Marvel Zombies – review

Director: Bryan Andrews

First aired: 2025

Contains spoilers

Marvel Zombies was a limited (4 episode) animated series released in time for the Halloween season. It follows the Zombies episode of What If…? As such it is in an alternate timeline to the primary MCU. When we hit the first episode it is five years after the outbreak, the Earth has more or less fallen and is isolated from the universe by atmospheric energy interference generated by the Wakanda Event (the destruction of the infinity stones when Zombie Thanos threatened to use the infinity gauntlet).

young heroes

It starts with three young heroes; Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) aka Ms Marvel, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) aka Ironheart and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld, Sinners) aka Hawkeye, who have the repurposed AI driven ironman armour named F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Kerry Condon) with them. Every time they leave their base to enter the city for supply runs they encounter and are hunted by the zombie Hawkeye, AKA Clint Barton. This time they see a Quinjet go down and find a miniaturised transmitter swallowed by the zombified pilot. They ascertain that it is a transmitter to help save the planet and need to get it to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base.

Khonsu

It is during that journey that all three look about to lose their lives, however Hawkeye and Ironheart sacrifice themselves to save Ms Marvel (with F.R.I.D.A.Y. flying her out of the immediate area before returning to Ironheart) but she looks likely to die too until she is rescued by Blade Knight (Todd Williams, the Vampire Diaries). So, this is Blade but, after the previous avatar became zombified, he has become the avatar of Khonsu (Piotr Michael), God of the Moon, with the Knight in his name coming from the fact that the avatar is normally Moon Knight. 

Todd Williams voices Blade

He has fangs and was clearly the daywalker before this happened, but comments later call him a vampire (rather than dhampir, but we have no reason to believe he is a full vampire), with another suggesting he no longer drinks blood. This is unlikely down to his serum and more likely him being sustained by Khonsu. The other thing to note is the voicing by Todd Williams. The MCU Blade movie has been stuck in development Hell, though Mahershala Ali was cast as Blade and voiced him for a line in the Eternals. Whether this casting means Ali is no longer connected and Williams is, Ali was unavailable for this, or that the project has been finally abandoned, is unknown as I write this.

the Queen of the Dead

Another thing to note is Blade Knight is in all four episodes and represents a major Deus Ex Machina – due to Khonsu – so not the cameo of the character we saw in Deadpool & Wolverine. The series sees Ms Marvel, Blade Knight and those they gather round them being chased across the globe by the Queen of the Dead, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) – the zombified version of the Scarlet Witch, who was a central aspect of the What If…? Episode and who has gained the ability to connect to zombies psychically and is building a horde.

the Blade Knight

This was fun. Blade Knight gets to have plenty of sword play, and there are loads of Marvel heroes (either in flashback or present day) both zombified and still living. If I had a complaint, it was that it felt like lurching from one crisis to another. In a longer built series they would perhaps have had moments of calm to balance it out. That said, the scenario meant that perhaps it would have been relentless. There are moral ambiguities drawn in at times but perhaps not too much of that and the heroes tend just to be heroic. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Midnight Feature – Special Delivery – review

Director: Jackie D Brown

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

This one really does contain spoilers. Midnight Feature is a short anthology series available via Amazon and this is the first episode of the first season. The twist at the very end is that a woman is a vampire and so, by dint of being here, the episode is spoiled – sorry. Getting to that denouement is not the best of journeys, I’m sorry to say, ironic as the episode is within the world of car shares.

The series is linked by a host, the Curator (John Potash), and the episode then goes into an advert for Friend Ships, a ride share company, highlighting “Captain” James (Joshua Myron McKinney). We are then with James (and we move into an unnecessary found footage mode) as he goes to work. A call from his girlfriend out of the way and he starts picking up rides.

ride share

The section with him picking up rides is too long in a very short run time (29 minutes, including credits and series link) and does not offer any character development as James communicates in the absolute false language of the US service industry He eventually gets a ride with an attractive girl (Becca Anne) who puts bags in his boot. When at her destination, she is getting her bags when he gets a call from his girl, accusing him of cheating and dumping him. Without thinking he reverses, into the girl.

tied up

Assuming she is dead, he sticks her in the boot and drives home to get a shovel. When he gets back to the boot he realises she is still alive and drags her into the garage and ties her up. When she comes round, she starts asking him to release her, her father is a powerful man and James will be in big trouble. He takes himself away for a moment and, within his angst, decides to kill and dispose of her but, as he is about to strike, a man (Michael Rock) with two bodyguards speaks. He soon allows his daughter to feast on James – and she codes as vampire.

vamped

And that’s it – the biggest problem being the found footage is unnecessary and moves the film into too dark and too shaky territories. The other issue is the service-speak overwhelming any character development. It would have been better to move straight to her ride and then extend dialogue in the garage to build his character. Unfortunate. 3.5 out of 10.

The episode's imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Carmilla Volume 2: The Last Vampire Hunter – review

Author: Amy Chu

Illustrations: Soo Lee

First published: 2024

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Before Dracula, before Nosferatu, there was...CARMILLA.

In the second volume of this feminist tale of murder, monsters, and mystery layered with dark Chinese folklore, social worker turned vampire hunter Athena Lo has just lost everyone she loves—and it's all her fault.

Hoping to put her life back together, Athena travels to San Francisco’s Chinatown on a quest to uncover the secrets of her mysterious family history. But her journey escalates into a nightmare when she‘s violently introduced to a new, ruthless gang of Asian American vampires and its unlikely leader, who hold shocking truths. As she navigates this dangerous territory, Athena can't escape the ghost of Carmilla...and neither can the vampires. Athena must decide—whose side is she on?

Inspired by the gothic novel that started the vampire genre, this queer, feminist murder mystery graphic novel is a tale of identity, obsession and fateful family secrets.

The review: It would have been easy for this sequel to Carmilla: The First Vampire to have ignored the titular vampire as vampire hunter Athena Lo destroys her in the first volume – but, as we know, you can’t keep a good vampire down. Though, her presence in the book is fleeting (and she seems to have taken the form of a monk). Primarily it follows Athena to San Francisco, where she hopes to piece together her family history.

There she discovers a whole bunch of Asian vampires (and a werewolf), we get Nukekubi (a Japanese Yokai that the book identifies as a Filippino vampire), the Indian Brahmarakshaa (a type of rakshasa), Korean Dokkeabi Goblin (which I have not seen connected with vampirism before) and the Japanese Nure-Omna (another Yokai). Without identifying it, we see a penanggalan and Taki who is a Geungshi (which is the Korean variant spelling of Jiangshi or Kyonsi). The leader is Wing, a young boy who had been attacked by a vampire and was saved by Taki – causing Wing to become a hybrid of western vampire and Jiangshi – Wing happens to be Athena’s older brother though she doesn’t remember him. He tells her of their parents, and their deaths, the Jiangshi hunter heritage and that a Taoist priest had taken her and protected her – the man she knew as her grandfather Yeh Yeh. Unfortunately, Wing has plans for Athena.

Of course, the first volume used Athena’s queerness and Asian identity as lenses for othering. This volume concentrates on the American historic, and more modern, treatment of Asians, and the Chinese specifically through Taki. The redemptive element around him was really rather well done and moving. The story is neat, the appearance of Carmilla fleeting but it was a good, solid little volume. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Jim Haggerty's Unnatural Causes

A 2025 portmanteau film directed by Jim Haggerty, there are three stories here and, whilst arguably, there might be a revenant in one of the segments, the reason for the mention is the wraparound and that is both a fleeting visitation of someone who may be acting as a vampire, rather than being one.

The film starts with a news report of the death of a minor celebrity. Vlad Eterno (Baron Misuraca, 60 Seconds to Die & Seymour the Unfortunate Vampire) was an actor in low budget horror films, whose films veered towards the really poor eventually, but he was due a comeback by making a TV series for the same channel the news is on. The newscaster reports Eterno’s alleged age as 300-years-old.

out of the coffin

A couple of Goth women are let into the funeral home to see the body before the family get there. They discuss how he was meant to be a vampire – so with the mythology of being 300 and a vampire, likely acting as a vampire. They give him a rose and he awakens, gets out of the coffin and gives them a film tin with the first three episodes of the series Unnatural Causes (our segments obviously) and tasks them to get them seen. He then leaves; getting into a black Cadillac, which then drives off and vanishes – so perhaps there was some truth to his supernatural claims? Maybe it was a publicity stunt? But, from our point of view, that’s it; bar his intro segments to each short film, a fleeting visitation.

The imdb page is here.

Vampire Club – review

Director: Dennis Devine

Release date: 2013

Contains spoilers

Back with the video vampires of Dennis Devine and the director’s efforts haven’t found much favour in my reviews so far. So, let’s see how this fares.

It starts with a woman, Vicky (Veronica Ricci, Arise of the Snake Women & Fangs Out) strutting down the street. She arrives at a house and meets Ali (Tracy Carr). Ali has fangs and soon bites Vicky but not before suggesting she should join “the club” and makes her drink her blood after the bite. She needs a second draught of vampire blood to fully turn (and it is suggested that not drinking vampire blood at all would have resulted in her death), but Ali needs to feed first.

stomach stake

She heads out and spots Amanda (Krystal Ellsworth) and is about to attack when Amanda uses her name. Confused, she asks how she knows her, which is the opportunity Amanda needs to stake her – avenging her brother and sister. Her hunting partner Lance (Dylan Vox, the Lair, Scab, Brides of Sodom & Vampire Boys) arrives and takes her head with a sword. Now, the beheading looked good – even if the head was obviously a prop – as did the staking (at least on the surface). However, the stake was clearly in the stomach. Now, whilst the stomach might be folklorically accurate (to pin the corpse to the grave), this wasn’t what they were going for and was slapdash.

Marlene Mc'Cohen as Dorothy

Vampire Master Dorothy (Marlene Mc'Cohen, Vampire Boys 2: The New Brood, Fangs Out: Blood Apocalypse & also Fangs Out and Vampire Boys), with vampires Piper (Harmony Smith, also Fangs Out: Blood Apocalypse) and Stephanie (Ginny You, also Fangs Out: Blood Apocalypse), finds Ali. Piper decides it is time to move on, but the hunters read newspapers to track their progress. As things develop, the vampires get jobs as dancers (of the go-go variety) but Piper is out of control and her devouring of a stag at the club leads to his sister joining the hunters. Vicky, in the meantime, is drawn to the vampires to get the second draught of vampire blood (the spirit of Ali apparently speaking to her).

double bite

There isn’t much more of a story. The strip club has an outside establishing shot but seems to be just any old office location converted into a makeshift stage and back rooms. The lore is confused in terms of crosses not working (though the hunters seem to think they do) but holy water burning – the film makes no attempt to explain the reasoning. Sunlight is mentioned as the hunters’ friend, but is not utilised in film. The story is simplistic, the characters under-developed. Plot-wise Veronica Ricci is underutilised, she is used for sexploitation reasons (and the only actress who is filmed nude) but for the plot, she is little more than a catalyst and could have been missed altogether. Straight to video, this is a low-end film I’m afraid. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Resurrection Road – review

Director: Ashley Cahill

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Combining vampires and the American Civil War has been done before but it is a great setting and this could have been a good budget film bar a glaring CGI issue (though, to be fair, it looked like a lot of practical effects around blood and gunfire). In this we take our point of view from Union soldiers, and the vampires are Confederates. What makes this more interesting was that it focused on African American Union soldiers.

Malcolm Goodwin as Barabas

It starts, however, in a dream – or nightmare – as main character Barabas (Malcolm Goodwin, True Blood) relives a moment with his pregnant wife, when they were both slaves, being intercepted by slave owner Quantrill (Michael Madsen) who punishes them both by whipping her, though Barabas begs to be the one punished. He is later told that she and the unborn baby died. He wakes in a cell. Now, a point around this. Barabas is by far the most rounded character, with much back story, but, for some reason, why the (now) Union soldier ended up in the stockade is so glossed over as to be missing, which was frustrating.

the squad

Nevertheless, he is taken from the cell to see the commanding officers and there General Craven (Jeff Daniel Phillips, Son of Darkness: To Die For II, Freaks of Nature & The Munsters) gives him two options; on the one hand he could take a squad to a heavily fortified Confederate fort with giant cannons and destroy it – a suicide mission but he’d get a pardon and forty acres and a mule if they succeed and survive – and on the other, be executed. The General, incidentally, came over just as racist as the Confederates we meet later.

Triana Browne as Tsula

Given the Hobson’s Choice, and with the warning that if he or any of his men ran they’d be hunted down, he takes his squad out. The squad consists of Abe (Bryan Taronn Jones), Washington (Okea Eme-Akwari), Cuffy (Furly Mac), Stevens (Randall J. Bacon, Don’t Suck) and Blunt (Davonte Burse). None of the squad are particularly built up as characters, though Eme-Akwari admirably builds up Washington through sheer charisma, indeed some of the characters are simply disposable. They reach a homestead, first of all, that seems to be the subject of a massacre, with only a Native American, Tsula (Triana Browne), who had come to trade, and a Black woman (presumably a slave) surviving. The only help Barabas gives is to point them to their lines and give them a pistol. The Black woman warns them of the woods, says to stay indoors at night (an odd suggestion in the wilderness) and watch the trees. Tsula will end up with the squad later.

enemy captured

They next come across a Confederate patrol. They capture one, are captured in turn and Barabas is able to save Cuffy from a lynching – during which they manage to kill the confederates. Or do they? Sharp-eyed viewers will have noted that one of them, when we first met him, with having a pee and his urine was red. The characters believe them dead, at least, but the altercation has seen Stevens killed and Blunt blinded – and so Barabas shoots him (presumably as a mercy as they would have to leave him, but more so underlining the grim determination he has to get the job done and get his reward). Eventually they reach the fort but they are seriously low on numbers having lost another man to “something” in the trees. It is here that the film lost me.

the fort.... or castle

We see the fort, and it looks like a stone, European style castle (and clearly just an image). The practical set looks like a wooden fort recreation they shot in. There are wooden fences to scale, rather than stone walls, There is a lot of over-lit/exposed photography to try to hide the joins shots to disguise that they weren’t filming in a castle and then we are in a wood-built area and the transition jolts. The guns are huge, but clearly mock ups and they had no real texture to them. It is bad CGI (with some physical modelling it appears, for up close moments as dynamite is laid). The fort also has a rock crypt with coffins…

stake

Because, yes, vampires and you can bet your bottom dollar than slave owner Quantrill is involved because firstly that gives Barabas more motivation but mostly because if you’ve paid for Michael Madsen (this was one of his last films before he sadly passed) you may as well get your money's worth. Tsula suggests that they are nostradu, evil spirits that came on the boats with the white man and whose totem is the bat. They must hunt by night and drink blood. They prefer the name Nosferatu, they are weakened by the sun, must be killed by a stake to the heart (wooden it seems, as a blade fails), do not reflect and can become bats and mist (it seems). Tsula has found a flower, she described as an Eastern Rosebud – which wouldn't be the native name – and Abe said came from a Judas Tree, its vernacular name. Tsula recognises it as a plant that can ward off evil and later uses it to stop someone who is bitten from turning (as it is a one bite turns film).

Michael Madsen as Quantrill

Despite the best efforts of Malcolm Goodwin and Okea Eme-Akwari, despite decent wilderness locations and despite some decent practical effects, I couldn’t get past the cgi and locational mishmash. I was jarred from the film. It wasn’t perfect in other respects – paper thin characters (bar Barabas), a missed opportunity with the "at night in the woods" section, as it could have been used to really build a tension but just didn’t, but these things I could have forgiven as the good outweighed the bad – until they got to the fort. 4 out of 10 actually feels generous given how much the main issue smashed suspension of belief. A shame.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Blood Vengeance – review

Author: EH Drake

First Published: 2025

Contains spoilers

The blurb: The Blood Herring Chronicles end here.

Gabe and Lily are trapped, held captive by the very justice they once served. But with the vampire lord, Elias, unleashing his army on Portland, a city collapsing into ruin, they can't afford to wait. The only way to save humanity is to break free. The only way to fight is to risk everything.

Two renegades. One impossible war. Can they stand against a rising tide of blood and ruin?

The review: The third in the series (my reviews are here for Book 1 and Book 2) and the city of Portland has gone to Hell, with the terrorist vampire Elias periodically releasing his child vampire warriors and hordes of the starved – people turned and then starved until they loose all sense and becoming zompire like ravening hordes.

The protagonists, Lily and Gabe are both under arrest – him by human authorities and under house arrest as he is tried, his case reliant on convincing a judge and jury that he was turned against his will and that, as such, he should not warrant extermination. She with the vampire’s Royal Court, suspected of being in league with Elias – not helped by the fact that he was her husband and his right hand henchman is none other than her brother.

This gears itself nicely as an action facing volume, safe in the knowledge that the protagonist characters have been neatly rounded in the preceding volumes. Both characters end up in and out of custody – Gabe is a bit of a boy scout and Elias relies on him handing himself back in as there is an expectation that he’ll lose his case to aid his cause. Lily becomes convinced there is a traitor in the court. The book roles along at a pace – switching between Lily and Gabe’s POV as per the other volumes – climaxing in a vampiric assault on a prison. A fast, punchy end to the series. 7.5 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK