Bela Belara's A Vampire – review

Director: Juaquin Sebastian Rosales

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This independently produced film has a huge amount going for it – though there was one issue I need to address – but it’s great to see filmmakers creating decent films, clearly on a budget, and doing it well. My thanks to Paul who alerted me to it being dropped by the production company onto YouTube.

Kayla and Charlie

The opening sees a couple walking at night, there is religious music and they speak and their speech might be indistinct purposefully... but it is here that I’ll briefly touch on my main issue – sound. Indistinct chatter may have been a choice here but in other scenes one actor's voice might drop compared to another as they face away from a mic. It is never so bad later that you can’t hear but you can hear the drop in volume and I’d look to tweak aspects of the sound in the future sequel (as this does lead to a ‘to be continued’).

bloodbath

The couple, Kayla (Cecilia Cuevas) and Charlie (Quinn Sbrega), reach his parents house. He is taking her to meet them and she is nervous – they are very religious. However, on getting in there both mum (Emily Candia) and dad (Robert Coe) seem cool and they sit down for a meal when the subject of work (Kayla works as a server at a diner at night) and church (she isn’t practicing) come up. Dad suggests she go to mass with them and she agrees, but for a moment she is distracted as blood-soaked hands are seen in the window, smearing blood on the porch woodwork. Grace is said but we cut to Kayla sat, covered in blood, as the family have been/are being slaughtered.

Bela's dream

Bela (Annie Jean Buckley) seems to wake in a field, in the middle of nowhere, a locket on a tree branch has blood on it. A voice (Daniel J Lee) suggests that there are things she cannot run from. Bolting awake in bed she puts her hand into a shaft of light, which does not burn. Where this sequence features chronologically is unclear as she has not come across the vampires yet. Be that as it may… we then see her in a car with her best friend Micah (Taylor McDonald) and Micah’s friend Aaron (Broc Stermer). He has taken them to, what appears to be, a frat party but warns that the guys are hardcore, he is their chaperone and will remain in 5-feet at all times and not to accept a drink as it might be spiked.

Juaquin Sebastian Rosales as Arthur

He heads in and Bela and Micah speak – Micah is nervous, she has awkward social skills, and tells Bela not to ditch her. Bela agrees and they get through the door when Bela is off and doing shots. Bela notices a guy for a moment, and asks about him and his whereabouts, showing pictures on her phone, which he looks like, that include Hotel Transylvania’s Dracula and Count Von Count. As a moment that seemed odd, no more was made of her having vampire related pics on her phone and more natural would have been to ask about the Goth looking guy. Nevertheless, she finds him and starts a conversation – he is called Arthur (Juaquin Sebastian Rosales).

aftermath of newborn hunger

This is where the film started to really gel for me, and it was within their conversation. A big shout for Annie Jean Buckley and Juaquin Sebastian Rosales’ performances, the naturalistic conversation and the chemistry they offered. She eventually gets out of there with him, back to hers. When Aaron hears that Bela has left, he leaves Micah and goes chasing after her. We get a great sequence of Bela and Arthur making out, interposed with Micah drunk and dancing. The make out session ends with fangs and him biting her. He bites his own wrist (they make this look difficult and painful) and drips blood into her mouth, leaves a note and leaves the house. Aaron arrives as he leaves and he sends the lad inside, knowing she will awaken vampire and uncontrollably hungry (later he says he did it to protect her little sister who is in the house). When an angry Micah gets there, Bela is blood encrusted and Aaron is dead.

bite

What we get then is Bela coming to terms with her new reality, Arthur being cryptic, the revelation that Micah is a witch and an overarch regarding the plans of master vampire Sânge Albescu, whose voice was in Bela’s dream, which are about death, destruction and worship of him. Other lore we get is that these vampires reflect (we see reflections), are burnt by the sun and the ‘disease’ is incurable. The film is an hour forty-four but never feels a chore, but it is only the opening of the story and needs to be continued. As mentioned, our two primary leads are great, I might have removed some minor aspects (vampire pics on Bela’s phone) and there are dialogue moments where the sound could have been strengthened but for an indie film you can watch for free (at time of writing) I was impressed. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.