Stakeout – review

Directors: John Otteni and Paul Otteni

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

This is a mockumentary where we follow filmmakers following, in this case, a vampire hunter. As such it has a similar pedigree as films like AS:VS At Stake: Vampire Solutions, though in that the conceit was we were in a world where vampires were known to be both real and a problem.

In this we are in our world, essentially. A world in which there are no such things as vampires and a lone figure tries to prove that wrong and protect us from the creatures of the night… well so he says…

John Otteni as Jon

After a moment of a TV news report about bodies being found, we meet Jon Velmont (John Otteni), who is an indie filmmaker, amongst which is his vampire feature Transfusion. He describes the plot as being about a junky who finds a used needle and contracts vampirism from it. He then describes how he was contacted by someone, Abel Martin (Colin Wessman), who said he liked the film but it wasn’t the real story of vampires, described himself as a vampire hunter and invited him to film his hunts.

Abel's stake

So Jon and his crew go to film Abel. They meet him and he is a tall, intense young man who rents a basement in a house. He talks about a secret cult of vampires and suggests there are pockets of them in every town and city and they are planning something. He has a stake in a case, which he says was the one he used for his first kill at just ten years old. He then suggests that his father and grandfather etc were also vampire hunters.

Welcome to Forks

He scoffs at the idea of reasoning with them and, when talking about misconceptions, scoffs at the idea that they could turn into bats or not reflect in a mirror. When sparkling is mentioned he gets irate, suggesting that the Twilight films have set vampire hunting legitimacy back decades. It is ironic, therefore, that the hunt at the climax of the film is in Forks.

Grant E. McGee as Draven

He introduces the crew to Draven (Grant E. McGee), a self-styled vampire historian (and pizza pockets expert) and also his ex-girlfriend Tawny (Madison Rotolo). He claims he slew many vampires when he was with her – she was kept out of it. He splits his time between pizza delivery (he adds garlic onto pizzas) and his activities. As an ordained minister he bulk makes holy water and spends much time with stakeouts of potential vampires/nests. But as serious as he is, could it be real? The crew starts to doubt – especially when he breaks into an ‘abandoned’ house he thinks is a nest, during daytime, and the very human owner comes home causing them to scarper.

They call me the hunter...

Is he a vampire hunter, delusional or a liar? If option 2 or 3, can a stopped clock be right twice a day? This, by necessity, has to be carried by the two primaries of Jon and Abel and they contrast themselves really well – with Abel portrayed as intense, earnest and more than a little sad, and Jon by turns amused and frustrated by Abel and the lack of evidence he can see. It is a comedy and the hunter is front and centre to that with the comedian actually being the situation and he playing the straight-man to it. It is, however, a tad unoriginal but plays with the concept competently. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK