Director: Deon Taylor
Release Date: 2021
Contains spoilers
When I watched the first Meet the Blacks film I did so knowing that this vampire vehicle was due to be released, unknowing that in the first film the son of the family, Carl Jr. (Alex Henderson), was obsessed with vampires and acted like one, earning the first film an Honourable mention. Based on the Purge, I found that the comedy of the first film dropped the viewer, “amidst a general slew of stereotypes, {which} made it somewhat uncomfortable”.
There was an opportunity with this to eschew that, to step away from the juvenile humour and make a more thought-out comedy. To make primary character Carl Black (Mike Epps) a rehabilitated character – whose redemption occurred through the previous film – but whilst he is not criminally involved (and inept) in this, generally he is still a dead beat who is letting his family down.
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| Carl and Allie |
We start with a voice over from daughter Allie (Bresha Webb) who situates an Egyptian connection with the vampires we are going to meet and positions the family back in Atlanta, living in Carl’s family home. Carl has written and published a book based on the events of the first film but they have spent the monies from it and he is struggling to write a second (several characters suggest the first is a poor, unsophisticated effort). Now, we see little of Allie in the subsequent film but more than we do of Carl’s wife, Lorena (Zulay Henao), whose purpose in this seems to be sexualised (and the reincarnated draw for the vampire), and even less of Carl Jr. who, given his obsession in the previous film, would logically have been a main protagonist in this.
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| Cronut and Carl |
The basic premise of the film is rather Fright Night with vampires moving into the house next door. Cousin Cronut (Lil Duval) believes them to be vampires whereas Carl believes they are pimps (and is disturbed first by the attention they seem to offer Allie and then Lorena). It is within the meta elements, as the film reaches to other genre pieces, that the film finds its strength as, for me, the primary comedy style is a weakness.
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| pimping it |
A lot of the comedy is based around Epps and Duval arguing with each other (primarily) and with others. This is best described as histrionic shouting over each other, with plenty of street language, often feeling (at least semi-) adlibbed and I appreciate that some might find it funny – unfortunately I didn’t. Although I will say that not all the humour from Epps and Duval missed for me – there were gems that could have been built on. Epps asking if the head vampire was “a Black bite-sized Hugh Hefner?” made me snort.
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| Gary Owen as Clive |
Back to the downside and there was a streak of ablism in the script also in the form of two characters. Freezie (Andrew Bachelor), Allie’s boyfriend thought killed in the purge returns, on crutches, without the use of his legs. Clive (Gary Owen) is not the character the actor played in the first film (as far as I can tell) but, rather, is a Trump supporting (he has a Trump tattoo) veteran (it is suggested) who has lost the use of his legs and uses a wheelchair. Both characters are described as impotent, with jokes aimed around that – tying disability to a (Freudian or perhaps just misogyny based) concept of manhood.
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| vamp face |
Redeeming features sit around the vampires as I suggested. The house next door is referred to as the Marsten House – the house in Salem’s Lot, there is the reincarnated love aspect that is an established genre trope, there is an Egyptian alabaster statue, which was reminiscent of the ancients in Queen of the Damned, the head vampire is Dr Mamuwalde (Katt Williams) named for Blacula with the trailer for Blacula played in film, and a ripping of a door off a car actually brought the Lost Boys to mind.
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| Trejo always delivers |
I also need to mention the appearance of Danny Trejo - his presence lifts any film (at least for the moment he is in it). In this he does a nice line of repeating the warning “Don’t invite him in” but his appearance was lamentably short. Then he reappears at the end wielding a sword, rescues the kids and tells them not to call him Hugo, rather they should call him Filero – the Mexican Blade flashes on the screen – tying both to Blade and, of course, Trejo’s Machete character. A mid-credit sequence suggests that he will play a larger role in the third film. I should also mention that Katt Williams was marvellous as Mamuwalde, chewing the scenery with a dignified air that, whilst it couldn’t match William Marshall’s dignified Blacula performance, was a pleasure as it cut through the leads’ histrionics.
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| vampire attack |
The lore was standard; turning into bats, dusting when staked, sunlight destroying the vampire and lack of reflection – though there was an accidental reflection in a scene in Carl’s kitchen after the no reflection point had been made. So how to score? I was, with the primary comedy, still uncomfortable but loved the genre touching aspects. The story was very simple and very Fright Night but it was more cohesive than the first film, where the various characters coming after Carl in the Purge was a real mixed bag. Of course, comedy is also very subjective. 4 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On DVD @ Amazon US
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