Use of Tropes: Katharina

I’ll be honest this Anglo/Romanian ghost story, directed by Florian Zapra and released in 2022, was somewhat excruciating. However, it definitely uses some pretty darn obvious tropes – mostly location and character backstory – and is of genre interest as a result. It centres round a load of Romanian kids (I guess they were supposed to be late teens, but some seemed somewhat younger) in Bistrița, and an English exchange student Raul (Raul Szanto). The Romanian kids decide to take Raul into the Carpathians for some camping fun.

arriving at Hotel Castel Dracula

To get there they hire a ride, and several sneak into the hatchback as too many are travelling. The driver (Florian Zapra) is a drunk but gets them to the hotel that marks their starting point. En route they establish that he does not speak English. The hotel is the real life Hotel Castel Dracula, which is some 3.5 KM from the Borgo Pass. In that respect the drive is almost parallel to the journey in Dracula - indeed when at the hotel exterior, the camera lingers on the statue there of Bram Stoker.

with the ghost

This is the nearest Raul gets to vampires, something he had been interested in, but the uncanniness begins here also, with the driver who doesn’t speak English warning Raul in English to beware of the woods (a sensible warning for forest with a large bear and wolf population, to be fair) and Raul realising that the driver has vanished from a group photo he took. This, of course, makes him as mysterious as the Count’s coachman in Dracula. As they start their hike, Raul hears something calling him and wanders off, ending up in an abandoned building – suggested later to be the shell of a hotel. Within there he sees a ghost, Katharina (Ely Ciotmonda).

Ely Ciotmonda as Katharina

The Romanian lads find him and undertake to catch the ghost – to become rich. They eventually find and speak to her and ask her to come with them and essentially assimilate into the modern world and she agrees. There is a makeover later, where her clothes are exchanged for modern ones and makeup disguises her pallor. The other genre connection the film offers occurs when she tells Raul that she is 549 years old, named Katharina (but wants a new name) and was married to Vlad Dracul (which would have been the father but I suspect they were suggesting Vlad Ţepeş). .

the gang

And that’s it, all the vampiric connection. The kids try and assimilate Katharina into their world, she ends up invading their dreams (or nightmares as they die in each dream) and then they essentially scare her off with harsh words. It doesn’t do much, generally, the acting is amateurish, in honesty, but there was at least a nub of an idea and some genre interest.

The imdb page is here.

X-Men: Apocalypse Vs Dracula – review

Author: Frank Tieri

Illustrator: Clayton Henry

First published: 2018 (TPB)

Contains spoilers  

The Blurb: One is a villain that has been plaguing civilization since the time of the Pharaohs. The other is the deadliest vampire to ever walk the earth. Enemies since the Crusades, they've met again in 19th century London. It's the battle to end all battles as Apocalypse confronts Dracula!

The review: An interesting stand-alone story that jumps between timelines but, mostly, is set on the 19th century. This has Dracula – as a mortal Vlad Ţepeş – faced with Apocalypse’s forces during his war with the Ottoman Empire. It then outlines an attempt to take over a secret society descended from Apocalpyse, based at the London mansion Alexandria House, who eventually summon Apocalypse from suspended animation, but the mutant is bitten by Dracula and no-one knows if he can resist the vampire’s dominion – not even Abraham Van Helsing who joins the society’s survivors to help defeat his nemesis.

And this is quite good fun, a little bit of Dracula action in Marvel is always welcome and this time he was mixing it up with an X-Men antagonist. The artwork was good enough throughout. The story was a good bit of a side hustle and did fairly much what it said on the side of the tin, as it were, but didn't do anything too left field. 6 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

On Kindle @ Amazon UK

Kung Fu Slayers – review

Director: Benny Tjandra

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This is a direct sequel to Chinese Speaking Vampires and sees the return of Davy Williams as Tony, the primary slayer of the title, and Sean Eden Yi as Mr Ma – proving you can’t keep a good vampire down (or dead). It also has some key cast changes – primarily Nicole Andrews takes the role of Susie and David Flannigan takes the role of Jim.

I rather liked the first one, it took time to build up Tony and Mr Ma’s school, threw in action as the film developed and had a decent slice of comedy that tickled me. This, I’m afraid, not as much. The conceit behind the films is that there was once a sect of kung fu vampires whose greatest power was to be fluent in Mandarin and that, if bitten and turned, their victims would become fluent in Mandarin. Unfortunately, watching this on Fawesome, there were not hard coded subs for the (quite limited, in this film) moments of Mandarin and, when I put subs on for the Mandarin, they simply said “foreign language” but, with the exception of a fairly meaty Mandarin section towards the end, this should not spoil the film.

Tony and Gavin

So Tony has moved to Montana and is working in construction (whilst writing a script in the background) and living with his and Susie’s son Gavin (Kaden Daughtry). He and Susie are split due to her inability to contain her vampiric tendencies – for Tony and Susie are still daywalking vampires (all vampires daywalk in this). Tony keeps his addiction at bay through Jesus (later a vampire will be destroyed by having a cross against its forehead but Tony can pray and wear/wield a cross). Gavin is not a vampire (Tony will give him the choice at 18) and is bullied at school (probably because he tells the other kids that his dad’s a vampire).

The Overlord and Elvira

Over in LA, Mr Ma’s widow, Elvira (Bai Ling, The Breed, Sacred Blood, Three… Extremes & Dumplings) has found her husband's ashes and intends to bring him back. She is with a monk-like character, who is later revealed to be Eric Roberts, who is credited as Overlord, and barely comes into this (but Roberts has a tendency to turn up at the opening of an envelope, it seems). Why it has taken so long to find his ashes (and how they haven’t blown across the landscape) is not answered. She starts to build a fresh vampire army, some of them hop but most do not.

Gavin turned

Anyway, Tony gets a nibble at his script and so returns to LA with Gavin in tow. They visit Susie, scare off her domestically violent boyfriend, Hank (Matt Mhoon, Crimson Winter) and Tony leaves Gavin with her. Later Tony is attacked by Pastor Roberts (Jeff McDonald) and his remaining follower. Jim assists Tony in that fight, but then the Pastor reveals he needs their help because vampires are back (which made the attack a little silly, even if he was unsure of whether Tony was the active vampire). Meanwhile Elvira turns Hank, he helps the vampires kidnap Gavin and they use his “strong blood” inherited from Tony to bring Ma back to health. Ma immediately turns Gavin and decides to use him to break into Hollywood… Tony and friends have to get Gavin back.

impact of cross

And that’s it, but the comedy wasn’t there like before and the absurdist streak couldn’t keep this afloat to the same degree. The couple of cast swaps were ok but the Susie character was terribly sidelined and felt more a plot design this time than a fully formed character – an issue in the script rather than the performance. In the previous film’s review I mentioned that “Sean Eden Yi seems to be having a grand old time”, I didn’t get the feeling this time around. There was some turning to bat that was blink and you miss it and some of the cgi effects felt hollow, though I liked the vampire death effects. Overall, this was an ok sequel but not as good as its predecessor. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

For Night Will Come – review

Director: Céline Rouzet

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

This is the a use of a vampire as a (pretty on the nose) coming of age metaphor, with a protagonist whose vampirism is never explained and so the viewer has to take as is. It actually reminded me a little of the Radleys as I watched it but with very notable differences (only one vampire and the incredibly emo tone being two that immediately spring to mind).

vampire infant

The film opens with the sounds of labour and birth. The baby is named Philémon and when a doctor enters the room, presumably a little after the birth, he encourages mom, Laurence (Élodie Bouchez), to put him to the breast. The baby suckles but a trickle of blood flows from under the baby’s mouth eventually staining the white hospital sheet. Philémon is a vampire infant. We see Laurence take him from an incubator and stealing off with him in the night,

arrival

This is not a vampire infant film, however, and the next time we see Philémon (Mathias Legout Hammond) he is an older teen in the back of a car, sat by his little sister, Lucie (Laly Mercier). The car is driven by his father Georges (Jean-Charles Clichet) and it has coverings over the window by Philémon. The family are moving to a small country village or town. They have – we hear later – been fairly isolated. The film makes a point of the crossing of a bridge, which is symbolic of coming of age.

testing light tolerance

Philémon has a medical condition that requires he have fresh blood – it can be intravenously given but later he does drink it and mentions a thirst. It also means he must avoid direct sunlight and later we see him timing himself in the sun, waiting for ill effects. These happen soon and manifest, in the first moment, as tinnitus, it rapidly makes him ill (and is ultimately deadly). There is never an attempt to explain why he is like this, his family just accept it.

Céleste Brunnquell as Camile

Both Laurence and Philémon have implanted mediports so that she can donate blood to him. The plan in this new place, however, is for her to work as a nurse in a blood donation centre and she will steal “spoiled” bags. She does this but the viewer knows it will go wrong eventually. Philémon meets a girl, Camile (Céleste Brunnquell), and starts to fall for her and she, despite an inferred other romantic interest, eventually falls for him. However, the rest of the local kids start to turn against the weird emo kid who often sits in the shade, and this is compounded when Camile cuts her hand down at the swimming spot and he can’t help but suck at the wound.

drinking blood

The issue with the film is it treads ground that many vehicles have walked, and it isn’t that vampire films don’t normally do that, they do, rather it is that it doesn’t stand out particularly in any way. We know where it is going to go, the hatred of the locals, the girl submitting to his charms (she even takes that leap to know what he is and asks him to bite her) etcetera. We even get the devouring (off screen, so the shock value is massively diminished) of a beloved pet – being his sister’s dog, mostly because it seems to bark at him specifically if he is drinking blood. It seems that drinking animal blood causes a rampant itchy rash outbreak.

wrath of the locals

The film looks good enough, and it stays on course as a discourse on adolescence, not fitting in and the unkindness of strangers. The main protagonist, as mentioned, is very angsty/emo but that is adolescence for you, I guess. It just didn’t do anything I felt was interesting with it. The Radleys, at least, had the twins offering contrasts (and some black humour), a vampire hunter and a queer aspect. This brought little to the party. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Love Bitten

Coming in at just over 11-minutes, this is a short comedy directed by Dan Allen and released in 2016.

It starts in a coffee shop, where Lizzy (Sharon Singh) is breaking up with Alex (Thomas Wingfield), or confirming the breakup at the very least. He thanks her for their time together but accidentally knocks her coffee over, across her lap. As he goes to the counter to get napkins, he thinks to himself that it had felt great and kind of wishes it had been done purposely. He has brought her toothbrush and secretly wishes he had tainted it…

Thomas Wingfield as Alex

Whilst we see clips from Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, Alex muses that he wants to be the villain. He is watching the classic film on a tablet and suggests to his friend David (Charlie Field) that he wants to be a vampire. David, confused and likely long-suffering, mentions needing to be bitten – Alex decides he can find what he needs on the dark web.

bloodied

Indeed, he does find vampire pills for sale and so orders them. Once taken he makes a choice of who he is going to hunt – white van drivers… Could there be a more deserving section of modern living? Is he actually now a vampire… watching the short will reveal all. The film was genuinely funny and this was down to the Alex character – both in the writing and the performance. Worth a watch.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: Love Bites (2025)

This 2025 movie, directed by Laméo Flores, is not a vampire movie. However its presence on TMtV may become more understandable when I point out that the original French title is Dracula est amoureux. It is a well-crafted, well written and well-acted drama, a bitter-sweet portrayal of the aftermath of a relationship and the impact of trauma on the lives of the sufferers of the trauma and those who love them.

The opening sees Anatole (Roman Freud) in a doctor’s waiting room with boyfriend Liam (Lyad Smain). Anatole has an ear infection and is exasperated with Liam (who has googled a homemade earache cure consisting of onion juice). They reference a painting that seems out of place in a doctor’s waiting room but we don’t see it until the end of a scene – it is a bat and there is later another clear bat motif (although as much of the film takes place at a Halloween party, that isn’t too unexpected). Anatole is called through to the doctor, Liam says he loves him but Anatole doesn’t reciprocate.

Liam and Gabriel

Three months later and they have split and Anatole has ghosted Liam. Liam is getting ready for a Halloween party – a private, invite only party he intends to crash because he knows Anatole will be attending. He dresses as Dracula – and this is the reason for the mention as he maintains this outfit for the film, so acting as a vampire. At the party, he manages to get in by posing as the cousin of one of the attendees, Victor (Léonard Chouin), but is sussed by a young woman who blackmails him into sitting her young brother, Gabriel (Nathan Haggege) who is dressed as a ghost – whilst she goes off elsewhere.

fang

The film follows the pair bonding as they try to find Anatole (Liam forgot that he’d be in fancy dress also) and moments within the film take Liam out of the present and show us moments from their relationship, which builds a picture of the reason their love was ill-fated. When he does eventually find Anatole, he is dressed as Frankenstein’s Monster and there is a line suggesting that the Monster and Dracula being together does not exist in any tale. Absolutely brilliantly paced, this gets on here by dint of a costume but is a very watchable tragic love story.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Dracula Eternal – review

Director: Alan Smith

Release date: 2026

Contains spoilers

Another reimagining of Dracula, this one struggles. It cites Bram Stoker in the opening credits and lifts names… or modified versions thereof… but uses the love story background from Dracula (1992). Not that the love story aspect was the issue, more it was sloppy scriptwriting and the twist. I’m going to spoil the twist as the film broadcast that punch pretty darn early on.

So it starts on Monday evening and a couple are wandering the streets, bored and wanting a drink. First he is attacked by a grey thing – the vampire is seen in man-bat form when attacking but never for so long that the rubber mask is obvious – but the attack is unsatisfying cinematically. CGI blood and then we see him on the floor, a fence by him is then seen to have a huge amount of blood (smear not spatter/spray), with nothing between the close body and fence, and massive bloody handprints. It’s the opening moment of horror in the film and it is badly executed. The woman is then attacked.

Mina and Lucy

Tuesday, and Mina Harker (Cody Renee Cameron, the Neon Demon, Ravenwolf Towers, Verotika and the Obsidian Curse) is walking with her friend Lucy West (LeeAnne Bauer) and let us talk names for a minute. That Westenra is shortened to West is no surprise. More surprising is giving Mina the surname Harker, given that her fiancé is listed as Jonathan Harker (Cardon Ellis) in the credits, one wonders why both had the surname. The other name to mention is Mr Fields (Nathan Smith-Finley); we finally hear his name towards the end of the film but given the character’s dishevelled look, repeated references to “the Master”, and appropriation of Dwight Frye’s laugh he is clearly Renfield.

Nathan Smith-Finley as Mr Fields

Anyway, Mina’s profession is unknown (though mention is made of a photoshoot and studio) but Lucy is an old friend who is there to interview her. They are having a laugh when they are approached by Mr Fields, who grabs Mina and says she is for the Master. Lucy offers a judicious knee to his privates and he leaves. They drive to Mina’s home (to be fair we don’t know if they went elsewhere first) and when they get there Mr Fields is stood by the door. He offers creepy words and then leaves. Lucy follows but loses him immediately, Mina calls the cops.

at the crime scene

So, elsewhere, Detective Mills (Denise Milfort) is at a crime scene. We see fang marks in the neck of the deceased. With a skull on his car hood and covered in tattoos, Detective Paller (Mike Ferguson), does look a tad more gang member than detective but he is Mills partner. This is far from the first victim. Paller is convinced there is a serial killer, Mills has talked to her priest and has come to the conclusion that there is something demonic going on, like vampires. Apparently the only cops in LA, they are sent to Mina’s to discuss the stalking.

Drake and Mina

I mentioned broadcasting punches. Jonathan is at Mina’s when the detectives arrive. Paller waits for an actual invitation before entering and once in is overly attentive to Mina, who asks if she knows him. Later that night Jonathan is attacked by the vampire whilst going home (and there is an alarming lack of concern when he goes incommunicado) and we see Lucy dragged through the house – so the vampire has already been invited (back to alarming, despite Lucy screaming and bleeding wounds on her neck, Mina does not call Mills about the attack in her house till the next morning). Oh, and we discover Paller’s first name is Drake… yeah, he’s Dracula, posing as a detective and working the homicide case where he is the killer.

Lucy turning

It is the laxness in the script that concerns most. With Lucy acting odd (and the film letting her have a gyrate for no real reason after her lesbian advances are rebuffed and before pounding on Mina’s door), Mina decides to contact a priest, picks the first random one she spots online, Father Connor (William 'Bill' Connor, Bloodthirst), and he happens to both believe in vampires and know Dracula’s backstory. Strangely, after he tells Mina about the 15th Century Prince Vlad, who turned from God because his wife died and struck a deal with the devil for immortal life, she uses the name Dracula – though he never mentioned it. You could argue she remembered the name (being his wife reincarnated) but beyond the vague recognition there are no other suggestions of past life memories.

Dracula attacks

Lore is pretty standard, other than Connor telling Mina that Dracula is immortal but can be destroyed if he falls in love again and renounces his pact with the devil, which will lift the curse. Beyond that we get stakes, a silver dagger, and holy items. This was hampered by the lax script and by the fact that they really didn’t put any effort into building a meaningful relationship between Dracula and Mina. This is far from the best, but I have seen a whole lot worse. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK