Daylight to Dark – review

Director: Jake C. Young

Release Date 2024*

Contains spoilers

*date taken from the Amazon page as IMDb does not have a date listed at time of writing.

This is a film that references, and is set in the same world as, 1990’s turkey American Vampire. Now, giving that film some love is kinda cool because it featured Adam West (and, well… Adam West). It also feels odd because American Vampire is a really poor film. That said, if such a poor film is your inspiration then the bar is set nice and low and you should be able to step over it with ease.

old Drac

The film opens with a man showing a couple of people a car that’s for sale. One of the buyers is old, bent and wizened – actually a mask, clearly, but darker lighting and very little screen time makes it workable. It is just like the one he used to have, bar one detail – he scratches the paint work with a claw, the owner becomes upset and is eaten. The other gets in and asks Mr Dracul (Wade Yates) if he wants to go home – now young, Vlad Dracul opts for them to go for a drive.

scratching the car

A moment here about accent and identity. Vlad Dracul was obviously meant to be Vlad Ţepeş and later we see the classic Ţepeş portrait redone with the actor. In that case it would have been Dracula (the ‘a’ denoting ‘son of’). The accent was a bit odd too. As the old version we get a vaguely Eastern European accent but when young we get a posh-end British accent – why is unclear. He also suggests at some point that he is at least 1000 years old – so either Vlad was a vampire when ruling Wallachia (and that might be the answer chosen by the filmmakers) or someone got the dates wrong.

Jeremy Boggs as Renfield

Into the town of Wormwood drive Mason (Drake Daffron) and his sister Bridgette (Ka'ssee Rhe'anne). She’s not long left her fiancé after catching him in bed with her best friend and they are off to a music festival. They’ve taken a backroad and have gotten lost and their GPS and mobile signals are non-existent (the mobile signal is contested – lack of signal is confirmed later but people also seem to use them). They stop to get directions from an office run by Renfield (Jeremy Boggs) – sporting a deliberately bad comb-over wig.

Bridgette and Vlad

Having got a map (pre-interstate), they discover the oil-pan is leaking and Renfield reveals himself a mechanic (it’ll take two days to get a part) and purveyor of cabins (the last in town). Seeking to do something fun, they discover there is a horror convention. Once in, Vlad spots Bridgette (who he saw earlier outside Renfield’s, sunlight is not a thing in this), distracts Mason by having two vampire chicks have a threesome in the bathroom with him (we see nothing, they don’t bite him that we know of, but they do wipe his memory of the event) and introduces himself to Bridgette – they get on and Vlad gives her a special drink (obviously blood and it is very intoxicating).

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So, Vlad has ordered the move from Wormwood (before getting distracted by Bridgette, who he has searched for, for 1000 years) as the cops are getting suspicious. In another breath they have been there 70 years, having invaded, changed the name from Renfield to Wormwood and allowed the Renfield family to be unharmed but made the town their slaves (and so the cops line made little sense). Also in town is Jonah Helsing (Jake C. Young), vampire hunter, student of the Big Kahuna (from American Vampire), who once denied his family business and had a relationship with Madam Lily (Tuesday Knight) the vampire queen.

Tuesday Knight as Madam Lily

Helsing takes it on himself to help the siblings as he is after Vlad anyway. Lily happens to be in town but is not connected with Vlad and his vampires, it seems. Renfield wants to take the town back. Bridgette seems quite ok with being with a vampire and becoming one (Mason suspects mind control and Helsing knows he can save her if he kills Vlad before she drinks human blood). All in all, it’s quite the Bugger's muddle. It was made with comedy in mind, like the film it takes inspiration from, though this one works that bit better (though it isn’t hilarious), indeed it comfortably steps over the low bar previously set.

Drake Daffron as Mason

Acting is a bit of a mismatch, some better than others – though Jake C. Young is very personable on screen. The sfx are minimal and betray the budget – whilst the old Drac mask was worked around, a vampire bat creature looks as unreal as you’d expect. Some is used for comedic effect (Renfield’s wig) but the killing of a vampire, where we get literally dust and some clothes (that we don’t see the disintegration, showed a realisation of the budgetary issues they had and the dust pan comment following the kill worked with the low budget to make it palatable). However, this isn’t a great film – though significantly better than it’s inspiration – 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK