Vampire Clown – review

Director: Paul Andrich

Release date: 20225

Contains spoilers

This is a Canadian production and merges the vampire and clown genres, not unheard of but not overdone. It is, however, on a budget and that is telling in some of the filming. Though, I have to say, the photography had a nice solid feel to it, though the lighting did little , unfortunately.

It starts with a car and a woman parking and going to her home. We see the legs of an observer… we see clown pants. She gets in her house, using a keypad, but, after she enters, we see someone following and replicating the code. In the house she hears a toilet flush but it turns out to be her husband, Tom (Todd Picklyk), home early. She leaves him to watch the game but is attacked, he hears her scream and is attacked next.

in Tom's car

Matt (Tyhr Trubiak) is taking the trash out and heading out on his bicycle. He hears a car horn and spots Tom’s car but is shocked to see it being driven by a clown (note sunlight is not an issue in this). He is startled by another neighbour, Pete (Warren Bard), and asks him if he saw Tom just then and wonders why he might be in a clown outfit. It doesn’t seem normal for accountant Tom. Unable to solve the mystery Matt cycles to see his therapist.

Tyhr Trubiak as Matt

Matt seems ok with his life but is worried that he has underachieved and whether this could be an issue for his girlfriend Sarah (Amy Couldwell). However, there is a vampire clown in town and the next to be got by it are Pete and his wife Karen (Debra Ross) and it is Matt who finds them (when he goes to drop a parcel off). He is somewhat disturbed by the cockamamie theory the cops (Allan Turner & Paul O'Donnell) come up with and perturbed that they don’t take their face masks off – Matt wonders if there is a new pandemic he’s not heard of. Of course, they wear masks as they’ve been turned and they’re hiding the perma-fangs.

feeding proboscis

Matt begins to believe there is a conspiracy but can’t work out exactly what – and to make matters worse Sarah’s ex-boyfriend Kevin (Joshua Sarna) has just got out of jail and is back in town. However, as the film goes on it is only really Kevin who believes him. Indeed, Matt is concentrating on the clown, but it is Kevin who works out vampires are involved. So, vampire victims are either dead, turned or turned into a more unaware zombie-like variant. The clown vampire has some form of tube or proboscis it feeds through but we only see a small detail of it and not where it emerges from (due, I assume, to budget). Other standard lore either doesn’t work or the jury is out.

fangs

And budget is the issue overall… also there wasn’t the lighting to offer as much atmosphere that would have worked in the films favour – it all seems the lighting on offer at the location. The fangs are all a tad fake looking, the blood is sparse and attacks are off screen or detail lite. That said the primaries are good, especially Trubiak, who projects likable well. The reason for the clown outfit is never offered (there are a couple of bandied around theories) and essentially this is a “take over the town” scenario. This was, however, watchable 4 out of 10 seems fair.

The imdb page is here.

First Impression: Various Vampires at Grimmfest 2025

I have just got back from Grimmfest 2025 and have set to writing up my first impressions of the vampire and vampire adjacent films I saw over a great festival weekend. However, firstly, a shout out to the festival organisers and volunteers who make it such a great event year after year. A shout out to Hellbound Media, particularly Mark Adams for the chat, and also to Catherine Green who was at the festival on the Saturday. I will, of course, offer full thoughts when the films become available for home viewing.

The first film I want to offer an impression of was Landlord, which was the most traditionally vampire-genre film of those I intend to cover.

Directed and written by Remington Smith, the film follows an unnamed bounty hunter (Adama Abramson) and one of the strengths of the film was in the great characterisation with this unnamed protagonist. She arrives at an apartment complex on foot and rents a room for a week, no questions asked. She is there tracking down someone, or more accurately a briefcase he carries, but soon notices strange things.

Investigating, what sounds like, a domestic disturbance she is blocked by manager Christopher (Lance Gerard), who seems in cahoots with the local sheriff (J. Barrett Cooper), and the next day follows the manager as he removes the apartment contents and takes them to a farmstead owned by the Lawrence family. She discovers that the residents of the apartment have been dismembered and are being fed to the pigs.

Alex and the Bounty Hunter

Back at the apartment complex she discovers that the apartment with young resident Alex (Cohen Cooper) has been targeted. She enters, too late to save Alex’s mother but intervening in an attack on Alex himself. It is, of course, a vampire attack. The conceit of this being, as listed by Grimmfest, “If vampires can’t come into your home without being invited in, what would happen if they owned your housing?” The vampire, John Lawrence (William McKinney), owns the apartment complex and many residents are transient in the slum housing, easy to disappear. There is a commentary here about the landlord class as vampiric.

bitten

The bounty hunter and Alex become loose ends to tie up, of course. A nice touch came about in her not even recognising what the vampire is - despite getting up from a head shot and biting her neck, Alex is the observant one, though their knowledge of lore is limited. I liked the grittiness of this and, as mentioned, the characterisation that was built around the bounty hunter. If I had a criticism, it would be in the lighting, as I felt that the night scenes were overly dark – though that might be a screening issue rather than a production issue. The imdb page is here.

The next film to mention is Spanish offering Lily’s Ritual, directed by Manu Herrera. Possibly best described as “vampire adjacent” it starts off as a witchcraft film with three witches, Lola (Patricia Peñalver), Leo (Elena Gallardo) and Laura (Eve Ryan) taking Lily (Maggie García) out into the countryside for initiation into witchcraft as their fourth – which, of course, has overtones of the Craft. Unlike that, however, which had a power corrupts theme, these witches already had a darker purpose in mind.

Lilith

Rather than initiation, Lily was to be used as a centrepiece for a dedication to Lilith – this could be a spoiler except it is listed in the film’s blurb. As to whether they will succeed and whether Lily can survive – well that is a spoiler too far. However, I will say that this was probably my favourite film of the festival and, of course, the use of Lilith makes it of genre interest. The imdb page is here.

The third film to mention is Jake Myers’s Kombucha. I did not go into this expecting a vampire element, although the film does aim at the vampiric nature of corporations. It follows Luke (Terrence Carey) a struggling musician who is tempted – due to pressure from girlfriend Elyse (Paige Bourne) and a recommendation from ex-bandmate Andy (Jesse Kendall) – into signing up to a corporate job. The corporation, Symbio, is more than a little cult-like and forces everyone to drink a specific kombucha.

As Luke starts to change, Elyse meets the mother (Charin Alvarez) of a previous employee (Magdalena Conway) who believes that the corporation is made up of vampires – and it is that belief in vampires that puts this firmly on the radar, as well as the use of a tropes such as blood in the kombucha and the efficacy of garlic as a weapon to combat the sentient scoby at the heart of the film. A genuinely funny side-swipe at corporate mentality. The imdb page is here.

The final film to mention is Sergio Pinheiro’s Wormtown. This very much uses tropes and the Grimmfest synopsis suggested it had “just a pinch of classic vampire lore and a sly tip of the hat to Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND.” Set in a town where the vast majority of inhabitants are infected by worms, which have infiltrated their entire system, with a large “heart worm” that feeds on their blood and “brain worms” that alter their minds, the worms that burrow and infect are reminiscent of the blood worms in the Strain.

caught in the sun

The worms are impacted by loud sounds, modern signals (such as Bluetooth) and bright light. This is one of our tropes as being caught in the sun is deadly, with the worms quickly turning on their host. The similes with I am Legend mentioned are there and, more so, I felt a homage to the Omega Man in the scarring of infected flesh, the retreat from technology (although not as radical), and the cult-like behaviours. I also felt it tonally had a bit of a feel of Stake Land and I did really enjoy this one. The imdb page is here.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man By Cody Ziglar Vol. 5: Blood Hunt – review

Writer: Cody Ziglar and Danny Lore (Night Shift section)

Artist: Various

First published: 2025 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Collects Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022) #21-24 and #26 and material from #25 and Annual (2024) #1.

BLOOD HUNT transforms Miles Morales' world! Endless hordes of bloodsucking vampires ravage Earth beneath the pitch-black skies of the planet's last night! Vampire-slayer Blade has a plan, and his only hope for victory rests with Miles Morales! But Blade's mission comes with a cost - one Spider-Man may be unwilling to pay. And Miles' biggest ally is about to become his worst nightmare! With uncanny new abilities, Miles faces a desperate battle to find an answer to his latest problem - with his family at greater risk than ever before! But when the Vulture swoops in just as Miles is at his most desperate, the one to suffer may just be the person they both love! Plus: A family vacation to Puerto Rico introduces Miles to relatives with huge secrets!

The review: A graphic from the Blood Hunt event this was a strange one, in that the opening story – with the team up against energy vampire R'ym'r and flashbacks to Spider-Man being turned by Blade have already been added into the Amazing Spider-Man graphic novel and therefore are superfluous and a double up. Then there is a short from the Annual (2024), Night Shift, that adds very little. The final line of the blurb about a family vacation is not accurate to this graphic either and seems to have been accidentally tagged onto the blurb.

All that is disappointing, however the lion share of this is following vampire Spider-Man trying to come to terms with the vampirism, being held in check (sort of) by Morales’ venom power, and despite himself becoming more violent. He visits girlfriend Tiana Toomes, aka Sparrow, at exactly the wrong time as she is visited by her estranged Grandfather, Vulture, who blames Spider-Man for their rift. This leads to a battle, with Spider-Man barely able to maintain control, and then a visit from T'Challa (Black Panther) – who managed to purge himself of vampirism – and a whole new suit (with vibranium weave and vibranium laced webbing). Of course Vulture was down but not out.

This second part was cracking, exploring power and responsibility in a different way but, of course, that is a main plank of the Spider-Man premise. It was also great as it is firmly post-event but showing an ongoing impact (on Morales). The story doesn’t end here as Morales and T’Challa must travel to Wakanda to try and cure the vampirism. However, as much as I enjoyed the latter part of the graphic, and it buoys the score, the lazy repeat at the beginning doesn’t go unnoticed. 6 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: To Your Dying Night

Described as an experimental short film on the production company’s YouTube page, this James Mentzinger directed film was over 9-minutes and uploaded to YouTube in 2019.

Built from memories held by (and moments surrounding) the main character, vampire Mira (Ursula Lopez-Palm), it starts with her and boyfriend Jordan (Mack Velle) in a car at night. We see various moments, non-chronologically, these includes moments in a group support session and also a man talking about pest control – a moment surrounding her as it is unlikely she witnessed that.

"Pest control"

"Pest control" amounts to home invasion and Jordan being shot through the back with a stake fired from a crossbow. Mira deals with the invaders more easily than she deals with the loss. The film gives a narrative with little dialogue and also lets us know some lore through moments on screen. Obvious moments such as showing wings appearing, but also we learn that one bite will turn as she bites one of the attackers but then breaks his neck, a common trope.

Ursula Lopez-Palm as Mira

Another moment is when we see a memory of her and Jordan playfully messing before a mirror, when the camera looks at the mirror she is not reflected but he is. Obviously this tells us that vampires cast no reflection but also that he was not a vampire. The ending offers us a suggestion about both lore and her next planned action also, but I’m not going to spoil it.

At the time of writing I couldn’t find an IMDb page.

The Night is Young – review

Director: Patrick Rea

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Patrick Rae, who was behind the interesting indie werewolf film “I am Lisa”, turns his attention to vampires and we are in the world of influencers – or content creators as main character Nora (Sarah McGuire) describes herself. This is an interesting world to dip into and I look at it, in part, in my chapter They Have Changed Their Faces, part of the volume Toxic Nostalgia on Screen.

hunter's base

After an intertitle telling us we are in Kansas, we see a hooded woman at a map, vampire hunting gear and the hunters going out on the prowl. This is being filmed by another (unnamed) content creator and late in the film we discover he found the hunters on Reddit. However, after that, the film moves back several hours to Nora and her re-doing an intro that explains why she hasn’t done much content recently.

Jake and Nora

Her content is filmed by her brother, Jake (Jake Jackson), and consists of her going on dates and looking for love, under the title Nora’s Infinite Gaylist. Nora is a lesbian and we see some of the latest dates, one with Bianca (Nicole Hall) who, it turns out, is married to a man (who then turns up on the date), another where the date suggests moving in (on the first date) and then about one that went well and they dated for two weeks until she ghosted Nora. She is due to go out on another date.

meeting

She gets to the bar, but her date is not there (we notice that another woman at the bar, Amelia (Valeri Bates), keeps looking over to her). Eventually they decide that Nora has been stood up, but she is approached by Amelia, who offers to buy her a drink. They hit it off. Eventually Amelia is walking Nora to her car when a man grabs Nora intent on mugging her (the fact that this is being filmed by Jake begs a question around criminals, content creators and constant filming, which isn’t for here but struck me as I watched). Amelia growls, Nora is thrown against a door and knocked out and Amelia bears fangs and attacks the mugger.

blood at mouth

In a strange room, Nora comes round. Jake says they were brought there by Amelia and shows Nora the footage. They move to leave the apartment and find a box with several passports and some photos including an old one of a woman who looks like Nora (later we discover she was Amelia’s maker, there isn’t any discussion on reincarnation and the film relies on the viewer knowing the trope). They continue to leave but Amelia is in front of the door, her mouth still bloodstained. She says she isn’t going to hurt them and they talk for a while but then Amelia senses the hunters (they found her bag, left on the scene) and they leave but Amelia is injured by a holy water projectile…

staked vampire

The rest of the film follows them through the night. The hunters are specifically after Amelia as she is an ancestor of theirs (why, beyond this, is never really communicated) and this is the issue with the film. The narrative is often shorthanded. Why would a pair of vampires betray her? Because the hunters have promised them amnesty for cooperation – we get that much but the emotional impact is low as the connection between them and Amelia is not explored. Why Jake and Nora do not just walk away is not explored. This doesn’t make it bad (and is kind of necessary due to the found footage style) but stops a deeper exploration by the viewer and makes it susceptible to notwithstanding study. As a single, found footage style watch, its ok. It will probably not withstand multiple watches. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Blood Pay – review

Director: Brace Beltempo

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Vampiric Machines are a lesser used vampire trope and, this has both a physical machine and the AI driving it.

It is set in a dystopia where AIs are taking human jobs and we get some news scenes outlining the background. Without this, the viewer would find it being dystopia a little less easy to spot, set as it is in a nice apartment and on a beautifully sunny coastline.

The apartment belongs to John (Gianluca Busani) and though he is successful (in real estate it seems) he is depressed. We first see him waking and then going for a walk. An old friend (possibly ex) approached him. Hilarie (Marta D'Ambrosio) has moved back into the area after a co-worker went missing and she was asked by the employer to return. She also has bought John a birthday present, he is about to turn 40, and makes it clear she wants more. She picks up on his down mood and he admits depression and that he is getting therapy. When he leaves her, he throws away the present.

Gianluca Busani as John

That he was pre-chosen for what happens could be suggested by him suffering sleep paralysis and seeing a woman crawl over him. Beyond this, we do get the impression that he is a lady’s man – sleeping with a client’s wife, previous liaisons with a woman who runs his gym, etc. He also feels suicidal (though he can’t go through with it). He sees an advert for the Blood Pay system and decides to buy it – missing the part of the advert where the owner kills himself with a remote control.

set up

He has to meet out in the dessert to take possession of the system (from a couple of thugs, one masked) and meets Eva (Maria Vittoria Varoli and voiced by Barbara Sirotti) when he sets it up. There is a control box that opens and contains an organic looking vagina and, once it is set up, to access many of the services – such as extreme pornography and snuff – he has to jack a needle into his arm and pay in blood – which goes into the box. Eventually Eva tells him he needs to pay the next subscription but the price is up and he ends up having to kill three people for their blood…

giving payment

And this is part of the problem. This escalated quickly, way too quickly. The kills could have been spread out to offer more tension. The system records dreams and we see one of his and it is neatly weird but it absolutely shies from showing any of the services he is paying for. There is a line between what a film should show or leave to the viewer's imagination, this edged its bet so much that you see very little – even the kills (bar the last) are pretty tamely done.

Maria Vittoria Varoli as Eva

What the AI is up to is partly answered – she is bored and has eternity, However what she does with the blood and why she needs it isn’t answered but there is a commercial aspect revealed in an end credit sequence. It isn’t a spoiler to the main story and we see a Blood Pay establishment and a man go in and use an ATM – where you can deposit and withdraw blood. The man has black circled eyes and looks either tired, a junky or dead (a vampire perhaps?) and it wasn’t clear if he withdrew or deposited.

in a virtual world

This could have been really good, but it pulled some punches and escalated too quickly to build the tension. It might have revealed much more about the world they have created and what the AI wants the blood for, but more may eventually be revealed as it has a “to be continued…” Nevertheless, a vampiric AI is worth the entry fee. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Blood Hunters: Mean Streets – review

Author: Erica Schultz

Illustrator: Robert Gill

First Published: 2025 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Spinning out of the blockbuster event BLOOD HUNT, a new team rises to fight the vampire threat! Dagger! Elsa Bloodstone! White Widow! Hallows' Eve! Together, they're taking to the streets to clean up the aftermath of BLOOD HUNT - namely, hunting down the remaining vampires who threaten to spill innocent blood! And their targets include the deadly super vamps of the Bloodcoven! But when Miles Morales, A.K.A. Spider-Man, gets caught in the crosshairs... need we say it?! There will be blood! Because as far as Elsa is concerned, all vampires deserve to be dusted. But her new teammates disagree - violently! Collecting: Blood Hunters (2024) 1-5

The review: Coming after the events of the Blood Hunt we met the prototype of the Blood Hunter team up during the event in the form of Blood Hunters: Once More into Darkness where the team played a small part in the whole volume. In this volume they are the sole focus (plus Miles Morales' Spider-Man, though he is interacting with them) and they are hunting down vampires still active after the event.

All is not harmonious, however. Dagger has discovered that she can cure vampirism through her powers and wants vampires captured so she can save them. Elsa Bloodstone, however, has no such desire and simply wants to kill vampires, arguing that Dagger’s powers are sporadic and turning the vampire back is not guaranteed. There is a further wrinkle when one cured person is resentful and liked being a vampire.

Unfortunately, they hit the radar of the Bloodcoven, all high-powered vampires who, at the start of the Blood Hunt event were the force who managed to take down the Avengers, incapacitating several heroes. They have become enamoured of super-hero blood, and the powers it contains, and this street level team look ripe for taking…

This is primarily a combat orientated comic. There is some moral ambiguity – cure or kill, do vampires want a cure, and can vampires (Spider-Man) be good – and a thread of inter-team bickering, but it is mostly action. It is, of course, nice to see some level of aftermath following the event. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK