we see the grain later, wood painted silver) but crosses don’t work – this, we discover at the end, isn’t entirely true. He has hunted vampires for four years and hates them.

Barbora Sulova as Sofia

Later he does another fourth wall break for more information, including the fact that a vampire does not turn a human and they reproduce amongst their own kind – making them a separate species. I get that direct to the audience exposition allows an easy way to get the rules over but it really felt like more could have been done with the fourth wall breaks. Anyway, his appointment arrives. She is Shana (Arielle Fray), a stripper, and she thinks her new boss, Sofia (Barbora Sulova), is a vampire. She explains that regulars are going missing and then describes an attack she witnessed on a smoke break.

vampire kill

He checks the club out (he doesn’t take Ash, though she asks) and decides that it may well be a vampire hide out and gets out of there as fast as possible. The next morning, he is woken by a knock at his apartment door and it’s a delivery. He invites the deliveryman in and then realises his mistake. There is a skirmish and the vampire gets away. Sammy and Ash decide it would be better to stay close but they are attacked on the way to his apartment – an attack foiled by Ash and a pencil to the vampire’s neck (distracting him for Sammy to then stake). Turns out she was a vampire hunter too and had sought out Sammy for a job… one wonders why that hadn’t come out in the two months she had worked for him prior (I mean, the gal has firearm stake launchers in the boot of her car).

double bite

Its little things like that in the story that makes the narrative struggle. There is a whole network of vampire hunters apparently and the police cover up messes (the vampires go into a cgi dissolution but a cop covers up a human body left in Sammy’s bed) and yet dozens of men are going missing and the cops are nowhere in sight generally and hunter backup is not called. Sofia is a Vampirus (or big bad female vampire) and all the dancers (bar Shana) are vampires – making one wonder why they kept a non-vampire on the books and alive. So, there were bits of the story that just didn’t hang right for me. The action wasn’t particularly convincing either – I understand Klein Wong is a cage fighter so I suspect that is down to choreography or direction rather than the actor’s skill.

Ash and Sammy

However, the central characters worked well, especially due to Ariella Aegen’s screen presence. She just felt very natural with an infectious smile that added to the humorous back and forth between her and Sammy. The comedy was lowkey. The vampiric imagery, when we got it, was rather good – a sequence with vampires biting hypnotised/drugged (the film didn’t say) humans in the club after hours had some great shots. I need to mention D'Andre Noiré who played a half-vampire/half-human who had been created in a lab (suggesting cross species breeding isn’t a thing), who was a hit man for the vampires – he just oozed screen presence.

D'Andre Noiré as Shock and Awe

This had promise and I wanted to like it a lot more than I did – but it wasn’t terrible, it was just things that occur through indie/budget filmmaking. Some of the locations were a tad off, the club for instance was just a big space, some chairs at the wall and naked girls with dancing punters – it didn’t feel like a club (lack of stage, for one thing). The script could have been tightened (after repeated incursions into his apartment, you’d have thought he would have actually gone to ash’s home instead, or how Sofia’s right hand, Izzy (Honeylet Conlu) had somehow heard a rumour that the hunters were going to trail Sofia home… where did she get the intel? Only Sammy and Ash knew about the plan) and the action made more impactful. Nevertheless, it was worth the time spent watching and 4 out of 10 should be read with the thought that this is a block to build upon.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Interesting Short: Fashion Model

From renowned Manga horror artist/storyteller Junji Ito comes this short, first published in 1992 and found, translated, in the collection entitled Shiver. I must admit it is early days in my exploration of his work but what I have read and seen I utterly adore.

This particular story might have been presented to you as a “Use of Tropes” blog and it is true that the artist has not suggested that central character Miss Fuchi is a vampire and describes her as a “shark woman” (or at least carrying an element thereof). Nevertheless, there are aspects of the vampire here, enough for me to class it as such and a further aspect comes into another story featuring Miss Fuchi, which I’ll look at separately.

The story starts with Iwasaki having a premonition that something bad is going to happen. He goes to a café and is flicking through a magazine when he spots a model within the pages (Miss Fuchi, though he does not know this). In contrast to the pretty, young starlets otherwise featured, the model has a singular look (one might say almost Addamsesque). Her image disturbs him so much that she invades his dreams and he is so pre-occupied he almost fails to write the screenplay that he and his student filmmaking buddies need.

read right to left

As it is, he manages to start to forget her image, writes the script and the film wins a competition. With that success they are going to make a second film and decide to audition non-school actresses. Iwasaki’s sense of dread returns and, after identifying Tamae Mori as their likely lead, they open another application and it is from Miss Fuchi. Despite Iwasaki’s sense of dread the others decide to hire her as well as Tamae Mori because she is a professional model and so might raise the film’s profile.

They meet their stars, Miss Fuchi is hugely tall, monstrous in feature and, given the sense of dread that accompanies her (for Iwasaki, at least), I think we could describe her as unhomely, in a Freudian sense. Her career seems anomalous (and Junji Ito was clearly commenting on a monstrousness at the heart of the fashion industry, made manifest). As they drive to location she laughs, revealing a maw of wicked looking fangs. When the crew concentrates on the pretty lead, she deals with her in a particularly cannibalistic way (assuming she is human).

It is that flesh and blood diet and her teeth that made me push this into the vampire realm – though her singular looks (and the uneasiness they engender) are also quite vampiric. The Shiver collection has a further bonus story featuring Miss Fuchi becoming jealous of a new, pretty model at her agency and eating her. This is entitled Fashion Model: Cursed Frame and was previously unreleased, dating it to the year of the collection, which was 2015. My thanks to Ian who got me the Shiver collection.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK