Missing Fangs – review

Director: Max Russell Pratts

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Stumbled upon on YouTube, this feature has a lot going for it but loses itself, I felt, later in the film. The title itself is worth a mention. Definitively about vampires, they do not have fangs in this, as such the title seems to reference this but the lack of fangs is not a topic within the film.

It starts in therapy. The subject, Clementine (Kereil Kindle), seems hostile to the process. The therapist, Annie (Alison Quin), is a family friend who gives the sessions for free but is clearly frustrated at Clementine’s resistance. It turns out later that Clementine had lost her family when they were killed in a freak rollercoaster accident, which she was not on because she was too short at the time. Now an adult, she has no job, is distant to her more distant family and is on the verge of being evicted. Tired of it she deliberately ODs.

Renee Oriente as Harley

Also in her apartment block is Francesca (Yuliana Sleme) who is in a relationship with Harley (Renee Oriente). Harley is a vampire and has checked Francesca’s phone, discovering that she is using Harley to become a vampire. She confronts her, there is an argument and a knife is brandished, taken from Francesca but still cutting Harley. The noise from the apartment above wakes the dying Clementine who looks out of her window – drops of blood from the knife drip from it into her mouth before Harley vanishes into the night. It sounds convoluted but within the space of the film it did work.

a blood dream

Clementine goes back to sleep, the medication she has taken still in her system and killing her but, in this, dying with vampire blood in your system turns you. Of course she doesn’t know what has happened (just that the attempt she made failed) but can’t stomach food anymore and starts craving blood. She eventually meets Matt (Rasan Kuvly) whilst he is very drunk, discovers that she has the power to control him and make him think he is having great sex as she feeds. Francesca has found herself excommunicated from those she knew through Harley and can’t wheedle her way into their lives (hoping they might be vampires) but sees Matt and the plaster at his throat, and then connects him to Clementine.

wheedling into her life

Eventually Clementine accidentally kills Matt. Francesca has managed to manufacture meeting her and then manufactures intercepting her as she tries to dump his body (incidentally, the bag he is meant to be in was way too small to have his body in it) and helps her with it, drawing Clementine into a friendship that is one way. Eventually she manages to have Clementine turn her and then ghosts her, making Clementine spin out of control.

Kereil Kindle as Clementine

The film works and a lot of that was down to Kereil Kindle’s performance. However I felt it lost some of the cinematic tightness when a wider vampire community came into it and maybe the last third of the film was poorer than the preceding running time. Up to that point it was very character driven (and continued to be so) and the horror elements were underplayed. Nevertheless it was worth a look. 5.5 out of 10 balances the better parts against the later, poorer segment.

The imdb page is here.