Spooky+ - review

Director: Chad Heffelfinger (segments)

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

This is a portmanteau film, with the wraparound starring the inimitable Doug Jones playing himself. He is getting ready to go on a blind date when the TV comes on and this film demands his attention, filling his glass magically and causing popcorn to appear.

The film segments themselves have been described as spooky for a younger audience but they are, without a doubt, accessible for an older audience too. They perhaps don’t achieve the depth of storytelling that great shorts do, but they are well shot and fun enough.

hunting kit

The first segment is the definitively vampire segment, and the name of the segment is, in and of itself, a spoiler as it actually appears at the end of the segment. Nevertheless, it is called Biff the Human Slayer but starts with a pair of wannabe vampire slayers in a car – their credentials offered by the view of the vampire hunting kit they have in the car. Freddie (Cody Buchanan) drives as Ryan (Ben Michaels) snarfs a burger, offering some to Freddie who, as a vegan, rejects it.

knocked over

They hit someone (Ivan Asen) and get out of the car to check on him, spot fangs and decide there is only one thing to do… The only trouble is, their credentials as vampire hunters may have been exaggerated. Before they can do it they are intercepted by Biff (Cody Heffelfinger) and he is, as the title suggests, a human slayer… this is an obvious reversal on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Biff bites

The segment itself was fun enough but it was a tad one note and I felt as I watched it that it was more like the start of something than a segment in its own right… and it is. The segment has since become the first episode of an eight part web serial and I will look at that on TMtV going forward. There was one other segment in this, which felt vampiric at the very least.

the creature

Dirty Dishes sees housemates Alex (Rachel Amanda Bryant) and Kaitlin (Sarah Uplinger) at odds over the living arrangements, especially focused on a pile of unwashed dishes. However, they seem to come together that bit more when a creature, credited as the Stalker (Cody Heffelfinger) tries to get in the house, eventually succeeding. The look is vampiric, with sharp teeth and glowing eyes that can mojo a victim. He also appears to go for the neck – so a definite feel of the vampire, even if it isn’t named as such. 

 the inimitable Doug Jones

Dirty Dishes was a strong segment due to the juxtaposition of the normality and banality of domestic strife and the clearly supernatural. All in all I think Spooky+ deserves a decent 6 out of 10 – scoring is as always for the vampire segments and is balanced between the juxtaposition mentioned in the vampiric segment with the fact that, whilst fun, Biff felt less standalone.

The imdb page is here.