Mary from the Prayer Ward – review

Director: Andrew Neighill

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

I’m not altogether sure about the phrase Prayer Ward, and a google didn’t help, but this is a modern set film that reaches into a Western mentality. This is no more apparent than in the music, whilst some of the soundtrack clearly reaches into a religious theme, it feels like saloon music.

It starts, however, with Dana (Kacy Wheeler), in bed and sobbing. We discover later it is the anniversary of her brother Clay’s death, when he was a child. A death she blames herself over it seems. She thinks she hears movement and looks round the house and then spots a figure outside. She goes out and it seems like someone is speaking to her – though it is only her side of the conversation we hear. She wants Clay and will do anything to see him again and surrenders to the presence, which possesses her. She spits out her teeth, replaced with a browned set.

Mary (Mandy Jones) wakes, a bourbon by the bed. Her routine in the morning sees her donning a dog collar (later it is suggested she has wanted to be a nun, though the dog collar suggests a reverend or vicar – at one point she is referred to with the honorific Sister), hat and boots, and strapping a pistol and sawn-off to herself. She gets (very basic) food ready probably for Uncle Hughes (Glenn Polk) – again it wasn’t clear if she lived with her blind uncle or if their houses were adjacent. She set off to do her rounds,

Mary on patrol

People will leave notes and money in her letterbox, for her help with the supernatural. This day, however, she comes across a young lad chased by… well I wasn’t sure during the scene, it was later referred to as a galdern (Shawn Fulkerson), but it was apparently some kind of Lycan (which had become resistant to silver). In truth, it just seemed to be some dude chasing him. Mary shoots him, but the body vanishes as she checks on the lad and then, eventually, she shoots him several times and chops him up.

cops

Elsewhere, Local Sheriff, Chief Peaks (Andrew Neighill), and his deputy, Mitchel (Michael Williams), are at the scene of a murder, where the heart and kidneys of the victim have been surgically removed. Then we have Father Reggie (Chip Polk), who visits a parishioner. He finds the man stupefied, repeating a phrase he has heard before and with puncture wounds on the neck. Realising what has happened he goes to the kitchen, cuts up garlic, mixes it in oil and uses it in a turkey baster, forcing it down the throat of the turning vampire and causing him to expire.

Christopher Thom Smith as Velkir

Reggie goes to Mary – though there is no love lost after he kicked her out of the orphanage for making up stories about vampires. In truth, her parents, along with Uncle Hughes, were monster hunters and had wiped out almost all the vampires when Velkir the Butcher (Christopher Thom Smith) came for them and murdered them. Mary fought him off, using a rosary, believed him dead and now, it is clear, he’s back. So we have the vampires in league with Dana, who is possessed by the spirit of a cult leader whose intent is to summon Hecate. Though there is actually little love lost between the cult and the vampires.

possession

So the story was fairly interesting, a tad convoluted but missed some key exposition in places. The worst thing about the film was that lighting is, apparently, something that happens to other people. It left the photography dim, at best. I need to mention the cultists (who really only appear in the finale), whose weapon of choice seems to be a blowgun and who are about as accurate as a Star Wars Stormtrooper. It did lead to a sound effect that was almost a novelty bird call. Some of the cultists appear to have been turned, but without prior explanation that I noticed, and there is a smattering of CGI effects that feel false.

puncture wounds

It’s a shame, because there was a good character in Mary – I should mention the holy spit (rather than holy water) where she spits on a weapon, blesses the spit and it proves effective. Other characters, such as Velkir are way too under-explored. The filmmaking seems earnest but the faults are off putting, most problematic being the lighting/photography. As such I can’t offer this more than 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: AI: Crushing a Female Vampires Heart

out of the dark

I’ve had another couple of contacts from Adijyx with  details of AI generated films they have created, and I have decided to share this one with y’all. I mentioned last time that the creation process they have described feels much more involved than simply hitting an AI with a prompt and this one looks really good.

seduction

Following a hunter who disturbs a female vampire, is stalked, seduced, stakes her and finally pulls her heart out. This is worth a look – though NSFW due to some nudity. The debate around AI will rage on, of course, but I was really impressed with the visuals with this one, indeed this is better looking than some studio cgi. You can watch it over at DeviantArt or Vimeo.

Short Film: 100 Bodies

This 19-minute short film from 2020 was directed by Felicia Rivers and feels more like a proof of concept for a longer piece than a standalone short.

It starts with a woman hanging round a corridor, the man she was waiting for comes out and they start to flirt, when her two brothers approach. She stabs the man and they steal his phone and cash. However, this was no simple robbery with murder – the siblings are on a killing spree, looking to get a total of 100 bodies.

Abraham and his wife

Meanwhile three ladies get ready for a costume party and, elsewhere, Abraham (Will Love) and his wife walk their dog. They are approached by a sycophant who is preparing for “the sacrifice” – the couple have fangs. The vampires (with several others) descend on the house party (with a $5 cover) as do the killers…

vampires

We don’t get a tremendous amount of lore – the vampires cast no reflection and can cause mortals to go into a stupor. What the sacrifice is for, is not revealed. Why the siblings are trying to amass 100 Bodies is equally as obfuscated. I am sure that this would be revealed if the filmmakers ever do a feature version.

The imdb page is here.

Patience: Vampire – review

Director: Maarten Moerkerke

First Aired: 2026

Contains spoilers

I think it true to say that, generally, vampires get everywhere and so it wasn’t a shock when Ian contacted me to say that the first season 2 episode of crime drama Patience was entitled Vampire. I was unaware of the show but quickly found out that it is a crime drama, set in York, where the main character Patience (Ella Maisy Purvis) is an autistic woman, working in criminal records, but embroiled in police cases as the detective inspector has discovered how sharp her investigative mind is. I later discovered that this is a remake of a French series, Astrid et Raphaëlle, which is in its sixth season (at time of posting).

Ella Maisy Purvis as Patience

Being unaware of the series, coming in cold as it were, can make it difficult as you are unaware of some of the goings on, the character traits and interactions etc. It is just the hope that the vampire tale is strong enough to carry a genre interest – unfortunately the vampire aspect was not played on as much as it might. It was, I discovered, a time of flux for main character Patience as the DI who drew her in has moved on and the new DI, Frankie Monroe (Jessica Hynes), doesn’t understand why a non-copper is in her meetings and has even less knowledge and understanding of autism.

moody shots of York 

The episode starts with moody shots of York – a perfect setting for Gothic Horror that isn’t exploited really – and then we see a woman, Marina Murray (Jeany Spark) – obviously a riff on Mina Murray – enter a dimly lit photography exhibition. She is looking for artist Jonathan Starper (Julian De Backer) – again a riff, this time on Jonathan Harker – and finds him, with a wooden stake through the chest. She screams.

bites?

When the police are at the crime scene it begins to look like he has been drained of blood and Patience spots the two incisions in his neck – as an aside, these seem to be there and not be there in different shots, I can’t make my mind up whether it was an unfortunate angle thing or just poor continuity. There is commentary around this point around needing garlic. Later the medical examiner ascertains that the wounds were created posthumously and that the blood (which is completely drained) was taken through ankle incisions as he was strung up. It is also discovered that he was blood type Rh-null – the incredibly rare, so-called Golden Blood. This then directs the investigation and there is no further mention of vampires. We do get Patience carrying and returning to the library a copy of Dracula and a medical company, where blood is procured for a sickle cell patient, called Helsing. When the case is cracked, they don’t even return to the posthumous fang marks.

staked

And that is disappointing. There are plenty of vampire related episodes of shows set in the real world that exploit a willingness to believe in vampires – this did not. The vampiric aspect is window dressing and flimsy at that. I actually did enjoy the depiction of Patience, an altercation with a motor bike (its presence unnoticed until a near miss partly because of her noise cancelling headphones) and the nicely done panic attack, showed an insight to autistic reaction. I loved the neurodivergent self-help group we briefly see as they try and navigate a neurotypical world. But the vampire aspect left me disappointed (and that’s impacting the score as I am looking at it from a vampire genre point of view). This is based on a season 3 episode of Astrid et Raphaëlle, which I intend to watch to compare and contrast. 4 out of 10 reflects a lack lustre use of vampires within an otherwise interesting episode.

The imdb page is here.

The Vampire Inspector – review

Director: Yûichi Harada

Release date: 1982

contains spoilers

Made for TV, this Japanese film has a really interesting premise that gets bogged down in a period Samurai story, which features little in the way of gore or horror and way too much melodrama.

It starts with a Christian shrine and Tokugawa Shogunate agents attacking the Christians. This is representative of the Shimabara Rebellion, an uprising of Japanese Christians against the Shogunate between 1637 and 1638. The Rebellion led to the slaughter of around 37,000 rebels. In this sequence we hear rebel leader Amakusa Shirō speak of a demon in his dreams, selling his soul to the devil and having to go back to the land of the living.

Inspector Shiranui

A ship is wrecked at sea and two men, a samurai named Akenosuke Kito and an engineer named Jirokichi survived, clinging to a piece of wood. They wash up on an island described in the narration as deserted and see some sort of atmospheric light effect over the ocean. They are approached by a woman who leads them to a house where a further woman is. There is also a large dog – which is later apparently meant to be a wolf but they use a Doberman – and inside a man who calls himself Inspector Shiranui, after the island.

drained

The men are perplexed that Shiranui seems to know their names and more so when he suggests he is 160 years old. He asks about the Shogunate and Akenosuke admits that it is corrupt. Whilst they are entertained, Jirokichi momentarily sees one of the women’s hands seem to become skeletal. Once they go to sleep the women approach the Samurai and, binding him in magical ribbon, go to bite him as they are, of course, vampires. However the engineer awakes, sees them and runs and so they pursue him. In the morning Akenosuke finds the building derelict and Jirokichi dead with fang marks.

vampire concubine

The Inspector is actually Amakusa Shirō and we discover that, when his rebellion failed, he sold his soul to the devil and has slept 160 years to awaken and avenge himself on the Shogunate. We also discover that, when he was alive, his love committed suicide and get a reincarnated love aspect – though rather than it being the Shogun’s wife (as one might expect) it is the maid of the wife – who is also Akenosuke’s lover and believes him to be dead in the shipwreck. Nevertheless, the vampire has a job to do, and he turns concubines and palace drug dealers to attack others and essentially strikes at the heart of the palace corruption.

using the cross

Luckily, a local doctor has an old Dutch book that explains vampires. Common in the West they are fairly unknown in the East – the inference being that it is Christianity that has allowed them to come to Japan but it is also Christian iconography that can destroy them. The Shogunate has made Christian symbolism illegal, but the Doctor, very luckily, has a crucifix. He also knows that garlic flowers will repel them. Apparently, a sword will also kill them just fine.

vampire women with the 'wolf'

So I liked the merging of the Western vampire in an Eastern setting and the use of Christianity as both cause and cure almost. There is very little to no gore and the Samurai drama aspect was pedestrian (the narration in parts did not help). Probably the worst aspect of this was the melodrama (surrounding love, memory and heralded by the most god-awfully overemotional soundtrack moments). A mixed bag, certainly. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Blood on Her Tongue – review

Author: Johanna van Veen

First published: 2025

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: "I'm in your blood, and you are in mine…"

The Netherlands, 1887. Lucy's twin sister Sarah is unwell. She refuses to eat, mumbles nonsensically, and is increasingly obsessed with a centuries-old corpse recently discovered on her husband's grand estate.

The doctor has diagnosed her with temporary insanity caused by a fever of the brain. To protect her twin from a terrible fate in a lunatic asylum, Lucy must unravel the mystery surrounding her sister's condition, but it's clear her twin is hiding something. Then again, Lucy is harbouring secrets of her own, too.

Then, the worst happens. Sarah's behaviour takes a turn for the strange. She becomes angry…and hungry.

Lucy soon comes to suspect that something is trying to possess her beloved sister. Or is it madness? As Sarah changes before her very eyes, Lucy must reckon with the dark, monstrous truth – or risk losing her forever.

A haunting gothic tale for fans of all things supernatural, Blood on Her Tongue is refreshingly biting and unashamedly chilling, taking its place as a horror story for the ages.

The review: This novel by Johanna van Veen is, first and foremost, a masterclass in Gothic literature. Whether the theme was vampirism or not, the prose, describing events out by Dutch peat fields, drips with a heavy atmosphere, the novel conjuring the thick black waters of the bog. Told from the point of view of identical twin Lucy, the book contains a Byronic character in the form of Sarah’s husband Michael, with overtones of Heathcliffe in his character. It is a novel where the overtures of madness, and fear of being mislabelled an hysteric, haunt the primary female characters. It also has a vampire.

And yet, what a vampire… though it is a spoiler, I trust not too much, that the vampirism comes from a bog woman, found with brick in mouth and stakes pining her to her boggy grave. Yet, as we discover more we discover that it is not the outer body but an intelligent, sentient parasite, dependent on human blood and flesh, which eats at the host’s brain assimilating thoughts, memories and personality. From the blurb you’ll be able to tell that it is Lucy’s twin, Sarah, who becomes infected but Lucy, as close as she is to her sibling, struggles to see where the human ends and the parasite begins. Weak and starved, after enforced hibernation, we discover that the parasite can, when recovered, heal the host and prolong the physical lifetime of the body. A starved parasite can eat a whole victim, and quickly, which includes bones as well as flesh. However, it is not drawn as physically overpowered, which was a nice touch. The parasite is a separate species but there are overtones of vampiric possession.

The book does have a queer aspect, which doesn’t reveal until late in the narrative, and explores themes of betrayal and secrets within the Gothic wrapper. This was a fabulous discovery, and I really did enjoy it. 8.5 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Nosfera2

Directed by Joey Daniel and Jordan Harker, this 2013 short film is under 8-minutes long and features a classic looking Nosferatu (Jordan Harker), credited as such in the film rather than Orlok. It is certainly aimed towards comedy but also added in a little bitter sweet aspect.

It starts in a tree house and Nathan (Nathan Lesser) is using a telescope as his two friends (Jt Budge and William Handley) mess around. One reads a monster magazine whilst the other throws darts at a dartboard that has pictures of Edward and Jacob from Twilight and Stephenie Meyer stuck to it.

Nathan Lesser as Nathan

Nathan spots a figure rummaging in bins, it’s Nosferatu. He tells the guys and they ask whether the vampire spotted him. Looking through the telescope once more the vampire growls and glowers at the observer and then turns into a (particularly crap) bat. That night the shadow of the bat is seen at Nathan’s house, a window opens and the vampire materialises and comes towards the sleeping youth…

Jordan Harker as Nosferatu

Nathan strikes with a stake but there is a dull thud. Nosferatu points out that he isn’t stupid, revealing a hunk of metal hung from a chain, protecting his heart. Nathan was concerned that the vampire had come to drink him but he claims he was not, that he tried it once and didn’t like it. When asked what he wants then, he replies that he wants pity and help. Help, Nathan concludes, to fit in…

shopping trip

This is where we then get a montage pitched to comedy, including sun bathing, shopping, a trip to the dentist and getting a hot dog. But, as a vampire, fitting in is not so easy… Where the bat is deliberately rubbish, the Nosferatu makeup is really well done for this. As I said at the head of the blog there is a bitter-sweet aspect to the ending, which I won’t spoil.

The imdb page is here.