Honourable Mention: Drakul

This is a 2014 web series/film directed by Michael Merino. The four episodes or the 70 minute cut can be viewed over at MCM Films. As these can be viewed for free they have been looked at here as an “Honourable Mention”.

Starting in a street we see the exchange of a kidnap victim from the men who took him to those who ordered his capture. The victim is David Harkin (Gabriel Voss) and we later discover that he is the illegitimate son of the US President. Unfortunately the kidnappers get greedy and find themselves at the wrong end of a flame thrower, a gun and a bomb as a result.



Senator and wife

The name of the game in this is political intrigue. Senator Drake (Lee Ordeman) is being backed by a mysterious person/organisation - made–up of vampires of course. Drake realises the dangers of his Faustian pact when the organisation has his wife killed as she is an alcoholic and thus a loose cannon and then take his daughter out of boarding school to prove that she is vulnerable.

Joe Estevez as Stewart

There is a second group of vampires, headed by Dr Stewart (Joe Estevez, the Caretakers), who are opposing the plans of the first group and are working through an agent for hire called Helsinger (Regen Wilson). He was meant to have quit but takes the job of finding Harkin and later is asked, with his partner, to assassinate Senator Drake. When he refuses the latter he becomes a liability and is hunted down.

a vampire

Probably the biggest fault the film has is within its need to elaborate on more of the plot. For instance Harkin is taken and fed upon (but not killed) by vampires. However, despite his parentage, we do not know why he is important to either side. We also see that at least one of the vampires, Fausto (Dan Istrate, Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm), appears to be playing both sides and we don’t know why. I am sure such things would be elaborated upon eventually, should the piece be developed as a full series.

another vampire

Effects wise we do get the use of cgi blood effects, gun effects and flames/explosions. These are more problematic, from a viewer point of view, than practical effects would have been but I suspect that budget is the key issue with this. As things stand this is ok, and it is free to watch. However, if developed further I’d like some more exposition for the viewer.

The imdb page is here.