Honourable Mention: Gothkill

This was a 2009 film by JJ Connelly and it was way back then when I first became aware of the film and it has taken all the way to now to look at the film.

Now there is most definitely a supernatural element to the film but the reason that this is an honourable mention is because the “vampires” in it are vampyre lifestylers and there is nothing within the film to suggest that they believe that they are undead vampires. Thus it is, at best, of genre interest.

It is about a priest from the inquisition, Nicholas Dread (Flambeaux), who discovers that the church are killing innocents under the sentence of witchcraft in order that the church might confiscate their property and intervenes – getting burned at the stake in turn and vowing revenge by agreeing a deal with Satan that he will have a kingdom in Hell to rule after providing 10,000 souls. Thus he returns to earth over and over as a serial killer of the corrupt.

Flambeaux as Dread

When we meet him we see him with a coven who, after a ritual, he slaughters (by gun) and this provides him with the last few souls he needs. He is hung for mass murder but, arriving in Hell, the devil has stiffed him and taken all the souls – leaving him with an empty kingdom. His priestess has been accidentally run over and his book of magic, that could bring him back, stolen.

Annie and Kate

Meanwhile Annie (Erica Giovinazzo) has arrived in New York, where she is going to college and sharing an apartment with her cousin Kate (Eve Blackwater). Kate has got into the Goth scene and takes Annie for a makeover, where they are given an invite to the VIP party of the scorpion society – a vampyre lifestyle coven. Actually the group, under their leader Lord Walechia (Michael Day), end up drugging the girls in order that they will “initiate them” – for that read gang rape. Walechia has got his hands on Dread’s book and reads a ritual, however, allowing Dread to possess Annie…

Michael Day as Lord Walechia

The film is short and, from our point of view, features people who like to put fangs in and pretend they're vampires. I would wax lyrical about the cheapness of the film but it has a saving grace in the form of Flambeaux who is clearly having a whale of a time. The imdb page is here.