The Vampire Next Door – review

Director: Myles Gaia

Release date: 2022*
*Date based on YouTube posting

Contains spoilers

This film, written and directed by Myles Gaia, is astounding for it being an amateur production, shot on iPhone and released as a feature on YouTube. The skill that has gone into it, for a film made clearly with so little, cannot be underestimated. If nothing else, and there is plenty more, the cleverness demonstrated as the film works around its lack of budget deserves applause.

That is not to say that it is perfect – it isn’t. But it is an entertaining film that manages to do more than many distributed films.

Kaylee Thompson as Evelyn

It starts with an interpreted lift from Nosferatu - specifically the words from the Book of the Vampires regarding the source of vampirism being the seed of Belial. We then get a voice over from Evelyn (Kaylee Thompson), who speaks of what a lifetime is and of her hunting the night (where her victims tend to consist of the homeless or low-lives). She is walking along the road when a car pulls over and John (Myles Gaia) offers her a ride. As he drives, he discovers they live on the same road.

the werewolf

The film then goes back in time to 1723. Evelyn is an orphan (her father recently died, her mother died in childbirth) who now lives with her Aunt and Uncle in France. She develops reciprocated affections for a young man named Jean (Myles Gaia). He then tells her that he has to leave the area, though in truth he sequesters himself in a barn – I am assuming not too far from the village – and, as the moon turns full, turns into a werewolf. The film is not forthcoming on how he was cursed, its not his story, but I did wonder whether the filmmakers had a connection to the beast of Gevaudan in mind. That night Evelyn has left the house to draw and her Aunt and Uncle search for her and the werewolf gets them.

first feed

Distraught, Evelyn takes herself into the forests where legends suggest there are creatures with powers and they are, of course, vampires. Sensing her desire for revenge she is turned – interestingly they mention that she must reject all that is good. At first she starves herself until she can no longer stand it and feeds from a young girl. Eventually she faces the beast that killed her family and, of course, when it dies it becomes Jean. She removes a corpse from its coffin in a crypt, takes the wedding dress it was buried in and lies in the coffin – sleeping until the early 19th century. After which she moves over to the New World.

meeting Jo

The film does an excellent job of showing the passing of time and, by the early 20th Century she meets a vampire named Josephine (Kayle Workman). Jo teaches her, amongst other things, English and, when we get to hear their ages, is a younger vampire than Evelyn. However, she has much less regard for human lives than the older (and somehow more innocent) vampire and this will eventually bring them into conflict – a conflict that will resolve in the 1989 primary setting of the film.

cross

The vampires are pretty traditional; they avoid sunlight and a stake through the heart or beheading will kill. The dead vampire will burn up. They also need invitation to enter a home and are warded and injured by crosses. This makes Evelyn’s choice to carry the cross jean gave her, albeit wrapped in fabric, telling. There is a theme, of course, of reincarnation underpinning the story. What I won’t do, for this free to watch movie, is give it a score. I will say, however, that I have seen much (and substantially) worse. It can be found on YouTube.

At the time of writing there was no IMDb page.