Use of Tropes: The Substance

With numerous Oscar nominations I thought it about time I watched Coralie Fargeat’s 2024 movie The Substance. I went in expecting body horror, I also recognised many influences on the narrative as I watched but I don’t think I was expecting to strongly feel a vampire trope. Now, before we go on, I have to say that whilst I think there is something we might describe as auto-vampirism, I do not think there was any intention to touch into a vampiric element (unless that was the vampirism of the movie and TV industries themselves). However it was such a strong recognition within me that I felt compelled to feature The Substance here.

Elisabeth in the corridor

The film starts with an egg, the yolk is injected and it splits into two – it essentially communicates the main plot and then, to give us the background we need on main character Elisabeth Sparkles (Demi Moore), we see her Walk of Fame star being laid and then see it weather and crack over time. In the present of the film, she is hosting a daytime TV fitness show. The studio has a long corridor with carpet that was not the same as the famous carpet in the Overlook Hotel but I couldn’t help but think had been chosen to bring it to mind. Elisabeth, after filming, needs a restroom but the ladies is out of order and so she goes in the gents. Whilst in a cubicle she hears station executive Harvey (Dennis Quaid) discussing getting a younger replacement for her as he makes his misogynistic ageist views about her apparent. When she later meets him for lunch he is drawn as the greed of the industry personified.

the sale's pitch

Elisabeth ends up in a car crash but, luckily, is uninjured, but the various events have had an emotional toll. Before she leaves the young male nurse (Robin Greer) feels her spine and declares her an ideal candidate. When she has left the hospital, she finds she has been slipped a memory stick labelled with The Substance and a note saying how it changed the writer’s life. I’m not going blow-by-blow as it is the vampiric trope I want to get to. Suffice it to say that she listens to the cryptic message on the stick, ignores it but eventually, driven by the casting advert aiming to replace her, contacts the people behind the Substance. What I found interesting was in no place is finance mentioned, nor are full instructions given (and yet Elisabeth seems to know what to do). Having got her starter package from a back alley building she injects the substance.

eye division

It works pretty quickly and we see her in pain and her pupil divide and become two as her body is twisted, things move below the skin, two eyes sit in a socket and her back splits from which emerges a younger woman – who later names herself Sue (Margaret Qualley). The rules of the Substance are as follows: “You are the matrix. Everything comes from you. Everything is you. This is simply a better version of yourself. You just have to share. One week for one and one week for the other. A perfect balance of seven days each. The one and only thing not to forget: You. Are. One. You can't escape from yourself.” The injection can only be used once and should then be discarded. The other self has to inject stabiliser every day (which is harvested spinal fluid from the original). Whilst one is active for seven days, the other is fed intravenously (food refills are provided by the invisible ones behind this). However, the balance has to be maintained.

the hag's finger

Sue gets Elisabeth’s fitness show slot and is a hit. Elisabeth seems lost within her weeks and Sue wants more than she has (they forget they are one and the same). Sue overruns, due to carnal desire, actively taking an extra dose of spinal fluid. When Elisabeth is switched with her after this (the switch being achieved through tubes that seem to exchange their blood between them) a finger has become old, gnarled and greyed – almost crone or hag like. Literally, if Sue takes time from her, remains her young self-longer, then it greatly ages (parts of) Elisabeth and this was the trope I spotted. Although they are split into two, they are meant to be one and so it is very reminiscent of vampire films such as I Vampiri and Countess Dracula - though she is not getting her youth from the death of others. Indeed, the accelerated aging affecting her normal self as a price for the periods of youth is very much like Countess Dracula. Elisabeth discovers she can stop this and there is a termination solution for the other self but also discovers “What has been used on one side, is lost on the other side. There's no going back.”

Margaret Qualley as Sue

There are obvious things the film draws on. The elements of The Picture of Dorian Gray and perhaps even Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in the science, though it is youth and fame that is explored as well as the misogynist heart of the fame machine that sees female value in sexualised youth, are very apparent. I had noticed a while back that Kim Newman had made a connection to The Wasp Woman, which does share some broad themes with this and which was one I examined as a potential vampire film (concluding it depended on how broad your definition of the genre is). I loved the look of this film; it wore superficialness as a badge of honour and applied a stylistic gloss, which worked so well given the themes it explores. I had been told some time before that the third act turns heavily into body horror so that was no surprise but there is a blood filled sequence that gives Japanese Splatter-punk a run for its money. Is it a vampire film – in truth no, whilst it plays with the youth stealing trope, she steals from herself (rather than vampirically stealing from others) after all, They. Are. One.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ On Mubi via Amazon US

On Demand @ On Mubi via Amazon UK

Short Film: Where Blood Lies

A ten-minute-long film from 2019 that was directed by Byron Q, this takes us into the Second World War and Romania in 1942.

A group of Nazi soldiers hold villagers and demand to know where the creature is. The man they question claims to not know as he is not from there, he verbally attacks the villagers saying they are not good people but he is a good Christian. He is shot in the head for his trouble.

The Commander (Ben Prendergast) turns his attention to a woman and asks her if she is local and where the creature is, but she doesn’t know. He is about to execute her when a man (David Castro, Immortally Yours) says to stop, he knows where the creature is but warns it has the strength of twenty men – that is exactly why the Nazis are looking for it.

David Castro as the local

When he is leading them, they ask how he knows so much about vampires and he says that a vampire attacked his village, killing his wife. Only he and his ten-years-old daughter survived and she is very ill. I’ll leave it there but you, like I when I watched it, can probably sense where this is going. It is a well shot short, with decent costuming and worth ten-minutes of your day.

The imdb page is here.

Worth Each Penny presents Scary Stories – review

Director: Tatiana Wisniewski (segment)

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

Pulled together by Mark Mos, this is one of a group of anthology films released in 2022 based on shorts from various LA film festivals. Each anthology has a host, in this case the clown masked Worth Each Penny (Kristen Lundberg) who, in all fairness, was really annoying but mercifully not on screen for long.

J.C. Henning as Magda

The segment that interests us is a rather short (11-minutes) piece entitled Fresh. It follows philosophy student Emily (Lestonja Diaz), whose grandmother, Magda (J.C. Henning), has passed and she finds a strange set of words and a pendant and, having read them and worn the pendant, starts to not really wish to eat (food that is).

taste blood

She is, however, attracted to the blood that is shed by her friend Lisa (Mika Shepherd) from an accidental cut (that seems to get more than you’d imagine on Emily’s hand) and also hallucinates bathing in blood. She starts to see Magda and the grandmother informs her that she has performed the ritual (whether she intended to or not) and brought on the change by tasting blood. She needs to feed and Emily now has to decide whether she can face the moral dilemma of taking a life in order to live…

bathing in blood

This was a simple little short but it had a great, very brief, blood bathing scene. Unfortunately, I felt it pulled its punch at the denouement and could have been somewhat more explicit. That said, it was solid enough and I liked the idea of accidentally performing a ritual to become a vampire. The score is for the segment only but the film was worth a watch for lovers of shorts/anthologies with a nice collection curated within. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Video Shop Tales of Terror – review

Director: Sam Mason-Bell (segment)

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

This portmanteau horror film harks back to the days of VHS and has a varied level of success as it explores six tales of terror – I should give a shout out to Clark who told me about the film.

As always with these sort of films, here we are concerned with the vampire segments and in this case there is one – that being the segment entitled The Red Lipped Moon, a segment shot in black and white and which carries a film noir sensibility with primary character (and narrator) Karl (Chris Mills) in the driving seat.

Annabella Rich as Ivy

Karl’s friend Gordon (Ryan Carter) was killed – his pale throat ripped open. Karl determines to find out what happened to Karl, with a clue of a vial of blood. It is disingenuous to think he manages to track down Ivy (Annabella Rich), rather she comes to him with the same offer she had for Gordon – serve her and she will eventually make him immortal…

Chris Mills as Karl

There isn’t a lot more to say. This was a short segment and suffered for it as there were interesting ideas that were not expanded on in a meaningful way. The undercurrent of addiction, for instance, deserved much more exploration. The black and white worked, though a stronger contrast might have been a bonus in some scenes. As always, I am scoring the vampire segment only and 3 out of 10 reflects a segment that could really have been considerably longer.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Drained – review

Directors: Peter Stylianou & Sean Cronin

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

This is an indie UK film with some clever ideas and, as you’ll see, for the most part I enjoyed it but, whilst well-played, there was an issue with the characters. Nevertheless it proves itself to be a solid little vampire flick with some interesting lore on offer.

It begins with a decrepit man (Matteo Pasquini) in bed with an intravenous blood bag in his arm. A female vampire, Rhea (Madalina Bellariu Ion, Dampyr), feeds from his wrist. We hear it suggested that they are always and forever.

in the basement

In a room elsewhere, with fantasy drawing on the wall, a man, Thomas (Ruaridh Aldington), furiously masturbates over the art, which he has drawn. He is interrupted by a shout from his mother (Angela Dixon). She tells him that John (Craig Conway), the pest control man, is coming. When John gets there it is clear that his mother is flirting but she asks Thomas to take him to the basement. He does, reluctantly, and then goes out. It is clear Thomas has been reclusive for a while, but he goes to the bar where his friend Dano (Andrew Lyle-Pinnock) works.

first time seeing her

As Dano is working, Thomas is drinking alone. He nips outside for a cigarette and sees a woman enter – Rhea – and is immediately captivated by her, to him she looks like the fantasy girl. He watches her dance and, through the camera lens, it seems to us that her sultry dance is for him. She comes over and says that he is beautiful and asks him to dance. She gives her name and, in a foreign language, says that she can feel his heart. He is overwhelmed by a bloody vision. He wakes the next day, alone at home.

Ruaridh Aldington as Thomas

Two weeks later and he watches Night of the Living Dead, turning the sound up to drown out the sounds of his mother and John having sex. Later, to his shock, he is told that John is moving in and that he is being moved out to John’s flat (that he can’t afford as he is unemployed). He has also not seen anything of Rhea. Buying a (very small) amount of credit for his electric supply he sees a homeless guy (Kenton Lloyd Morgan). The man has, what looks to us like, a pair of fang marks on his wrist and he mentions that *they* bleed us dry. He gets a call from Dano as Rhea is at the bar. He rushes over, speaks to her (but she acts like she doesn’t know him) and then her date (Timothy Blore) comes over. Dano knew she was on a date and called him as a wind up. A drunk Thomas takes a bus home and as he gets to the flat Rhea appears.

feeding

She says she was on the bus, and he didn’t see her (likelihood, she followed in flight as we discover later vampires can fly). She requires inviting in (and interestingly, until it becomes her home, requires an invite each visit). She tells Thomas that the date didn’t taste nice. He fumbles getting the electric on and, when the lights come back on, she is on his bed (she has good night vision, she says). She is apparently going to sleep there and suggests that maybe he is the one. Sleep is actually sleep, not sex, with him below the covers, her over them. He wakes in the night to find her feeding on his arm. Apparently, he is delicious. He does ask her to leave but she leaves her number…

together

So, I’ll leave the blow-by-blow there but it is worth mentioning that, come the first morning Thomas freaks about sunlight until it doesn’t burn him. Later Rhea suggests it irritates, maybe causing eczema. Biting does not turn a person – to become a vampire the person has to eat a vampire’s heart. Her biting does give him pleasure but the wounds start to look like track marks and the drug similes are very evident. However, the film also examines co-dependency and toxic relationships.

when the moon is full

More lore we come across concerns the man from the beginning, Andreas, he is actually her husband – the relationship she has with Thomas is one where he craves the pleasure of the bite and any crumb she’ll give him, it is apparently sexless (she rebuffs an attempted kiss and openly calls him nothing but a victim) – but it appears that she does love “the old man”. Old Man is a good descriptor, when asked what is wrong with him, his nurse says he got old too quick; he is 36. Thomas too becomes rapidly ill and loses weight – this is, of course, a drug use metaphor but may also be draining youth from the victim. There seems to be a mental connection with victims and the full moon turns hunger into a homicidal rage of ravenousness.

keening wail

The film looks lovely and the performances are all solid but the relationship highlights where I found there to be a character issue with the film. Rhea and Thomas become toxic quickly, yes, but the characters (despite best efforts of the actors) are not overly likeable. She is cold and aloof, occasionally cruel – turning on sexuality as a tool (though her keening wail, when Andreas dies, indicates more depths and a mental connection with her drained husband), whilst Thomas is feckless and unmotivated. John should have had his streak of black comedy but unfortunately comes across as dislikable, mum is probably the character with the most viewer sympathy but, all in all, I didn’t warm to any of the main characters. This is not a slight on performance or direction, it was a choice, but I would have liked at least one character to hang a hat on. Overall, however, a well shot vampire flick. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Sol

delight

A short film directed by Denise Castro, this was an extra on the Salvación DVD and is so short that this will be an equally short article. It follows a couple going into a cinema. The film they watch has a sunrise in the clouds and as they watch it their faces beam with delight and their fangs show… and that’s it. Not original but it was kind of cute and the look of delight was palpable. At the time of writing I couldn’t find an IMDb page.

Handbook of the Vampire: Carmilla in Context

Written for Handbook of the Vampire by S. Brooke Cameron, the Chapter Page can be found here.

This was another HotV chapter looking at Le Fanu’s Carmilla, this time looking at the original text and specifically around the queer context and the political reading as it pertains to the Irish politics of the time. There is no doubt that the text has a very obvious queer reading but the chapter explores that within its historical context. On the Irish question there is a full discourse on the Protestant/Catholic tensions, the question of home rule and Le Fanu’s own political positioning, which the author suggests was, at best, uncertain.

The author looks comparatively at Carmilla against the other stories within In a Glass Darkly, touching also on Le Fanu’s Spalatro, from the notes of Fra Giacomo and looking briefly at the forward influence on with Dracula. By looking firmly at the nineteenth century the chapter proves an excellent companion to the Carmilla and the Daughters of Darkness chapter.

Little Bites – review

Director: Spider One

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers  

Is Little Bites a vampire film? Well there is certainly something vampiric going on and central monster Agyar (Jon Sklaroff) shares his name with the titular character of a vampire novel by Steven Brust, though this is unconnected. Director Spider One also directed vampire film Bury the Bride, so one assumes the vampiric activity was deliberate.

Mindy and Agyar

It starts with Mindy Vogel (Krsy Fox, Bury the Bride & Underworld: Evolution) sat in a darkened area with the aforementioned Agyar. He states that he is hungry and she tries to direct him to a leg, but he wants the arm. She protests, it is infected and needs time to recover, any worse and she will have to go to hospital – something he protests and, of course, he ends up with her arm, which he bites and suckles at.

Mindy looks ill

He is a monster that lives in her cellar and is feeding repeatedly from her over time. She is become more and more exhausted and ill, dark rings around her eyes and her body a patchwork of wounds (there is a full chunk of flesh missing from her back but in the main they are bite marks and so it is clear that he is sucking her blood). He actually wants her ten-year-old daughter Alice (Elizabeth Phoenix Caro) but Mindy has sent her to stay with her grandmother (Bonnie Aarons, Jakob’s Wife). As grandma doesn’t know what is going on with mum, she is less than impressed. Mindy believes her sacrifice is protecting Alice.

Jon Sklaroff as Agyar

Things become more awkward when someone tips off child protective services and a caseworker, Sonya Whitfield (Barbara Crampton) pitches up and wants to speak to Alice. As the film progresses, we get Mindy trying to feed Agyar from alternative sources and a realisation of where her strength actually lies. Agyar declines one meal as they taste of misery and despair and he prefers the taste of someone with something to lose – Mindy. We also discover he does not feed from the dead (which is an occasionally used vampire trope) and that he can simply devour a person whole and in one go in a matter of minutes (and will then lick the room clean).

multiple wounds

This was interesting and was carried in main by Krsy Fox, though Jon Sklaroff is charmingly sinister. Agyar has done this before – we actually meet someone who appears to be a previous victim and he talks of the many others. However as interesting and quirky as this was the ending jarred a little as it relied on a reaction from Alice that the film hadn’t built to. Beyond that the main thrust was Nietzschean, dwelling on “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Overall, this was a neat little horror jaunt 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

The Damned – review

Director: Thordur Palsson

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

I thought long and hard on whether to review this supernatural tale set in Iceland. The main thrust of the tale surround draugr, which are a type of Scandinavian revenant. If you fancy an in-depth exploration of them then I can highly recommend the section on them in Keyworth’s Troublesome Corpses. When relaying the saga of Grettir in a volume (in 1876), Sabine Baring-Gould translated draugr as vampire. Depending on the legend they sometimes do drink blood but in others they are more obsessed with guarding their tomb and grave treasure or seeking revenge. They can be split into land and sea draugr. In the case of this film, one might say it is seeking revenge but any classic vampiric activity is unseen. As such I considered having this as being of genre interest but ultimately settled on reviewing. I accept that many might disagree with the provenance.

Odessa Young as Eva

As I mentioned, the film is in Iceland in 1871 at a fishing station. A small outpost, fishing through the winter while the routes back to settlements are blocked. The outpost is owned and run by Eva (Odessa Young), whose husband had owned it and who died the year before. Also in the outpost is cook Helga (Siobhan Finneran) and a group of fishermen. The helmsman of Eva’s boat is Ragnar (Rory McCann), who clearly is the leader of the men. The year is proving particularly hard and the start sees Eva outside at night, checking a ledger. When she returns Ragnar questions her and she admits he was right – there are only a couple of winters that seemed as harsh and he points out they made it through those winters. Her concern is lack of food and the fact that men died during those particular lean years.

the shipwreck

The next day, as they prepare their boat, they spot a ship wrecked on rocks called the teeth. There is a call to rescue the sailors, but Ragnar opposes it. The men turn to Eva, as it is her boat but she, after clearly pained deliberation, agrees with Ragnar – they potentially do not have enough food to last the winter as it is and more mouths will surely lead to the loss of some of the fishermen. They don’t fish that day out of respect. The next day Eva finds a rope on the beach and, following it, finds a barrel from the ship. Ragnar checks the contents and it is a preserved meat and is still good. Eva suggests checking the other beaches, but he suggests it is unlikely anything else will wash up, given the tides. They decide to take the boat out to see if they can find any floating flotsam and jetsam.

Siobhan Finneran as Helga

They have to go out quickly and it is dark by the time they get out. They find one small crate when they hear cries – some of the crew of the lost ship have climbed on the rocks. In desperation many jump in the water, trying to swim to the boat. The boat is full as is and they are pushing the sailors back violently, Ragnar is pulled overboard and lost and when one sailor grabs Eva then a hand, Danny (Joe Cole), – who had been vocal about saving them – kills the sailor with an axe. When back on shore there are arguments – they got very little in the form of supplies and lost Ragnar. Danny stops the argument and Eva names him the new helmsman.

seeing the draugr

Ragnar was proven to be wrong about the tides, when the bodies of several sailors wash up (not including his corpse). After a scene of one stomach moving and, when slit open, an eel emerging from the torso they put the sailors in coffins. It is at this point that Helga starts mentioning draugr, with a worry that they will return as the revenants. She has rope and Eva is told that the dead can’t break free if their arms are bound by knotted rope, they lose direction if the coffin is turned three times and they can’t walk in a person’s dreams if iron nails are hammered in to their feet. None of these apotropaic things are done. However, it does seem that a draugr walks among them.

driven mad

Eva sees a figure in the dark, dreams are invaded and division breaks out amongst the men. At first it seems that it could be a combination of fear, superstition and guilt, with Helga suggesting it will get in their heads and drive them mad. Eva is dismissive of the actual idea of a draugr at first but as things continue to occur, with Helga going missing, their food stocks being stolen and a coffin being found to be empty, she becomes more convinced. They do the three methods mentioned earlier to the other corpses but the disasters continue.

the ward

Other lore we get is that the draugr will stay close to its grave during the day, that a runic ward (carved from the wood of the shipwreck) should prevent it entering the communal building and fire is the only way to destroy it. The film works well in its own folkloric space and the performance by Odessa Young is strong, with her character being believable and evoking empathy from the viewer. If I have an issue – and I do – it is in the very ending of the film, which I disliked intensely but I will not spoil. However I can divorce the rest of the experience from that and am not allowing it to spoil my overall impression. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Handbook of the Vampire: Carmilla and the Daughters of Darkness

Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Brigid Cherry the Chapter Page can be found here.

This was a HotV chapter looking at Le Fanu’s Carmilla through its adaptations and intertextual connections, concentrating on key themes. It looks first at the African-American Gothic as portrayed within the Antebellum location and narrative themes in Carmilla (1990) and I found this part of the chapter both inciteful and worth the entry alone. Comparative to this, and equally worth exploration, was the move of the story to a British heritage drama in the adaptation Carmilla (2019).

The chapter touches on predatory masculinity, as some adaptations explore – looking at both the Unwanted and Styria (reviewed as the Curse of Styria – and the forcible return to heteronormality (which, arguably, was a theme emerging from the original story). Self-harm is looked at, and it is worth remembering that the creative forces behind the film Styria were interested in the phenomena of “suicide clusters”.

I was really pleased to see the author looking at metatextual examples of Carmilla related texts, especially the obscure Carmilla Hyde. Overall, a really worthwhile chapter.

Honourable Mention: Captain Amazingly Incredible and the Space Vampires from the Evil Planet!!!

You may think I’ve gone mad giving this 2010 New Zealand flick, directed by Karl Burnett, an honourable mention rather than a review, especially given the title but, whilst we do get the vampires in this, we actually only get fleeting visitations of them and mostly this green screen driven film apes such serials as the early Flash Gordin series whilst concentrating on Captain Amazingly Incredible (Roy Snow).

It starts, however, with Detective Jack Spartan (Karl Burnett, My Grandpa is a Vampire) who is in the city looking to get smokes and a newspaper. Unfortunately, the news seller (Tarun Mohanbhai) doesn’t seem to understand him, Spartan notes that he is speaking in an Indian accent also. Suddenly he hears a scream and finds Tallulah Diamond (Katherine Hubbard) who says she has something in her eye.

Captain, Spartan and Tallulah

They fish out a tennis ball (yes, it is that surreal) when the news seller appears, and he has fangs. Spartan’s garlic breath causes him to vanish and, realising that there may be thousands of vampires, the pair run to Spartan’s HQ. Spartan wonders what could be turning folk into Punjabi vampires and calls in Captain Amazingly Incredible. He realises that the evil doctor called The Evil Doctor (Nicko Vella), from The Evil Planet is behind this dastardly plot and they head into space to stop him.

Nicko Vella as The Evil Doctor

Later we discover that The Evil Doctor created a virus from alien vampire bats to turn people but his son Brogor (Grant Roa) is somewhat clumsy and spilt a curry into the virus vat hence the victims turned becoming Punjabi vampires. It is all surreal and we only see another couple of vampires briefly. The method of filming gives the film a graphic novel feel and the delivery is deliberately camp but we do get a fleeting vampire visitation.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Alien Siege – review

Director: Robert Stadd

Release date: 2005

Contains spoilers

Oh lawdy. This came on my radar as an alien vampire film and it is (in a very loose definition of vampire sense). It is also a film that was made specifically for the sci-fi channel. It really struggles therefore with script, narrative, acting and any level of budget to make this look as good as it should want to look.

It is set on an Earth in which we have been visited by the Kulku, an advanced alien race. Later we hear they pride themselves on their intergalactic philanthropic works but that is not the case with us. You see, there is a pandemic on their home planet, a virus that threatens to make the race extinct and the cure is… human blood. So they have essentially invaded, using advance tech that we can’t fight against. The film is six weeks later…

alien lander launches

So, the Kulku have demanded we hand over 8 million people. It is up to each nation to do their bit, and it is suggested that many nations handed over their prison populations. America have to hand over 800,000 people and rather than use prisoners (which, in reality, I recon would be America’s go to policy) they have decided to do a random lottery and if your name comes up you are detained by human military and sent for processing by the space vamps. There is a basic maths issue here as the film suggests that 650,000 Americans had been handed over but there are 300,000 to go…. Something doesn’t add up.

nozzle delivery

The other issue that the invaders have is that the Kulku travelled via a wormhole and… well the explanation was a bit odd but it got them to Earth (and it is a one way trip) but they can send things back through – just not living things so the aliens are stuck but the blood apparently can be sent back (they don’t just suck the blood out, but liquidise the person apparently, and then three shower nozzles spray the blood into a pod, yeah really – and the idea of asking for planet wide donations is not touched on). This ignores the fact that blood is essentially living tissue – what property they need to make a cure and why it works when inert is not answered.

Erin Ross as Heather

So, the film is essentially an intergalactic version of the Trolley Problem. Of course, it needs a human interest side and this is found through Dr Stephen Chase (Brad Johnson) who discovers that his daughter, Heather (Erin Ross), has been chosen and so tries to hide her. That doesn’t go very well and she is taken for processing. He tries to swap himself for her but it appears she has a blood anomaly that the Kulku have been looking for and her blood can produce many more cures, so they won’t let him stand in for her. However, there is a resistance who attack the facility and Chase manages to get to the leaders with a proposition – save Heather and he’ll give them special tech.

Brad Johnson as Chase

Now, one might question why (and how) a race living so far from Earth that they need a wormhole and cannot travel back by conventional means would know that human blood would cure the virus? Well, apparently, they’ve been here before and Roswell was a crash of one of their scout ships. Chase has been a lead researcher trying to backwards engineer their tech. Issues, issues. One, we have no idea how they got to and from Earth that time, did they abduct humans – if so they may know what our blood is like, I guess, but its still a stretch to think that it would be, and they would know it would be, the cure for their illness. And then there are the coincidences – the daughter of an alien tech researcher is chosen in lottery (and somehow he knows, we don’t hear how), she just happens to have anomalous blood, and she happens to be taken to a processing centre that the resistance happens to attack (for the most part humanity seem to be sleepwalking into this).

a Kulku

As for the Kulku… well they look remarkably like us, save having dyed blonde eyebrows, a black mark at the neck (which, when we see the black marks of the virus, I assumed was a viral lesion, but that doesn’t vanish when someone is cured whereas the lesions over the torso do vanish) and a grey dot on the cheek – which turns out to be a comms device. The spaceships and lasers are cgi generated. The acting is wooden throughout. The dialogue is awful (and the docile lottery people feel outstandingly unrealistic… go over there… ok… in reality, surely they would try and overpower the small number of army guards and not a one seems to cry, despite knowing they are going to be liquidised to make alien medicine – there is a touch on more realistic reactions when a hunted “winner” jumps from a high building rather than surrender). Really quite poor but the taking of human blood to prolong life (by staving of a deadly virus) puts it onto our radar. 2 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

How to Make a Werewolf – review

Directors: Omar Reid & Steph Henderson

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

I won’t lie, after picking up on the title and checking IMDb to see if there were vampire characters in (there were, credited as such), I settled down to watch this and, in the first few minutes, my heart sank. A low budget, urban fantasy I have seen too many of these. Inexperienced filmmakers, without budget, trying to crowbar a supernatural world in (often with very confused narratives that leave the viewer bewildered). But…

Jace A. Edwards as Xen

The but is that this is actually well done. The running length is perhaps a tad long – though it gave the filmmakers space to build their world and lay out their narrative – and the acting quality varies considerably through the running length. But, despite some pacing issues, I found myself rather invested into both the world and the primary characters.

waking up to a head

It starts with a head, and blood and then Xen (Jace A. Edwards) waking by the head, covered in blood. His exclamation of shock and horror perhaps an understatement. We are in Atlanta and the film jumps back a little while. Xen is a volunteer at, what appears to be, a church foodbank (actually it is run by a coven of witches). He asks to speak to Aana (Melahnie Bagley), a volunteer with a clear chip on her shoulder. They meet outside and he wants to see Xia (Deshawna Boswell) again – his sister who was killed. Aana had previously made him a potion to achieve that. It isn’t what he wants, she says, rather he wants revenge and should come to her when vengeance is settled in his heart.

Olga Petrovic as Jessica

So we start meeting many of the main movers and shakers. Xen works at a publisher and his tardiness has put him on boss Jessica’s (Olga Petrovic) radar. Unbeknown to him, as we don’t get the impression that he was particularly steeped in the supernatural world behind the scenes bar knowing Aana, she is a vampire. We meet Sandeep (Cofo Ofotokun), daughter of the coven leader and Aana’s sister. We discover that Aana is both barren and without magic and also banned from the coven due to her experimentation on children – hence her previously mentioned shoulder chip.

Miles Nelson as Rainn

There has been warfare in the past between the vampires, the witches and the humans’ Midnight Society (a quasi-religious hunting order). Currently there is a truce between the three. To protect themselves the witches have bred daywalking dhampirs, such as Sandeep’s son Rainn Water (Miles Nelson). The dhampirs are created by injecting the placenta with vampire blood. Rainn is dating a mortal girl called Ashanti (Yve) and has told her about his nature. She hasn’t told him that she is a lieutenant in the Midnight Society.

the werewolf (lycan)

Aana has a plan to unleash a Lycan, a wolf demon, and needs a vessel to possess – she has chosen Xen. These demons are uncontrollable and will wreak her vengeance against all those she thinks have wronged her and cause a war between the three factions. As for the demon itself, whilst it is suggested it burns out its host, we see it transform and take over Xen at the full moon, but as the moon wanes Xen gets some control back. The vampires, when we meet them, have a club where they are openly themselves, feeding on humans supplied by the witches (four a month), who have drugged the victims with a potion. This is a condition of the peace treaty.

blood on tap at the vampire bar

There is a lot of story going on and, in honesty, the filmmakers were able to build a narrative where the viewer could take in both the story and background details. This makes this a cut above many other low budget urban fantasy films. I mentioned hit and miss acting and some of the actors did not seem comfortable or confident. However others worked well – the scenes between Yve and Miles Nelson felt particularly natural. Beyond some tatty looking faction badges, you could honestly tell what faction a particular character came from, which was excellent. The werewolf transformation scenes were, rightly, fudged but the finished werewolf/demon looked pretty good. There was some fat that could have been trimmed away, helping the pacing and cutting down the running time. That said, all in all, I rather enjoyed this outing and whilst it was obviously the first part of a larger saga, the personal journey that sits at the centre came to a conclusion. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK