Blood Bitch Baby – review

Director: Donald Farmer

Release date: 2025*
*The Blu-Ray box and actual film suggest 2025, but there is no IMDb page at time of writing

Contains spoilers


Ah, Donald Farmer, with at least 41 directorial credits to his name, mostly within the low budget horror arena, his films have featured here at TMtV several times and I have to admit they haven’t scored very well when reviewed.

Jessa Jupiter Flux as Bathory

This film gets on here by dint of the primary character being Elizabeth Bathory (Jessa Jupiter Flux, Debbie Does Demons & OnlyFangs). Indeed the film begins with Elizabeth speaking to camera, not revealing her identity as such but offering Bathory’s background. As it turns out she made a deal with the devil that she could maintain youth and immortality on the proviso she find a vessel for the gestation of the devil’s child.

waking from a dream

It starts proper with a woman going down a dark street, afraid, kidnapped, vampirically terrorised... and then Jenny (Angel Nichole Bradford, also Debbie Does Demons) wakes as though this was her disturbing dream. She goes to the bathroom and we see bruising on her waist, put there we assume by abusive boyfriend Kevin (Joe Casterline). We see first-hand the abuse; she has a job interview but all he wants is for her to bring him *his* money.

fangs

The interview is with Elizabeth, looking for a caregiver for her sister Sarah (Jesse Seitz) who needs tying down before nightfall and is violently insane. Freaked when she meets her, Jenny runs to her car but is accosted by a strange man whose actions cause her to faint as Elizabeth approaches, all fangs, and rips his throat out (he seems to turn into an aged corpse when he dies). Jenny awakens in a basement as Elizabeth conducts a ritual to make her the ideal host for impregnation by the devil. Her memory is wiped but she has changed – extracting and eating Kevin’s eye when he threatens her.

meeting Iris

The police have a serial killer on their hands, though local professor Keller (Claude D. Miles) believes it is an occult case. Jenny goers to a diner and meets Iris (Mel Heflin, Queen Dracula Sucks Again), a mooch who ends up getting her away from Keller, who has spotted the blood painted sigil on her chest, and ends up in bed with her. But the devil is due to visit and gestation of a Hellspawn is hella quick…

Jenny eats an eye

At just under 70 minutes, this doesn’t outstay its welcome and there is plenty of full-throated screaming – especially from Angel Nichole Bradford. There is puppetry involved and plenty of low budget gore. This was probably the most enjoyable Farmer film I have watched – which doesn’t make it great, of course, it is still shot on a shoestring and has some really bad sfx (the bodies the police are investigating, for instance). Nevertheless, I’m giving this 3.5 out of 10 as, for some reason, it struck a chord even if the vampirism takes second fiddle.

At the time of writing there is no IMDb page.

The Brides – review

Author: Charlotte Cross

Release date: 2026

Contains spoilers  

The Blurb: Told through letters and diary entries, The Brides is a chilling reimagining of Bram Stoker's Dracula – with a devastating sapphic romance at its heart.

'Come to me, and be mine for eternity'

1884. When Mafalda journeys to Budapest to care for her grieving aunt, her secret love, Lucy, hurries from London to comfort her, with chaperone and lady’s maid in tow.

But lady’s maid Alice, blessed and cursed with the Sight, is tormented by terrifying visions. When chaperone Eliza falls prey to a disturbing wasting illness, the women hope to seek the healing waters of Transylvania. At a nobleman’s invitation, they set out for Castle Dracula.

In the depths of the forest, miles from civilization, their host reveals his true intentions; a monstrous ambition which will tear the women apart.

And not all of them will survive.

The review: This is a prequel to Dracula with a touch of sequel. By that I mean that, whilst the majority of the book is an epistolary story from 1893 (and designated 10 years before the events of Stoker’s novel), there are parts set in 1903 as Sir John Seward, as he now is, tales a new position in an asylum and not long later receives charge of Lady Lowell, a zoophagus individual who, it becomes apparent, has a shared history from 10 years before the Crew of Light defeated Dracula.

The rest of the story follows Mafalda Lowell as she and her mother travel to Buda-Pesth to care for her maternal aunt whose husband has recently died in a dual. Mafalda’s orphaned schoolfriend, Lucy North, lives at Mafalda’s parents’ home and the two young women are in a secret sapphic relationship. I had a slight irk in the Lucy character’s name as it sailed too close to Lucy in Dracula. Lucy with chaperone Eliza and maid Alice (who has the second sight) are soon travelling to Buda-Pesth to stay with the family.

Of course, into this comes Dracula and it is obvious from the title that some of the primary female cast will become his brides. In this respect the novel is good at creating a female centric set of characters and still managing to situate them in the timeframe, with the societal misogyny of the time and their responses to that. It is also a rather clever origin story for Dracula’s vampire women and explains small moments from the original novel such as why the vampire women speak English (as Harker understands them). There isn’t much in the way of additional lore introduced except for the use of lemon verveine (or lemon beebrush) which Alice uses to hold off the second sight and which is found to ward off evil. There is a passing mention of hagriding connected with Alice’s grandmother.

The novel is a slow burn – with the vampiric action coming towards the end of the novel (bar some disturbing dreams that Alice has and, of course, Seward’s remembrance). That slowly builds also, with Dracula a shadowy figure on the periphery of the story when he enters the frame until right towards the end. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this, 7.5 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Short Hiatus

Just a quick public service announcement to let you know I am going to put TMtV on a very short hiatus, as I am going away for a few days.

I will be checking comments whilst away and normal service will resume on Friday 22nd May.

See you all soon.

Short Film: Vampire Intervention

Directed by Ceejay Avilez and Diana Popick (according to IMDb, the film just credits Ceejay Avilez), this 2015 short is 13 minutes and has a film crew following a group of friends, one of whom happens to be a vampire called Elsa (Diana Popick, Verotika). The film follows them as Juan (Victor Canache), Elsa’s housemate, and Kim (Chelsea Rivera) plan an intervention to stop her drinking… blood.

When we watch their lives together it is clear that Elsa has some level of lack of impulse control – for instance feeding on a waitress (Tiffany Bock) who had come to take their order – she later feeds on the interventionalist (Paul Wheeler) who she declares must have been HIV positive as his blood is spicy and thus she couldn’t help herself. It is within this playing with tropes that the short does interesting things.

quick snack

For instance, the HIV comment. There have been vampire films where the vampiric condition is an obvious simile for HIV and there have been instances where the vampire can catch a blood borne infection or HIV itself. I can’t immediately think of one where the vampire treats it as a spice. Equally the vampire has been used as a metaphor for both a drug and a drug user. In this case, whilst the friends believe her to be an addict, she retorts that she isn’t an addict, she actually needs it to live.

the waitress is the order

As well as the needing blood to continue her existence we get some interesting throwaway lore. As well as being “allergic” to a stake through the heart and sunlight, these vampires are susceptible to zebras (and therefore she can’t go to a zoo). Another is a reveal that vampires came into existence at the point when Jesus rose from the grave – an interesting concept that amounts to a throwaway line (that also takes time to disparage a view of vampires through the lens of The Vampire Diaries and Twilight) but could stand expansion – the idea situating close to, but possibly different to, the origin in Dracula 2001. A final bit of lore is the ability to glamour a human.

Will the intervention work… Watch the short to find out. The imdb page is here.

Wallace Peebles: Paranormal Inspectre – review

Director: Steven Nesbit

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

I was torn over this, at first I was going to look at this film as an Honourable Mention with the vampire (TK Howard) as a fleeting visitation. But whilst the screentime is low it is central to the plot (such as there is one) and appears prominently on the movie poster.

The film follows a paranormal investigation TV crew. They consist of Wallace (Steven Nesbit), a man so out of touch with reality that he can’t work out pre-recorded call-ins for their podcast and thinks they’re live on air, Poppy (Jennifer Bryer), the sceptic, behavioural scientist and doing a thesis on paranormal investigators, and Chet (Michael Flores), cameraman. Wallace and Chet hate each other, not helped by Chet spoiling shots by walking on camera with food.

the vampire

Chet does, however, find them a paying gig in a warehouse and so manager Morris (Morris Featherstone) gets them a producer in the form of superfan Snow (Kristina E. Howard). Unfortunately, Chet has an ulterior motive, he is being forced to investigate the warehouse by psycho Ethel (Marilee Ensign) who wants them to find the stashed Irish Crown Jewels. This is where the vampire comes into it. Chet starts seeing an animated mouse (David Ralph) and the vampire, guardians of the jewels who are willing to hand them over for the price of his soul. At first it seems that the mouse and vampire are hallucinations but it becomes apparent they’re real.

Steven Nesbit as Wallace

That’s the story, such as it is. There is them being interviewed and so each time they speak to camera they get a new title on screen – which they are aware of as it is filmed in a 4th wall kind of way. The whole humour thread, to be honest, didn’t overly work for me – fart and wee gags and Wallace in a range of unaware to just plain daft. It felt the sort of thing that you could put in a sitcom and, repetition of the humour would eventually warm on the audience and catchphrases would evolve, but in a feature the humour missed more than hit. And the humour was all it really had, the plot was flimsy and the situation repetitive. Standout, positively, was Jennifer Bryer whose tone was spot on.

Jennifer Bryer as Poppy

There is no lore to relay re the vampire, we get a rubber looking mask, a shadow at one point and one bite. Overall, relying on the humour made this struggle in my eyes – but if the humour appeals and tickles you’ll get more out of it. 3.5 out of 10 for me.

The episode's imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

The Night Time World – review

Directors: Various

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This is a portmanteau film, where the wraparound – entitled The Night Time World and directed by Timothy Paul Taylor – is about vampires but so are the four segments. It has become very easy to stitch a series of shorts into a film and I guess that theming them is a good a way to try and build a cohesive anthology. It feels to me, however, that creating bespoke segments is normally the stronger method.

Doug Henderson as Nada

Nevertheless, we are where we are with a vampire theme but shorts of varying quality and one in particular was probably not a good one to curate into the selection. The wraparound sees podcaster Nada (Doug Henderson) hosting his horror story show. He gets a caller, who seems to be in distress and speaks of a woman (Selina Flanscha) who answered his ad asking to kill him on camera. He gets cut off but she then calls, supernaturally controlling the lines, and their conversation makes the wraparound. It is fluff, to be honest, but Henderson makes for a calm, charming host for the stories.

Shane and Paul

The first segment is called The Backpage, directed by Brandon Lescure and originally released as a short in 2016. It is actually, for me, the best of the bunch. Paul (Brendan Krick) is in a bar with friend Shane (Joe Welkie). They are very much an odd couple, with Paul recently single and not very good with the dating game and Shane a player (or a bit of misogynistic slut). Both their dialogues are cringeworthy for different reasons and designed to be so.

Annabel Leah as Lilith

Shane convinces Paul to try out a massage website for a happy ending and he goes home, surfs the net, realises he has very little cash in his wallet and then spies a Backpage ad in a newspaper. This suggests a masseuse, named Lilith (Annabel Leah) who will come to the client and rates are negotiable. He calls and then falls asleep, woken when she knocks. Paul is nervous, suggests they chat but she soon strips, gets her massage table and kisses him.

drool

With a name like Lilith there is going to be no spoiler in discovering she is our vampire but I need to go into some unfamiliar lore they add in. She drools a foam-like drool onto his face and it is numbing and sedative. It also turns into a waxy residue, which seals his mouse and is used to glue his arms down. She straddles him and a large trunk-like tube comes from her belly and starts to suck his insides out from his groin. It was spectacularly unusual, and she comes across as much succubus as vampire.

Nina Donnelly as Scarlett

The next segment was Scarlet, directed by Sean Brien and released in 2020. It has three friends in a car – Denice (Harley Cubberley), Craig (James Stephen Walsh) and Robert (Greg Young) – watching for a woman who soon comes into view, her name is Scarlet (Nina Donnelly). It is apparent they know what she is and it is down to Craig to deal with her (he has a bag of vampire killing tools and Denice gives him a flask of garlic water). As he seems reticent, Robert suggests going to her, but Craig eventually leaves the car. She seems pleased to see him and leads him away… will he be able to deal with the restless dead? This is a very short segment (around 9 minutes) and has some good imagery but fails to get past a very basic narrative.

having a bite

The third segment is the one I am unsure of why it would be placed in the anthology, called for this Sorry for the Blood, and directed by Adam Michaels, Chaz and Dray Schoenbeck as I watched it I felt like it was lifting its story from Morbius and the vampire (Adam Michaels), unnamed in credit, looked like the comic book living vampire. Turns out this was a Morbius fan film from 2014, which is fine but curating it into a commercial anthology seems risky and, honestly, it was the weakest of the segments as it feels more like a proof of concept than a story.

feeding blood

The final segment was called Indictment and was a 2016 short that was directed by Gene Blalock. A man, Nico (Derrick Scott), wakes in a police cell and is brutalised by the cop in charge (Robert Hugh Starr), having been accused of murdering another cop (Nick Somers), which he can’t remember. As the brutality continues, memories start to return and he begins to realise that he’s been changed. This was my second favourite after the Backpage. Over all, this was a mixed bunch, though the photography was set at a decent standard across the segments and the shorts are worth watching (even Sorry for the Blood has some merit). 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

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.