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.

Vamp or Not? Animals

This 2009 film directed by Doug Aarniokoski had been on my radar but I had assumed it to be a werewolf film and, whilst I do enjoy a bit of the hirsute shapeshifters from time to time, I just hadn’t got around to watching it. However, I picked up a Blu-ray set of films from Germany, entitled Vampires, and this film was on it under the title Wolves. The title change underlined that previous assumption but it was on a set named for the V word and the other two films (The Last Sect & Temptation) are definitely vampire flicks. It was beholden on me then to have a look and see if a random supernatural film had been added or, well, could it be a vampire film?

almost invisible

The creatures within the film are never named, though mention is made of them being people more centred on their animal side. The opening narration explains that “Each of us caries, buried deep within, the seed of our animal nature. Evolution, civilisation, have domesticated our impulse to feed, bite and breed, without conscience or reason. But there still lurks a rare kind, that can change at will. Some follow the natural order and live in peace. Others, who have been corrupted by the taste of human blood and hunt for flesh and pleasure, they are predators lurking amidst the human herds and they lure us across the line that few can cross and fewer survive. The line between man and animals.”

Marc Blucas as Jarrett

So, these are our creatures and the taste of human blood is mentioned. The film follows Jarrett (Marc Blucas, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), a man who had escaped small town life with a football scholarship but an injury had sent him back and he makes a meagre living as a labourer. At the head he is driving when his car hits a deer and he steps into the treeline to find it. When he does, the deer has a lump ripped out of it and he feels like he is being watched and gets out of there. We see a semi-transparent, translucent women watching him (she comes into the film, of course, and, when revealed, she is one of the good animals).

Vic bloodied

Elsewhere, Vic (Naveen Andrews) is driving a car with Nora (Nicki Aycox) in the passenger seat. Nora says she can’t do *it* anymore, though Vic is having none of it and makes her don a wig. *It* is luring two men back to where she and Vic live. After some teasing, and making one of them strip, Vic emerges, fanged and mad, and attacks one. The guy in his tidy whites runs and Nora lets him go, much to Vic’s chagrin, and he has to get the car, drive after him and knock him down. Angered, Vic says he is leaving and may not be back. Nora retorts that she may not be there when he returns. To that he suggests that he’ll find her, like always, and kill whoever she is with. In the exchange we get the idea that Vic turned her into the monster she feels she is, we also see their relationship as totally toxic.

Nicki Aycox as Nora

Anyway, she blows into Jarrett’s town (she says her bloodline are from there, it is not clear if she is talking about her human heritage or animal heritage) and they start a torid affair, during which he loses his job, is bitten by her, turned and fed (cooked) human flesh. This all comes abruptly to an end when Vic tracks her down and takes her back. Though he is fast healing, Jarrett has not had the animal state explained and has not gone far enough in the process to become his inner animal at that point. The aftermath sees Jarrett’s friend and local innkeeper Jules (Andy Comeau) dead and a relationship blossom between Jarrett and Jane (Eva Amurri), another friend and barmaid. Any normality ends when Nora flees Vic again and returns to town with him hot on her heels.

animal fight

So, what we see is some face morphing, fanged teeth and them becoming almost mist-like and transparent (or semi, at least) however they can fully transform into some form of translucent beast, drawn in bad cgi (yes, I know this is a good few years old now, but it will have been poor at the time of release). The beast kind of looks like an anthropomorphic dog, rather than a wolf. However there is a definite blood drinking aspect to this when Jarrett is told “they survive on human blood”. They are durable and fast healing – even without being fully turned Jarrett survives being inside a burning and exploding car. Severe wounding by one of their kind requires eating the heart of one of their kind to survive/heal. They seem to hunt using sex and one assumes they exude pheromones but this isn’t actually confirmed. But is it Vamp? It straddles with aspects of werewolf (with no lunar side to it) and vampire (surviving on blood) but all told, yes, it’s vamp. This then fits with Stoker who, in Lady of the Shroud, declared “The Wehr-Wolf is but a variant of the Vampire.” 

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Short film: Nightshift of the Vampire

This 2011 Aussie short film is just under 11 minutes and was directed by William Justin Crooks. It takes the standard sexy Euro-vampire trope and swaps him from being rich and elite to being a store clerk.

fang fans

However, it begins with vampire Edgar (James Deeth) being charming and talking about vampiric life to two young ladies. They are rapt, captivated by what he says (one is wearing a team Edward tee and the other a Tru Blood tee) and then ask him if he wants them to make out for him – they’re lesbians. It’s a daydream and the two before him are not so glamorous and want ciggies – though they have neglected to bring their ID.

werewolf hunter

There follows a series of moments from the nightshift, with a parade of odd customers and calls from both his boss and his partner. His boss is wanting him to cover the morning shift – an impossibility of course (or is it?) Of the various vignettes, I think my favourite was the delivery guy who has a hatred of werewolves, who tells him the tale of his dad taking him werewolf hunting.

I found the short over at vimeo. The imdb page is here.

Night Carnage – review

Director: Thomas J. Churchill

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

At the end of Night Carnage I was left unsure as to whether its raison d'etre was a commentary on the influencer phenomena or just on dating. Whilst having vampires, werewolves and hunters, they seemed almost a secondary aspect, strangely.

After scenes in the city we see a man outside a door, he has an earpiece and breaks into the building. In his ear, Aiden (Mike Ferguson, Dracula Eternal), tells him to scout only. Inside he finds a coffin surrounded by candles. Instead of retreating he opens it and stakes the vampire within. A male vampire, Michael Connor (Christian Howard), drops from the ceiling behind the hunter and kills him (with rubbish CGI blood spatter – the film really had some of the worst I’ve seen). Aiden tells his boss (Sonny King, Ravenwolf Towers) that they’ve lost another knight.

Baker Powell as Marcus

The boss is bed-bound and his son, Marcus (Baker Powell, United States of Horror: Chapter 1), visits. Marcus is a bar owner with a taste for the macabre and dad tells him of his heritage. The Von Holsen’s are descended from Van Helsing, they are monster hunters, knights as they have it, and it is his birthright. VH was killed by Michael Connor and he should avenge him. Despite mentioning that Van Helsing is in horror novels, he takes this news in his stride it seems and is pretty darn calm when dad dies there and then, message delivered.

Logan Andrews as Tess

Elsewhere we see Tess (Logan Andrews) exercising on a beach, By trade she is a blogger who blogs about relationships and essentially goes on dates and then writes about them – this reminded me of the film The Night is Young but also, I guess, Sex and the City came to mind as she voice-overed a blog later. We see a disastrous date with SteveO (Nick Waters) and then SteveO being killed by a werewolf. The film distances (by silence) Tess and the werewolf for no adequately explored reason as we quickly discover it is her (and, to be fair, the werewolf practical costume looked pretty good). Also dating (and then killing dates) is Michael Connor but he is rather taken by Tess, who looks like a lost love whose portrait he has (yup, that old chesnut). Meanwhile Marcus has taken control of the knights.

vampire

Not a huge amount particularly happens. We see two dates each both ending in eating the date (Tess because her dates are dirtbags, Michael because they do not live up to his high expectations and are not his lost bride). All the dates are at a restaurant called Renfield’s – it is creditable that Marcus recognises the name as coming from a horror novel, less so that the primary source is never named. It is at the end where the three storylines converge and the film again uses pretty-darn poor cgi blood spatter – given the practical werewolf, one wonders why? Some of the photography is well done. There isn’t much to be said about the acting, it does what it needs to and there are some naturalistic moments, but this never grasps the key plot point nor makes a thriller/horror of it, and is not the greatest as a result. 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

Diva in the Netherworld – review

Director: Takafumi Nagamine

Release date: 1980

Contains spoilers

My word, what did I just watch? This has to be up there in the most bizarre of Japanese fantasy films. Vampires, cannibals, werewolves and a (pretty dragon-like) kaiju all make an appearance.

It starts with two women speaking to camera. One of them, who identifies herself as Donald (Kiyose Fujiwara), gives the news that she is to retire from professional wrestling and will concentrate on a pop career. The other woman is called Micki (Yôko Kurita) – so yeah, a Disney reference – and is her partner in the new venture, the pair making up the singers of Idol group The Bloodies.

recording

We see them in a car, with their manager driving. He has arranged a show but out in the countryside – we see a rather fake looking mountain in the distance of the landscape. Suddenly he loses breaks and they are going rather fast, the car flies off the road, lands and he breaks but pops a tyre. As they change the tyre (with Donald lifting the car) a man on a bike approaches. He is the servant in a mansion and his Master would be delighted to host them.

the homeowners

The mansion is Western style and he takes them through the house, the manager getting separated when he stops to phone the venue (and gets the servant who suggests the mansion occupants are rather nice and they should stay the night). The servant opens one door and our view is filled with Hanako, the kaiju. This does not seem out of place and then leads them to the lady of the house (who is the master he referred to).

Donald the vampire

They essentially are getting them to stay to kill and eat as they are cannibals but they don’t have the measure of their impromptu guests. You see Donald is a vampire – known to the others and whenever she vamps out they have a supply of blood to inject her with. As well as this is appears she occasionally snacks on Micki when she is asleep. Also, it’s a full moon that night and the manager is a werewolf – hence when he gets decapitated later, his head remains alive and animate for some time after. As well as getting wolfen when the moon comes from behind clouds, light reflecting on a serving lid causes him to grow an instantaneous beard.

the werewolf

It is entirely mad and please do not expect it to make any sense whatsoever. It runs along with some level of comic book energy, following its own rules but, despite its madcap scheme, it makes less sense in a narrative way than, for instance, House. The repeated song by the Bloodies, which bemoans older generations, is catchy but overused in the short running time. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: All the Girls Love Blood: Kiss of the Devil

This is real DIY filmmaking, with a series of films so micro-budgeted (at least for the first) that, whilst the director Elliot Passantino has an IMDb page, none of the series have IMDb pages.

The first film, All the Girls Love Blood, was a shot to video film from 2004 and was a pretty poor print and a gritty mob story (with lowbrow comedy element) It followed a couple of undercover bent cops as they tried to avoid being killed by the French mob with Internal Affairs at their heels. As far as I can tell not all the film has survived.

Fatima's witchy sisters

In 2023 a sequel of sorts, All The Girls Love Blood: Full Moon Motorpsycho Mafia, was created. The print is tellingly better, especially as they have merged the two films into a feature on the Blu-Ray release. The story expanded with various Mob families, and a biker Neo-Nazi. A key-element of the narrative was a new psychotropic street drug called Christ. So far, no supernatural but at the very end a mob-boss turns into a werewolf and rampages, though it is revealed to be a Christ induced mass hallucination. Feminist mob-boss Fatima dies at the end of part two and that is important…

eating with mom

The 2025, 65-minute feature All the Girls Love Blood: Kiss of the Devil is somewhat more surreal. We get an FBI agent obsessed with a psycho bunny-suited Mr Hoppy – who appears at the end of part two, and he turns out to be a CIA super-soldier experiment, where they programmed several Mr Hoppy units (in the suits to freak out the enemy). We also get the agent’s Irish mom, played in drag and focal point for a lot of the lowbrow humour in this part. There is a bike gang, more mobsters, an undercover hacktivist group called Unicorn Sky (which is a separate project from the director that crosses into this). It turns out that Fatima’s family are witches too.

Fatima awakens

They try to bring Fatima back and fail but, at the end of the film, another mob lady manages to resurrect her – in the name of Lilith and Lamia – and Fatima comes back as a vampire under her control. This leads to her killing a few people (ripping one’s privates off whilst saying that the presence of Lilith in her resurrection was making her horny). This time it isn’t written off as a hallucination but is an actual supernatural event.

warding with a cross

It is, however, not too long an appearance and I am holding this to being a fleeting visitation. Even her death is off screen – killed by a CIA Laser Spectra piece of kit that leaves her as a fanged skull. Nevertheless, it has a vampire and despite the low budget I found myself drawn into the films – and despite looking awful, more so the first film that was a simple mob story, when the horizon broadened and conspiracy entered into the story the narrative felt more muddled.

At time of writing there is no IMDb page.

Guest Blog - Has Ireland become the new Transylvania? - TMtV 20th anniversary

It’s with great pleasure that I welcome Dan Klefstad and Eva Vertrice to the blog. I met them individually through reviewing their books, A Fury by Eva and Fiona’s Guardians by Dan. But as well as authors, Dan and Eva are co-hosts of Vamp Chat with Dan & Eva and they have been as good as to invite me on the podcast not once but twice. Without further ado, here’s their blog.

When you hear the word “vampire” you might envision centuries-old revenants from Romania or other eastern European countries. They might have a Slavic accent similar to Béla Lugosi or perhaps Count von Count of Sesame Street. They might wear a long black cape and have a gentlemanly air about them. But what if this perception was changing? What if modern vampires had an origin story more Celtic than Slavic?

In recent years pop culture brought us Angel, the title character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff which ran from 1999-2004. In 2016, AMC adapted the comic book series Preacher that casted Joseph Gilgun as the vampire Cassidy, best friend of the main character, a pastor with a criminal history. From 2011-2014, the vampire Aidan Waite roomed with a ghost and werewolf in the BBC series Being Human. And then there’s Remmick, the banjo picking, jig dancing vampire from the film Sinners, played brilliantly by Jack O’Connell.

What do these vampires have in common? They all hailed from The Emerald Isle. 

But Ireland is not a new hotspot for vampires. In fact, it has a rich history of undead lore.

The 1870 book, The Origins and History of Irish Names and Places, by Patrick Weston Joyce, introduced 19th Century readers to Abhartach, a chieftain Joyce describes as a “dwarf” who lived in Londonderry:

This dwarf was a magician, and a dreadful tyrant, and after having perpetrated great cruelties on the people he was at last vanquished and slain by a neighbouring chieftain; some say by Fionn Mac Cumhail.

They buried Abhartach in a standing position, but the next day he returned to his haunt. The chieftain who slew him the first time, did so again and buried him as before. Abhartach again rose and terror spread throughout the county. Joyce continues:

The chief then consulted a druid, and according to his directions, he slew the dwarf a third time, and buried him in the same place, with his head downwards; which subdued his magical power, so that he never again appeared on earth. The laght raised over the dwarf is still there, and you may hear the legend with much detail from the natives of the place, one of whom told it to me.

Some modern versions have Abhartach rise from his grave to drink the blood of his subjects {Ed – Abhartach is at the centre of the Irish film the Boys From County Hell}. In Bob Curran’s book, Was Dracula an Irishman?, the chieftain who slays the revenant consults an early Christian saint instead of a druid, and is told that Abhartach is one of the neamh-mairbh, or walking dead, and that he can only be killed with a sword made of yew wood. Then he must be buried upside down with thorns surrounding his grave and a large stone placed on top.

The Dearg Due is another vampiric entity in Irish folklore. Pronounced DAH-ruhg DU-ah, it means “red bloodsucker,” and refers to a female demon that seduces men and drinks their blood.

According to this legend, a beautiful young woman fell in love with a local peasant, which was unacceptable to her father. A greedy man, her father forced her to marry a rich chieftain who imprisoned her and treated her terribly. The only path out of such abuse, she reasoned, was death, so she killed herself and was buried near Strongbow’s Tree in Waterford. On the anniversary of her death, she rose from her grave to seek revenge. She attacked her evil husband first, then her father, sinking her teeth into their necks and draining them dry. Now with an unquenchable thirst for human blood, she continued to prey on young men, enchanting them with her beauty, and luring them to her grave, sparing none.

Dracula author Bram Stoker, an Irishman, would’ve been familiar with these tales. So why did he decide to take his story down a different path instead of relying on this known local lore? Instead, he set much of his story in Transylvania, a place he had never visited. He leaned heavily on Emily Gerard’s 1885 essay, “Transylvanian Superstitions” and its expanded book form, The Land Beyond the Forest to introduce us to Vlad Dracula, aka Vlad III or Vlad Tepes which means “Vlad the Impaler.” Stoker was intrigued with the name “Dracula” which meant “son of Dracul” but also translated to “devil.” Blend these two, “Son of the Devil,” and you have the perfect name for a monster.

Still, there’s no evidence that Stoker based his character on the Wallachian warlord. In her essay, “Filing for Divorce: Count Dracula vs Vlad Tepes,” Professor Elizabeth Miller points out that Stoker’s research notes for Dracula fail to indicate that he had detailed biographical knowledge of Vlad III. Miller adds there’s no current evidence that Stoker had knowledge of Vlad III’s reputation for cruelty, his use of impalement as a punishment, or even his full name. This absence of a direct connection between Count Dracula and Vlad III makes it easier to conclude that the world’s most famous vampire may be more Irish than we thought.

Perhaps Bram Stoker did draw on his Irish roots a bit more than originally believed, and that Count Dracula hailed from a lush, green glade, surrounded by fairies & leprechauns with pots of gold.

Dan Klefstad & Eva Vertrice

Dan & Eva will moderate a panel discussion titled, “Has Ireland become the New Transylvania?” This will take place at The Imaginarium Convention, July 17-19, 2026, at the Holiday Inn Louisville East in Kentucky. They are excited to welcome Dacre Stoker, great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker, to the panel along with several other authors and vampire creatives. For more information visit entertheimaginarium.com or vampchatwithdanandeva.com or reach out to Dan & Eva at vampchatwithdanandeva@gmail.com. It’s going to be an exciting discussion.

Franky and His Pals – review

Director: Jerald Cormier

Release date: 1991

Contains spoilers

We are in straight to video territory here, with a monster mash that generally fails to provide more than the most very basic of plot and relies instead on dubious humour to carry it forward. Nevertheless, with an appearance of Drak (Jerry Cormier Jr.) – Dracula, of course – there is a need to watch, document and review.

the mad scientist

It starts with a mad scientist (director Jerald Cormier under the adjusted name spelling Gerald Cormier) talking to whoever he works for on the phone and explaining that he can’t test the time machine yet. He needs gold to make the inner workings work. He is also distracted by the cleavage of his assistant (I think Kelli Gianettoni whose character is named Blonde Bimbo). After credits (that are designed to be self-effacing) we meet grave diggers Calvin (Russ Lowe) and George (Robert Lowe). As they dig, the legend of the monsters is told.

Jerry Cormier Jr. as Drak

Apparently the Monsters were reputed to have been in the area and became trapped in a cave by a landslide. Cutting to the monsters they are still in the cave and are Drak, Franky (Eric Weathersbee), Wolfie (Wilson Smith), Humpy (Keith Lack) the Hunchback, and the Mummy (Richard Sumner). The Mummy is mute but a midriff level parasite it carries, called Apophis, can speak. They pass their time playing poker. Elsewhere the town council have met and the town is in a bind – they owe over a million in property taxes to the IRS.

grave diggers

Playing poker (with multiple decks it seems), one of the stakes is a map that Humper has, showing the town and an x where a cache of gold is hidden. Drak wants the gold and, following a bean binge, fortuitously Franky’s fart clears the cave entrance. It is night (or so they suggest) and the monsters leave. They have been trapped so long they are astounded when they see horseless carriages. In one of an interminable number of musical interludes we get a “rap” (really not well done) that explains the plot thus far.

bite

Beyond scaring a driver and his date and the grave diggers, the monsters get to a hotel, where the gold is hidden and a Halloween party is going on. Of course this means they fit right in and start looking for the gold, sort of… they do tend to just wander around firing off crudely drawn gags and the base layer of misogyny in the script/gags is not supported by any true layer of sexploitation (the closest we get is a bikini contest) or any underlying funny humour. From a TMtV point of view, Drak at least manages to bite two women, the barmaid (Hester Simonis) and a party goer in Egyptian garb (Pauline Elliott). Both suffer no more ill effects beyond feeling weak and the slight amount of blood seen on one neck is really the only blood seen.

dancing Drak

And weak is what the film is but, the makeup seemed ok (at a distance at least) and there was an underlaying something that kept we watching, morbidly fascinated. The vast majority of the film is focused on the party, the grave diggers are scared occasionally, the town council appears right towards the end and the time machine is almost a coda, lining up a sequel that looks to have never happened. 2.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Gothic Tales of Terror

It seems strange to put an anthology film down as a short but this comes in at just over 37-minutes. It is a series of shorts by Tony Laudati and was released in this format in 2025. We have looked at the short Dracula’s Daughter by Laudati previously and it makes up the first segment of this. The anthology has a sequel to that later as well as a werewolf and a Frankenstein’s monster facing piece. There is also a piece that is made up of stills of three women in cat woman makeup/costumes (as per the film poster with this article) that is worth mentioning as you could read them as cat vampires.

seduction

You can read my write up on Dracula’s Daughter but it was essentially a reimagining of the scene from the Universal feature where a young woman is convinced to pose for cash for the artist who also happens to be a vampire. Dracula’s Daughter 2 sees Lili (now played by Rosa Singerman), the victim in the first part, return to the apartment owned by Countess Marya Zaleska (Ausma Fiame) having picked up a young woman, Chloe (Brooke Gorman), at a club. There is conversation, flirtation and an admission that she and the Countess live together but the Countess is away.

Ausma Fiame as the Countess

The film uses the same focus on bringing a glass of wine and the vampire, for that is all Lili could be, not partaking of it before she gets Chloe to lie on the couch and seduction turns into attack. As she bites the Countess returns early and pulls Lili from her victim, allowing the woman to flee. The Countess does not allow drinking from the living (she has plenty of plasma available) but Lili is quick to point out that she certainly didn’t follow that rule with her. How this is resolved and what happens to Chloe – well you can watch the short to find out – at the time of writing it is available on Fawesome.

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

Honourable Mention: Operation Blood Hunt

This is a 2024 film directed by Louis Mandylor and follows a special ops group pulled together to do a mission during the second world war and, of course there is a supernatural threat, betrayal and such shenanigans. It starts however, with a black and white scene in 1928 with a man (Willy Zogo) who has been injured on the neck and Murphy (Jonathan Rhys Meyers, the Mortal Instruments: City of Bones & Dracula – Season 1). They have a found a box of vials which are shown coloured in the black and white.

Cut forward to 1945 and Murphy runs a bar. A man, Richter (Louis Mandylor), enters and orders meat and booze trying to pay with some form of antiquated coins. He wars a generic black coat with SS symbols on the lapels. Murphy recognises him for what he is and yet still allows a couple of patrons/bouncers to fight with him. Eventually he is about to bite someone, and Murphy suggests if he bites their neck he’ll blow his head off.

stabity stab

Enter the Reverend (Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson) who takes a seat and whiskey. Richter says he knows who he is, and then mentions his father before running at him (there is a blurry effect when the vampire moves fast). Without getting up, the Reverend sticks a sword through the vampire, and then manoeuvres him to a bathroom where he extracts his fangs with pliers. Leaving the bathroom there are two US forces agents (in rather ill-fitting uniforms) waiting for him. They sent the vampire to get his attention – why is never clear – and want the Reverend to do a mission for them, in return they have information they’ll declassify about his father.

Louis Mandylor as Richter

Richter reappears later, whilst the Reverend is on the mission, trying to steal the vials from Murphy, who stakes him – though not through the heart as he wants him to suffer. He ends up letting Richter leave, shoots his leg as he exits the building and allows him to burn in the sun. A black and white flashback shows him with the man – who was the Reverand’s father. The bandage on his neck shows he was bitten by a vampire due to the two points of blood oozing. Murphy gives him a vial of spirit elixir and suggests it’ll hold off transformation for a month. He promises to watch the Reverend’s back as the man leaves, to lose himself out there.

in the sun

And that’s it – a fleeting vampire visitation of a nazi vampire (so coded by the SS badges on a coat that is clearly not a German officer issue) and introduced to give a bit of a muddled backstory around the Reverend, Murphy and the Rev’s missing father (who ended up at the island the mission takes place on, which is home to werewolves and we hear they turned him to try and help with his sickness – that might indicate a werewolf/vampire hybrid but we never see him). A bite turns, staking and sunlight kills, presumably they struggle hunting without fangs (that tends to be the trope when extracted, though it is pretty senseless as, well, knives…). A fleeting visitation.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Thamma – review

Director: Aditya Sarpotdar

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

It is not the first time we have looked at a vehicle using the Indian betaal but this one certainly grounds itself in the Western vampire, whilst distinguishing itself. It is part of a cinematic universe – the Maddock Horror Comedy Universe, which includes films such as Stree and Bhediya. Bhediya is a take on the werewolf genre and we do get a visitation from the film’s lead werewolf in this.

Alexx O'Nell as Alexander

This does work as a standalone, however, and if I have a gripe it is that it is overly long. Nevertheless, it did hold me for its 2-hour 30-minutes run time. It actually starts in 323BC with an army. My thoughts went to a Roman legion until I realised it was Alexander the Great (Alexx O'Nell) and his forces – Alexander did reach India. Later in the film he is described as an Englishman rather than Macedonian (his blood is still bottled, he does not survive) but nonetheless it is his force that hear noises in the forest and his horse refuses to move forward, when a host of betaal, led by Yakshasan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), attack.

finding Alok

Cut forward to modern day and Alok Goyal (Ayushmann Khurrana) is a reporter – we see a TV stunt gone wrong that’ll turn him into a meme. He and two co-workers are camping in the wilderness and he’s told his issue is not using Instagram enough and so he marches off into the forest to take a dramatic photo – and is attacked by a bear (the cgi bear was pretty well done). The two coworkers run the other way and he is chased and, eventually, painfully but not fatally mauled. He manages to get into a hiding place.

Alok and Tadaka

The bear seems to be yanked away and a woman, Tadaka (Rashmika Mandanna), looks into his hiding spot. He passes out and she pulls him away. He awakens in a carcass of a crashed airplane, which serves as her home. She promises him that she’ll take him home, once healed, but he shouldn’t leave her makeshift home. Of course, he does and he is hunted through the forest by three male betaal. He is captured, nearly fed to the imprisoned Yakshasan and rescued again by Tadaka. They get to the outskirts of their territory and Tadaka tells him to jump from the cliff they are on (to a passing truck on the road below) but she can go no further as it is forbidden – she doesn’t take much persuasion to go with him. He gets home to his funeral (the film is an action/horror/comedy and so, given the comedy side, he has to convince his father (Paresh Rawal) that he is really him and that involves a mole on his butt).

the bhediya

The film then follows the couple as he slowly learns what she is, their eventual estrangement, his (near) death and her turning him – this is forbidden and means that Yakshasan can be freed, and she take his place in imprisonment. Yakshasan was imprisoned because he insisted on feeding from humans (another forbidden thing) and wants to take over the world. Throw in an interlude with the bhediya (Varun Dhawan) who needs to drink betaal blood to recover his powers – and a side note about the betaal and bhediya ancient animosity and then a finale against Yakshasan.

ready to drink betaal blood

The backstory of the creatures is that the great demon Rakhtbeej was granted by Shiva the boon that each spilt drop of his blood would spawn another one of him. Losing against him the Gods called on the Goddess (presumably Kali) and she fought him but each hit caused him to multiply and so she created the betaal to drink his blood and save the world. The other lore we get is that sunlight is an issue when newly turned, they are near indestructible, they cannot lie (and vamp face when they do), we see Yakshasan turn into smoke as he teleports, there is an affinity with bats and one betaal can drink another to death (we see Yakshasan do that and a spirit/demon version of him appears at his shoulder when he does so). With regards vampires a distinction between them and betaal is made and yet the 'V' word is used fairly often, as is Dracula, and many genre film tropes are used (accidental fang, for comic effect, for instance). Ultimately the pitching of vampire/betaal against werewolf/bhediya is straight out of the vampire playbook.

getting her vamp on

The film looks really nice and Ayushmann Khurrana balances dashing leading man and comic focal point really well. The cgi was well done and there was a tad of a superhero vide to this as sometimes happens with good guy vampire films. Being an Indian film I was expecting music and dance routines. There are only two dances (three if you count the one in the credits) but they are diegetic. There are other musical moments that include montage scenes and perhaps these dragged a little given the running time. Indeed, the running time gave opportunity to expands the characters – though one might argue they were no more expanded than a shorter running time would have allowed for – but it does feel too long. Nevertheless I rather enjoyed this and found it amusing. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK