Honourable Mention: Venom Vol. 7: Exsanguination

Author: Various

Artist: Various

First published:2024 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Venom vs. Carnage in their bloodiest battle yet! Carnage is back! Born anew in symbiote goo and blood, Cletus Kasady is more dangerous and violent than ever before - and he has his sights dead set on an unsuspecting Venom! Untested against the might of his symbiotic sibling without his father by his side, can Dylan Brock hold the sadistic serial killer at bay? Will Carnage live up to its namesake and leave another brutalized symbiote host in its wake? Or is Dylan just bait for Eddie Brock, the King in Black himself? In the greatest depths of space and at the end of existence, some carnivorous new species has blossomed. Something blood-red, with thorns - and an appetite! Plus: There's one thing that can still kill Carnage: Anti-Venom! And if things weren't wild enough, the BLOOD HUNT begins, and Venom must unleash lethal justice on hordes of vampires!

The Mention: I have looked through the Marvel Blood Hunt event extensively where it comes to volumes that were directly part of the event and where the volume majority tied in with the event. I have also looked at post-event vampiric consequences. In the case of this Venom volume, however, I have made it an Honourable Mention as it is a minor aspect within a storyline, events happening during Blood Hunt rather than impacting it/impacted by it.

I also have to be honest and admit that seven volumes in, the primary storyline confused me. Issues around Eddie Brock, his son Dylan being Venom’s host and Carnage trying to destroy Venom. All of this probably demands a wider knowledge of the previous volumes and therefore reading this for the Blood Hunt side (of which there are two storylines) is probably for completists only.

In one storyline we get Dylan, abandoned by Venom, approached by a priest who had been turned. The important part of this story is that when the priest bites Dylan his blood is poisonous to vampires as it has been altered by his half-symbiote physiology. He is also immune to the bite. The priest, in pain due to the blood, is then staked by Dylan. This means that Dylan/Venom could have played a pivotal role in the wider event had the writers desired it.

The second vampire storyline concerns the alien Threkker aka The Captive. He absorbs life force and was imprisoned on Earth, and subsequently captured in a high tech coffin that was found by Dracula and released during the Blood Hunt to hunt symbiotes. It reanimated a previous symbiote host (Lee Price) as a sort of zombie symbiote to lure in Venom (who at this point is host-less and dying). The Captive’s plan is to feed on Venom’s life energy but natural protections come into play, causing the Captive’s bite to begin a feedback loop that makes him feed on himself and desiccate. Not one of the undead vampires, a full back-history being presented (rather than touched on) could have embedded this in the event but this is more a throwaway and more significant to the Venom storyline, I feel.

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From Dusk Till Bong – review

Director: James Balsamo

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

This one left me rather confused with regards release dates. It follows on from 2015’s Bite School and was released before (and seems to come before chronologically) Bite School 2. In fact Bite School 2 is mentioned as a movie, in a meta piece of Coda, and lead character Tony (James Balsamo) mentions going on to fight Robo-Dracula – which is the basic premise of Bite School 2. It was released three years before Bite School 2 but, I suspect, shot after it. It is disc 3 of the Blu-Ray set “James Balsamo’s Thrilling Three Pack”.

using a prayer scroll

So, after moments of Tony riding a bat (we’ll get to that) and a brief cameo by Eric Roberts, it starts with vampire hunter Screaming Jay Pigeons (Charles Wright) taking on a vampire. He splashes him but the holy water doesn’t seem to work (its daylight, outdoors in the dessert by the way) until Jay declares that it is holy gasoline and sets the vampire alight. As the vampire runs around in flame we see a kyonsi/jiangshi, Broccoli Bob (Bill Victor Arucan, Bite School 2 & the Last Slay Ride), hopping towards him. Also appearing is Jay’s very naked dead wife Lanorea (J.E. Scripps) saying, “Save me, Jay”. She has vanished by the time Broccoli Bob arrives and Jay has time to go through a set of prayer scrolls and affix one to his head.

Spat and Tony

Tony and Spat (a talking side-kick bat) are driving through the Nevada desert – and there is something very Hunter S Thompson/Fear & Loathing about Spat. This offers exposition (and that it is exposition is mentioned). Vicky, who turned millionaire playboy Tony into a vampire, was killed by vampire hunters – later confirmed to be Jay and his partner Father Gill O'Teen (G. Larry Butler, also Bite School 2), Her death made him become human again (he is still getting used to the idea of eating food again) and the subsequent mansion fire burnt all his money (he didn’t trust banks) and so he’s broke. At the start of the film the hunters are still after him and by the end they are allies. Tony stumbles into a vampire outbreak and Jay is collecting vampire eyes so he can “pass through the spiritual event horizon” and rescue Lanorea – who, we discover, was turned and subsequently killed by Jay.

flying by bat

There isn’t too much more to say. Tony is further aided by billionaire Bill Diamond (Robert Felsted Jr.), we get a staking by screwdriver flicked in a condom, some gratuitous nakedness, fighting vampires, and lots of crap bats including the bat I mentioned that we see Tony riding. The bat is actually Mayan bat God Camazotz, summoned in an identical way to that in Bite School 2 in a sequence that involves Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe having his flesh stripped by drawn bats. The model for Camazotz is different, however. When we see Tony riding it is when he declares he has to kill Robo-Dracula. The film itself meanders, jumps back in time and Broccoli Bob seems to reappear even having been seen to be killed (though that could just be a non-linear appearance). It is more stream of consciousness than story. Like the others in the series James Balsamo fans will know what they’re getting and enjoy it. The narrative wasn’t there for me but really that’s the point of his filmmaking – caveated that many do get it, 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

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Bite School 2: Bite Squad – review

Director: James Balsamo

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

To get the chronology right, this is a 2025 sequel to James Balsamo’s 2015 film Bite School (at the beginning of this Balsamo’s character Tony meets briefly meets the character George and they say that it’s been 10-years). It is subtitled on some of the artwork as Bite Squad and on others as From Dusk Til Bong, which was a 2022 Balsamo flick which also featured his Tony character. All three films are in the Blu-Ray set “James Balsamo’s Thrilling Three Pack”.

Robo Dracula (whole)

When I reviewed Bite School, I said “This is not a good film, by that I mean as a piece of cinema it does not rank particularly high. However, it doesn’t try to rank high either.” This is just as true of this, if not more so. Tony and George meet in a garden (the sets are very limited in this) and observe a group of vampires with a naked sacrifice. The head vampire is speaking tech speak and has the head of Robot Dracula (Joe Castro). Wires attach (and enter) the sacrifice and draw her energy to bring him new life.

Camazotz

Tony is the chosen one, who will destroy Robo-Dracula with help from the bite squad and the film is filled with talking head interviews as a mockumentary being filmed by someone in the school at the centre of the first film. There are, therefore, plenty of excuses for cameos of musicians and genre stars. Before he can get Robo-Dracula there are other head vampires he must destroy – starting with Mayan bat God Camazotz. In a sequence that involves Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe having his flesh stripped by drawn bats, Tony whips Camazotz but, rather than destroy it, uses it as a ride.

Mimeula

Following that we get him going to France to take on Mimeula (Stu Silverman) a vampire who turns a woman into a mime when he bites her. He also goes to Germany to defeat Krampus – yup Krampus is a vampire in this. This sequence of the three head vampires takes less than ten minutes of film time. We get a scene with Vlad Ţepeş, back in the day, being bitten by a skeletal bat creature and thus becoming a vampire (who will eventually be Robo-Dracula). 

Krampus

There really isn’t much else when it comes to story. It is just gags, low budget props (cardboard circular sawblades, for instance) and a parade of characters and cameos. Yet, still, Balsamo is having a hoot – as are many of those in it. It failed, however, to keep my attention as well as the first one (probably because the story was even thinner than the previous). 3 out of 10 but, again, like the first film it is more than the sum of its score (though perhaps closer this time round) and James Balsamo fans will know what they’re getting and enjoy it.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

Short Film: Vamped (2026)

Directed by Eli Valencia, this short is just under 13-minutes in length. Set in a world were, apparently, vampires are a known thing, this follows Mina (Liia Kasenova), a college student.

She is called by friend Joaquin (Jose Soreque), who is trying to entice her to a party – a vampire themed one. Despite classes the following day she agrees to go, so long as they leave if she dislikes it.

bitten

They arrive and attendees are playing spin the bottle, with a 7-minutes in heaven forfeit. The bottle lands on Keiran (Jonah Martinez) and then Mina and so it is off to the bathroom for, what Mina describes as, the longest seven minutes… Until he moves in and bites her. She pushes him off, leaves the bathroom and demands Joaquin takes her home.

Joaquin and Mina

The film then follows her as she tries to navigate her new normal. A google search suggests to her that the scientific consensus is that there is now known cure for vampirism, Then there is her friendship with Joaquin to consider… The storyline may sound simple, but the filmmakers manage to cram plenty into the short running time.

The imdb page is here and the film can be viewed here.

Honourable Mention: A Haunting on the Hill

This 2023 sequel to The Haunting of Hill House by Elizabeth Hand was authorised by Shirley Jackson’s estate as an official sequel to the seminal novel. The book obviously features Hill House, and the ‘haunting’ therein but also touches into witchcraft and, with the recurring appearance of a supernatural Fetch of a hare (or multiple thereof) has a touch of folk horror to it. There are some interesting (literal) echoes from the original story.

I put haunting in parenthesis because it is mentioned through the book that it is not a haunted house, rather that the house is aware, an entity of its own. The phenomena in the house stems from that. It is further suggested that the house both hates and needs the occupants and it is this need that leads us to an Honourable Mention again as the reason for the need is perhaps hinted but not explicit. The house is owned by Ainsley, who is part of a coven of three, the others unhappy that she occasionally rents it out as to do so is dangerous – the three watch over it and Evadne, one of three, asks of one of the group in the house, “Hill House—how do you think it survives?” adding “Ainsley’s done virtually nothing to maintain it. No one has. Hill House looks almost the same today as when it was built a hundred and forty years ago. Why do you think that is?” The implication being that it takes something from residents within and maintaining itself through that. This is almost, but not quite, spoken again later (or that was my reading, at least). It becomes clear that those it manages to “take” remain in spirit, perhaps as puppets for the house, which sits against the idea of the house not being haunted.

The only other vampire adjacent comments is character Nisa suggesting that they may need garlic. We get the tale, within the dialogue, of one of the characters meeting a woman who suggests she met a haint (a restless ghost or spirit) who impregnated her. Mentioned as haints do occasionally get mentioned in vampire texts.

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Vampires of the Velvet Lounge – review

Director: Adam Sherman

Release date: 2026

Contains spoilers

Cheese… Ok, actually loads of blood (with both good and bad sfx, as I’ll explain) but a right royal portion of cheese, and this Erzsébet Báthory (in this Elizabeth) flick is great fun because of it. I have to admit I went in with low expectations but it certainly lifted me way beyond that. The cast, built in an ensemble way I felt, mostly seemed to be having a blast, especially on the vampire side.

drinking absinth

It starts, however, with a series of intertitles explaining the Elizabeth Bathory (Mena Suvari) backstory and then we see various smartphone style screens as these vampires have taken to hunting by dating app (not a new concept, but one that certainly works). Someone hunted in such a way is Eric (Timothy V. Murphy, Broil), who has arranged to fly to where Elizabeth is and meet her in an absinth bar she has mentioned. I also need to mention the cracking version of Ain't No Grave that plays over the credit sequence at the start of the film.

meeting the green fairy

When he gets to the bar he finds Joan (India Eisley, Underworld Awakening) and Helena (Sarah Dumont) working the bar (and both vampires, also). They tell him all about absinth and the green fairy and he confesses he feels he has been stood up and proceeds to get drunk… to the point he does see the green fairy, which is Elizabeth taking that shape in his perspective. She lures his very drunk ass outside and hunts him down, her now apparent bat wings occasionally looking like green fairy wings in his perspective. A point here re blood. The film uses both cgi and practical effect. The practical blood looks great and is drawn copiously into shot so that the film feels a tad splatterpunk. The cgi blood (and in this scene, neck rip) looks blooming awful.

Dichen Lachman as Cora

So Cora (Dichen Lachman), who suffers bad dreams, is a former soldier and assassin who now works for a group who hunt monsters. She is sent out on recon and observes (and films), through a crack in a doorway, Elizabeth blood bathing as three supplicants happily agree to have their heads cut off with giant scissors wielded by vampiric Chuck (Mark Boone Junior, Vampire$ & 30 Days of Night). The viewer is clear that Elizabeth knows that she is there. Cora and her superior, intelligence operator Alexis (Rosa Salazar), are ensconced nearby but are using a VPN to suggest that Cora is based a couple of States away as she chats to Elizabeth by app. They are looking to strike at the vampires, though it is clear that Elizabeth is using mojo to actually seduce her.

lawyer bros

Throw into the mix a group of corporate lawyers. Luke (Tyrese Gibson) is going through a divorce and is depressed and his buddies Randall (Stephen Dorff, Blade) and Malcolm (Lochlyn Munro, Tracers 4: Jack of Clubs, Dracula 2001, Hansel & Gretel Get Baked, Lost Girl & also Broil) want to cheer him up. He has been chatting to Joan online and they decide to all go visit (with them getting dates with Elizabeth and Helena – all three vampires having a website together). Also throw in the mix that Elizabeth is becoming worried about Joan’s behaviour; she is mixing blood with absinth (and sometimes just drinking booze straight) and interested in sex – in short becoming erratic to Elizabeth's pov.

blood bathing

There is some interesting lore in this. Cora is repeatedly taught to think happy thoughts as such thoughts can keep a vampire out of your head – if they get in there they can absolutely control you. Cora's issue is that, given her past, she has no happy thoughts. They fly, are superfast and strong but cast no reflection (in mirror or water). In fact the vampire women do each other’s makeup in a setup reminiscent of Vamp. When a question is raised as to why they then show on digital media/photography, the answer is that digital and AI are of the devil and so are they. Sunlight destroys, silver is effective, a stake and beheading will destroy the vampire (though not necessarily so) and ingestion of vampire blood turns.

bat winged

The cast seem to be having a great time in the main, Mena Suvari and India Eisley especially are chewing up the sets and their larger than life characters are great fun – unfortunately Sarah Dumont’s Helena is pretty much side-lined as a character and so she doesn’t get the same opportunity to shine. Unfortunately Dichen Lachman plays Cora as a deeply stoic character and so comes across as less fun but that contrasts nicely with Elizabeth. The story is simple and, as mentioned at the head, cheesy with comic book and splatterpunk elements that was simply great fun. My big gripe is some of the cgi work in the sfx – the obvious green screening was fine and, to be fair, I rather liked the wing effects in the main, but cgi blood looks poor generally and sat against well done practical effects showed it up even more. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

It Feeds – review

Director: Chad Archibald

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers  

Vampiric entities appear in films, not necessarily undead – perhaps demonic, perhaps an inhabitant of another dimension – but they want to feed. Of course I was going to watch a film called It Feeds, it may or may not have proven to be about a vampiric creature, but the title was certainly an attractor. As it happens the entity proved to be an energy vampire.

in the classroom

It starts with Cynthia (Ashley Greene, Twilight & Sequels) stood in a school setting, the blackboard covered in writing attesting to the wolf. She walks as the wind blows through the school and enters an office, a coach (David Thompson) sat facing away and a child (Jayden Kirton) in a cage. If it all looks dreamlike, well it kind of is because it is a brainscape. She tries to encourage the child to let himself out of the cage but he is scared. Eventually he tries but the coach turns and a whiskey glass explodes, cutting her arm. The child retreats, she says they can try next time and she begins to chant under her breath.

Ashley Greene as Cynthia

She opens her eyes in the real world, removing her fingers from the forehead of her client Larry (Dov Tiefenbach, the Strain). Cynthia runs a home psychiatry practice, but she has the ability to step into people’s minds – though what happens to her in the mind happens in reality, so she has a cut arm from the glass. As the film progresses, we discover her clients are sworn to secrecy, they were driven from one town by superstitious townsfolk. Her husband had the same ability but he attempted to wrest an entity from a client and subsequently hung himself. Cynthia’s 17 years-old daughter, Jordan (Ellie O'Brien), screens her clients and does online research to help. Occasionally Cynthia has been able to tip the police as to wrong doers who hurt her clients.

entity behind her

There is a banging on the door and it is a young girl, Riley (Shayelin Martin). She has snuck away from her dad, Randall (Shawn Ashmore, The Ruins) , and she is desperate for Cynthia’s help – apparently a previous client, Agatha (Juno Rinaldi, Jennifer’s Body), had mention Cynthia to Randall and Riley overheard. Jordan is screening her and she talks about a thing she sees. She suggests it stares like a starving dog and is in the room, it caused the scars on her arms (which look like burns), she claims, and it is always hungry. Cynthia walks into the room and can see it, when Randall bursts in and drags his daughter away.

Ellie O'Brien as Jordan

Jordan wants to help the girl but Cynthia refuses to help, she knows it is a real, malevolent entity and out of her skill area. However Jordan manages to follow up, find their home and is captured by Randall for her troubles. Randall’s wife was a nurse who did overseas nursing and it is implied picked the entity up there. It essentially devoured her over time, draining her life and causing massive physical deterioration – the hospital she ended up in believed it was some sort of flesh-eating disease hitherto unknown. When she died, Riley was in the room and the entity passed over to her. Randall has been kidnapping people and the entity has eaten them through Riley (as a conduit) – the energy transference burning them. The entity speaks to the host and, when we hear it speak it says “Feed Me”. In the kerfuffle that follows, Riley dies, Jordan becomes the host and Cynthia has to defeat the entity – not helped by Randall deciding to defeat the entity himself with a plan to bury Jordan alive and let her die with no-one near to become the next host.

enthroned

This was interesting, the idea of being able to enter a patient’s trauma to help them psychiatrically was neat, though similar has been done before. However the entity was a nice touch. Definitely an energy vampire, but one never sated, in its own dreamscape it sits on a throne like chair and controls vine like tendrils. There are moments were you do have to suspend disbelief – Jordan is bound, Riley brings clippers and puts them in her behind-her-back-hands rather than snips the cable ties round the wrists. This led to a tension moment and a delay in escape. But, then again, Riley is a scared child. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK