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.

Round the Decay – review

Director: Adam Newman

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

A creature feature, the creature within it had overtones of the wendigo and aspects that seem vampiric but is actually called a wrexsoul (Rachel Pizzolato). A google only revealed the name used for a boss in Final Fantasy VI. The film suggests that it is a possession of a dead individual and that it feeds both on flesh and souls.

The opening of the film sees a native woman (Kamarra Cole) running through forests. She is captured and brought before colonial leader Whelon Newport (Roger Clark) and his wife, Mary (McKenna Parsons). The woman doesn’t respond to his questions, despite the fact that he supposes she does understand him. He starts lecturing her and mentions a sacrifice being needed – at which point he stabs Mary. He explains that only monsters can hunt monsters (clearly equating the indigenous people with monsters), Mary seems to come back to life and the woman screams.

Victoria Mirrer as Kenzi

In a modern day setting we see a gazebo at night, Kenzie (Victoria Mirrer) sits in it and is approached by a man, Zach (Topher Hansson). She is engaged but, it becomes apparent, her fiancé is Zach and his approach is a game, but one she is not responsive to. As the film goes on we discover this is a flashback to a vacation where she broke the engagement off, he went missing in a cave and she has returned for closure. The hotel she stays at has just been bought by Bart (Cary Hite). At a town meeting he tries to offer his vision for tourism but is shouted down by a hostile audience of locals who have heard it all before. Also staying at the hotel is Munroe (Damian Maffei, Nikos the Impaler) a professional monster hunter.

booby trap

The town leader is Gregory Newport (Jamie Dufault), descendent of Whelon. He and the town are aware of the wrexsoul and feed people to her – they arrange for itinerant hotel worker Roz (Sienna Hubert-Ross) to be knocked out and dropped down a shaft into her cave. There are also a group of hikers, some of whom enter the (poorly blocked) cave. The cave has booby traps – one of the hikers (Sassan Saffari) is garrotted on razor wire and another, Aida (Alexis Safoyan), flees with Roz… The wrexsoul is on the hunt and no one in town is safe.

the wrexsoul

The creature itself is clearly what has become of Mary’s body. It has heavy feet, claws and a face that is all teeth and monstrosity. The practical effect was good except for the times it wasn’t. The wrexsoul’s head is clearly a mask but the shooting uses darkness and not showing the head often to maintain an illusion of the monster. Unfortunately the body suit is clearly that, which is a shame. The creature feasts on flesh but eating the soul is mentioned, its speech is an echolalia of victims' words, and it has their memories – so it knows Kenzie as it ate Zach. It hasn’t got the best vision (it might walk past someone staying still), though it detects movement and has sharp ears.

wrexsoul vision

Munroe has been called in by a disgruntled group that live in the town, who themselves had been drafted in to boobytrap the cave (a precaution after Zach became lost there), His sources suggest that, to kill the creature, he first needs to end the bloodline of the one who created it – in other words kill Gregory – and then kill it. Due to its toughness he thinks that fire should be employed. The creature, as I mentioned, feels a tad wendigo but the spirit at the heart of the wrexsoul is vampirically possessing the body of the sacrifice (Mary) and eating flesh and souls and so the film has that vampire aspect though for the most part it is creature feature.

Cary Hite as Bart

And it does the creature feature well enough, though it is pretty by the numbers. The central characters are quite numerous but the filmmakers keep track of them for the viewer competently. The issue with the characters is that had there been fewer they would have been able to be expanded on them that bit more. The gore, when we see it, is done well, but more may have been better. Overall, competent but it won’t set the world on fire. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Shadows of the Past – review

Director: Luz Cabrales

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

A portmanteau film, where the anthology is made up of films that seem to have been created for the film, rather than just tying unrelated shorts together, should be welcome. However this one struggles due to its poor framing of the narrative and, frankly, lack of chills.

There is no traditional vampire in this, rather there is a banshee that is part of the wraparound. Banshees do actually appear in Bane’s Encyclopedia of Vampire Mythology but generally are not thought about as vampiric beings. In this I would argue she is.

the youths

So, before I get to the banshee, let me talk about the framing. It starts with a group of teens running. One asks why Mario (Jamie Dougherty), leader of the gang and only guy, made her do it. *It* is shoot a woman – a senseless slaying, as another gang member says that she was going to give them all the expensive items in the museum. It just feels hokey, like a story sketched but not thought through. They head for a mansion and duck in the unlocked door.

Dan Frederick as the Caretaker

Inside they meet the caretaker (Dan Frederick) and the gun is aimed at him. However, he talks them down by saying if they leave they’ll get caught but if they stay and keep him company then he’ll give them all the valuables. Again, hokey and not great storytelling or realistic sounding dialogue. Nevertheless, they stay and each story the caretaker tells is a segment of the portmanteau. When Mario demands the treasures, we get the wraparound’s backstory.

the Langstones

It centres on a ring, that the caretaker puts on, and the owner Collin Brooks Langstone (Karl Barbee), a 19th century gang leader and businessman who was given the ring by a banshee (played by several actresses). The ring would grant his desire so long as he kept on luring souls to feed to the banshee – the souls/life (both are mentioned interchangeably) kept her young. However, he met and married Rose (Tara E. Kojsza), the banshee grew jealous and killed her, cursing him. The dialogue says he was “condemned by the banshee’s dark mind” and then “the mind turned mansion” – indicating that the mansion is a manifestation of her mind and, as she is an energy vampire, the mansion is a vampiric building.

supping a cup of blood

Now, where this goes further awry is that it is indicated that the caretaker is Langstone in another form, and the curse can be lifted if he passes the ring (and thus the curse) to someone as evil and greedy as he… the inference being Mario. However, then the kids are hunted through the mansion by the banshee and the ring is not passed on. A cop, going door to door, shows up in the morning and Langstone answers. He is asked about what he is drinking (we only see the teacup) and he says tomato juice, it keeps him “young, rich and vibrant” and “he just made a fresh batch”. This implies it is blood that he drinks but, as a concept, comes from nowhere.

vampiric building

It is very crude storytelling, certainly for the wraparound, and whilst the segments feel a tad stronger it isn’t by much and they fail to chill. It is a shame as dedicated anthology/portmanteau films are very welcome in general and this might have been a welcome entry in that genre. Rather it is a damp squib. The use of a banshee as an energy vampire is unusual. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: The Invocation of Enver Simaku

Released in 2018 and directed by Marco Lledó Escartín, this is a very slow burn horror, done in a documentary style, which interests us due to the central entity they call a kukuth. This would seem to be a derivative of the Albanian kukuthi/kukudhi, which is a vampire type listed in Bane’s Encylclopedia of Vampire Mythology. However, the entry in Bane bears no resemblance to the creature here, Bane’s description of the kukudhi is a vampire that “seldom needs to feed, and when it does, it takes a very small amount of blood from its victim.” In the film the kukuth is described as a soul eater.

monks' fresco

The primary character is Julien (Julien Blaschke) a documentary maker. He had been in Albania some 18 years before the primary timeline of the film, creating a documentary about monks within a particular order who seemed to have a spiritualist/pagan overtone to their beliefs. He was there with his wife and a crew and they were in a bar, having finished filming, when they heard gunfire and screaming. They rushed out with camera.

Julien Blaschke as Julien

In context it was the day before the so-called lottery insurgence of Vlora, a real-world event of civil unrest following the collapse of a Ponzi scheme. However they were too far away, in Mesopotam, for it to be connected. The night became known as the Mesopotam pogrom and it started with a man, Enver Simaku (Ferran Gadea), dying. Enver had been in a coma for years (actually, probably not a coma and more a vegetative state) and with his death his brothers went mad and tortured and killed at least 50 people – Julien’s wife amongst them.

the spirit of Enver

So, Julien has returned to Albania to understand what happened and unearths a story of supernatural events, discovering that an undercover agent from the Government’s anti-paranormal brigade had been investigating the Simakus due to a belief that they were involved in the supernatural. The villagers believed a kukuth was in the village – and as things develop it seems that it could possess people, had possessed Enver and the man had kept it trapped within him – his death allowing its escape. Julien starts seeing things, including the creature…

the Kukuth

The film, as mentioned, is a slow burn and the documentary style adds a real world feel but also stifles the scares. This isn’t helped by the absolutely stoic portrayal of Julien. Nevertheless, I found the idea fascinating and loved the idea of using some pretty obscure (to me) Albanian folklore; even if the nature of the kukuth seems changed to fit the film, with possession and inciting violence being the order of the day and even the accusation of being a soul eater seems to be hyperbolic. It is primarily shot in English but there are moments of Spanish, Italian and Albanian.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

The Hungry Snake Woman – review

Director: Sisworo Gautama Putra

Release date: 1986

Contains spoilers

An Indonesian moment of madness from the mid-eighties, my thanks to Leila who sent me the disc of this. It stars Suzzanna (Sundelbolong) as the titular Snake Woman (referred to as a Snake Goddess) as well as a second role in the film. The Snake Woman was a reprised role from two previous films. The print on the disc was a VHS rip with English dub, I understand a Blu-Ray is available.

The film starts with women running through the jungle and a man, Joe (George Rudy), chasing them, telling them to come to him and firing a gun. He meets a uniformed woman and tells her to help Donny (Dorman Borisman) as he goes after them. They run through a river into a rocky area and into a cave, He follows and the women, once he is inside, vanish into thin air. An earth tremor opens a passageway and light shines in it. The Snake Goddess floats on a throne to him, asks why he follows her escort, whilst he asks why she looks like Suzy (also Suzzanna). She melts, becoming a snake as the credit roles.

domestic violence

So these three would seem to be characters from later (Suzy, Joe and Donny) but the context is all wrong – but hey, that’s madcap Indonesian cinema for you. So, anyway, after the credits we meet Brian (Advent Bangun) and his (very soon to be ex-)girlfriend Carlita (Nina Anwar). He is misogynistic and violent, physically abusing her, stabbing her through the hand with a screwdriver when she fights back and attempting to rape her (by the dialogue, their relationship had not been physical). She gets away and cries for help, drawing the police who chase Brian off.

Brian and the Snake Goddess

Brian walks into the jungle and comes across a half snake/half woman and her cave dwelling husband, who tell him that he can find riches and status through the Snake Goddess and she belts him with her tail, through the air and into a river. The escorts find him, taking him to the Goddess’ cave. He tries taking pieces of gold trees but, when separated, the bits become scorpions and spiders. The Snake Goddess appears and says she can give him the riches he desires for a price – over a week he must find three women, drink their blood and eat their breasts as a sacrifice to her.

dracula on the loose

We see him attack the first – a woman whose lover has nipped off for a pee. Brian has fangs (and a cape) and drinks her blood and eats her breasts as required. The next day the newspapers have an article about a dracula murdering women (an example of using dracula as a common noun). Brian’s second attack is on Suzy, and she luckily escapes. We then see a businessman who has failed to sacrifice his daughter as required by the Snake Goddess – who states that she needs the sacrifices to provide her souls as sustenance, keeping her young and immortal. So, she is also a type of vampire.

Brian with fangs

Anyway, Brian betrays her, becomes rich and the film sees him obsessing over Carlita (whose family denies him despite his new riches), she happens to know Suzy, Joe and Donny and they are drawn in – especially as Joe accidentally rescues the betrayed Goddess, who wants Brian to pay. It is all a big mismatch of ideas with the clip-clop (literally) of flying horses drawing her chariot, magically induced erotic dance, as well as other black magic moments, and an attempted burning of Carlita just because.

a victim

Now, it isn’t brilliant but it is so mad it will keep your attention. The dub is as you’d expect but the natural charm and madcap nature may well be enhanced with a better print and original language. Don’t get me wrong, it is unlikely to ever be viewed as a masterpiece but the sheer weight of ideas makes it worth your time. 3.5 out of 10 is fair but the madness is greater than the sum of its parts.

The imdb page is here.

Vampire Genesis – review

Director: Michael Lee Buie

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

Crossing vampires with aliens is not unheard of and it can work but sometimes one wonders what the point was. Sometimes the extra-terrestrial origin of the vampire (or in this case both vampires and demons) makes not one iota of difference and the film could just as easily have had them hailing from other dimensions and of supernatural origin.

It starts with a young woman, Karen (Neriah Chadwick), dreaming and waking. She calls local priest Father Domenici (Ernest Jam) who tells her to come over. She gets dressed (in some short shorts) and is nervous as she crosses the graveyard, clearly sensing someone around. She goes in the church, uses the bathroom to put makeup on and then tells Domenici about her dreams.

Maalik revealed

Declaring that she has revealed herself as the first seer, he suddenly transforms and reveals he is actually Diablo Maalik, eater of souls. He is terrorising her when a pair come in, one a vampire queen who gave Maalik a daywalking stone and her servant Ahriman (Renaissance Jones). Maalik loses his head, for undermining her authority, and she leaves Ahriman to deal with the seer – but he does not kill her.

Nadia Covington as the Empress

Twenty years later and on a mothership we meet vampire Empress Amunet (Nadia Covington). She is disturbed by the Captain Abu’Al (Eric Hamilton) who says that a slave, Teh'a (Katrina Jeen), has escaped to Earth. The slaves are generically manipulated vampire/humans from what I can tell. A hunter is despatched after her and we later discover that she is attuned to Gaia, a physical manifestation of Earth I assume, who defeated the vampires when they last invaded. Except for the vampires who remained on Earth, of course, and the demons.

the slave's arrival

The film proper follows hard-ass Detective Jessica Cole (Stephanie Fausto) who is put onto the alien landing case as a punishment assignment. Cole has powers that she has not yet allowed to manifest. The vampires are after the (now disguised as human) slave and Cole is embroiled in it and the plot, as in much with the film, is over ambitious for the budget and the filmmakers’ skill level.

eyes

The cgi used within the film is not great – cgi blood spatter always tends to look bad but the spaceship scenes look pretty average also. The alien aspect, as mentioned, needn’t have been there and the acting was a mixed bag – though to be far Fausto gave her all as Cole. This is one with plenty of ambition, as suggested, but it just didn’t do it for me. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Tales from the Void – review

Director: James Szymkow-McKenney

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

An anthology film hosted by Lord John T. Laing (Johnny Laing), which contains three shorts – by the looks of it produced for the film and certainly all directed by James Szymkow-McKenney. The first entry is about a soul eater, according to the intertitle on screen, but I saw little to evidence that and it is more like an undead (possibly spectral) antagonist unable to rest till he kills all of the bloodline of his murderer.

The episode we are actually interested in is Date Night and whilst competent enough it is a very short film with a simplistic story (and whilst I am spoiling the twist it really wasn’t much of a shock).

Nancy and Helen

So (and I hope I get the names/actresses the right way round), Helen (Kathryn Andrea) is helping Nancy (Alexandra Levine) prep for a date – the first in some time apparently. It is with David (Michael Miller) a new IT guy at work. There are warning comments about creepy men but she is sure he isn’t one. They go off on their date – a note there was an over reliance on a camera filter though the bar section.

Nancy and Helen

They are walking after the bar and David’s phone goes. He slopes off to take the call but. Whilst she is looking away he comes up behind Nancy with a knife in his hand and stabs her. He is disappointed that she soon has died, he likes to watch the light go out in their eyes. Of course, vampires are already dead but they don’t let a little thing like that stop them…

vamp out

Very short and competent, other than the mentioned filters, this is a brief vampiric sojourn but it doesn’t do anything overly special either. Alexandra Levine looks fab with fangs but score wise it really doesn’t set the world on fire. Remembering I only score for the vampire section I am struggling. 4 out of 10 seems high for a blink and you miss it, competently shot (but nothing special) short with the flimsiest of stories but any less feels churlish.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Dead Vision

This feature (at a few seconds over 60 minutes) by director Kavan Mulvey was released in 2021 and is getting an Honourable Mention (rather than a scored review) as you can watch it for free on YouTube (though it does have Troma distribution also). It is seriously zero budget and has some of the issues one would expect from that (not least sound issues when ambient hiss appears and disappears in a scene depending on shot direction), as well as a glaring anachronism. Nevertheless, it was a first feature effort and it has been made available to watch.

masked persuer

The film starts with a red filter and a girl runs. A man in a vampire mask and cape watches her run past and then appears ahead and stabs her. A cop comes along and he runs at the cop and is shot for his trouble. Cutting to an unfiltered scene and a shifty looking man digs, we later discover it is Sheriff Landis (Jon Korns), until his spade hits metal. He gets a bottle with holy water and pours it over the unearthed relic and it steams. He says that he’ll see them in 5 years.

Caelan McMurchy as Mason

Mason (Caelan McMurchy), long haired and leather jacketed, and Lucas (Ezekiel Lowe) leave school after detention. They’re friends but Mason got them detention when he fired a spit ball at Lucas. From behind comes Derrick (Kavan Mulvey) and his girlfriend Neve (Courtney Wise). He knocks the books from Lucas’ arms and queries why Mason would hang out with someone like Lucas – it seems Derrick and Mason are on a sports team together. Derrick and Neve are picked up by Kayla (Kayla Carter), who Lucas is attracted to (and it's mutual). Mason and Lucas goes back to Lucas’ house to play video games.

TV anachronism

Now for the anachronism. Lucas plays Nintendo, clearly quite an old one, and later shows he has a Walkman. The setting of the film would seem to be eighties (and thus neatly sidesteps why none of them have mobile phones) but we later get a breaking news item on a very contemporary flat screen TV! Anyhow, Mason leaves to go home but is chased by the man in mask/cloak and, eventually, brained and his spirit runs off.

Ezekiel Lowe as Lucas

Lucas, the next morning, encounters said spirit and freaks. After calming down they decide to solve his murder (as far as the police and his parents are concerned he is missing, as there is no body, though the Sheriff knows more than he is letting on). The kids we have seen so far either appear as ghosts to each other, if they are killed, or can see the ghosts. As they are all connected. Mason and Lucas find a (conveniently dropped by the killer) stone with a symbol on it and, as the library is shut, ask a random goth what it means. She knows that it is a curse that is part of a ritual for immortality involving the sacrifice of five kids.

Mac McMurchy as Drake

The vampire Drake (Mac McMurchy) is pulling the strings of the ritual, the killer is his minion. It was these two the sheriff had sealed with holy water but one wonders how it is that vampires, who can return from being nothing but bones, need to have a ritual to gain immortality. However they are effected by garlic and holy water and can die by stake through the heart and their motivation is best not looked at too deeply. There are five curse stones, one for each kid, and they can be used to (it would seem) devour the spirits once the kid is murdered.

Master and servant

So this is very amateur, the cast are kind of like rabbits trapped in headlights at times but everyone has to start somewhere. Given the lack of budget a decapitation effect was a very brave choice. Ok it looks rubbish but it was brave. There is a nice play on Lucas speaking to Mason and most people thinking he is talking to himself. This isn’t the greatest film but you aren’t paying to watch it so it is easy to cut the film and its creators some slack and it may well be just the first faltering step on a path that they’ll soon start to navigate with more confidence.

The imdb page is here.

VMT – review

Author & Illustrator: William Simpson

First Published: 2022

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Vampires come in many forms and curious identities, full of diverse methodologies, not all Nosferatu of the rat teeth, or Dracula and his penchant for impaling Turks, but one thing's for sure, they aren't meant to sparkle or be teenage friendly, even if the young do taste like chicken! It's not that vampires aren't fun, but hang on to your face, they peel easier than an apple in baking season.

VMT brings together three diverse vampiric existences in an encounter with a darker, more malevolent evil, insistent on shredding the veil of life and indulging in a brutal orgy of carnal sacrifice... but of course, you have to get the flies out of the ointment first.

If this was just SUN's story, Cyndi Lauper's 'Girls just wanna have fun' would be ringing through one's head, but it would be a short lived vainglorious effort, as her vampire nature means serious bloodletting and much pain for her encountered victims... still, she may be a bad tempered attitude on legs, but not the creeping pervading evil that fate must decree is destiny. No matter how they try, lives are not lived alone and with vampires, never a single timeline.

Past and potential futures, conjure the present and 'Sun's present will be filled with 'Mercy', a much older vampire and a victim of her own religion dominated quest for release, though blood addiction conspires to hold her on a razor edge of desperation and anger for her birth.

And then, 'Death's Dark Angel' walks the path between the shades of life and oblivion, manipulating the ripples of time and space, lured by maelstroms of brutality and horror, her feet steeped in histories long forgotten and her self, soaring beyond moral obligations.

VMT series one: An invitation into a meeting of a tryptic of cursed vampiric existence, surrounded by a consortium of very human fearful companions... and the battle against something much worse in dubious demonic devilry and such things as go bump in the night.

detail

The review: The edition of VMT I have just gives it that title, though according to Amazon it stands for Vampire Menstrual Tension and is a new series by comic book/graphic novelist William Simpson. Simpson was part of the team behind DC’s Vamps (I will look at that here at some point), which is a graphic series about motorbike riding bad-ass vampire women and to some degree this treads similar ground (one of the characters, Artemis, is a motorcycle riding vampire hunter). The blurb tells us about the main vampire characters and they are all very different. The very young Sun is rage filled (and, though she doesn’t know it, has a bad habit of leaving her victims to rise as zombies), Mercy hates the clergy and seeks redemption, seeing Sun as a route to do so, and Sheherazade (named 'Death's Dark Angel' in the blurb) is ancient, named as a Goddess and almost aloof to the world; she also appears to be a soul eater.

Thrown into the mix is a vampiric Marquis de Sade and his vampire henchman Monderain, who have been sacrificing prostitutes to bring about a Lovecraftian apocalypse – so we get a cosmic horror aspect – and a homicide cop, Jake, who is out of his depth.

The artwork is gorgeous, there is action, violence and horror but not a lot of backstory and so it can feel a tad empty in places, plenty of style but missing some of the substance. That said we do have the three very different vampires and that brings me to something Simpson puts as part of the introduction, “I don’t get nice sparkly vampires with werewolf puppies as their pets”. Ok, I get it – and I don’t mind backlash creating an ultraviolent, adult piece of art. However, let it go already.

This is worthwhile, especially if you like your vampires violent (and in the case of de Sade, thoroughly evil) and more so if you like cosmic horror in your vampire stories. As mentioned, it could have stood some more backstory (which may come into future volumes as this is meant to be the first of three) but it’s still worth your time and still a quality piece of graphic novelisation. Thanks to Leila for putting me on to this and Sarah for getting it me as a birthday present. 7.5 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK