Director: Jeremy Herbert
Release date: 2026
Contains spoilers
Release date: 2026
Contains spoilers
Set in Redpatch, Ohio, a Rust Belt town, this film offers a commentary on industrial decline and economic decay, with the vampires sucking the life from a town that was almost undead economically as it stood. This is reflected in the locals who seem almost like lost souls and design principles, such as having the vampires bleed red dust, underline this aesthetic.
It starts with Joe (Jonathan Tazewell) in his house, sleeping in front of the TV, it appears. The glass he holds drops and, on waking, he thinks he heard something. He looks around the house, eventually going into the basement. In there he sees a window has been broken and blames kids. As he leaves we see hooded figures swarm. He hears another noise, looks round again and sees a figure. He runs to a room, blocking a door and phones the local diner.
The reason for phoning there, rather than calling 911, is because he owns it and his son, Lamont (Morgan McLeod), works there on the night shift. Lamont, however, is busy with a customer and doesn’t answer straight away. At Joe's, we’ve seen a hooded figure come through another door and by the time Lamont picks up he can hear growling and screams. The film goes into credits, with images of small-town USA and a feeling of urban decay. We see Belko (Mark Kelly, Angel, Jakob’s Wife & Little Bites) arrive in town in his truck.
He attends the funeral, where Lamont is stood before the mourners. It is somewhat excruciating and deliberately so. Though he does carry memories of his father that we see in flashback, and is shown to be grieving later, his outer stoic demeanour and awkward jokes are displayed here and tells us much about him, and by proxy the town itself. Lamont is asked by his mother (Laketa Caston) what he will do now – the answer of working the diner till he dies amplifies the characterisation. Later we hear that she wants him to give his father’s share to her so she can change it to a dollar store. Joe’s death has been blamed on coyotes, incidentally. Lamont is more than the sum of what we’ve seen and we discover that he prepares food for the town’s homeless population. Those who pick up the food confirm that one of the camps seem to have left town.
So, Lamont is attacked by a vampire and saved by Belko, which leaves them working together. Belko is a vampire hunter who tracks them through animal attacks (Lamont’s girlfriend, Marlene (Diana Frankhauser), is animal control, incidentally). He explains that the vampires we mostly see are drones. Animalistic, they serve a boss (Ross Partridge), who can control if they attack, feed, or simply capture a victim for taking to a bleeding room for him. We later see a bleeding room, but we also see him infusing directly from a victim. He has a strong line in eye mojo. His presence in town has been facilitated as a form of direct action against the homeless – though clearly they are attacking beyond that. Killing a vampire is achieved through piercing the heart and/or beheading, incineration is used to make sure.
I really liked this, beyond the central narrative about small town decay and authoritative misuse of the homeless, this was a nicely down vampire flick where the vampires are dangerous. It steps away from the glamorous and carves a space into the monstruous. Even the Boss, despite being erudite and well presented, carries an air of the monstrous. They built enough around Lamont so that, despite his stoicism, he was genuinely likable as is Belko. The film is clearly on a budget – perhaps shown most in the fact that the town felt empty as we saw little of people and less of attacks on them, however, these are observations and not criticism. The film deserves a strong 7 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
 |
| noises in the house |
It starts with Joe (Jonathan Tazewell) in his house, sleeping in front of the TV, it appears. The glass he holds drops and, on waking, he thinks he heard something. He looks around the house, eventually going into the basement. In there he sees a window has been broken and blames kids. As he leaves we see hooded figures swarm. He hears another noise, looks round again and sees a figure. He runs to a room, blocking a door and phones the local diner.
 |
| Mark Kelly as Belko |
The reason for phoning there, rather than calling 911, is because he owns it and his son, Lamont (Morgan McLeod), works there on the night shift. Lamont, however, is busy with a customer and doesn’t answer straight away. At Joe's, we’ve seen a hooded figure come through another door and by the time Lamont picks up he can hear growling and screams. The film goes into credits, with images of small-town USA and a feeling of urban decay. We see Belko (Mark Kelly, Angel, Jakob’s Wife & Little Bites) arrive in town in his truck.
 |
| Morgan McLeod as Lamont |
He attends the funeral, where Lamont is stood before the mourners. It is somewhat excruciating and deliberately so. Though he does carry memories of his father that we see in flashback, and is shown to be grieving later, his outer stoic demeanour and awkward jokes are displayed here and tells us much about him, and by proxy the town itself. Lamont is asked by his mother (Laketa Caston) what he will do now – the answer of working the diner till he dies amplifies the characterisation. Later we hear that she wants him to give his father’s share to her so she can change it to a dollar store. Joe’s death has been blamed on coyotes, incidentally. Lamont is more than the sum of what we’ve seen and we discover that he prepares food for the town’s homeless population. Those who pick up the food confirm that one of the camps seem to have left town.
 |
| a vampire drone |
So, Lamont is attacked by a vampire and saved by Belko, which leaves them working together. Belko is a vampire hunter who tracks them through animal attacks (Lamont’s girlfriend, Marlene (Diana Frankhauser), is animal control, incidentally). He explains that the vampires we mostly see are drones. Animalistic, they serve a boss (Ross Partridge), who can control if they attack, feed, or simply capture a victim for taking to a bleeding room for him. We later see a bleeding room, but we also see him infusing directly from a victim. He has a strong line in eye mojo. His presence in town has been facilitated as a form of direct action against the homeless – though clearly they are attacking beyond that. Killing a vampire is achieved through piercing the heart and/or beheading, incineration is used to make sure.
 |
| the boss being infused |
I really liked this, beyond the central narrative about small town decay and authoritative misuse of the homeless, this was a nicely down vampire flick where the vampires are dangerous. It steps away from the glamorous and carves a space into the monstruous. Even the Boss, despite being erudite and well presented, carries an air of the monstrous. They built enough around Lamont so that, despite his stoicism, he was genuinely likable as is Belko. The film is clearly on a budget – perhaps shown most in the fact that the town felt empty as we saw little of people and less of attacks on them, however, these are observations and not criticism. The film deserves a strong 7 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
