Director: George Demick
Release date: 2020
Contains spoilers
This is a low budget film that had a few really nice reference points for the genre nerd to pick up on (and I’ll obviously highlight one or two as I go). A fairly simple story and an earnest, if not remarkable, cast. I was actually rather impressed with (most) of the practical effects they layered into the film.
It starts with some of the cleanest homeless people you’ll meet – it has been my observation that a couple of lower budget films recently have had their cast, be they playing homeless or zombies, in clothes that just were not particularly worn looking. This wasn’t totally like that – a couple of spotlighted characters later are costumed fine but if it wasn’t for the bin-brazier and hooch you’d have thought these were just mates in a garage.
So, they are there when they notice women getting out of a car and watching them menacingly – they at first invite them over but then become wary and suggest they’ll protect themselves. The women come in and attack and it is a massacre (though later we come to understand that some of the attacks lead to the victims being taken alive). In this scene it felt like there was a desire to show off some practical effects such as a bottle into neck or a burnt face. The women drag the bodies off…
But what was weird was just how clean the crime scene is when we see it later. There is no indication that an industrial clean took place and yet… yeah, the place would have been sprayed with blood in truth. Nevertheless, the story continues as we meet Kyle Deeders (David Polk, Vampie) a reporter who is propping a bar but he leaves, a bottle of booze passed to him as he heads to the door, when he gets a call from his girlfriend (JoAnn Darby). Outside, before getting in his car, he speaks to homeless guy Jimmy (Wulff) who has been keeping an eye on his vehicle – he passes Jimmy the bottle.
So Deeders is a big city reporter whose been sacked a few too many times and ended up in a small town on the newspaper staff. Later we get a line about being runout of Vegas, a nod I thought to Kolchak: The Night Stalker. He gets a social story and, there, meets a mysterious benefactor to the fundraiser, Father Sebastian Michaels (Tracey West) – named, I assume, for Father Sebastiaan the fangsmith. He meets Jimmy again who says the homeless are going missing – some 30 or 40 have vanished. The police seem to be doing little (because, homeless) and the two cops who are put on the case, Smith (Matthew Garrett) and Jones (Joel Graves), have the case as punishment duty.
Eventually Deeders, along with Smith and Jones, end up at a homicide with a bitten victim and then back at her house when she rises from the dead and returns home to attack her husband. They know no-one will believe that she was a vampire and the homeless are still going missing… Of course Deeders may have already met the master vampire given he gets a description of women with a man in priest robes… And to be fair the film doesn’t do much unexpected story wise but the primary actors are earnest enough – the performances aren’t stellar but they’re at least serviceable for the most part. However the comedic thread through the film feels a tad hinky (which includes a surly barfly (Caralyn Tucker) and a rival reporter (Catherine Curtis), and their interaction with Deeders).
The lore seems a bit off also. Sunlight is evidentially an issue, stakes through the heart kill and crosses ward… or do they. Whilst we have seen them used to effect against the female vampires, when a cross is used against Father Michaels, he shrugs off the apotropaic effect by saying he is a priest and therefore good with crosses. Except, when being interviewed he is (unknown to us at the time) wearing prosthetic clay that hides the livid cross scar on his forehead – so how’d he get the perma-scar if he’s ok with crosses? Also a face full of holy water burns him (and I would assume if he’s ok with crosses he’s ok with holy water). Maybe it was the contact that was important but the film doesn’t explain the minutia.
I mentioned the effects and for the main part the practical ones are impressive given the budget. There are two beheadings. The first, due to clever use of camera angle and lighting looks really well done, the second not so much, with the decapitated head looking rubbish due to being fully lit and directly in shot. However, where there was an issue was in the (sparse, I feel) cgi – when the cops shoot a vampire in the head, there is an impressive back spray on the wall that looks visceral and is practical, but the bullet hole is post-production cgi and looks awful.
This is low budget filmmaking and, as mentioned, the story is serviceable but not earth shatteringly new or original. I did think there were nice genre nods – one scene with Michaels running, hands grasping forward was pure Count Yorga and I assume deliberately so. Deeders makes for a fair protagonist and Michaels a fun, though perhaps underused, adversary. This isn’t the greatest film but its ok. 4 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
This is a low budget film that had a few really nice reference points for the genre nerd to pick up on (and I’ll obviously highlight one or two as I go). A fairly simple story and an earnest, if not remarkable, cast. I was actually rather impressed with (most) of the practical effects they layered into the film.
It starts with some of the cleanest homeless people you’ll meet – it has been my observation that a couple of lower budget films recently have had their cast, be they playing homeless or zombies, in clothes that just were not particularly worn looking. This wasn’t totally like that – a couple of spotlighted characters later are costumed fine but if it wasn’t for the bin-brazier and hooch you’d have thought these were just mates in a garage.
 |
| group of homeless people |
So, they are there when they notice women getting out of a car and watching them menacingly – they at first invite them over but then become wary and suggest they’ll protect themselves. The women come in and attack and it is a massacre (though later we come to understand that some of the attacks lead to the victims being taken alive). In this scene it felt like there was a desire to show off some practical effects such as a bottle into neck or a burnt face. The women drag the bodies off…
 |
| Deeders and Jimmy |
But what was weird was just how clean the crime scene is when we see it later. There is no indication that an industrial clean took place and yet… yeah, the place would have been sprayed with blood in truth. Nevertheless, the story continues as we meet Kyle Deeders (David Polk, Vampie) a reporter who is propping a bar but he leaves, a bottle of booze passed to him as he heads to the door, when he gets a call from his girlfriend (JoAnn Darby). Outside, before getting in his car, he speaks to homeless guy Jimmy (Wulff) who has been keeping an eye on his vehicle – he passes Jimmy the bottle.
 |
| David Polk as Deeders |
So Deeders is a big city reporter whose been sacked a few too many times and ended up in a small town on the newspaper staff. Later we get a line about being runout of Vegas, a nod I thought to Kolchak: The Night Stalker. He gets a social story and, there, meets a mysterious benefactor to the fundraiser, Father Sebastian Michaels (Tracey West) – named, I assume, for Father Sebastiaan the fangsmith. He meets Jimmy again who says the homeless are going missing – some 30 or 40 have vanished. The police seem to be doing little (because, homeless) and the two cops who are put on the case, Smith (Matthew Garrett) and Jones (Joel Graves), have the case as punishment duty.
 |
| cops |
Eventually Deeders, along with Smith and Jones, end up at a homicide with a bitten victim and then back at her house when she rises from the dead and returns home to attack her husband. They know no-one will believe that she was a vampire and the homeless are still going missing… Of course Deeders may have already met the master vampire given he gets a description of women with a man in priest robes… And to be fair the film doesn’t do much unexpected story wise but the primary actors are earnest enough – the performances aren’t stellar but they’re at least serviceable for the most part. However the comedic thread through the film feels a tad hinky (which includes a surly barfly (Caralyn Tucker) and a rival reporter (Catherine Curtis), and their interaction with Deeders).
 |
| cross scar |
The lore seems a bit off also. Sunlight is evidentially an issue, stakes through the heart kill and crosses ward… or do they. Whilst we have seen them used to effect against the female vampires, when a cross is used against Father Michaels, he shrugs off the apotropaic effect by saying he is a priest and therefore good with crosses. Except, when being interviewed he is (unknown to us at the time) wearing prosthetic clay that hides the livid cross scar on his forehead – so how’d he get the perma-scar if he’s ok with crosses? Also a face full of holy water burns him (and I would assume if he’s ok with crosses he’s ok with holy water). Maybe it was the contact that was important but the film doesn’t explain the minutia.
 |
| vampire brides |
I mentioned the effects and for the main part the practical ones are impressive given the budget. There are two beheadings. The first, due to clever use of camera angle and lighting looks really well done, the second not so much, with the decapitated head looking rubbish due to being fully lit and directly in shot. However, where there was an issue was in the (sparse, I feel) cgi – when the cops shoot a vampire in the head, there is an impressive back spray on the wall that looks visceral and is practical, but the bullet hole is post-production cgi and looks awful.
 |
| Yorga-like |
This is low budget filmmaking and, as mentioned, the story is serviceable but not earth shatteringly new or original. I did think there were nice genre nods – one scene with Michaels running, hands grasping forward was pure Count Yorga and I assume deliberately so. Deeders makes for a fair protagonist and Michaels a fun, though perhaps underused, adversary. This isn’t the greatest film but its ok. 4 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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