Vain – review

Director: Justin Bergonzoni

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

I am not overly sure about the found footage genre generally, but some examples do work. This film mixes found footage with influencer culture and has some interesting moments, though perhaps struggles with tension when we need it (partly down to the nature of found footage). What is interesting is that, in the credits, the film is called Vain by Halvor1812 (Mike Thompson), suggesting that the film was put together by the film’s antagonist.

Halvor's footage

The film is interspersed with footage from Halvor’s YouTube channel, which seems to be captured on film (rather than video) and has been manipulated often to hide faces with Xs. This footage edited through genuinely adds an atmosphere and an artistry to something that, otherwise, would have been digital filming and the primary digital footage would have struggled to keep the viewer's attention on its own. These added moments, placed without commentary, create an unheimlich texture.

Taylor Kilgore as Elizabeth

The rest of the footage is based around the filming that is carried out by Elizabeth (Taylor Kilgore), for her Monsters and Mysteries channel and footage shot by Russell (Justin Bergonzoni) who is making a documentary about Elizabeth. This then draws in Andrew (Mike Lenzini) who has a conspiracy theory channel but also helps out Elizabeth with her channel (both in terms of research material and appearing on it).

Andrea A. Walter as April

Elizabeth had a featured aspect on UFOs but shifts the focus (through a mock ritual) to vampires for the upcoming month. Andrew has lent her a variety of vampire movies for research. One regular feature on her channel is looking at footage that viewers submit (sent both through email and snail mail). She gets a package through the post from Halvor with both a letter and an SD card. When she shows the footage on the card, broadcast live, she’s confused as it just seems to be travel video of a woman, later identified as April Spencer (Andrea A. Walter). In the chat Halvor asks how she liked his vampire movie – the characters don’t pick up on the significance of this for some time.

Mike Lenzini as Andrew

So, there is an investigative part of this, which includes finding Halvor’s page and working out that the subjects of the holiday videos are either missing (four of them) or have been found murdered, holes in the neck and drained of blood. Andrew, being the conspiracy theorist, does believe in vampires and believes there is a cover-up of their existence. Elizabeth takes information to the police, at Russell's insistence, but they seem less than interested and so she vows, on livestream, to stop Halvor (which seems like a dumb move).

Tom Devlin as himself

There is also an aspect of following the influencer around, for the documentary, and that includes attending Tom Devlin's Monster Museum – a real place where, in this, Andrew works part time. This also means meeting Tom (played by himself) and Elizabeth filming a part in his vampire movie. This was fairly neat as the movie is the After Dark, which Tom Devlin really did direct, and though actress Taylor Kilgore isn’t in the real-world movie, it made for a nice blurring of lines between this film and reality.

kidnapped

The issue, as insinuated above, lies in the building of tension within the found footage format. As a for instance – Elizabeth is kidnapped but we don’t see that, just hear of it, as Russell was not filming. In a more traditional narrative, the filmmakers may have made that a thing and built a tension for the audience visually, rather than relying on third hand notification of the event. Equally, when looking for her, I felt the creation of tension relied on Andrew wandering round a dark area (Russell filming) and that atmosphere didn’t build. A shame as, re the Elizabeth footage, Taylor Kilgore is very personable and the Halvor footage builds that mentioned nice uncanny layer. Aside from the uncanny, this is really a 'cat and mouse' and not a horror but I felt it deserved 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Pest Control

The Blurb: Chino and Wang aren’t your average monster hunters, they’re brawlers, hustlers, and unlikely heroes who’ve seen it all.

From the shadowed forests where werewolves prowl, to graveyards crawling with the undead, to crypts ruled by bloodthirsty vampires, they’ve fought their way through every nightmare you’ve heard whispered around a campfire.

Just when you think it can’t get any more dangerous, a multi-headed Hydra rears up from the darkness, ready to tear the world apart. Armed with quick wits, questionable luck, and a knack for surviving the impossible, Chino and Wang are about to face their wildest adventure yet.

The Mention: Another comic from the Afterlight stable, written by Max Aguiree and with art by Jok this was kickstarted in 2025 and is set in a world where society is crumbling after an interdimensional portal opened and allowed an incursion of bugs into our world. It follows Chino and Wang, a couple of monster hunters – who turned to that trade after losing their jobs and, as things start, they are the two remaining hunters out of their crew.

There are a variety of monsters within but, of course, the mention is for the vampires who appear over two chapters. The first of those start with the hunters and a few others trapped in a church under siege by vampires – beyond that the pregnant woman in the church, due and in need of a Caesarean, adds to their problems. The vampires in this are destroyed by direct sunlight but a bit of shade can allow daywalking. When holy water proves to be efficient Chino calls his ex-wife asking her to get a pressure washer and a long hose to him, and he’ll have the priest bless the water as they make a break for the tanning salon over the road and its sunbeds. He aims to get the head vampire en route, describing him as likely the largest alpha male – boy is he wrong about that…

Irreverent, with fatally flawed characters, there is a touch of Ghostbusters to this (it is directly referenced in the opening chapter) but more action and far less genius in the team. You can get the graphic directly from Afterlight.

Honourable Mention: Freckled Max and the Spooks

Directed by Juraj Jakubisko, who would go on to make Bathory, and released in 1987, this is a kid orientated film that features a cornucopia of monsters and the youthful protagonist Freckled Max (Martin Hreben). The film seems to have been cut together from the series Frankenstein’s Aunt (which itself is based on the book of the same name) and explains why the film feels very episodic and slightly disjointed.

Max is an orphan, stuck with a circus and foster parents who are exploiting him. As they pass through a particular region known for vampires and water sprites (amongst other monsters) he manages to escape the caravan, aided by water sprite Alojz (Eddie Constantine). Nearby Henry Frankenstein (Bolek Polívka) is on the verge of copying his ancestor and creating a monster, Albert (Gerhard Karzel). Now the brain is brought by Count Drakula (Ferdy Mayne, the Fearless Vampire Killers, the Vampire Lovers & Frightmare), who flies it in, and is that of a genius professor. Unfortunately, rather than just let it cool, Igor (Jacques Herlin) freezes it, impairing it. Henry leaves (following a village mob’s assault on the castle) and his Aunt (Viveca Lindfors) returns to the castle.

Ferdy Mayne as Drakula

So, Drakula. Firstly it is great to see Ferdy Mayne as a vampire again and he makes a fine looking Dracula. The trouble with it is that he appears very occasionally in the film. There is one particular vampy moment, as he flies Albert’s love interest Klara (Barbara De Rossi) home from the castle and, fascinated by her neck, his fangs pop out but his instinct to feed is quickly interrupted. His cloak turns into leathery bat wings when he flies. At one point he dons a helmet from a suit or armour because the sun is still out but later has got used to flying in daylight. Beyond this he really is a bit of a background character and more a fleeting visitation than mainstay of the film.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

Salem’s Lot (2024) – review

Director: Gary Dauberman

Release Date: 2024

Contains spoilers

When I saw this reimagining of Salem’s Lot at the cinema I was somewhat disappointed, not in the film as a vampire horror as it does well in those stakes, but as a version of King’s book. It failed, to me, to capture the small town and its large cast of characters, who are the reason, to me, that the book is so effective.

I wrote my First Impression with a view to reviewing the film when it was released on physical media. In truth, having heard that the studio trimmed an hour off the theatrical release, I hoped it would be restored and we might get the characters reinstated. As it is, the film still hasn’t hit physical media (mostly) and so I recently picked up the Chinese release (I trust it is kosher), it isn’t restored but here is my review.

getting instruction

The film starts with Straker (Pilou Asbæk) instructing Hank Peters (Mike Kaz) to collect a large crate and deliver it to the Marsten House. It is here that we see the loss of characters. Hank is never named, nor is his helper Snowy (Timothy John Smith, Castle Rock). All we see of picking up the crate is them arriving at the Marsten House and carrying it in – no issues at pickup or transporting it – and the two characters play no further part. They get the crate in, dropping it at one point (the crate is meant to contain a dresser but dirt spills out). They leave, though Hank is nearly mesmerised, and then Barlow (Alexander Ward, American Horror Story: Hotel) emerges from the crate.

Lewis Pullman as Ben

Daylight, and Ben Mears (Lewis Pullman), looks at the distant Marsten House. Local sheriff Gillespie (William Sadler, From Dusk till Dawn: the series & Living Among Us) approaches him and Mears explains he is sight-seeing. He is an author, he was local until he was nine (when his parents were killed and he was moved to family) and he promises Gillespie that he won’t cause trouble. He goes into town and the real estate office owned by Larry Crockett (Michael Steven Costello). Working there is Susan Norton (Makenzie Leigh), who is reading one of Ben’s books – she finds him familiar, not realising that it is from his author’s picture on the fly sleeve until Crockett has taken over the conversation. She directs Ben to Eva Miller (Marilyn Busch) and her boarding house. Again, here, we lose Crockett from this point and Weasel (the town drunk and Eva’s former paramour) we see for the briefest moment, top of the head only with one line of dialogue.

"say Uncle"

At school new kid Mark Petrie (Jordan Preston Carter) is being tied up by the Glicks, Danny (Nicholas Crovetti) and Ralphy (Cade Woodward), for an escapology trick when school bully Richie Boddin (Declan Lemerande) pushes Mark. He retaliates and makes him call Uncle (though he doesn’t release) and teacher Matt Burke (Bill Camp) intervenes – telling Mark off for not releasing when Boddin cried Uncle as they keep their word in the Lot. What was strange here was making Mark the new kid. Mark may have been the weird kid in other versions, but he wasn’t an outsider but in this he is. The film makes mention of Ben also being an outsider – though he is more the Prodigal Son. Vampires are outsiders, of course, hence needing invites and the film doesn’t explore deep enough to explain why the primary two vampire hunters are also coded outsiders.

shadow puppets

Ben has been, unsubtly, invited to the drive in – the place the whole town goes to – and ends up sat on a roof with Susan. Meanwhile the Glick boys have been at Mark’s and head home. A side-bar to mention the fact that Mark has a poster for the great blaxploitation film Sugar Hill on his wall. As the Glicks walk, a car pulls close and slows; it is driven by Straker, who offers them a lift. In response Danny refuses and guides his brother into the woods to get away from the strange man. It is a strange design choice to make the ensuing scene unreal, trees and characters in silhouette against a mostly blue background. This is like shadow puppets. Straker grabs Ralphie and takes him back to the Marsten House and gifts him to Barlow as a sacrifice (to cement his presence in the town).

revoked invitation

This is the start of the death (or undeath) of the town and the film cuts forward a week, with the search for Ralphie still ongoing. We get the death of Danny and him returning to get Mark and gravedigger Mike Ryserson (Spencer Treat Clark) found ill by Matt Burke, dying and returning for the teacher. What I want to discuss is the confused invitation rule. Mike enters Matt’s house as a vampire and presumably is using the invitation he got when he was already bitten and ill (and so part vampire). Matt revokes his invitation and it drives him out. Equally Danny visits Mark and Mark opens a window and Danny floats in. But there was no invitation – true he’d been there before but before being bitten. Perhaps non-verbal invitation (opening the window) was enough? Equally Barlow enters the Petrie’s house and there appears to have been no invitation (though perhaps being invited to the town, along with the sacrifice, sufficed?)

Danny triggers the cross

The scenes mentioned above highlight another way lore seemed off. When Danny is in Mark’s room, and Mark is backing away, a cross on a diorama lights up as the vampire draws near, Mark grabs it and burns Danny. It is very much the presence of the vampire, near the cross, that causes the cross to glow. When Barlow comes to the Petrie House, a cross held by Father Callahan (John Benjamin Hickey) glows. However, it loses its glow as his faith wains – if faith is needed then the crosses would not be glowing simply because a vampire was near as the faith in the cross would, I imagine, need to be focused into it. Indeed two tongue depressors crossed, with conviction, don't work until taped and constructed to form a cross. Other lore involves vampires flying (they can’t stand on holy ground but can fly over it), a bite turns (pretty quickly in some cases, depending on what the film needs), staking or sunlight kills.

below the mortician's shroud

Beyond the inconsistent use of crosses/faith and invitation this is not a bad vampire film. It leans into horror and uses Gordon Lightfoot’s Sundown neatly in the soundtrack. What I cannot call this is a decent version of Salem’s Lot. I get things can be changed from source material (indeed sometimes changing source material improves the experience) but this seemed to utterly lose the point, the cornucopia of townsfolk, their stories, are at the centre of the point of the tale. I still hope to see a 3-hour cut, of course that won’t cover all characters from the novel but could restore the small-town focus. 6 out of 10 as a vampire horror, but when you watch it divorce the book from your mind.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Bela Belara's A Vampire – review

Director: Juaquin Sebastian Rosales

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This independently produced film has a huge amount going for it – though there was one issue I need to address – but it’s great to see filmmakers creating decent films, clearly on a budget, and doing it well. My thanks to Paul who alerted me to it being dropped by the production company onto YouTube.

Kayla and Charlie

The opening sees a couple walking at night, there is religious music and they speak and their speech might be indistinct purposefully... but it is here that I’ll briefly touch on my main issue – sound. Indistinct chatter may have been a choice here but in other scenes one actor's voice might drop compared to another as they face away from a mic. It is never so bad later that you can’t hear but you can hear the drop in volume and I’d look to tweak aspects of the sound in the future sequel (as this does lead to a ‘to be continued’).

bloodbath

The couple, Kayla (Cecilia Cuevas) and Charlie (Quinn Sbrega), reach his parents house. He is taking her to meet them and she is nervous – they are very religious. However, on getting in there both mum (Emily Candia) and dad (Robert Coe) seem cool and they sit down for a meal when the subject of work (Kayla works as a server at a diner at night) and church (she isn’t practicing) come up. Dad suggests she go to mass with them and she agrees, but for a moment she is distracted as blood-soaked hands are seen in the window, smearing blood on the porch woodwork. Grace is said but we cut to Kayla sat, covered in blood, as the family have been/are being slaughtered.

Bela's dream

Bela (Annie Jean Buckley) seems to wake in a field, in the middle of nowhere, a locket on a tree branch has blood on it. A voice (Daniel J Lee) suggests that there are things she cannot run from. Bolting awake in bed she puts her hand into a shaft of light, which does not burn. Where this sequence features chronologically is unclear as she has not come across the vampires yet. Be that as it may… we then see her in a car with her best friend Micah (Taylor McDonald) and Micah’s friend Aaron (Broc Stermer). He has taken them to, what appears to be, a frat party but warns that the guys are hardcore, he is their chaperone and will remain in 5-feet at all times and not to accept a drink as it might be spiked.

Juaquin Sebastian Rosales as Arthur

He heads in and Bela and Micah speak – Micah is nervous, she has awkward social skills, and tells Bela not to ditch her. Bela agrees and they get through the door when Bela is off and doing shots. Bela notices a guy for a moment, and asks about him and his whereabouts, showing pictures on her phone, which he looks like, that include Hotel Transylvania’s Dracula and Count Von Count. As a moment that seemed odd, no more was made of her having vampire related pics on her phone and more natural would have been to ask about the Goth looking guy. Nevertheless, she finds him and starts a conversation – he is called Arthur (Juaquin Sebastian Rosales).

aftermath of newborn hunger

This is where the film started to really gel for me, and it was within their conversation. A big shout for Annie Jean Buckley and Juaquin Sebastian Rosales’ performances, the naturalistic conversation and the chemistry they offered. She eventually gets out of there with him, back to hers. When Aaron hears that Bela has left, he leaves Micah and goes chasing after her. We get a great sequence of Bela and Arthur making out, interposed with Micah drunk and dancing. The make out session ends with fangs and him biting her. He bites his own wrist (they make this look difficult and painful) and drips blood into her mouth, leaves a note and leaves the house. Aaron arrives as he leaves and he sends the lad inside, knowing she will awaken vampire and uncontrollably hungry (later he says he did it to protect her little sister who is in the house). When an angry Micah gets there, Bela is blood encrusted and Aaron is dead.

bite

What we get then is Bela coming to terms with her new reality, Arthur being cryptic, the revelation that Micah is a witch and an overarch regarding the plans of master vampire Sânge Albescu, whose voice was in Bela’s dream, which are about death, destruction and worship of him. Other lore we get is that these vampires reflect (we see reflections), are burnt by the sun and the ‘disease’ is incurable. The film is an hour forty-four but never feels a chore, but it is only the opening of the story and needs to be continued. As mentioned, our two primary leads are great, I might have removed some minor aspects (vampire pics on Bela’s phone) and there are dialogue moments where the sound could have been strengthened but for an indie film you can watch for free (at time of writing) I was impressed. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Use of Tropes: Bat Zombies

I guess this 2023 feature, directed by Brian Orvik, couldn’t help but use tropes being a stitch together of several public domain films, with a slapdash of new footage, and a re-dub to aim towards something more comedic.

The films used include the Last Man on Earth, House on Haunted Hill, The Bat, White Zombie, The Devil Bat and Night of the Living Dead and so you can see, given the inclusion of Last Man, why tropes might be used.

Indeed, in this tale of zombie bats and infected humans, the reanimated dead are all called zombies but they can be repelled by mirrors (as opposed to not reflecting) and are killed by a stake to the heart – as per the Last Man on Earth. For that reason this deserved to get a brief honourable mention due to use of tropes. 

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

DC vs. Vampires: World War V Vol. 2 – review

Writer: Matthew Rosenberg et al.

Artist: Otto Schmidt et al.

First published: 2025 (THB)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: The epic sequel to DC Vs. Vampires barrels towards its earth-shattering conclusion! Matthew Rosenberg and Otto Schmidt have teamed up to conclude their story about the DC Vs. Vampires universe in its new Ice Age as the human resistance gathers their strength against vampire queen Barbara Gordon...and even greater threats that loom just out of sight!

The world is frozen over, infested with vampires, and now in the crosshairs of even greater threats!

The inevitable Darkseid has tightened his grip on the already ravaged planet, forcing a tenuous alliance to form between the humans and the vampires, lest they both find themselves snuffed out by the power of a terrifying New God. But is even the threat of extinction enough to keep these two sides from tearing each other apart?

Collects the epic conclusion of DC Vs. Vampires: World War V with issues #7-12.

The review: Followng DC vs. Vampires: World War V Vol. 1, this takes the DC Elseworlds event and brings it to a conclusion. Darkseid had appeared on Earth in the last volume and, from page 1 of this, he is conducting all out war against vampire and human alike. Part of the reason is to get to his prodigal adopted son Mister Miracle; thought dead by most but actually held in Atlantis by (the vampire) Aquaman as his baby may hold the key to the vampires’ destruction and the duplicitous King of the Oceans is holding that card close to his chest. The spirit of Constantine is stuck in the House of Mystery. Alfred, the new Green Lantern, has mastered his powers and is forced to work with the faux Batman in a plan that should reopen the House of Mystery to the mortal world. Vampire Damian Wayne is still single-mindedly focused on killing Vampire Queen Barbara Gordon.

One thing the series has been vague upon is the impact of vampirism on alien physiology. Although the series generally says it doesn’t turn aliens, this is not always the case (for example Superman turns early in the series and Mister Miracle is the Scott Free version, who was a New God). Knowing that Darkseid would come, the vampires had been working on a weapon that would use the vampiric infection as ammunition, not to turn but rather to kill aliens – the prototype was destroyed but a certain Haley Quinn was privy to its design. Finally the New Gods also arrive but can they be trusted?

This takes the DC Vs Vampires universe to a conclusion and was a satisfying, action packed read. 8 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK