Feed – review

Director: Marco van Bell

Release date: 2026

Contains spoilers

This Irish release mixes the world of influencers with the legend of the dearg-due (in variant spelling dearg-dul). Quoting Bane, it “is a type of vampiric REVENANT from Ireland that has been feared since the days before the introduction of Christianity. These ancient creatures are described as looking like a beautiful yet pale woman who can be seen strolling aimlessly through graveyards at night. It uses its beauty to lure men to it and then kisses them on the mouth. When it does so, it drains them of their blood. To stop a dearg-due from continued assaults, its grave must be found and a cairn erected ond top of it, trapping it beneath. Ireland’s most famous dearg-due is said to be buried beneath a strongbow tree. About four times a year it is able to escape from its grave and feed.”

The film changes the mythology but the changes work (mostly). The influencer side did threaten to undermine the film as the film portrayed them as unlikeable – but one particular ex-influencer worked really well, adding depth to what could have been a vapid cast of characters. However the film begins in 1897 – which, of course, was the publication year of Dracula, though there is no connection with Stoker other than that. We hear banging, it is night and two guys wearing blindfolds on carry a woman (Niamh Hogan).

the boy

The man banging a stick against the rock of a dolmen is also blindfolded and says they must close their eyes to her lies. The men manoeuvre her headfirst into a deep narrow hole dug into the earth. In, she begins to scream. The reactions are different, the man who was beating the dolmen with a stick starts to bash his own head against the rock, one runs into the wood and the third frantically claws dirt into the hole, burying her. The camera follows the running man and he suddenly stops, he says it is done but he has been stabbed by a boy holding a sword. The boy runs his finger through the blood on the blade and rubs it over his teeth…

messaging

A vehicle drives through the Irish countryside. We see the text conversation between Nessa (Daisy Jelley) and Sean (Oskar Smith) bitching about *her* being silent – referring to passenger Orla (Grace Collender). Sean is ordered to do something. Nessa is an influencer, Sean her assistant/collaborator. He starts to film the people in the car, the driver is Austin (Rhys Mannion), Nessa’s boyfriend and photographer. Also in the car is the aforementioned Orla and her boyfriend Lorcan (Clinton Liberty) – he gets angry when the camera is turned on them. Later we discovered that Orla was an influencer with a large following but the use of her camera caused an accident, a year before, where her family died and she was pulled back from the brink of death. Whilst the trip is to shoot footage for Nessa it is also an intervention – though the accusation levelled later that it is less for her and more to enhance Nessa’s following is probably accurate.

Orla blurred

Getting to the house – in the middle of nowhere – we see the awful influencer attitude when Nessa berates Austin for not driving in slowly enough for her to get intro footage. The house is locked but soon Nora (Charlotte Bradley) arrives to give them a key. They start setting up but Orla is literally haunted by her PTSD and wanders off into woods, following a voice only she hears, the others following to get footage. In some respects Orla is the true undead of the film; pulled back from the brink of death, she wants to die but is afraid to because she remembers death as nothingness. At one point a photo of her and Nessa has Orla blurred, as though she can hardly be captured and another time her reflection vanishes, though that is a vampire induced illusion. She leads everyone to the dolmen – which has dearg-due carved into it. There is an icon hanging and fashioned from hawthorn, on which Orla pricks her finger – some blood falls to the ground.

the dearg-due

Things escalate quickly with the dearg-due emerging from the earth and going to the house. Before that Sean has looked up the name and found a mythology that suggests it is the first vampire and was a fallen angel that merged, initially, with a Celtic warrior. It preserved the body of its host for an unnatural span by drinking blood and when the body finally rots it moves to a new host – we discover later that it is Orla’s presence and blood that have brought it back as it wants her body. They are trapped by being buried headfirst under hawthorn and stones. What didn’t quite gel for me were those locals living nearby and awaiting the dearg-due's return – we are told they have tried rituals to bring it back, I don’t think anyone asked why they didn’t just dig her up.

the entity emerges

Other lore we get is that she can make people see what she wants (and the blindfolds at the beginning was to try and prevent this) and her blood getting in a person's eyes, which burns, gives her control of that person. We see her start to haemorrhage deliberately and essentially turn into a pool of blood, in which form she escapes from a room through a drain and reconstitutes as a hand emerges from the blood to touch into someone's spilled blood – this struck me as a more visceral form than the standard fog/mist often used. Sunlight burns the host but not the possessing entity.

influencer culture

The acting in this works – Nessa bugged me intensely and she was meant to. The ranges needed generally were limited and the actors flexed comfortably in those ranges but much more was needed for Orla and, whilst she started as a listless revenant of a character, the full film saw her as a nuanced character (and the only one who elicited true audience sympathy) - Grace Collender carried that transformation well. The effects worked well enough for a budget production, and I liked the use of the dearg-due as a vampire type. A message about the darker side of influencer culture was a tad on the nose but I did enjoy this. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

The Night Boyz – review

Director: BonVida

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

It is not a rule, as such, but often the adding of a ‘z’ to a film title indicates not only that the film is going to be a modern urban (often gangland) setting, but also that the film is going to be of a lower quality. Look, I’m sorry, but that really does seem to be the case.

So I went into this with low expectations, however, as I started watching it my hopes raised, the actual photography seemed accomplished for a start. In truth the film does have issues, but it is a cut above where I thought it would be and has some interesting ideas within.

eyes light up

It starts in the past and Yashua (Leslie A. Jones) as voudon (style) drums are heard with women dancing. Yashua is eventually caught by slavers, a decision is made that he is native rather than African but they then lynch him anyway. Meanwhile a mob come to what looks like a church. The man who comes out is able to mesmerise the crowd (whilst inflicting them with very poor poetry) and cause them to drop their makeshift weapons. The significance of this was lost on me. A hooded woman comes to the hanging Yashua and bites him. She vanishes and his eyes light up.

Brian Fernandez as Joshua

We cut to present day. Joshua (Brian Fernandez) has moved to LA after his parents were killed. He is chilling when there is an insistent ringing of his doorbell. It is his cousin Mike (BonVida) who drags him out. They end up sat in the concrete canal of LA river, talking. Mike gives him a protective ankh pendant. They are going to smoke but Mike drops the spliff so they head to a store. In the store, Joshua is at the counter when he spots a girl, Lily (Brooke 'Little' Dugan), he steps back and bumps into T (Jorge Meneses) – evidentially there is existing beef. It is when T grabs the ankh and rips it off Josuah that the fight starts – next thing we see them all rounded up by sheriff Martin (Manny Casimir) who gives them all a talking to and sends them on their way, with the exception of Joshua who he keeps back for some extra disappointment talk.

Leslie A. Jones as Yashua

T later gets hold of Joshua and cuts his face with a box cutter... Joshua and Mike are with Red (Manner Washington III), who seems to run a crew. Joshua wants in, but he isn’t deemed ready – later we will discover that Red is a werewolf and I’ll get back to that – but they go out and T is shot. Dying on the street, he is approached by a snazzily dressed Yashua, who offers T eternal life and holds out a hand that T takes… Joshua then meets Lily on a beach, there is talking, an attempt to hold hands (and she has very cold hands) and make out – she bites him and then regrets it. In the morning Mike picks him up, but he is very ill. He awakens At Auntie’s house, his cheek cut has gone and Lily is there. He is told she is a half vampire (she hasn’t killed anyone) and so is he. They must get sacred wood from a tree older than Yashua to kill him and become human, and stop his plans to build an army and bring chaos to the city.

a zombie

So vampires, werewolves and half vampires… actually, Lily is a dhampir though she doesn’t know it and the daughter of Yashua. In flashback we have seen that he was a slave and lynched, we also see him losing his mortal wife (and daughter he assumes) following a police raid and being taken for experimentation and torture to release the secrets of eternal life to an old, white man. For some reason everyone refers to him as Head Vampire. We also get bums that he has turned into ghouls or zombies (the credit calls them both). I could have lived without the werewolf, aspect, it was minor and the sfx comparatively rubbish – I will say I loved the fang set they did for Yashua. Half-vampires are irritated by sunlight where full vampires burn, ordinary stakes are fine for killing most vampires, beheading kills and vampires fear symbols such as the ankh and police badges (tied to Yashua’s lynching as the slavers wore deputy stars). In a strange piece of lore, certain music (I think EBM) will cause vampires to be mesmerised, swaying on the spot.

werewolf

Beyond the poor werewolf, it felt like the film could have lost half an hour of its running time. There were moments that had no build before we get there. Whilst not a poor performance, Brian Fernandez was missing a certain something and struggled to carry the film – whereas BonVida had that something in spades but was sidelined, killed and brought back as a supernatural assassin with no scope to flex the presence he showed earlier in the film. There are some moments that, given the running time, could have been pre-established (such as turncoat cops). Yet, overall the film was well shot and had plenty of potential. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Hunger

This was a 2016 short at less than 5 minutes and directed by Joffre Taylor. It starts with two guys chatting but their status as ne’er-do-wells becomes apparent when they see a woman go past and follow.

They get down to ground level, but the woman has gone. One of the men, Chris, moves back to have a pee. His mate isn’t looking and so misses when a blur grabs Chris and drags him off. The other man is looking for Chris when the woman, bloodied mouth, starts coming towards him. He swings a punch but she stops it and is soon feeding on him…

vampire

There is a coda to these vampiric shenanigans, because one of the men has turned… Quick, simple and does what it sets out to. This one does not have an IMDb page but the film itself is available to watch on YouTube and can be found here.

#DRCL midnight children, Vol. 6 – review

Art and story: Shin'ichi Sakamoto

First published: 2025 (UK)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Dracula meets manga in this surreally beautiful and chilling retelling of Bram Stoker’s quintessential horror classic.

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.

Reason fails and madness takes hold as Count Dracula’s influence begins to spread throughout the halls of Whitby School and the streets of London alike. Yet within the pages that Mina has so painstakingly typed out, she finds an aegis against the Count’s corruption, along with the means to turn the world on its head once more—and transform the hunter into the hunted.

The review: For previous reviews see: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, Vol 4 & Vol 5.

With Joe in London dealing with the Count’s landholdings, this volume turns its attention back to Whitby and specifically Mina. She is haunted by memories of Lucy and the Count intends to make her his – though the interesting take on the story contained here offers an assertive route through for Mina, which she equates to being New Woman. Indeed, in the first instance we see it was Lucy who fed her from their chest. The brides come into this in interesting ways also. In England, they both haunt Mina and, later, the whole company. Mina, whilst asserting her own dominance and destiny manages to rip the skin from the mouth of one of the brides, leading to a disturbing but effective graphical rendition of that bride. Unfortunately, the school has mostly been corrupted by the Count, leaving Arthur and Quincy to orchestrate their escape from the school.

The theme of feminism, and the confrontation of misogyny continues in this volume with Mina observing how the (Victorian male only) club put a barrier of tobacco smoke to deter the woman – which was a nice allegory. It also has a class/wealth commentary with Mina accusing the three boys of being vampires: “You elites thrive off the lifeblood of my kind – the working class.” In this way the Count and his vampires could almost be read as egalitarian, a nice twist, where Stoker very much had the Count as the old guard of elitism and old monies. The art is as beautiful as ever, the story taking visually psychedelic turns. This series is still one of my favourites. 9 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK

Shake, Rattle & Roll: Evil Origins – review

Directors: Joey De Guzman, Ian Loreños and Shugo Praico

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

I enjoy the Shake, Rattle and Roll franchise, for the most part, and this is the 17th instalment in the series. A Philippines export, the franchise normally consists of three unrelated horror segments in an anthology that can run anywhere upward of 2.5 hours. This bucks the trend in that the three parts are related and whilst the styles change – 1775 is a nunsploitation segment, with what seems to be a demon, 2025 is at its heart a slasher and 2050 is an apocalyptic action/horror – the stories connect.

shipwrecking

It is in segment 2, 2025, that aswang are first mentioned but it became clear that central entity Malum (played in segment 1 & 2 by Jerome Philip Canseco and in segment 3 by Carlo Tarobal) comes across as a demon at first he is also coded as a vampire. He is described, in the first segment, as “A creature of darkness, born into this world, from a distant land as old as time.”

delivering the chest

Turning attention to the first segment and, as suggested by the title, it is set in 1775. Central to the story is a nun named Clara (Carla Abellana) who, it becomes apparent, is blessed with second sight. However, she seems to go mad as she begins to predict the coming of an entity, as we see a ship in trouble at sea and a chest float off – a chest which later is taken to the convent.. Around this time, 4 novices arrive at the convent. One of the novices is Clara’s sister Flor (Loisa Andalio), sent by their father when he caught her trying to elope. Disobedient, she is concerned that she cannot find her sister (who has been locked away) and is also pregnant.

her soul consumed

The chest contains Malum and Clara’s family seem to have had something to do with his imprisonment. At one point Flor seems to see him as a shadow – though he has not been physically released then, his spirit is described as free. One of the nuns, Piedad (Ara Mina), opens the chest. This doesn’t release him – physical release comes through more mystical means than opening a latch – but she sees rich clothes and jewels and tries them on, but it is all an illusion that leads her to kill herself. It is this that starts to weaken the bonds of the containment and, in fact, when her body is found she is desiccated, suggesting her lifeforce has been used to loosen the bond. Indeed, the dialogue tells us that “With every drop of blood, and every soul consumed, it gains the strength to be freed”

Malum made physical

The nuns are then hunted psychically by Malum, who uses the motif of the seven deadly sins. Clara knows how to stop him, once he is released, and though he looked like a demon at that point, it did involve a wooden stake to the chest. The pregnancy of Flor is important because of the involvement of their family, meaning the line continues into the future and, as such, into the further segments.

Sky and Fay

The second segment is 2025 and involves a Halloween party taking place in a bunker. To it go Fay (Francine Diaz) and Sky (Sassa Gurl); incidentally, Sassa Gurl is in a role that would, in Philippine film, be bakla but I understand she identifies female. She has a costume (as it is a Halloween disco) that represents a tiyanak, There is also a costume of a traditionally Western cinema vampire. Fay’s parents are part of catering for the event (it seems) and her job is to steal from partygoers and get it to her parents. However, the plans are interrupted when robed and masked individuals begins carving their way through the partygoers and then the electricity is cut, preventing escape through the lift.

a cultist

So, this is very much slasher and, with the bunker as the location, it is effectively done. However, towards the end we discover that they are members of a cult of Malum, they have the chest and the deaths are designed to free him. The cult suggest that “Blood and soul will give him strength!” and once freed they “will be his new aswang”. It should be noted that Fay’s family are descended from Flor (or at least Flor’s wider family but the fact she was pregnant suggests Flor directly). That does not give her any particular mystic edge – she is trying to survive against human cult members – but feeds into a destiny aspect that runs through the film.

aswang

The final segment is 2050 and the Philippines are overrun with Malum’s aswangs who hunt humans in a post-apocalyptic landscape. It is implied that the apocalypse is just in the Philippines as they suggest that the world has turned its back on them and no help is coming. The aswang are, at first glance, quite zombie-ish but they actively hunt, showing intelligence in the hunt by stalking at times, and traditional aswang tropes are included, such as jars/vials of oil boiling as they come close.

Ivana Alawi as Edris

The segment sees Edris (Ivana Alawi) searching for Aunty Malena (Manilyn Reynes, Shake Rattle & Roll V, Shake Rattle & Roll IV & Aswang) as her family hold the key to defeating Malum – indeed she is Fay’s mum who survived the second segment of the film. She is living with a small group of survivors, which includes her two grandsons (or sons, it isn’t clear) Rosdan (Richard Gutierrez) and Riel (Dustin Yu, Shake Rattle & Roll Extreme). The nature of their blood comes into play in this as we see that if sliced or bitten by aswang their blood burns them.

Malum in 2050

If they can kill Malum it will kill the aswang. If, in part 1, he looked demon-ish, or simply a creature, and he did not really make much of an appearance in part 2, in this he looks full on Nosferatu style vampire and can project illusions and move a lightning speed. There isn’t a lot more to give lore wise and it is the look of Malum that codes vampire, alongside being freed by blood and souls, being staked to contain and the creation of aswang. The film itself does not feel like it lasts the best part of 2.5 hours, the pace works well and the difference in style for the segments works as does having them interconnect. The effects aren’t bad and all in all I think this is a solid 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

The Death of Snow White – review

Director: Jason Brooks

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

The linking of Snow White and vampirism is a sometimes used trope. There was Snow, Glass, Apples that has the character of Snow White as a vampire and Snow White and the Huntsman sees the wicked stepmother cast as an energy vampire who steals youth.

In the Death of Snow White it is the stepmother/evil queen (Chelsea Edmundson, Midnight Texas & Bloodsucka Jones) cast as the vampire but in the mode of Erzsébet Báthory – though clearly not with that name.

Meredith Binder as the evil witch

The film starts with the Evil Witch (Meredith Binder) breaking in to the castle – noting that witch and (future) queen are one and the same but played by different actresses – with the entry aided by Huntsman Kaiser (Jonathan Holbrook). She is certainly not above killing any in her path (often through magic). She gets to the bedchamber of the heavily pregnant Queen (Kelly Tappan) and stabs her with a poisoned dagger. To save the child they have to perform a caesarean but the poison, not enough to kill the Queen, was enough to kill the baby. The poison has a magical element, a kiss must be given to draw the poison, it must be a kiss of love and be a sacrifice – thus the Queen sacrifices herself.

Sanae Loutsis as Snow White

Cutting forward and the Evil Queen rules the kingdom, having married and then murdered the King (Tyler McKenna). Ignorant of the murder, Princess Snow White (Sanae Loutsis) is beloved of the people and known as the People’s Princess. The Queen is forced to keep her alive to keep the kingdom – though she ultimately wants to take another kingdom, at which point she will eat Snow White’s heart as it will ensure beauty and immortality. As things stand she is jealous and does whatever she can to maintain her beauty. The magic mirror in this is mocking and filled with demon ladies.

The Prince and Snow

Snow is pursued, in a good way, by a charming Prince (Tristan Nokes) but the bitter queen orders the Huntsmen to take Snow’s friends prisoner (in order to use them for beauty treatments). During this attack Snow accidentally sees Kaiser’s face, who tries to kill her despite the standing orders of keeping her alive. Desperate she flees into the Haunted Forest and eventually meets the dwarves – cut very differently to the Disney version, these are the surviving dwarves after the Queen ordered their friends and families murdered and banished them with a magic that gave them dominion over the forest (one of their number, Tiny (Eric Pope), is not a dwarf, incidentally).

blood bathing

The vampirism comes into this when we see a rather visceral blood bathing. The Queen, in the first instance, looks to be sharing the bath with another woman – however the body if lifted out revealing upper torso only. The blood and viscera look thick and she dunks herself wholly beneath the surface. In terms of a blood bathing scene it is well done. The film itself is obviously at a lower budget end but clearly has had some finance thrown at it, but not enough to make it as slick as it might. The acting tends to be stagey, verging into pantomime. The notable exception is Chelsea Edmundson who, whilst deliciously chewing up the scenery, is having a whale of a time and nails the Evil Queen role.

magic mirror

The film should not work as well as it does, though adding in the horror aspect (including some body horror) serves the story well. We get the Brothers Grimm (Christopher Burnside & Milo Mechem-Miller) thrown in as companions of the Prince but acting more like a comic relief version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they were probably unnecessary or a missed opportunity. Overall I feared, as the film started, that I would be unable to stay the distance but was surprisingly taken with the film. 5 out of 10 seems fair, though the blood bathing scene rates higher.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: The Final Curtain

Edward D. Wood Jr. created this 22-minute pilot episode for a TV series that never happened in 1957, it was considered lost and then found, and released at Slamdance Festival in 2012.

It follows an actor (Duke Moore, Plan 9 from Outer Space), who was starring in a vampire play, exploring the empty theatre at night. There is an object, he doesn’t know what, that is calling for him to find it. He, essentially, is someone who acts like a vampire in the play we do not see.

Jeannie Stevens as the vampire

In one of the rooms there is a fright as he sees a woman and then realises it is a dummy that is used as a prop vampire in the play. However, the dummy seems to come to life and the character is called the Vampire (Jeannie Stevens). She beckons him but he leaves the room and slams the door. And that’s it, vampire wise, a fleeting visitation that might be fever dream. The whole thing is without character dialogue and rather it has an inner monologue narrated by Dudley Manlove (also Plan 9 From Outer Space) whose camp delivery does the episode no favours. A curiosity, certainly.

The imdb page is here.