Short Film: Sweet

This 9-minute short was directed for The Horror Show Channel by Cecil Laird and the YouTube upload was in 2016. It was inspired by the American Vampire graphic novel series and features the character Skinner Sweet (Jaime En Fuego).

the ladies

Set in a Wild West town, the camera lingers on a wanted poster that seems to be Sweet, before following two women leaving the saloon. One, Madam Julia (Gwen Merriman), is trying to persuade Rose (Marina Maldonado) to give up being a saloon girl and work for her in her brothel. They pass a man, who nods and, when they have passed him, is then pulled into an alley.

Jaime En Fuego as Skinner Sweet

Suddenly they are surrounded by three men, all three vampires of European stock. However their toying with the ladies is interrupted with the appearance of Skinner Sweet, an all-American vampire who has some very specific reasons for getting involved… This is, of course, a labour of love from fans of the graphic. Some of the polymorphic effects worked well, especially given that this will have been budget restricted. However, one decapitation suffered due to the cgi. Nevertheless, fans of the graphics are sure to get a kick out of it.

At the time of writing there is no IMDb page.

The Great Dick: And the Dysfunctional Demon – review

Author: Barry Maher

First published: 2025

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: It’s 1982. Steve Witowski, a failed songwriter on the run from the law, finds himself caught in a supernatural thriller after an apparently innocent act of heroism—saving a woman from a vicious assault by a seemingly unstoppable wino. The woman, Victoria, is just part of a mystery Steve can’t unravel. Even as he’s looting the decomposing dead for the secrets of a self-proclaimed sorcerer. Even as he plummets into a nightmare of fire and blood and murder. Even then, Steve remains certain the sorcerer’s spells, the occult rituals—the supposed demons and supernatural horror—are simply delusion and fantasy. Steve is wrong.

Victoria, who has just bought a dilapidated church with a haunting past, entangles Steve in a deadly game of dark magic and rituals. As, unknown to him, the demon grows desperate, Steve plunges deeper into a world of crypts, grave robbing, and long-forgotten secrets, all while trying to escape his own haunted past. But when the face of the man Steve killed appears on his arm, the line between reality and nightmare begins to blur.

This supernatural novel will leave you on the edge of your seat, with wickedly funny dark humor and, ultimately, pulse-pounding suspense, as Steve and Victoria navigate a twisted adventure full of occult horror, supernatural suspense, and shocking revelations.

The review: The author of The Great Dick emailed me and asked if I would like to review the volume. I am always open to receiving books for review, but did explain that the blog is strictly vampire genre. Barry responded that “The demon is definitely an entity who feeds on people’s energy, the victims are left dead or devastated.” So, whilst demonic, we have what sounded like an energy vampire – though the demonic elements are low key until the ending.

However, the book is a blast and a page turner. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. The main character and narrator, Steve Witowski, is an utterly flawed but brilliantly conceived and revealed character and it is a testament to the sharp, pithy writing that the character keeps the reader enthralled. 

A tale of cults (or at least the aftermath of a cult) and a hunt for secrets, when we do get the reveal of the central creature, born of demonic ritual (using cadaverous flesh), things take a crazy turn. That we see little to start with is down to Steve not being aware of some of the activity in the background – though he is exposed to weirdness from the beginning. 

There is, to be fair, mention of vampires when we get “‘You think you’re a fucking vampire?’ ‘Vampire?’ She laughed. ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Steve. The blood’s mine.’” So they are mentioned in passing, but the central creature is a form of energy vampire, as mentioned, and described as “a psychic parasite” at one point. The victims were left cognitively destitute but some are killed through the process. Though the creation process was different for this creature, I was conceptually reminded of Hanns Heinz Ewers' Alraune. This is a great novel and an excellent opening to a promising series. 8.5 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Dead Creatures – review

Director: Andrew Parkinson

Release date: 2001

Contains spoilers

We are very much in contested territory for this film. A gritty British low budget horror, I can see why people would call this a zombie film, indeed a couple of the film credits mention zombies, and perhaps cannibalism. However, the creatures of the title are compos mentis, infected flesh eaters (and blood drinkers – we see a reaction to blood, at the very least) so I am declaring zompire.

It starts at a door to an industrial unit. In it a man is strapped to a chair. We then get views of tower blocks, placing this in that modern British gothic exemplified by hoody horror. An image of urban decay. In a flat, whilst a radio speaks about incompetent doctors, we see a woman, Ali (Lindsay Clarke), sat in the corner of a room smoking a cigarette, blankets round her, she looks like she is decaying. There is a shot of a cattle bolt and then a man, Reece (Brendan Gregory), sat in a bloodied white coat. Two women, Jo (Beverley Wilson) and Ann (Antonia Beamish), leave the tower block, with suitcases and a wheelchair in which they push Ali. It appears they are moving.

left arm gone

The three women we’ve met are all infected – though by what is uncertain. As the title suggests, they might be dead – when we meet a newly infected later coldness is described as part of the turning process and the wound that is the point of infection doesn’t seem to ever heal but no longer hurts. Indeed, we see a body left, where an arm has been removed, who subsequently awakens and attacks someone; this is a trope from both the zombie and vampire camps of the victim rising and immediately attacking.

deterioration

Once infected they develop an overwhelming need to eat human flesh. If they deny the need then they become violent and (one guesses as we don’t really see it) feral. If they eat enough they can stave off the decay – which is less decay and more open weeping flesh that looks pretty darn unhealthy. We see Ali at the advance stage (with associative cognitive decline) but we also see one at the earlier stages with several open wounds. We see a male infected peeing against a wall and they pee blood. The infection is low key, in that the world is going on around them as though nothing has happened. However, they suggest a shadowy government conspiracy and infected people being vanished if found.

Brendan Gregory as Reece

Reece is a zombie hunter (or, from our viewpoint zompire hunter); not associated with the government conspiracy, he seems to be searching for a specific infected (his daughter). He kidnaps infected and questions them, starving them to get them to speak and then killing them. He does this with the cattle bolt through the brain – whether this is necessary is unclear but it obviously calls back to the standard, Romero, shoot them in the head. He releases one captive – presumably because he wasn’t actually infected.

Ann and Jo

Also in the film is Sian (Anna Swift) a young college girl who decides to go on the wrong date with Christian (Bart Ruspoli) and is bitten for her trouble and subsequently found (in A&E) by Jo, and taken in. Through her we see the start of the infection for an individual. This, all in all, might prove to some to be a tough watch. There is little story and the dialogue of the women is around life in general (or more precisely, their lives, which have been suspended as they step out of normal society into their twilight existence). However, I was rather taken by them. The infection can be read as sexual (Sian is infected on a date, Ann hunts by prostituting herself and does indulge in random pickups for sexual gratification) but is passed through the violence of a bite.

With budget but, in places, rather effective SFX, this is not cheery and celebrates its dourness, but I was taken by the characters' extraordinary ordinariness. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Midnight Abyss - feature

Director: Stephen Wolfe

Release date: 2011

Contains spoilers

I was contacted recently by Stephen Wolfe regarding this film. I had previously looked at his short film Dracula’s Coffin and this is a previously unreleased film (bar some festivals and conventions). The film has now been put for free view on YouTube.

The film follows Tod (Andy Palmer), whose inner dialogue narrates the film, and he is introspectively obsessed with a dream in which he is pursued – by something dark and monstrous. At school he is a bit of a self-confessed loner – though he does have friends, Lucy (Briannah Korin) and Stan (Justin Herman, Dracula’s Coffin). He is also subject to a degree of bullying. We do see him in class, with teacher Mr Dandrige (Joe Grisaffi, Bloodsucker’s Planet) – no prizes for knowing where that name came from, who is talking about nightmares. Tod has a waking one in class.

Andy Palmer as Tod

Lucy is sick and she has suggested that Tod go over, and they watch a movie together (Stan has teased about it being a date). She’s picked it and she has picked a horror – which he dislikes – indeed she has picked a vampire movie. As they watch it the vampire in it – a rather monstruous looking one – becomes the dark figure of his dreams. She doesn’t know what she’s ill with, she just woke up feeling bad – he jokes about her being the victim of a vampire, and when he leaves the vampire starts appearing.

film within the film

The thing is, as we’ve seen the waking nightmare, we understand Tod is an unreliable witness. He might be followed by a vampire, he might be in a waking nightmare (or just a daydream at times), it may be hallucination or the entire film might be a dream. The narrative is deliberately fluid enough to have the viewer doubt it and for Tod’s fears to be contested. In short it touches into psychodrama. Because of this there is no real lore communicated. Though we do get a staking, which has a lot of spasming, blood from the mouth and then dissolution.

vampire at the window

This isn’t a film I’ll score as it is one that you can watch for free, which is an editorial choice I make from time to time. I liked the night-shooting, it is one where the filmmakers have taken care, using a blue wash, to ensure the night scenes are clear and viewable. The idea behind the narrative is simple, but playing with psychodrama is fun and adds a complexity to the film. My gripe was the character Tod, who is a whiner with an overinflated existential angst. Though he comes across better when speaking to other characters, his voice is predominantly displayed through the inner monologue and the content/timbre made me dislike the character. He was still watchable – but I was cheering for the vampire. All in all, however, go and give it a watch.

The imdb page is here.

#DRCL midnight children, Vol. 5 - review

Art and story: Shin'ichi Sakamoto

First published: 2025 (UK)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: In this beautiful, evocative, and often surreal retelling of Dracula, a fearsome enemy comes from the east, bringing with it horrors the likes of which have never been seen in the British Empire. Standing opposed are Wilhelmina “Mina” Murray and her stalwart companions, united in a cabal that eclipses gender, nationality, and station until the day that they can achieve victory.

Mina’s world begins to unravel as her connection to Jonathan Harker reveals the secrets of his journey to Castle Dracula—as well as the unthinkable fate that befell him. Now, with Mina already reeling from the loss of one of the most important people in her life, will she be able to stand strong as the Camellia Club seeks to save the soul of her beloved midnight friend through the mercy of a true death?

The review: The fifth volume of this magnificent series, Volume 4 had moved back in time to tell Harker’s story and this completes that, viewed by Mina through a psychic connection, before returning to the cliffhanger with the insect-formed Lucy and her fate – the crew of light escaping her webs with the aid of silver. Mina tries to use the method she accidentally employed to see Harker’s story, to connect with Lucy and we discover that her gender fluidity (she is Luke by day and Lucy by night) has been psychologically split by the vampirism with the Lucy side vampiric and the Luke side not so.

Then Mina makes a connection between their enemy and the serial killer of their recent past, Jack the Ripper. Joe Suwa, the series’ version of Seward, has opportunity to travel to London and searches Whitechapel for the vampire. He uses a mechanical device in a suitcase to try and track him – we later discover that the Renfield he had sequestered in his dorm was not quite the gender swapped nun we assume from the earlier volumes but a karakuri doll (an automaton) built as a salve for loneliness. He used Lucy’s hair with the doll and it has imbued her with a connection to the vampires, perhaps even caused the karakuri to be vampiric in her own right. Its detection seemed to suggest the vampire was everywhere and then Joe realises what has happened – and it is a stroke of genius. The count has had his earth used to make mortar and had buildings erected around Whitechapel, turning that area of the city into a giant coffin that is based upon his imported earth.

As beautiful and surreal as always, the ideas in this are wonderful. 9 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Mircalla – the Lesbian Vampire

An odd one. This is a short film that comes in at just under 40-minutes. According to IMDb it is just 11 minutes (and is just called Mircalla, without the sub-title). I have seen it on YouTube in German with embedded English subs but currently it seems to be that with an overlayer of English dialogue over the original German. It was also edited for the anthology DVD Evil Deeds 3. The film dates to 2008 and was directed by Christian Jürs (Juers on IMDb).

bad fangs

Nevertheless, it is a short vampire film and whilst the fangs are rubbish and the narrative basic, it has an interesting lore aspect. The film opens part of that at the head when it says that vampires are not like the fiction and that there are Queen vampires and drone vampires.

friends

Laura (Neele Kurt) rings Emma (Anna Carlzon) to arrange meeting soon. We then see Laura with Jessica (Nicole Schneider) and Tanja (Elisabeth Juers). They mention new neighbour Mircalla (Annika Altwig) – joking that it sounds like an East German name. Jessica says that she saw her and said hello but she never acknowledged her and there was something funny with her eyes. Tanja has to leave – she passes the strange Mircalla on her way out.

Annika Altwig as Mircalla

At home Tanja reads about vampires and the book suggests that Queen vampires do not age, heal incredibly quickly, regenerate limbs and are practically immortal – immune to stakes, sunlight, crucifixes and holy water. They can be killed however, by having them drink the blood of another Queen Vampire. If they die so do their drones. Back at Jessica’s, Mircalla has hypnotised Jessica in the laundry room and also bites Laura and turns her into a drone.

attack

Tanja returns and finds Jessica dead and Laura vampirised. Mircalla bites her and screams, dropping dead. Tanja – secretly a vampire queen who wants to die – bites Mircalla before her body vanishes… And this should be the end (we are very early in the run time) but Laura has not actually died (as a drone) and Emma is drawn over and then Laura is a blood sacrifice to allow the spirit of Mircalla to possess Emma and go after their other friends. Luckily Mircalla (as Emma) is vulnerable to being killed by more conventional means until she merges fully with her new body…

eye mojo

So, that takes in the interesting lore (around the Queen and drones, as well as the vampiric possession). The film itself is very amateur, though it has a certain earnest charm to it, and the fangs are blooming awful. Eye mojo is the weapon of choice for this vampire – essentially ensuring that each person they go against is quickly hypnotised (signified by flashing eyes).

The imdb page is here.

Die drei ??? - Erbe des Drachen – review

Director: Tim Dünschede

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

In English, The Three Investigators – Heir of the Dragon, this is a kids’ film about three young amateur detectives from Rocky Beach California and based on the long running American book series. This is based on the German editions and therefore Jupiter Jones was renamed Justus Jonas (Julius Weckauf), Peter Crenshaw was renamed Peter Shaw (Nevio Wendt), with only Bob Andrews (Levi Brandl) retaining his original series name.

The Three Investigators

At the head of the film, it is the day before the boys take a trip to Transylvania. Justus is helping his uncle Titus (Florian Lukas) and his Aunt Mathilda (Jördis Triebel) wants him to get her actor Steven Yates (Gedeon Burkhard) autograph whilst over there. Bob is working as a library assistant and is given a go-pro by librarian Miss Bennett (Dela Dabulamanzi) for his trip – she got it from lost and found. Finally Peter is at a race but his father (Mark Waschke) is a no-show to watch it, that is because he is busy making finishing touches for the trip – they are interning with him whilst he does sfx on a horror film. Peter sees the end of a video call where a hysterical maid, at the castle, is screaming about Vlad.

acting the vampire

The Vlad they mention is, of course, Vlad Ţepeş and we get a little history about Draculea but mostly it is fictionalised, talking about a maid he fell in love with and the tomb he made for her that myth suggests contains his treasure – which is a blood red ruby. The movie being filmed is a vampire movie (indeed a Dracula one). When the film crew are welcomed by the Countess (Gudrun Landgrebe) the lights blow and she explains that the castle is old but caretaker Repta (Valentin Popescu) does his best to keep it going – Peter comments that the man is pale as a vampire. There is a commotion when the maid leaves the castle screaming about a family curse.

Mark Waschke as the dad

So, there is a curse, a fear of vampires/Dracula, a hidden treasure and then the mystery of the Countess’ brother vanishing in the 1950s when being forced to stay in the castle crypt overnight as part of being initiated into a Vlad obsessed secret society (and heirs, one guesses, to the Order of the Dragon). However, there are tensions between Peter and his father, which lead to tensions amongst the investigators themselves. This main mystery has a genre interest due to Vlad Ţepeş and a belief in vampires (mostly on Peter’s part and, of course, the departed maid). Beyond this we get acting as a vampire, with Steven Yates playing the vampire in the film, with a classic look bedroom scene and a stabbing a cross with sword, causing it to bleed, scene lifted, of course, from Dracula (1992).

Vlad and his dead bride

The film itself is ok. It is a kids’ movie and so peril is mild, and the young actors hold their own and manage to stay on the right side of the annoying line. However, it doesn’t do anything overly special either. Maybe one for die hard fans of the books, but certainly one for German speaking kids who like detective flicks. Perhaps not so much for those who fall outside of those categories. But it is perfectly competent. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK