Vesper Glen – review

Author: Coryn Noble

First Published: 2025

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Charlie Pike, a detective with the Boston Police Department, gets a call from his hometown in Vermont, asking if he wants to be their new police chief. It’s an appealing offer, but it would mean telling his wife Abbie, and eventually their kids Natalie and Marcus, about the “V’s” – the hundred or so residents of Vesper Glen with symbionts that make them live for centuries, heal rapidly from wounds, avoid sunlight and garlic, and regularly need to consume blood.

Even after Abbie overcomes her initial skepticism, and Charlie takes the job, she’s still apprehensive about her new neighbors, including leading citizen John Saxon, town doctor Meara Desmond, and night-shift Sergeant Ray Dante. Still, the family settles into small town life, sharing the ancestral Pike house with Charlie’s elderly dad.

Then a run-in with a biker gang gets the attention of an FBI agent, a hostile Army officer, a marauding band of V’s whose leader holds a grudge against John, and a secret society of fanatical vampire hunters. All of this will test the ingenuity and determination of the entire community…

The review: I think the first thing to note about Vesper Glen is the source of the vampirism. As the blurb mentions, the vampires are in a symbiotic relationship with a lifeform that has taken residence within their veins, living off the iron in blood and forcing the need to drink blood to feed the symbiote. In return it heals them and slows aging. A subterranean lifeform, it is highly sensitive to UV light. As such, these are living vampires and, as the novel progresses, they are split into factions – those in Vesper Glen believe in living side by side with humans, the most extreme believe that humans are foodstuff only and they are superior.

The book sees cop Charlie Pike take on role of police chief, already knowing about the Vs as he grew up in Vesper Glen (and kids are told the truth of some of the townsfolk at 15). Charlie’s wife and kids, however, are in the dark and he has to convince Abbie that living next door to vampires is not a dangerous thing. The reader soon discovers it is dangerous, however, not due to their vampires but down to general bad guys (in the form of a biker gang), a band of vampires from the extreme faction and the Hawthorn Cross – a shadowy secret vampire killing society.

The writing in this was crisp and perhaps veered over towards the utilitarian in places, but as this is told from Charlie’s point of view that felt right, given his cop pedigree. The book lies more towards police procedural than urban fantasy – though that element still sits there. We do get to hear quite a lot about the vampires’ society, including their own language, but there is much more than could and should be explored in future volumes. A neat little read, with some interesting takes on the genre. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Carmilla – review

Director: Jay Lind

Release date: 1998

Contains spoilers

After watching Jay Lind’s Valerie I was much more upbeat about watching this low-to-no budget adaptation of Carmilla. Unfortunately this just didn’t capture me in the same way – though I will say that the selected soundtrack for this worked a lot better than the Valerie soundtrack did. There is a nasty crackle over the sound but I think that is going to be the best version that a distributor will find.

crucifix

It starts in the second half of the 19th Century and Carmilla (Maria Pechukas, Spookies) is being forced to marry and so she killed her husband and then slit her wrists with a crucifix. She returned as a vampire, of course, and the women of the family started to die due to a strange anaemia. Maddie (also Maria Pechukas) had a dream of a strange woman in her room as a child – it started when her mother (Heather War) died.

Maria Pechukas as Carmilla

The film has quite a disjointed narrative, with an attempt to draw a psychosexual drama in much the way Valerie did, but this isn’t as well put together. Angela (Colleen Van Ryn) is being called by a voice (haunted as she is by Carmilla) and Maddie’s dad goes to stay with her uncle as Angela is her aunt and is ill. Maddie is beginning to experience phenomena too and later we hear that her dad had an affair with Carmilla whilst her mom died.

vampiric imagery

The film does create a dreamlike aspect to the narrative. I was more taken with the performance of Carmilla than that of Maddie and there is, of course, much in the way of vampiric imagery. If you like your movies to be a fever dream (with low-to-no budget) then you’ll get something out of this but I’d direct you to the much stronger Valerie. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Queen Dracula Sucks Again

Directed by Curtis Everitt, released in 2024, and coming in at just over 46 minutes, this is ostensibly a sequel to Everitt’s Queen Dracula although, as Queen Dracula (Mel Heflin, Katherine) makes clear at the head it is for those in to “cheesy B horror sequels, where none of the original people come back and the continuity from the original does not matter.”

Now, this looks a lot nicer, in a photography sort of way, to the previous film and Queen Dracula is right in her description. However, it is also interminably long for a short, in a world where pacing is something that happens to other people’s films.

feeding

It follows Claude (Curtis Everitt), a recently divorced man with joint custody of his son – though because he lives out of the way he rarely sees him. It starts with him relaying how down he is and that seeing home videos of his son helps – which is then followed by said video of son on play equipment that just goes on. We then watch him at a (deliberately) excruciating speed dating.

QD and Claude

He gets a house flyer through the post and goes to see it. This has the film then follow him around the house, unaware of Queen Dracula who appears in the background watching. Eventually she makes herself known and shows him round the same rooms we just watched him go through until revealing her true nature and attacking him. Fin. The whole thing could have been cut down to a 5-minute sequence and lost nothing but gained pace.

The imdb page is here.

Valerie – review

Director: Jay Lind

Release date: 2002

Contains spoilers

Not to be confused with the director’s 1992 film of the same name, this was a straight to video, zero budget flick that has received Blu-ray treatment in a collection of five of his films, released by SRS video.

When I got the set, I was conflicted, after all I didn’t particularly think the films would be masterpieces but there were at least two vampire features (this and Carmilla). I watched this first and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is low budget and has plenty wrong with it, but it was also a very watchable psychosexual drama.

bite

It starts with Nosferatu on TV and then cuts to a graveyard and, in a crypt, led on top of the tomb is Valerie (Maggi Horseman). She rises and does a slow amble through the graveyard – a note that the night lighting is well done but the shots seem out of focus, probably deliberately so to give a dreamlike feel. A couple are in the car and the lady (I think Crissy Madarang) hears something, she sends the guy out. He is killed by Valerie, who gets in the car with the, now topless, girl and feeds from her.

Maggi Horseman as Valerie

Valerie’s mom (Kelley Rouse) wakes her, with Valerie complaining that she is an adult (she’s 18). Her mom notices that she has had a nosebleed in her sleep and her face is smeared with blood. She goes to her therapist and talks about her dream and how excited it has left her. She works at a boutique, then takes lunch on a boardwalk and finally goes to dance class. She disassociates whilst in class, reliving memories of a violent sexual assault that leaves her screaming and comforted by her friend Lori (Mellani Love).

pick up

So, we discover that she was assaulted, immediately after believing she had been followed home. She cannot remember the assailant and refers to him as a vampire. Her step-father doesn’t believe it was an assault, rather she invited it and essentially victim blames. She is also self-harming. She regularly dreams of being a vampire, with Lori and the girl from the first dream (who is a person she has seen in real life) taking victim and vampire roles in the dreams. There is some evidence that she has killed someone she picked up, but that could be a dream also (and a serial killer called the moonlight maniac is mentioned occasionally to obfuscate the truth further).

Lori with fangs

As the film progresses, she meets an older artist, Jack (Jay Lind), who she falls for and who falls for her. Lori is less than pleased but it seems that she has sapphic feelings for her friend (these are unreciprocated in real life, but the fact that she and the other woman feature in her vampire dreams suggests that subconsciously Valerie entertains the notion). The whole film moves towards the realisation of who the attacker was.

projecting the vampire

The dialogue is sometimes off – I couldn’t believe that two 18-year-olds would be that coy around sexual language. However, aspects like Valerie’s ofttimes bluntness, worked well with the character and the performance suited that. There was no shying from nudity and some of the themes were very dark (rape, self-harm and attempted suicide). One poor aspect was the chosen soundtrack, which I felt was too bombastic. The film is more belief in vampires and acting like a vampire, though the projection of a vampire persona (the only male vampire) on her attacker kind of makes for a vampire and Valerie is an untrustworthy witness to her own narrative. However, surprisingly entertaining and worth watching 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Blood Hunters: Once More Into The Darkness – review

Author: Various

Artist: Various

Release date: 2024 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Collects Blood Hunters (2024) #1-4 and Hallows' Eve: The Big Night.

Your favorite Marvel heroes vs. vampires! Discover how the shattering events of BLOOD HUNT cover the breadth of the Marvel Universe! Hawkeye is on the run, but does he have enough trick arrows in his quiver to avoid both the long arm of the law and vampires out for his blood?! And the same question applies to Kate Bishop! Man-Wolf and J. Jonah Jameson do a little father-son bonding - while also fighting for their lives against a horde of bloodsuckers! But what happens when a group of vamps get a taste of the Hulk's gamma-irradiated plasma? Plus: The vengeance of Doctor Doom! The cosmic power of the Silver Surfer! The fury of Hellcow! And with Cloak missing in action, Dagger strikes out in search of new and surprising allies. Witness the genesis of Marvel's wildest team yet: the Blood Hunters!

The review: The third of the Blood Hunt crossover event that I have read, this was the most diverse. Starting with a Hawkeye story – hunted by law enforcement, disguising himself by growing a moustache, he is caught just as sundeath occurs and then he, and the cops, have more important things to deal with. However the graphic novel jumps in and out of stories and there is a wide variety of content and Marvel characters including Man-Wolf, Elsa Bloodstone, Dagger, Hulk and Dr Doom. A standout moment was the blessing of a rooftop water tower and then exploding the contents down onto the vampire filled street below.

However, for me the reason to get this volume (beyond the whole event) is because Marvel bring back Hellcow… indeed not just Hellcow, but her calf too. The concept of a vampire cow might seem silly, but I love it and they manage to give this strip a gravitas despite the subject. Again, the multitude of characters might be confusing for casual Marvel readers, but the book contains many separate tales, which work in that self-contained way amongst the larger event and are, for the most part, street level. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: The Vampyress

Released in 2021 and coming in at just under 11 minutes, the Vampyress was directed by James Worthington. It starts with a girl, Willow (Emily Uritz) breathing hard whilst by a sink, the tap running, she is blood spattered.

dinner

She seems to awaken and her father (Karl Barbee) has come in her room, she is on the floor. He wants her to come down for dinner but she is due to go out with friends. He insists. Downstairs there are Halloween decorations up and he hands her a plat of fried spinach. She takes one fork of it.

blood spattered

He doesn’t know where her mother is, if she cared she’d be there he says. He asks about school and confronts her with her absence, wanting to know what is going on. She gets a text and says she’ll have to go but when he tries to stop her she smashes her plate over his head and punches him out. She is panicking when there is a knock at the door – she assumes her friends. It is a stranger named Jenni (Ali Basalyga), she has just moved in down the street and asks to be let in…

And it is a neat little short, playing with turning and memory. The imdb page is here.

Horror stories – review

Director: Lukas DiSparrow

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

This is a portmanteau film where it seems like the segments were made for the feature where the surround is a group going to the Host (Lukas DiSparrow) who has a book that, when they touch it, they enter the story. The actual stories themselves are of varying quality but, overall, the film is certainly watchable.

The vampire segment is called Dracula but, to be fair, it is not one of the stronger segments though the black and white London-scape looks rather nice.

prostitute

It starts with the “reader” (Andrea Kularatne) in the city and narrating. She is looking for a hunter that she will hunt. She meets a man on the street, offers him a ‘good time’ and goes down an alley with him where sex is had but when she asks for money he walks away – though not before ramming her hard into a wall and knocking her out. Honestly, the prostitute element made little sense.

rising

We see a hand emerge from a coffin and Dracula (Mario Bob) rises. I liked the decayed, monstrous make-up. The reader comes round and walks the streets. She is watched by the vampire, his shadow follows her and her narration suggests she knows. He appears near her and speaks to her – she does not react to his look. She stakes him, that’s it… To be fair this was one story where the character the reader takes is successful and survives – she is rather elated when out of the story.

Mario Bob as Dracula

However, the segment does very little. It is style over substance. As I mentioned at the head, the anthology, as a whole, was worth a watch but this segment did so very little that only its stylistic elements (rather well done for a low budget) drag it up to 3.5 out of 10 and as regular readers will know, with anthology/portmanteau films I only score the vampire segment.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon UK