Short Film: Canine

A nine-minute short film directed by Hunter Woelfle and released in 2023, this is one that certainly has acting (or more accurately dressing) as a vampire but you can read the creature within as vampire also – though this is through subtleties.

It starts with a girl (Isabel Oliver Marcus) flossing and cleaning her teeth before doing her goth style makeup and then putting in fangs. She walks down the street and is unnerved by a car that seems to slow but it eventually passes her. Then she notices bright eyes flashing in a dark pathway.

Isabel Oliver Marcus as the girl

One owner of the eyes comes forward and it is a cat, which she pets. The other set doesn’t come close and eventually she leaves. After she does, we see the eyes rise in the darkness, as though the owner was shapeshifting into something taller. She goes to a party but is sat by herself, at one point spotting shining eyes outside. She leaves and sees the earlier cat dead on the pavement, one if its fangs seems to be missing. She gets home and ready for bed but there are noises that are spooking her…

fang

As well as the eye shine and potential shapeshifting (and the fact that the film concentrates on fangs) there is also some shadow play during the denouement. This was an interesting, ambiguous little short, which relied on atmosphere rather than dialogue. The imdb page is here.

Blood Hunt: Marvel Universe: 1 – review

Writer: Various

Artist: Various

First published: 2024 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The blurb: As the massive event BLOOD HUNT kicks into high gear, this collection of miniseries takes a deep dive into how its repercussions affect every corner of the Marvel Universe! The vampire onslaught of BLOOD HUNT reaches across the Marvel Universe - from Wakanda to New Orleans and beyond! Spinning directly out of events in the main series, the Black Panther finds himself transformed into a bloodsucker - and tasked with carrying out a key mission for the vampire overlord! But even a dark transformation won't keep T'Challa from his duties to Wakanda - for better or worse. At the school of magic known as Strange Academy, Doyle Dormammu, Shaylee, Toth, Zoe and German get embroiled in an adventure that will take them around the world - and right into the center of the BLOOD HUNT action! Plus: What happens when vampires face an enemy with gamma-irradiated blood? Find out, together with the Incredible Hulk! Collecting: Black Panther: Blood Hunt (2024) 1-3, Strange Academy: Blood Hunt (2024) 1-3, Hulk: Blood Hunt (2024) 1

The review: This is one of the primary Blood Hunt volumes. From the first Blood Hunt we knew that Blade had turned Black Panther. This contains the details of that story as Black Panther looks to protect Wakanda, whilst forced to do Blade’s bidding. The volume also includes how Varnae, the vampiric spirit possessing Blade, fell in the first place and how the actions of the Gods influenced that. It was interesting that Black Panther meets Adzi, the mother of pestilence as the adzi is an African vampire type.

The Blood Hunt also impacts the Strange Academy – especially Pia, whose own secret (she is a vampire with a mystically bestowed ability to withstand sunlight) becomes an issue when the kids from the Academy go off in search of the Darkhold.

The final story is a Hulk one, with Bruce Banner and the tale of a group of vampires (who have been feeding on immigrants for years) set free by sundeath and attacking Banner in a derelict movie set after he is distracted by their reluctant Renfield.

A solid volume – all vampire facing. 8 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Take From Me – review

Director: West Eldredge

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Originally titled Love Dogs, I was approached by the filmmakers to review Take From Me from a screener. What I watched, as we’ll discuss, was a slow burn that relied on atmosphere and character, rather than jumps and gore (though there is a tad of blood and they do not entirely eschew jumps, though both are used sparingly).

It starts in a forest with a man running , holding his neck, gasping and clearly pursued. If I have a criticism of the film it became apparent here, as the print was dark and the lighting for this night scene was poor. However, you could make out what was going on, and such outdoor night scenes are little used in the film. Anyway, the man suggests his regret, before the film suggests the inevitable…

John in the woods

John Harker (Ethan McDowell) has parked up and, after a fortifying belt from a hipflask, goes into the forest carrying his bow. He does find some remains, though what of isn’t certain, and moving on he eventually comes out of the trees at a farmhouse. He enters the garage and then starts cleaning up the porch, he also takes down the “for sale” sign. Later we discover that this was his house, shared with (presumably ex-)wife Sarah (Amanda Evans) and the son they lost, Seth (Thomas Parobek). Flashbacks will tell us his drinking started during Seth’s illness and the film centres heavily on John’s grief and loss.

Dwayne A. Thomas as Abe

The nearby town has a small population, and we see John in the bar and also the antagonism between John and deadbeat dad and misogynist Kenny (Dan Cody). The only cop in town is Abe (Dwayne A. Thomas), moved there after a shooting in the city, where he was drunk, he is prohibited from investigating but tries to make amends by running the 12-step programme – he was John’s sponsor, though John no longer attends. Abe finds an abandoned truck, door open, key in the ignition and has it called through to the County Sheriff.

Kyla Diane Kennedy as Lilith

The farmhouse is sold (though he had been maintaining it, it is clear it was no longer his) and he spies the new owner, Elizabeth (Kyla Diane Kennedy) – Lilith for short – when cleaning the porch again. They meet soon after at a hardware store, and she asks him to do some odd jobs around the house for her as a contractor (which is his trade). One of the first things she wants is for John to remove the bathroom mirror, and it doesn’t take long for him to find vials of blood in a basement refrigerator and frozen body parts in the chest freezer. However, he doesn’t report it, can’t stay away (despite obvious reservations) and a relationship starts to blossom.

fangs

The film then follows the pair as the relationship grows. One thing I did like was the fact that he realises what she is and it isn’t a drawn-out process, rather that he settles on it rapidly – not to say he gets everything right, however. He hunts a stag and gives her the blood, which nearly makes her vomit (animals do at a pinch but are clearly unpleasant) and he does go through the house with an open wound at one point! Nevertheless, in a modern world where vampire movies have been a staple for some time, it was good to see him quickly realise the truth. I would have liked to have known more of Elizabeth’s background – we do get an origin story but it is sparse – but neither the film or the character suffered for it not being more fleshed out.

Ethan McDowell as John

The film slow burns, much is concentrated on character interactions and building the characters and the small-town world – not just with the couple, but certainly around Abe for instance. This is carried by both good dialogue and some fantastic performances, with a specific shout out to Ethan McDowell who plays a nuanced character in John. The fact that the film is an hour-fifty and yet, despite the slow burn, never feels like it is lagging is testament to the filmmakers. The photography is generally good aside from the occasional too dark moments mentioned at the head of the review.

searching, bow in hand

This fits in with a wave of pretty bleak, small-town-USA vampire films over recent years, with my mind going to My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It as I watched this – though that is not to say they were the same, just atmospherically I connected them. There are some similes, I guess, with the earlier film exploring the stress on caregivers, where this explores grief (and addiction, though that is a common genre trope and flows out of the grief with regards John). I think the big difference between the two was the earlier film is relentlessly bleak; this nuances any bleakness and allows moments of relief for the characters, which results in the two main characters gaining and maintaining our sympathies. I really enjoyed this one. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

short film: Coven

This short movie by Nicholas Grant comes in just under 14-minutes and was released in 2019. On YouTube it is listed as Coven Season 1: Episode 1 and a look at Grant’s IMDb page indicates there are several more shorts. However, these are not immediately available, and this stands on its own to be fair.

Melissa Brown as Natalia

This is likely because it is fairly simple, but often that’s all we need. It starts with a woman, Natalia (Melissa Brown), asking to be granted… well it’s at TMtV so obviously it is to be made a vampire. She assures the listener, Mina (Paula Ramirez), that she is not like others who have asked – she was born for it.

Andrea and Natalia

Mina does turn her but then explains that she may have turned but she is not part of the coven yet. There is an initiation, she must kill a friend or family member and it must happen before midnight the next night or she’ll be killed. She arranges to meet a friend, Andrea (Aimee Trujillo), at a parking lot but (probably due to posturing) Andrea manages to get back in her car – where she has a cross, Unfortunately she dropped her keys and it becomes a waiting game…

turned

Simple is often effective but this is undermined by a question around the fact that Andrea has a phone, which has signal, and yet she doesn’t call 911 – kindly, perhaps she was too panicked, but that is very kind. Yet, as I mentioned, beyond this plotting issue the short is mostly effective. The only other gripe was some level issues on a couple of lines of dialogue. Nevertheless, it has put me in the mood to see the other episodes.

The imdb page is here.

Undead Girl Murder Farce – review

Director: Mamoru Hatakeyama

First aired: 2023

Contains spoilers

An anime series that (to date of posting) has run a single season, I have to say this was great fun. Set in a fin de siècle setting, in a world where monsters are real and known about, the main character (the undead girl) is Aya (Tomoyo Kurosawa) a fushi who is truly immortal. Unfortunately, she was decapitated and her body stolen and so is now a head carried in a birdcage.

Tsugaru 

She and her servant Shizuku (Makoto Koichi) travel to a circus to find the so-called Oni-Slayer, Tsugaru (Taku Yashiro), half-oni (due to an experiment that was forced upon him) he has the ability to kill supernatural beings with his bare hands. She wants him to kill her and in return she will give him the knowledge to stop the oni side of him causing a descent into homicidal madness. The answer is eating parts of her, however they realise that the person who experimented on Tsugaru also stole her body – an elderly western man with a cane bearing the letter M.

Godard

They agree to look for her body and, as they search for clues, she becomes a detective who specialises in supernatural cases. The first takes them to France where Lord Godard (Hiroyuki Kinoshita) and his family of vampires have tried to make peace with humans – a difficult proposition given the actions of Dracula but made easier as the latter is dead. Unfortunately they were attacked recently by a hunter and, following that, his wife was staked in their home.

a family of vampires

The Godard’s were fascinating as the series had them still impacted by silver and holy water (and fire and stakes kill) but they actively went to church and only drank animal blood. They have two human retainers and Aya quickly concludes that the murderer must be from the home, but who is it and how to prove it? This mystery lasts through to the fourth episode and I suspected that this was going to be the most vampire orientated section. But, whilst it was the one where the episode focused on vampires, there was vampiric involvement all along.

Carmilla

The next section is in London and Arsene Lupin (Mamoru Miyano) had declared to the world that he would steal a diamond from Phileas Fogg (Hideaki Tezuka) both Aya and Sherlock Holmes (Shin'ichirô Miki) are hired to foil the crime but there are other players in the form of the Banquet – a secret society led by Professor Moriarty (Wataru Yokojima). He has a crew of monsters – one being Carmilla (Reina Kondô). They want the diamond as it is synthetic and contains the key to finding the lost Village of werewolves.

bite

Looking at Carmilla, she prefers to feast on women, and she has a venom, which works on skin contact, that causes the victim to become hot and numb and fall under her aphrodisiac spell. At one point she is stabbed with a cross and that burns (whether it is the holy symbol or simply the cross was made of silver is not clear). Interestingly, whilst a silver burn takes time to regenerate, cutting the affected area away allows for immediate regeneration (so silver burnt fingers will take a week to heal but cut them off and they regenerate rapidly).

detectives

There is a third set of antagonists – insurance agents for Lloyds who are monster hunters and prejudiced against their kind. This hotchpotch of literary, historical (such as Aleister Crowley (Tomokazu Sugita) who is an agent for the Banquet), and original characters made for an interesting watch and the stories were great fun. The animation was sharp – the character design were typically anime, which made for an interesting interpretation of characters such as Lupin. It’s been a couple of years, but I do hope this gets a second season. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Crunchyroll via Amazon US

On Demand @ Crunchyroll via Amazon UK

Halloween Horror Tales – review

Director: Jeff Kirkendall

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

Jeff Kirkendall is a budget filmmaker and I have reviewed a few of his films now. I think it a measure of the man that he commented on my review of Terror of the Master, saying that he has enjoyed my reviews of the films – they have not scored high but I always try to give an honest review and see the positives in a vehicle. He directed me to this anthology film that he released in 2018.

a victim

The quality of story varied, and they were clearly budget but it was the final segment that interests us, as that was a vampire tale called The Hunt. Perhaps not as inventive as some of the segments (I was rather taken by The Horror Hostess) it actually made the segments feel cohesive by having the Host (Marie DeLorenzo) of the anthology a part of this story, as Elizabeth, despite this being released as a short three years before the anthology.

Tim Hatch as Darren

It starts with a flash to Elizabeth, a dream of an attack on her by a vampire and being found by her husband Darren (Tim Hatch, Terror of the Master, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter, The Temptress Four Nights at Fear Forest & Sharkula) – it is his dream and he is haunted by her murder. Meanwhile cops are removing a body from a house – one of a series of murders being investigated by FBI agent Leanna Stark (Deana Demko, The Ironbound Vampire & Requiem for a Vampire).

Florence Steinberg as Camille

Graveyard caretaker Cyrus Linden (James Carolus, also Terror of the Master, The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter and Sharkula) knows more than he is letting on – something Darren has realised – and eventually spills the beans about the visit of a mysterious woman called Camille (Florence Steinberg) who he invited in without knowing what she was and is now living out of his shed. She, of course, is the vampire that Darren is determined to kill.

fangs

The story, generally, was fairly simple but was loaded with a nice twist to a motivation, What struck me more than anything was that it really felt that, whilst simple, it could easily have been expanded into a feature and would have worked – indeed the extra time would have allowed for more of an investigative side and exploration of character that would have added to the experience. Of course, it is still low budget and the segment carries that baggage with it, but it showed promise. 3 out of 10 for the segment, with a thought that if extended – even with the lack of budget and the stagy acting – it might well have scored more.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Vampish

At just 4.5 minutes, this 2023 short by Christopher Goodenough takes the form of a breakup for infidelity but makes it a breakup due to vampirism.

Set in a diner, we meet Julia (Julia Gritzbach) and Shane (Shane R. Richard). She looks all the vamp, velvet gothic dress and fangs, he looks like an average guy. He wonders if she let them do it?

meeting

She says she guesses she did... she didn’t really think and she would, she admits, do it again. The referenced it is not a one-night stand (though that phrase is used) rather it is allowing a vampire to bite and turn her. Shane thought they had something real but, when he suggests she bite him she is clearly not ok with that and there is a very real reason…

fangs

This was a neat little short, nothing wildly new in it but there was an earnestness to the performances, and it scratches a little vampire itch.

The imdb page is here.

Avengers Vol. 3: Blood Hunt – review

Writer: Jed MacKay

Artists: Francesco Mortarino & C.F. Villa

First published: 2024 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Writer Jed Mackay puts the Avengers at the heart of two of Marvel's biggest events! From the FALL OF X to BLOOD HUNT! The Avengers have hung in space over Earth, a sword of Damocles over mutantkind's enemy Orchis, for too long. But knowing they had only one chance to strike, they waited while Iron Man prepared. Now, on his signal, it is time - and the Avengers only know one way to strike: hard! But as the true extent of Orchis' Stark Sentinel program is revealed, will Earth's Mightiest Heroes fall against the metal onslaught? Then, with the Avengers under siege as vampires sink their teeth into the Marvel Universe, Steve Rogers must assemble a new roster to join the BLOOD HUNT! Quicksilver, Hawkeye, Hercules and Hazmat answer the call - but when they encounter an organized army of vampires in uniform led by a surprise villain, it gets personal!

The review: A volume of two parts with two avenger rosters – the first half (Fall of X) is not related to Blood Hunt in any way and is the end of a series. It was interesting but a tad like dipping your toe in as the tide’s going out.

On the other hand, the Blood Hunt storyline was magnificent. Captain America with a roster of Quicksilver, Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Hercules and Hazmat, they are faced with a force of organised vampires taking advantage of Blade’s actions but not part of his plan.

Led by Baron Blood they are Nazi vampires (leading Captain America to declare, “I’ve known good vampires. People who never asked for this curse, who don’t inflict their pain and hunger on others. But I’ve never known a good Nazi.” Words to live by, of course, and the real-world simile is underscored later when Baron Blood admits he manipulates his followers and they are disposable “credulous fools”.

This may have had a helicarrier and vampires, but this was old school Marvel adventure with Cap kicking Nazi butt. One of my favourite Blood Hunt sub-stories. 8 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Donors: Upgrade Your Lifestyle – review

Director: Omegia Keeys

Release date:2025

Contains spoilers

I wanted to like this, I really did. Based on a novel, written by R K Watts and edited by the director, and with the director creating a previous (55-minute) film in 2015 and a 2025 web series also (which this film seems to have been edited from), clearly they believe in their artistic vision. The basic photography was fine but, it just failed to make me care, plus it cut narrative corners and left whole swathes of narrative questions (which might be explained better in the web serial, given there is more running time), but this film edit should be able to stand on its own merits).

Donte Walker as Octavian

It starts with TV snippets based round Octavian (Donte Walker) vampire prince and heir to the Korvich coven. Octavian is the creator of the donor system – for around 100-years the vampires have been concerned about the self-destructive tendency of humanity and then, in 2005, there was a pandemic that threatened to wipe out humanity. There is a scene of a man dying, turning and then attacking his family, dusting when sunlight hits him – this suggests that the pandemic was turning people but what is clear is that the vampire population was (and still is) growing and they were known to humanity.

Tinesha Lynn as Nyla

The donor system, on the surface, feels a tad like Tinder for vampires. People go on the system to be introduced to vampires but it is inferred that the vampires chose their donors (not vice-versa) and the relationship is transactional (it is mentioned that vampires need blood and humans need money) and so perhaps less Tinder and closer to a prostitution data base. We meet Nyla (Tinesha Lynn) who has been on the system for some time without being picked (she is both a blood and sexual virgin it transpires). She is a disappointment to her family.

someone is spineless

She is picked by none other than Octavian, though she doesn’t know who he is, and they become very quickly romantically attached – the speed noted by characters in film. As such he goes too far and marks her (by passing some of his energy during feeding) as his – making the whole thing feels less than consensual. The main thrust of the film would seem to be their romance but is dealt with in short hand and at an undignified speed. This is so the film can look at politics and upheaval. Terrorist attacks against the donor system (an attack at a donor event, where there is a slaughter), hacking the computer system, flooding the streets with newborn vampires etc.

back in 1200AD

The primary problem was twofold. The film’s narrative failed to build this story and, I think unwittingly, expected you to immediately know who the players were without explaining them (at least not skilfully). The other problem was, because of the first issue: I didn’t care. I hate to say it, but the film was a chore to get through. They weren’t the only issues, however. For some reason, given that some of the players have more credits as stunt people than actors, the fight scenes were lack lustre. Also, if you are going to have a flashback to 1200 AD, in a dungeon, don’t have the stonework clearly wallpaper (a green screen probably was a better solution),

Phedra Syndelle as Six

Having mention the flashback, that was to create the armigers – 7 warriors (the main we meet is Six (Phedra Syndelle) who is shown as a kick ass, stoic warrior) – but we are told that they were genetically manipulated (and we are not told how that was achieved over 800-years ago) and so can daywalk, at least a little. But the cool warrior wasn’t enough to get me to invest in what I watched and, though I feel rotten for doing it, I can only give this 2.5 out of 10. It just wasn’t for me, perhaps it might be your cup of tea more.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

The Kiss of a Vampire – review

Director: Richard Douglas Jensen

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This came up on Tubi and it seemed to have potential with the blurb talking about a new bride who discovers that her husband is a vampire. There seemed to be scope for some tense thriller moments coupled with horror. Unfortunately, the film really didn’t move me.

It starts with the bride, Carol (Saporah Bonnette), and Groom Frederick Wessex (Philip Hulford), preparing for their service. Note the bright sunlight – vampires in this are not impacted by the sun. The priest (Jeff Lapidus) at the service seems to be having moments and actually asks for forgiveness under his breath when he announces them as married – indicating that he knows something is off. A couple of gossipy women joke that they hope he knows what he’s getting in to during the service.

preparing for marriage

They drive to the small Appalachian town (population 100) where Frederick is the town doctor. It is in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and, when he lights candles at their cabin, he jokes that they have electricity except for… and lists a plethora of weather conditions. However, when she explored the town it seems, overall, like a much less rural location repurposed by the filmmakers. Later we see the brothel but it is a bar, by the looks of things, where the actors pretend the exterior matches the interior. They are making do with what they have but it requires a suspension of disbelief (especially with the industrial units that appear in a background of a river shot).

matted eyes (enlarge to see)

She seems to have moments and we see aspects like her walking and eyes floating nearby – that could be him watching her psychically, or a representation of her delusions; but to me it looked like a tad-ham-fisted matting. The reason it might be delusion is because she is bipolar and schizophrenic and has been in institutions most of her young life. The question then of the romance, and how he wooed her hangs over the narrative but isn’t really answered. He has wooed her to breed her, we know that much – and suggests it was due to her virginity. He is pretty sure he impregnates her first time round. He wants a child (and later we hear that the child will be cursed to be Nosferatu if he is not killed during the first full moon after conception).

Emma Hayley Jensen as the hunter

That said, he claims to be in love with her and wants to make her eternal like him (he is 1200 years old). The townsfolk are his vassals and he rules over them and no one seems to bat an eyelid when prostitutes leave the brothel in body bags. Then throw into the mix vampire hunters – one who is a priest (Richard Douglas Jensen), barred from the vampire hunter secret society when he let his wife, who had been turned, escape. The other a nun (Emma Hayley Jensen) who was excommunicated due to her Sapphic exploits. How he tolerated the two in his town, especially as one seemed to live there, is not explained. Some late on rabble-rousing by another priest (Michael V. Jordan) also seemed off-kilter given Federick’s apparent control.

vampiric imagery

The film did have some good vampiric images (mostly fangs on show and blood/bite effects) but the story dragged. The performances were mixed; Saporah Bonnette’s distanced performance worked given the character’s mental health and Richard Douglas Jensen was great as the Russian priest/hunter. I was much less taken with Philip Hulford’s Wessex. There is also something jarring about an Anglo-Saxon warrior with very modern tattoos (some in modern English and one in binary). This vampire’s back was scarred, true, but would undead flesh maintain the scar of a post-turning tattoo? Perhaps that’s just me. I struggled with this one 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Brief Hiatus

It is Rebellion Festival starting tomorrow, but the fun and frolics start today; getting my wristband, catching up with friends and some pre-festival fringe music and general shenanigans.

I’ve taken the decision to put the blog on a very brief hiatus, rather than continuing to post over the weekend.

Normal service resumes 11th August.

Use of Tropes: Sleep Stalker

This is a 2025 feature from directors Justin Shilton and Rob Zazzali, and I previously looked at their feature Shark Girl. Rob Zazzali contacted me to see if I would look at this new film and maybe feature it here on TMtV.

Now, had I watched this cold I would probably not have done a “Use of Tropes”, the tropes are, to be fair, sparse indeed – though I was reminded to a degree of one of the 19th Century great vampire stories, Guy de Maupassant’s The Horla (1887) but Rob had already suggested that “I realize this may be even further outside your Vampire sphere…but perhaps fits well in your “Use of Tropes” bucket.” Though the tropes might be sparse, that sort of message suggests the filmmakers knew what they were doing with them.

video channel

The film was, Rob confessed, filmed on a budget and so the filmmakers used the found footage genre to allow the film room to breathe within the financial constraints and the primary two characters are content creators/influencers. They are Abby (Gabrielle Montes de Oca, Shark Girl) and Shane (Josh Gilmer), and the opening shots of the film are the titles to their video channel. An intertitle tells us that what we are about to see was made up of socials and personal videos made before their channel went dark, We meet them proper going into a property at night that they have bought sight unseen.

sonambulist

In the morning, they start to assess the house, the work that needs doing to it, the furniture left in the house and the potential decorating. The idea is that they will chart their progress as content for the channel. The house isn’t too bad for being bought sight unseen. However, it isn't long before Abby catches Shane sleepwalking. Though not a staple of the genre, sleepwalking is a major plot point in Dracula and suggests a psychic disturbance at the very least. One thing the audience sees, which Abby misses, is when Shane tried to open the front door and she leads him back to bed, the chain being opened by a presence unseen.

happier moment

The film relies on both Josh Gilmer’s performance and small-scale strange phenomena (such as doors opening) to build an unheimlich feeling. It also concentrates on the impact on the couple, him becoming more and more exhausted and obsessed with the idea that there is something occult happening, her dismissive of that theory, wanting to get their content down and becoming scared of him and what he might do in his sleep. Her fears escalate to the point where it is inferred she has deleted footage, probably because there was unexplainable elements to it. They go to a sleep institute who give them cameras to monitor his sleepwalking, but he refuses to be medicated. Eventually Shane puts a call out for a psychic.

Yvans Jourdain as Gabriel

The psychic is Gabriel (Yvans Jourdain), who arrives when Shane is out and feels nothing but warmth and good energy in the house. However, his demeanour changes when Shane returns to the house and he suggests that the young man’s aura is off and that something non-human has attached itself to him. This then is where the film reminded me of the Horla. Rather than a demonic or spirit possession, the 19th century story has a separate, invisible species attach to ordinary folk and they are energy vampires.

Gabrielle Montes de Oca as Abby

In truth, in this, we never get to know what this actually is; spirit, demon or unknown species – there is some suggestion that it might be the previous owner, John. It could also be that John himself was targeted by the presence and the sleepwalking/possession is either John reliving his events or trying to communicate and, with this reading, the “attached thing” may not directly causing the sleepwalking. The film keeps this as broad as it can so the viewer can interpret but there is nothing to indicate that Shane is being fed upon.

feeding blood

The only other thing to mention is Abby finding him chopping (something not particularly seen but may be some lamb, or meat of some describe), pouring blood into a glass and forcing her to drink “the blood of the lamb”. Although not vampiric it was a moment of blood drinking. All in all, whilst some might want a more definitive answer as to what was occurring, the filmmakers make an off-kilter little mystery, overcoming budget by keeping things simple, relying on actors and focusing on the realm of influencers to allow a found footage aesthetic where the rolling cameras make sense.

The imdb page is here.