Take From Me – review

Director: West Eldredge

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Originally titled Love Dogs, I was approached by the filmmakers to review Take From Me from a screener. What I watched, as we’ll discuss, was a slow burn that relied on atmosphere and character, rather than jumps and gore (though there is a tad of blood and they do not entirely eschew jumps, though both are used sparingly).

It starts in a forest with a man running , holding his neck, gasping and clearly pursued. If I have a criticism of the film it became apparent here, as the print was dark and the lighting for this night scene was poor. However, you could make out what was going on, and such outdoor night scenes are little used in the film. Anyway, the man suggests his regret, before the film suggests the inevitable…

John in the woods

John Harker (Ethan McDowell) has parked up and, after a fortifying belt from a hipflask, goes into the forest carrying his bow. He does find some remains, though what of isn’t certain, and moving on he eventually comes out of the trees at a farmhouse. He enters the garage and then starts cleaning up the porch, he also takes down the “for sale” sign. Later we discover that this was his house, shared with (presumably ex-)wife Sarah (Amanda Evans) and the son they lost, Seth (Thomas Parobek). Flashbacks will tell us his drinking started during Seth’s illness and the film centres heavily on John’s grief and loss.

Dwayne A. Thomas as Abe

The nearby town has a small population, and we see John in the bar and also the antagonism between John and deadbeat dad and misogynist Kenny (Dan Cody). The only cop in town is Abe (Dwayne A. Thomas), moved there after a shooting in the city, where he was drunk, he is prohibited from investigating but tries to make amends by running the 12-step programme – he was John’s sponsor, though John no longer attends. Abe finds an abandoned truck, door open, key in the ignition and has it called through to the County Sheriff.

Kyla Diane Kennedy as Lilith

The farmhouse is sold (though he had been maintaining it, it is clear it was no longer his) and he spies the new owner, Elizabeth (Kyla Diane Kennedy) – Lilith for short – when cleaning the porch again. They meet soon after at a hardware store, and she asks him to do some odd jobs around the house for her as a contractor (which is his trade). One of the first things she wants is for John to remove the bathroom mirror, and it doesn’t take long for him to find vials of blood in a basement refrigerator and frozen body parts in the chest freezer. However, he doesn’t report it, can’t stay away (despite obvious reservations) and a relationship starts to blossom.

fangs

The film then follows the pair as the relationship grows. One thing I did like was the fact that he realises what she is and it isn’t a drawn-out process, rather that he settles on it rapidly – not to say he gets everything right, however. He hunts a stag and gives her the blood, which nearly makes her vomit (animals do at a pinch but are clearly unpleasant) and he does go through the house with an open wound at one point! Nevertheless, in a modern world where vampire movies have been a staple for some time, it was good to see him quickly realise the truth. I would have liked to have known more of Elizabeth’s background – we do get an origin story but it is sparse – but neither the film or the character suffered for it not being more fleshed out.

Ethan McDowell as John

The film slow burns, much is concentrated on character interactions and building the characters and the small-town world – not just with the couple, but certainly around Abe for instance. This is carried by both good dialogue and some fantastic performances, with a specific shout out to Ethan McDowell who plays a nuanced character in John. The fact that the film is an hour-fifty and yet, despite the slow burn, never feels like it is lagging is testament to the filmmakers. The photography is generally good aside from the occasional too dark moments mentioned at the head of the review.

searching, bow in hand

This fits in with a wave of pretty bleak, small-town-USA vampire films over recent years, with my mind going to My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It as I watched this – though that is not to say they were the same, just atmospherically I connected them. There are some similes, I guess, with the earlier film exploring the stress on caregivers, where this explores grief (and addiction, though that is a common genre trope and flows out of the grief with regards John). I think the big difference between the two was the earlier film is relentlessly bleak; this nuances any bleakness and allows moments of relief for the characters, which results in the two main characters gaining and maintaining our sympathies. I really enjoyed this one. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.