A Place Among the Dead

Director: Juliet Landau

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers and a bit of a rant

Back in 2016 Juliet Landau (Buffy the Vampire Slayer & the Yellow Wallpaper) started a crowdsourcing on Indiegogo to fund a vampire documentary called a Place Among the Undead. I was one of the ones who funded this and so, I’m afraid, you are going to get a bit of a potted history of that.

I liked the idea of the documentary, and the campaign page said that many interviews were in the bag. The project seemed to morph after a while, it became a TV series (or probably aimed at a web series, to be honest). Then things went quiet, very quiet. I know that some people got tee-shirts during the campaign but people like me saw nothing (I had opted for a perk of an advance screening for backers and a digital download on release). I realise that crowdfunding comes at a risk to the contributor… but bear with me…

Anne Rice as a talking head

Then, after radio silence for quite some time, Juliet Landau and her partner Deverill Weekes started publicising this film – A Place Among the Dead. Note the subtle title change, not enough to suggest it wasn’t the same project to me, however. In 2020 Deverill direct messaged me via Facebook sending a link to a festival (no actual message just the link). I replied, amongst bumph about a potential clash, “Can I just check whether these would take the place of the perk award ‘Streaming version before it is available for the public purchase’? Also, will the contributor's download be available on the 7th November date?” no reply… no reply, I assume, because this was selling tickets to the screening (not a contributor’s perk). I asked on a few public Facebook fora about the contributors and when they’d get their perks. Never an answer (though for transparency, in the communications listed below I got an apology for not answering and an explanation that they were missed).

Juliet Landau as herself

With the film free to watch on Tubi I thought I’d give it one more go, and in December 2023 I reached out again through the crowdfunding page, asking, “Hi. I've watched the morphed version of this on Tubi now but never, ever received the perks promised (advanced screening and digi download) nor have I received a reply when querying previously. However, I have noticed recent chatter here. Honestly, the radio silence generally is deafening and I would appreciate contact regarding this.” Finally, I got a response via email, signed by Juliette and Dev.

Hi there!
Thank you for reaching out! It is great to hear from you!
The project you watched on Tube is a different project. It is our narrative, scripted, feature film: A PLACE AMONG THE DEAD, which had it had its Worldwide Release October, Friday the 13th!
A lot of our same cast is in the movie.
Our UNDEAD project has evolved and expanded to a phenomenal series now called THE UNDEAD SERIES! (Ed. The series does have its own IMDb page)
Thank you SO MUCH for being a part of making UNDEAD happen!!!!!!!!!!!!
And thank you for your patience!!! It is taking much longer than anticipated but the show is amazing and we could not have done this without you!!!!!!
We'll keep you posted on the UNDEAD release date! And when you’ll get your outstanding perks then!
The series is shaping up so well. We can’t wait for you to see!!!!

in film painting

I was also offered complimentary tickets to a worldwide Q&A, which I politely declined due to time zones. I did, however, respond and suggested that as “There hasn't been a campaign update since 2019. It would be really appreciated, I think, if you sent an update to all the backers, I'm sure they'd all appreciate it.” To date of posting that has not been forthcoming, though they have replied to individual comments on the Indiegogo page (honestly, how hard would it be to send a full update) and one of these replies claims that further footage has been shot. But be that as it may, I have seen the film. It is not the promised documentary, which 12-months after the email exchange, is still not around (I have seen the term mockumentary associated with this film, however) and I do note that the view of the filmmakers is that they are completely separate entities.

a victim

There is synergy, however. Some of those talking head interviews for the original project are obviously lifted into the film. But as for the film itself, in truth it is an uncomfortable mix of these star interviews, police procedural, vanity project, semi-(or perhaps demi-)biopic, and vampire/serial killer film. In the spirit of transparency I will say that, should Juliet or Dev wish to comment on the shape of the documentary and the delays (I do genuinely fear it will never appear, to be honest and would suggest that many of the filmed talking head spots are now out of date), I will gladly give them the platform on this blog to do so and the offer that they can publish a Guest Blog on the crowdsourcing, the genesis of this film and/or the position of the documentary will remain open indefinitely.

interviewing

As it is, however, I cannot really review the film as I would normally. As you can tell I carry a bias due to, what I perceive as, leaving those who supported the original project hanging out to dry – I repeat, how hard would it be to send the backers an email with an update? Not reviewing this in the normal way might be just as well, because the 72 mostly 10* (with a couple of 9*) reviews from IMDb users (all posted between November and December 2020, I assume after a screening) and 5* reviews on Amazon do not reflect what I saw (and, actually, the critic reception was much more mixed and, dare I say it, realistic). The film starts with images of Juliet’s parents, Martin Landau (Without Warning, Ed Wood & Frankenweenie) and Barbara Bain with a dialogue that seems to suggest a systemic psychological abuse of their daughter. This is the semi/demi-biopic element (which recurs through the film in voiceover/stills) and might have been an interesting (non-supernatural) vampiric angle if expanded on – I do not know if the situation and impact was affected for the project or actual reportage. The film main sees Juliet, as herself, preparing to make the documentary with Dev but is soon drawn to Santa Barbara.

Gary Oldman as a talking head

I mentioned the talking heads and the interviews appear to have, in the main, been pulled from the initial work done on the real documentary but, certainly, one with Gary Oldman (Dracula (1992)) does seem to have been recorded for this as he realises Juliet is trying to talk about past events in Santa Barbara and refuses to do so on camera. We then, in patches, get the idea that there were a spate of serial killings there, 15-years before, that somehow Juliet was involved in. Dev and Juliet return just as the killings restart and the main policewoman, Sal (Amy Jennings), is somehow comfortable with them getting involved in the investigation. There is an interview with one of the victim’s mum (Janet Chamberlain) and another with occult shop owner and wise woman, Antonia (Denise Blasor).

taunting messages

Antonia offers a story of a 19th century rogue named Darcel, who murdered a woman to maintain her beauty, was executed and then further killings took place. The inference is that Darcel is both a vampire and a serial killer and is active again. Juliet’s sanity seems to fall down the rabbit hole and, of course, the killer starts playing with her (and probably had some level of contact 15-years before but the film never particularly mentions what her role in the activities 15-years before was). Apparently, he likes to paint canvases featuring his victims and set the paintings to music on video. Honestly though; moments of ‘come in and film this crime scene but don’t touch anything’, crawling down passages in cocktail-lounge-worthy dresses, the whole kit and caboodle really… the story felt off and, as mentioned above, a vanity project. I won’t score, as I say, as I might be lost in my own bias – but it is a vampire film and should appear on TMtV.

The imdb page is here.