Director: Dean Meadows
Release date: 2025
Contains spoilers
First comes the rant – and it does not affect the score. I backed this film on Kickstarter. Now I understand that this isn’t like purchasing, and carries a risk, but when the film is completed and the backers wait over two years past the estimated date before shipping their perks it can be irksome. I recognise when the filmmaker say, “we can’t release the film to you prior to its first official release date due to piracy concerns” (as this filmmaker did), but that wasn’t the basis of the perks as offered, which had no caveat for waiting for commercial distribution, and the despatch of the discs took longer than the film hitting streaming services (including free streaming on Tubi). Still, they have now made good on the pledges, unlike some projects, and at long last I have the numbered, signed, backer only-edition Blu-ray, but my frustration at the filmmakers was tangible for a while. Rant over.
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| Kurt Dirt as Shaw |
Next come the confessions. Firstly, actor Kurt Dirt, who plays cult member Shaw, is a good friend. I was unaware he was in the film when I backed the crowdsourcing but certainly was by the time it was shot. Confession number two is the more I saw about the film, whilst I waited for the eventual release of the perk, the more worried I became about the quality of the film overall. The trailer made me wary, some reviews were scathing, but in fairness (and maybe enhanced by a low expectation) when I finally sat down to watch this, I found myself really taken with it and, of course, low-budget films can be satisfying cinematic experiences.
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| blood spray |
And so, on to the actual review… after establishing shots of London, the film starts with a sermon from new vicar, Father James (Nathan Head), who has just moved to the parish 3-weeks prior. Suddenly several members of the congregation stand and put on masks – later described as Baphomet masks – and massacre the rest of the congregation. At this point we get the first weak link – (what I assume was) cgi blood spatter. Often an issue in budget films, to be honest, this looked like black dust. The cultists (for that is what they are) surround the priest and tell him to give a message – he is coming – before belting him one.
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| Gabe and Murray |
One thing I should mention is that, whilst the establishing shots are of London, the filming took place in Barnstaple, Devon, and some suspension of belief is needed around external scenes. The police arrive at the church, in charge is DC Jessica Murray (Emma Fletcher). As well as the indoor massacre, in the churchyard they have found a body, exsanguinated with punctures in the throat. This is the third body found like this. Though Murray hates to admit it they need some help… Help is in the form of Gabriel Lee (Dean Meadows), and the back story for Gabe is partial but interestingly done. As the film goes on we discover he had been involved, as a cop, in something (supernatural) that left him kicked out of the force and sent to prison for doing the right thing. It is implied, but not stated, that he and Murray had a thing. Murray’s boss, DI Lee (Ailsa Roanne), is Gabe’s mother.
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| Gabe and Zoe |
Before we meet Gabe, we meet a young woman, Zoe (Cerys Piper), who is being chased down an alley by three guys she stole a wallet from. She falls and they catch up but luckily Gabe is nearby. They tell him to do one, call him grandpa and one even draws a knife… so he draws a gun. Now this is a British film, so they don’t think it’s real, this opinion changes when he shoots the one with a knife in the leg. He lets Zoe give him a kicking before taking her to eat. She is homeless and hasn’t eaten for a couple of days and he wants her to stay at his flat, just for a while, what with the three exsanguinated homeless people and something coming… especially given her surname is Van Helsing – she is the last of her line.
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| Elizabeth and the High Priestess |
So what we have is a cult of Dracula (Peter Jakeson) worshippers – they are run by Elizabeth (Eileen Daly, Demonsoul, Razor Blade Smile, Witchcraft X: Mistress of the Craft & Sentinals of Darkness), who is revealed to be Bathory later. Not a vampire according to dialogue but, assuming she is THE Bathory, the blood bathing has given her impressive longevity. It appears she has history with Gabe and, presumably, was involved in the previous unseen case. There is also a high priestess (Pauline Peart, The Satanic Rites of Dracula & Video Shop Tales of Terror) of the cult. The cultists want to resurrect Dracula; they have his blood, his cape, the location of his resting place but need his ring (which the Lee family have) to be able to control him. What was great was the lack of loyalty in the ranks with Shaw (Kurt Dirrt) intent on taking over and stealing Dracula’s favour.
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| Peter Jakeson as Dracula |
The film is a love letter to old horror films, especially Hammer. The dialogue drops in several Hammer Dracula film titles verbatim and a Denham Industrial Estate (named for Dracula’s alias in the Satanic Rites of Dracula) is mentioned amongst other references. Dracula, once resurrected, looks the part, though he sports a Yorkshire accent rather than Christopher Lee’s clipped English or Lugosi’s Eastern European brogue. As well as Dracula and Bathory, the film’s opening credits mention Sheridan Le Fanu alongside Bram Stoker, and the mid credit sequence offers a brief Carmilla appearance. But the film has issues.
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| vampire attack |
The acting veers wildly across the spectrum, a scene with Murray and Gabe was nuanced and well played by both (in the main Meadows plays things straight and hard man, any comedic cracks he makes are character deliberate), Eileen Daly hams it up deliciously and adds a campness that the film craves, but some other actors are stagey, perhaps even amdram, and the dialogue perhaps becomes a tad unnatural in places. ADR does not help and is noticeable. One fight – or more a drubbing of Gabe by the cultists – was well done, but other fight sequences not so much, a bar fight in particular feeling too choreographed, unrealistic and appeared slightly sped up in places.
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| Eileen Daly as Elizabeth |
Yet, I was taken by the infectious nature of the film. It clearly isn’t a perfect film, the budget shows and yet I sat enjoying the experience. Where I had worried that it was going to be a dud I was taken by the love of the genre it showed and the deliberate campness added by Eileen Daly really kept the film afloat (and I should mention that, when his character turned simpering later on, Kurt Dirt added a further layer of campness that complemented Daly’s performance). Where the hinted at Gabe backstory worked, the plotting in film perhaps was a little ambitiously convoluted at times. Yet overall, if you enjoy low budget, like love letters to the genre, and appreciate well-paced campness, there is definitely something worth watching. 6 out of 10 was not where I thought this would be going. But it did.
The imdb page is here.
Whilst I am adding the Amazon links, be aware that, at time of writing, this is on Tubi for free stream.
On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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