The Bitter Taste – review

Director: Guido Tölke

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

Horror, vampires and pentathlon – it seems a strange mix and yet here we are. I say vampires, in truth we are really in the bailiwick of Erzsébet Báthory, but the filmmakers changed the name to Badesky – why is not too clear and they kept the basic outline of her story. It has an interesting lore idea in it but several stumbling blocks as we will see.

It starts with a woman emerging from a lake, she has a gun but drops the bullets from it… Elsewhere there is a hunting party looking for stag. Marcia Lorenz (Julia Dordel) is acting as a hunting guide to Matheus King (John Keogh). She is an ex-pentathlete, though I am not sure she ever says that outright, it just becomes evident, and is injured, causing a limp. He takes a shot at a stag, feels pain in his arm (recoil you might assume, but no) and falls over a tree stump.

Julia Dordel as Marcia

She helps him up, but he has dropped an envelope that is wax sealed. She picks it up and he snatches it back – extolling the fact that it is worth a small fortune. They continue and he spots a doe, he takes aim and she pushes his rifle as it is not doe season. As it is, he wings it and she says to follow – he rejects the idea as the adrenalin will spoil the meat (we return to that idea later). He gives her a revolver but refuses to come. She finds the doe but another guide gives it a mercy killing and asks what she has done – getting back to the hunting lodge, King has had a heart attack whilst on his own and, having been found by another guide, has been taken to hospital.

narrow escape

Marcia is sacked without pay for leaving her client – she needed the pay to put towards an operation to fix her leg. She steals King’s abandoned jacket – with the envelope – and leaves. Whilst driving on a road through the forest, a woman (the one from the lake) runs into the road and Marcia hits her – but the woman is alive and urges her to drive them away. Suddenly a bad (and when I say bad, I’m sorry, but the best descriptor is “piss poor”) cgi creature chases them and is able to catch the car. Marcia breaks, throwing it off, lightning strikes a tree that falls across the road/creature, she reverses and crashes. The woman is pulled from the car (wearing King’s jacket) and then Marcia is attacked. She eventually loses the creature by jumping across the path of a steam train, that hits it.

the castle

She gets the cops, who come in the form of George Balough (Anne Alexander-Sieder), and she doesn’t believe Marcia's story (or maybe George is covering events up). The axel is broken and she ends up selling her car for the money for a train ticket (a train that drops off two women in sports training gear) but ends up not leaving and then she is in and out of peril, finds the first woman on a meathook, meets Josh (Nicolo Pasetti, The Last Voyage of the Demeter) a handsome hunting lodge caretaker/eel fisherman and is embroiled in a supernatural tale…

lore book

So, roughly, what is going on? Countess Badesky and her four acolytes become vampires but were trapped on the land by the church and a curse. The curse was enacted by being tricked into signing compacts and coincidentally the envelope Marcia stole just so happens to contain those compacts, which they need to escape. Bathory discovered that human flesh, stressed and then eaten, extends life and bathing in/drinking blood restores youth. As there are no military conflicts round the property to cause the flesh of victims to be stressed, they sponsor and then invite pentathletes and hunt them. The pentathlete aspect was odd, but I liked the different properties of flesh and blood for the vampires.

the countess

Beyond the bad cgi – some of the practical effects are good, but the cgi, oh brother… - there are more issues with the film, and the biggest one was unlikely coincidence… King happens to have stolen the compacts, and happens to have them on him whilst hunting, and happens to have a heart attack, and Marcia happens to steal them (unaware of what they are), and happens to have an accident on the Badesky’s land, and happens to become embroiled, and happens to be a pentathlete, and happens to be able to find Badesky’s sigil online having seen it in a dimly lit cellar for seconds, and King’s driver happens to be the woman Marcia accidentally injured in training (King and she come into it again later on, and though there is a flimsy reasoning to how he found Marcia, it didn’t add up). It is really unbelievable as a string of coincidence.

blood spattered

The dialogue is a little hokey – though the actors try their best with it – but the length of the film (over 2-hours) outstays its welcome and could do with some generous pruning. The vampires are truly immortal, it would seem, and we end up getting some The Thing-like body horror towards the end. The twist, which revealed the Countess’ fourth acolyte, was broadcast early on and came as no surprise. An interesting idea around the vampirism, and interesting to merge horror and pentathlon. But a victim of its own hubris. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Blood Craving

Blood Craving is an extra on the Blu-Ray of Date With a Vampire and is a short film by Jeffrey Arsenault but is a bit of an oddity that I’ll date to 2002 (per IMDb). Arsenault directed the film Night Owl and if you look at my review of that film I mention: “I understand that the film was reissued in 2003 as Blood Craving and that a wraparound was added showing some new vampires and some chained victims as well as some extra explanation as to the fate of Angel – but I also understand it was new digitally shot footage that hardly fit in with the grainy aesthetics of the original movie.”

This short seems to be that additional footage (mostly) packaged together as a film in its own right. The IMDb page clearly references the edited version of Night Owl, this short is 29-minutes long and the listing on IMDb says 1 hour 15 minutes (still shorter than Night Owl’s 1 hour and 17 minutes, suggesting that the edit lost footage as well as gaining it). I say this is mostly additional footage as the interview with Caroline Munro is recycled into this (and is as much a strange addition as it was in the previous film as it is literally an interview with the actress). The short is shot in (rather washed out) colour, rather than black and white, and the Munro footage is in colour rather than black and white as it was in Night Owl.

Tiffany Helland as Jilian

As a short it really doesn’t make a huge amount of sense – a story regarding some form of disease impacting younger vampires, with Jillian (Tiffany Helland) sexually luring men to drain them of blood that she’ll feed to Angel (Israel Monrroy) – handcuffed for his own safety and presumably impacted by whatever is affecting younger vampires. Angel, as mentioned above, was a character in Night Owl – though it is a different actor playing the character. An oddity at best.

The imdb page (for the feature length release) is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

Woodstake: Three Days of Peace, Music and Blood Volume 1 – review

Author: Darin S Cape

Art: Felipe Kroll

First Published: 2026 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: A blood-soaked mashup of vampire myth, rock history, and the counterculture of the late 1960s

Woodstake is a wickedly clever spin on the Dracula legend, reimagined against the backdrop of the iconic Woodstock festival of 1969. When a vampire descends on the summer of love, a generation of hippies is forced to survive three days of peace, music, and blood in this darkly funny, genre-bending thrill ride. A razor-sharp blend of satire, horror, and '60s nostalgia, Woodstake offers a wildly original story brought vividly to life through the bold, evocative artwork of Felipe Kroll. It is a must-read for fans of classic rock, genre mashups, and blood-soaked storytelling.

With its unique blend of Woodstock-era atmosphere and vampire horror, Woodstake stands out as a wild, cult-horror crossover that feels both nostalgic and fiercely original. This gripping graphic novel delivers a character-driven narrative paired with a bold visual style that brings the late '60s to life, complete with period-authentic detail, psychedelic flair, and sharp dark humor. Ideal for readers of horror comics, supernatural thrillers, and music history, Woodstake bridges genres in a way that is fresh, immersive, and unforgettable.

The review: Woodstock had been and gone before I was born and yet, after discovering the movie (as an aside, which is seen briefly in the Omega Man) and soundtrack as a teen, there is something about it that plays in my heart, a view of a moment where the future genuinely seemed bright. To merge that in with vampires, which obviously are a firm favourite for me, is a stroke of genius (even if the title is a touch on the nose). Woodstock invokes a bright moment, the vampire a moment of rot and decay in that idealised moment, an evil to be fought.

The opening of the story, however, goes back to 1927 and the awakening of an evil from the Old World. Weak he uses persuasion to draw prey to him, starting with a squirrel. The nature of the creature is revealed when he makes the squirrel bow before him before he takes it. A moment of ego and elitism. He grows in strength slowly but begins to get his powers back and then finds a hunter and feeds on human blood. The vampire’s strengths and weaknesses are pretty much textbook, with shape shifting, mental dominance, a need to sleep in native soil (he has boxes around the area), religious items are apotropaic, sunlight and stakes destroy. He turns his attention to a young woman, Lucy, but luckily Marius Van Helsing, town doctor, recognises the signs though too late for her. They track her and the vampire down and give her peace but the vampire escapes and goes to ground. Van Helsing changes the family name. The vampire remerges in 1969…

The graphic from this point is steeped in late 1960s counter-culture, music permeates the experience (you could really pull a playlist together to listen to as you read). The son of Van Helsing is the doctor in the area (he had been present as a youngster during the events) and the sheriff is the son of the sheriff present during Lucy’s story (though he is unaware of what occurred). It is quite telling that the sheriff has his will dominated and is forced to be the daylight servant. With the thousands attending the festival, the vampire is able to spread his disease, but a few understand and fight back…

Let me talk art for a moment. The story follows familiar genre rhythms, perhaps, but well told enough to warrant the entrance fee with the setting being fabulous, but the art would be reason to get this alone. Absolutely gorgeous throughout, with a vibrant colour scheme. This one is recommended, 8.5 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Snow Bunnies – review

Director: Robert Dean III

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

According to Wiktionary a snow bunny is “An inexperienced, usually female skier”, but it can also mean “A white woman who pursues sexual relationships with black men.” We are definitely within the latter definition with this film. It is a film that embeds itself deeply into urban language, and works this well as the main two characters come across well. It is, however, perhaps too simplistic in plot and execution.

fangs

It starts with viral internet star ThatBoyFunny (himself) in a house, trying doors that are locked and clearly fleeing for his life. The scene is filmed with a blue filter and we see the female figure stalking him has rows of fang-like teeth. She gets him and goes in for the kill. Elsewhere, Kevin (Richard Washington) is trying to watch TV but his girlfriend wants to talk… He has no job (he’s just got out of jail), his car has been in the shop for what feels like forever, and he is basically mooching. She breaks up with him and allows him one more night in the apartment.

Kevin and AJ

The next day his friend AJ (Rayvon McKay) was meant to be picking him up but decided he was too busy with a lady. AJ is the bad influence in his life, dropping out of college was down to AJ as was his jail time. AJ offers to get him a job… which turns out to be at the pizza parlour he works at. There Kevin meets Butta (Fats Da Barber) and he gets dragged along with Butta and AJ when they go to a strip joint.

at the pizza joint

At the club he is miserable; he has no money and doesn’t want to be there. However AJ and Butta have lots of money. They explain that a group of women had given them the money after they bought them shots. Kevin tries to return the money but the women insist its ok. There are five of them and they are having a whale of a time, giving the dancers money themselves. They all end up partying. The following day two of the women, Autumn (Delaney Roberts) and Heather (Gem Jewels), find Kevin and AJ at the pizza parlour and invite them to a dinner party.

the sisters

Of course they go, though Kevin has reservations. Those reservations are not eased when, on arrival, the menu for the dinner party seems awfully stereotyped (including fried chicken and watermelon). When there they discover that three more black men are also there for the meal, Walt (Stephen Wesley Green), Nick (Shaquan Parson) and Tim (Earrien Freeman), and they also find Bethany (Veronica Baldwin), Rachael (Summer Lopez) and Bridget (Jatiana Smith) there. The five are described as sisters, one wears ThatBoyFunny’s pendant and chain, which Kevin recognises as the disappearance has made the news.

Christopher Riley as Mr Black 

They also meet their father, Mr Black (Christopher 'White Dolemite' Riley). Walt is taken to a bedroom by Rachael and fellatio turns into biting his bits off… Kevin walks in on this but downstairs no one believes him until she reappears still fanged and spattered with blood. Luckily Nick grabs a sword and manages to behead her. We discover that it was the sword that killed Mr Black’s wife and one of his daughters because it is copper (leading to a scene with fake chains that are copper not gold and a fourth wall break that has on-screen subtitles to Bethany’s sign language that Kevin and AJ see).

blood at mouth

The other lore we get is that Mr Black is a feeder and his daughters are vampires who need melanin that they get by eating the flesh of black men, but they like to play with their food. The hunt through the house is too short and could have had much more done with it. Indeed the film is just over 1-hour and, whilst not outstaying its welcome (especially as part of the runtime is a blooper reel), in this case it desperately needed more time dedicated to the vampires hunting them and consequential tension that could have been built. This goes doubly so as the actors managed to make AJ and Kevin enjoyable characters, if morally and personality-wise they were also flawed. This really had potential, I think they squandered it and so hold this at 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

In Our Blood – review

Director: Pedro Kos

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

Sorry – this is one of those films where the twist is vampirism and, with a couple of clues, they manage to keep that pretty much under wraps. However, as a vampire film, it does deserve to be here at TMtV – so that twist is spoiled. There are other twists in the tale, however, so not all is lost.

The film is in a documentary cut found footage style and as director Pedro Kos is a documentary filmmaker he has an eye for that and males the film work in that regard. It follows Emily (Brittany O'Grady), a documentary filmmaker, and her new employee Danny (E.J. Bonilla) as they travel to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Before we take the trip we see Emily talking to camera, holding a strangely designed key that she wears around her neck (later we see she finds the key).

E.J. Bonilla as Danny

The opening journey allows us to build some rapport with the two characters. Emily has had a contact from her estranged mother Sam (Alanna Ubach), a(n apparently) recovered junky, who used to use Emily to steal from clinics as a child and who wants to atone for her past. Emily has decided to make a documentary of their reconciliation. Danny, we discover as they drive, has a sweet tooth and a real eye for photography – and I have to say the professional looking filming makes this a cut above many found footage films, which can be shorthand for 'inability to frame a shot' at times. We discover later about Danny’s past with gangs and his struggle out of them (he’s having his gang tattoos removed over time).

dinner

They eventually get to Las Cruces and meet with Sam who seems both very nervous and regretful. They sit down for dinner and then interview her but the interview leads to some upset on Sam's part, intensified by the discovery that one of her friends had gone missing and then, a short while later, was found dead. Sam is volunteering at a clinic to try and make up for the past and invites Emily there the next day. The pair retire to their rather grungy motel. In the morning Emily can’t get hold of Sam and so they go to the clinic, where they are immediately told to stop filing (they do not). But Emily eventually manages to charm clinic director Ana (Krisha Fairchild) and they interview her and some of the homeless who live out the back of the clinic.

a vampire

Sam is still nowhere to be found and there feels like some connection to a gang connected to the cartels. The gang is blamed for putting a bloody pig’s head in their motel and, strangely, the aftermath of that is the rat’s that were eating died and it is confirmed as rat poison… So vampires (and spoilers)… yes vampires are involved as is the trafficking of blood from the itinerant, addicted and other victims who won’t be missed. The vampires are very much in the vampire as addicted mode, with it being said that blood is food for them, but human blood is a drug and they are strongly addicted. There is a hunter involved and the pig’s heads are left by them, covered in human blood to draw the vampires and laced with rat poison to slow them down.

Brittany O'Grady as Emily

I don’t want to spoil the other mysteries at the heart of this and, for me, the biggest strength was the photography. The cast work well but there were some aspects to the whodunnit side that seemed a tad convenient given the reveals at the end. Nevertheless, this worked well and captured the documentary aspect well – clearly because Pedro Kos is very au fait with his craft. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

Vamp or Not? The House Was Not Hungry Then

This was a 2025 feature, directed by Harry Aspinwall and the title kinds of says it all. For context I am fascinated by the idea of vampiric buildings and actually wrote about them for Palgrave’s Handbook of the Vampire. Many fans of the traditional vampire form will likely baulk at the idea, but I accept a very broad spectrum of what is a vampire or vampiric.

Some may also baulk at this film as a piece of cinema; almost entirely using static cameras in various rooms of the titular house, to describe it as a slow burn might actually be an understatement. The house has seen better days, unfurnished as wallpaper peels etc. but its sparsely modern look undermines a traditional Gothic air that may have added atmosphere. And yet, I did find myself drawn in.

view of the man

The film takes us through the static cameras so that we can explore the house. Then there is a distant peel of thunder as cars pull up. There are four people come to view the house, shown in by a man (Clive Russell, Neverwhere & Dracula (2020)). He tells them about the house but never leaves the vestibule, visible to us through the glass of the door. As the family look around a sound builds in the background and one by one the people just vanish, the only trace a piece of clothing that flutters down, in one case. Later we see the man eating a Pot Noodle and talking to the house.

the house speaks

At night there is a knock at the door and then the sound of breaking glass and a girl (Bobby Rainsbury) climbs in. She, we discover, is estranged from her father but whether they lived once in the house or nearby was not clear to me. She is searching for him and eventually discovers he is in a hospital or nursing home. The house seems to take to her. Early on we see words on screen, and it feels like chapter titles at first, but we soon discover that it is the house talking to her, the voice silent to us. This establishes that the house is sentient. The conversations are driven, acting wise, by her as the house dialogue is only shown to us as subtitles and sometimes not at all.

squatting

The film then is about her grief re her father and her avoiding the other man when he visits the house; it turns out that he is not an estate agent but the owner of the house deliberately drawing people there (and trying to avoid a compulsory purchase order that will lead to its demolition). Is it Vamp though? Well, the house, we have established, is sentient and is described as hungry. Reference is made to when the house was not hungry (which, if you read the film that the girl once lived there, then we can assume it was not hungry then) and also that its hunger is increasing. How it feeds is unknown, the victims vanish somewhere and whether it then digests them or their energy, is silent in the text. The sentient aspect of the house can detach from the house and reattach to something (a replica of the house in this case). All in all, I am going yes to it being a vampiric building but appreciate that others may disagree.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Diefenbach: Before Dawn – review

Art and story: Benedykt Szneider

First published: 2026

Contains spoilers

The blurb: In a remote village gripped by superstition and rot, a grave robber and a ruthless witch hunter are forced into an uneasy alliance. A cursed settlement. A faith twisted into fear. And a dark nun rosing from the depths of Hell itself. This is unflinching folk horror rooted in medieval dread.

The review: Another indie comic from the Afterlight stable, I was drawn to this due to the folk horror description and was not expecting a vampiric element. Starting with a couple of thieves robbing corpses on a battlefield, one flees when the battlefield rats turn on them and ends up in the company of a witch hunter.

He is taken to an abandoned village, which once had a nunnery and is told the story of a nun, seduced in the night, impregnated and then kept alive by the order until the baby was born and subsequently executed. The father brought her back from the dead and to do this “he made her drink the blood of infants, keeping her in a state between life and death.”

Of course, she is still there, fanged and feral… The graphic is not overly long at 60-pages but is bound better than a standard comic book as it is in paperback format. The art works, a scratchy pen and ink style that works well, adding a sense of dread. There are a couple of typos in the lettering but they clearly have slipped past proofing and are minimal. The story deserves expansion – learning more about the witch hunter would be brilliant. 6.5 out of 10.