Honourable Mention: Monster Carnival: A Comics Anthology

An anthology graphic novel, with a wraparound of the contents being stories told by the monster carnival, this was first published in 2019. It contains several strips by different writers and the one in it that interests us is Noch Zverya both drawn and written by Maegan Cook.

It takes place at the Blood Moon Ball, thrown by Count Vassilkovich and he presents his new bride Anisya with a young man named Thomas, with whom she is to dance – and more than that, as at midnight she will feed from him, her first vampiric meal. Unfortunately, Thomas recognises her as they had been orphans together – though she was not blind then. She wants to warn Thomas, but midnight strikes and her compliance is expected, plus her feed will restore her sight.

It's a very short tale, no more than a fleeting visitation in the volume hence the honourable mention, and, if I’m honest, I didn’t care for the artwork – it just wasn’t a style I responded to. The story comes across as more a character backstory for a wider piece, as this is told from her point of view centuries later, and in that sense it works. It is, however, the sole vampire story in the set. I do have to say my favourite story in the collection was Brandon Whipple’s A Midsummer Tale, which was a refreshingly new take on werewolves with marvellous art.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Aurora

This 2024 short film comes in at 13-minutes and was directed by Rita Osei.

It starts with a back view of Aurora (Djinda Kane), stood on a bridge. The scene cuts to a woman (Melanie Gray) having an emotional response outdoors, sat on the floor. A couple of men watch her, but don’t help. Aurora is passing by and sees it. She goes to help but becomes distressed herself, she starts saying, not in English, that the woman needs help and then that she is just like Aurora.

She switches from helping to having what looks like an anxiety attack when her daughter, Sofia (Ella-Rae Smith), comes along. Aurora ends up biting her own wrist and drinking the blood. This seems to calm her. We see her awaken next to a man, possibly dead, with a bite on his neck and blood at her mouth. She goes to the toilet and vomits. But this is the start of a journey, one that Sofia is struggling to understand…

auto-vampirism

The film sees Aurora in various states, upset, confused and even elated. We see an attack on another man during the running time to highlight the vampirism but, clearly, the film is trying to capture the impact of perimenopause – on her and on Sofia, as a caring observer trying to understand. This isn’t interpretive on the viewers part, Sofia googles perimenopause at one point. The use of vampirism I guess likens the beginning of this hormonal change to Othering the woman from a societal point of view.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Vampire's House of Cain – review

Director: Greg Galloway

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

I don’t actually know if it was budget or script that defeated this film, but defeated it was. The story was fairly simple but managed to muddle itself and that seemed to be through narrative leaps that sort of didn’t make sense.

The film starts at a party in a club – we later discover it is a place called Bliss. In the club women watch men dance and strip. Those men happen to have fangs… Early morning and two women are jogging. One drops back but when she reaches her friend again, the friend is in shock. Looking to where her friend stares she sees a body that appears to be self-immolating.

at the crime scene

Obviously the police arrive, including Detective Mani Reed (Erica Hubbard), and we discover that this is one of several murders where the bodies have been drained and burned (of course we realise that they are victims who turn and die in the sun). Reed questions one of the joggers who, it turns out, vaguely knew the latest victim – she can’t tell her much, only that she liked late night spots.

in the club

Talking with her Captain (Terrence 'T.C.' Carson) she suggests that she has made a connection between victims – all of them had attended a club called the Mist Lounge. The Captain seems concerned around her wellbeing and she does fall asleep outside the club in her car. However, woken, she heads in, flashing her badge and speaks to the barman and is directed to co-owner Hanson (Karon Riley). He speaks to her but is pretty evasive. After she leaves, he calls a meeting.

Diana Lovell as the Matriarch

The meeting is with the matriarch (Diana Lovell) of their vampire clan and she is shocked that there have been obvious vampire attacks. Their way is not to kill and they use a synthetic blood mostly. It doesn’t take too long to hear about the new vampire clan – the House of Cain – operating out of Bliss and soon the two clans are at loggerheads. As for Reed we get a clumsy exposition about her having relationship issues but then she is bitten by one of the House of Cain and saved by Hanson (we discover that vampire bites are pleasurable). He wipes her mind, but it doesn’t work too well (putting her on a hit list but also having her dropped off the case, and forced onto administrative leave as she keeps going vague) and they fall for each other. Eventually the tension between the Houses will lead to a showdown.

fight

So I mentioned narrative leaps and this took the form of things that made little sense, for instance she has her mind wiped and yet sees a conflict between Hanson and one of the House of Cain in a dream, that she wasn’t privy too and the viewer didn’t see outside of the dream-sequence. There might have been an attempt to suggest she and Hanson were psychically linked but, if that was the case, it failed to communicate it well and the filmmakers did practically nothing with it. Worse, it more felt that a chunk of narrative was missing and I got that feeling a couple of times.

dying

As well as being able to wipe minds the vampires become more powerful as they age (the House of Cain kills Hanson’s ‘brother’ by ganging up on him and wearing him down). If you kill a vampire, then all those it created die also. Death sees them breaking down to nothing (unless they are burning to a crisp, of course, as they need to be found by random joggers as a plot point). Some of the performances do feel phoned in but other actors do what they can with a very thin plot. The film is quite short and could have done with the missing narrative and more character building. One wonders whether an apparently low budget caused the narrative woes. Within this there was a decent, if simple, tale waiting to get out and so I think 4 out of 10 is fair.

The imdb page is here.

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.

Short Film: Heist Night

Coming in at around 8-minutes and directed by Angel Alvarez, this 2022 short is simple in plot but does set itself as a prequel to something else.

It starts with a “crew” scoping the home of George Crossley (Angel Alvarez). One of the crew, Mike (Alex Javo), questions why they are there and leader Kevin (Camren Cooley) mentions that Crossley is known to have £5 million in bearer bonds stashed and there is talk of a notebook with the passcode in it. The third crew member, Sam (Curtis J. Goode) is certainly impressed.

the crew

They return at night and move behind the house. Sam breaks the door open, cutting his arm as he does so. Now, of course, a freshly opened wound is always a useful plot device in a vampire film… not so much in a heist movie where Sam would clearly be leaving DNA everywhere and they make no move to bind the wound. They simply go upstairs to look for the notepad.

revealing an inner nature

Unbeknown to them there are people in the house, and they come across Mina (Celeste Blandon) first. Chasing her, they end up in a room with Lucy (Hannah Malone) also. Sam holds Mina with his injured arm round her neck (and her looking a tad interested in it) and demanding the whereabouts of the notebook from Lucy. When she doesn’t answer they get a bit shooty – but could there be more to these girls than meets the eyes? Well, I’m featuring it here so, yeah…

The imdb page is here.

First Impressions: Nosferatu (2024)

What to say about Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu? I have seen both positive and negative commentary before attending a viewing but I have to say I was spellbound by what I deem to be a magnificent film (from a director who has now made four magnificent films in my opinion). This was despite the worry that my expectations were so high that they might have spoiled the film in and of themselves. I also want to really explore the film in-depth and so I intend to avoid too many spoilers in this and, once the extended Blu-Ray is released, look to do a case study review of the film at that time.

In the meantime, the film is sumptuous, Eggers using a muted colour palette to great effect, which he has used before. The performances are all fantastic. Bill Skarsgård (Hemlock Grove) is totally subsumed within the makeup, accent and performance as Orlok. Lily-Rose Depp is brilliant as Ellen, with a performance that frequently brought Isabelle Adjani to mind. Nicholas Hoult’s  (Renfield) Hutter goes through Hell, quite literally, and it is etched on his performance. Indeed there wasn’t a poor performance.

One thing I disliked about some of the modern reinterpretations of Nosferatu have centred on the changes to Hutter - Fisher made him a money obsessed, womanising rake and the Re-Animated version also made money a strong primary driver. In this money does play an important part of his motivation but money is not Hutter’s driver, love is. If he wants money it is so he can provide Ellen with the things she deserves (he specifically mentions a house befitting her), I do recognise that lifting them out of debt is also part of the driver, but the love aspect reaches back to the original Hutter in a way the two examples I have given did not. I'll also mention von Franz (Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire & Daybreakers), who replaces the paracelsian Bulwer of the original (who in turn replaces Van Helsing). Bulwer, as a character, is criticised as ineffectual (especially given Van Helsing's role in the Stoker novel), this iteration walks a line between the two and Dafoe, as always, nails it.

On to the changes to Orlok – and of course, a spoiler alert but not too big a one, I hope – the Orlok design from Murnau is utterly replaced. This is a dead, Romanian nobleman, a literal restless corpse, and Skarsgård oozes menace. Comment has been made (ad nauseum) about the moustache and so this being part of the design shouldn’t be a spoiler now. I have seen complaints – just so we are clear a moustache is original novel accurate. I have seen people suggesting it is a Vlad Ţepeş reference, in my opinion, not so. All depictions of the voivod that I have seen have a straight moustache, this is a drooped moustache, it almost brought the Cossacks to mind. If anything, to me it looked more like Karloff as Gorka in Black Sabbath (not that I am suggesting this was deliberate).

There are, however, very deliberate wider genre nods through the running time. The contact between Ellen and Orlok at the start of the film, and before her relationship with Hutter, which comes in a psychic and perhaps dream contact, is reminiscent (I hope deliberately so) of Carmilla. There is a (cleverly placed) vampire hunt with horse and naked youth that is both a folkloric moment and I would suggest nods to the 1979 Dracula, which also used the technique. It is clear that Eggers steeped himself in many aspects of both Dracula and the wider vampire megatext before creating something that feels uniquely Eggers.

That the film seems to draw enthusiastic praise or ire is probably a mark of the piece. I understand that some have not reacted with the enthusiasm I have. But to me, this is one of the best vampire movies made. It is a film that I intend to watch again in the theatre. I will review, as said at the head of this impression, from the home media.

It would be remiss of me not to mention Kurt Walsh and the Scream and Shake Bar in Blackpool who put on an immersive viewing at Backlot Cinema hosted by horror drag artist Cadaverous Black.

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