Danger, Dames & Dangerous Games – review

Director: Alexander Salazar

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

At first glance the title looks silly – but don’t worry its purposefully so as Danger, Dames & Dangerous Games is a low budget urban fantasy, with a slice of noir but, more importantly, a comedic heart.

It does carry with it some controversy as I have seen that many have likened it (closely) to a book series entitled Monster Hunters International by Larry Correia. Having not read the books I can’t say and perhaps you’d offer your opinion in the comments section. Nevertheless, I will judge the film on its merits and the merits are good – though there is an issue with the version I watched.

the confrontation

The film starts with main character Marvin (Justin Marshall Elias) monologuing, in a film noir way, facing a window and then… grey screen and an exclamation mark… and we're suddenly in the middle of a confrontation with a vampire, Sherman (Michael D. Anglin), in a warehouse. This is either a broken upload on Amazon Prime or a deliberate digital grindhouse moment. As this misses the exposition of the fact that Marvin is an accountant (not a detective), that the artefact the vampire is looking for (the Aegresco) has chosen Marvin and is now in his blood (and how that happened), and the relationship with the vampire and a co-worker, Kingsley (Susan Gordon), who is dead in the room. Of course, you pick up on these as you go through the film (though not how the artefact chose him) so perhaps this was deliberate but the break is so glaring I suspect not. The technical issue has not impacted my scoring.

awaiting combustion

So, having been beaten by the inhumanly fast vampire, Marvin manages to grab a silver pin and (with a glow in his hand, which turns out to be the Aegresco) he stabs at him and the vampire vanishes. He awakens, wrapped in bandages with a beautiful dame in the room – actually credited as the Dame (Shanna Vincent) – who essentially gives him warnings. He is out again and comes around to two FBI agents in the room, Agents Dwayne (Robin Lee Canode) and Nixon (Christopher Heskey). They tell him that he died for a moment and, if vampire venom has resurrected him, his citizenship will be revoked and he will be killed. They open the curtains and he doesn’t combust.

vampires

Marvin then finds himself thrust into a world of gangsters and fantasy creatures, including articulate zombies, half-trolls and homeless elves. It seems his parents have been kidnapped and everyone wants the Aegresco, especially the vampire who wants to conduct a power ritual and take on the vampire elders. Marvin is hapless and yet bungles his way through, whilst avoiding cats – he fears and hates cats. The film is absolutely filled with holes – it even makes a comment to that effect as a knowing aside – and yet it is such good fun. This is down primarily to the actors.

the Dame and Agent Dwayne

They all sincerely seem to be having fun, with a lot of satisfied looks to camera or the odd lick of a fang adding together to make things great fun. However, it is Justin Marshall Elias who absolutely makes the film. He manages to combine bungler with handsome leading man, his noir voiceover is perfect and his timing impeccable. The film is worth watching for him. It might be derivative of another intellectual property (as I mentioned, I can’t say either way) but it is a satisfying budget flick. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK