Valerie – review

Director: Jay Lind

Release date: 2002

Contains spoilers

Not to be confused with the director’s 1992 film of the same name, this was a straight to video, zero budget flick that has received Blu-ray treatment in a collection of five of his films, released by SRS video.

When I got the set, I was conflicted, after all I didn’t particularly think the films would be masterpieces but there were at least two vampire features (this and Carmilla). I watched this first and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, it is low budget and has plenty wrong with it, but it was also a very watchable psychosexual drama.

bite

It starts with Nosferatu on TV and then cuts to a graveyard and, in a crypt, led on top of the tomb is Valerie (Maggi Horseman). She rises and does a slow amble through the graveyard – a note that the night lighting is well done but the shots seem out of focus, probably deliberately so to give a dreamlike feel. A couple are in the car and the lady (I think Crissy Madarang) hears something, she sends the guy out. He is killed by Valerie, who gets in the car with the, now topless, girl and feeds from her.

Maggi Horseman as Valerie

Valerie’s mom (Kelley Rouse) wakes her, with Valerie complaining that she is an adult (she’s 18). Her mom notices that she has had a nosebleed in her sleep and her face is smeared with blood. She goes to her therapist and talks about her dream and how excited it has left her. She works at a boutique, then takes lunch on a boardwalk and finally goes to dance class. She disassociates whilst in class, reliving memories of a violent sexual assault that leaves her screaming and comforted by her friend Lori (Mellani Love).

pick up

So, we discover that she was assaulted, immediately after believing she had been followed home. She cannot remember the assailant and refers to him as a vampire. Her step-father doesn’t believe it was an assault, rather she invited it and essentially victim blames. She is also self-harming. She regularly dreams of being a vampire, with Lori and the girl from the first dream (who is a person she has seen in real life) taking victim and vampire roles in the dreams. There is some evidence that she has killed someone she picked up, but that could be a dream also (and a serial killer called the moonlight maniac is mentioned occasionally to obfuscate the truth further).

Lori with fangs

As the film progresses, she meets an older artist, Jack (Jay Lind), who she falls for and who falls for her. Lori is less than pleased but it seems that she has sapphic feelings for her friend (these are unreciprocated in real life, but the fact that she and the other woman feature in her vampire dreams suggests that subconsciously Valerie entertains the notion). The whole film moves towards the realisation of who the attacker was.

projecting the vampire

The dialogue is sometimes off – I couldn’t believe that two 18-year-olds would be that coy around sexual language. However, aspects like Valerie’s ofttimes bluntness, worked well with the character and the performance suited that. There was no shying from nudity and some of the themes were very dark (rape, self-harm and attempted suicide). One poor aspect was the chosen soundtrack, which I felt was too bombastic. The film is more belief in vampires and acting like a vampire, though the projection of a vampire persona (the only male vampire) on her attacker kind of makes for a vampire and Valerie is an untrustworthy witness to her own narrative. However, surprisingly entertaining and worth watching 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Blood Hunters: Once More Into The Darkness – review

Author: Various

Artist: Various

Release date: 2024 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Collects Blood Hunters (2024) #1-4 and Hallows' Eve: The Big Night.

Your favorite Marvel heroes vs. vampires! Discover how the shattering events of BLOOD HUNT cover the breadth of the Marvel Universe! Hawkeye is on the run, but does he have enough trick arrows in his quiver to avoid both the long arm of the law and vampires out for his blood?! And the same question applies to Kate Bishop! Man-Wolf and J. Jonah Jameson do a little father-son bonding - while also fighting for their lives against a horde of bloodsuckers! But what happens when a group of vamps get a taste of the Hulk's gamma-irradiated plasma? Plus: The vengeance of Doctor Doom! The cosmic power of the Silver Surfer! The fury of Hellcow! And with Cloak missing in action, Dagger strikes out in search of new and surprising allies. Witness the genesis of Marvel's wildest team yet: the Blood Hunters!

The review: The third of the Blood Hunt crossover event that I have read, this was the most diverse. Starting with a Hawkeye story – hunted by law enforcement, disguising himself by growing a moustache, he is caught just as sundeath occurs and then he, and the cops, have more important things to deal with. However the graphic novel jumps in and out of stories and there is a wide variety of content and Marvel characters including Man-Wolf, Elsa Bloodstone, Dagger, Hulk and Dr Doom. A standout moment was the blessing of a rooftop water tower and then exploding the contents down onto the vampire filled street below.

However, for me the reason to get this volume (beyond the whole event) is because Marvel bring back Hellcow… indeed not just Hellcow, but her calf too. The concept of a vampire cow might seem silly, but I love it and they manage to give this strip a gravitas despite the subject. Again, the multitude of characters might be confusing for casual Marvel readers, but the book contains many separate tales, which work in that self-contained way amongst the larger event and are, for the most part, street level. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: The Vampyress

Released in 2021 and coming in at just under 11 minutes, the Vampyress was directed by James Worthington. It starts with a girl, Willow (Emily Uritz) breathing hard whilst by a sink, the tap running, she is blood spattered.

dinner

She seems to awaken and her father (Karl Barbee) has come in her room, she is on the floor. He wants her to come down for dinner but she is due to go out with friends. He insists. Downstairs there are Halloween decorations up and he hands her a plat of fried spinach. She takes one fork of it.

blood spattered

He doesn’t know where her mother is, if she cared she’d be there he says. He asks about school and confronts her with her absence, wanting to know what is going on. She gets a text and says she’ll have to go but when he tries to stop her she smashes her plate over his head and punches him out. She is panicking when there is a knock at the door – she assumes her friends. It is a stranger named Jenni (Ali Basalyga), she has just moved in down the street and asks to be let in…

And it is a neat little short, playing with turning and memory. The imdb page is here.

Horror stories – review

Director: Lukas DiSparrow

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

This is a portmanteau film where it seems like the segments were made for the feature where the surround is a group going to the Host (Lukas DiSparrow) who has a book that, when they touch it, they enter the story. The actual stories themselves are of varying quality but, overall, the film is certainly watchable.

The vampire segment is called Dracula but, to be fair, it is not one of the stronger segments though the black and white London-scape looks rather nice.

prostitute

It starts with the “reader” (Andrea Kularatne) in the city and narrating. She is looking for a hunter that she will hunt. She meets a man on the street, offers him a ‘good time’ and goes down an alley with him where sex is had but when she asks for money he walks away – though not before ramming her hard into a wall and knocking her out. Honestly, the prostitute element made little sense.

rising

We see a hand emerge from a coffin and Dracula (Mario Bob) rises. I liked the decayed, monstrous make-up. The reader comes round and walks the streets. She is watched by the vampire, his shadow follows her and her narration suggests she knows. He appears near her and speaks to her – she does not react to his look. She stakes him, that’s it… To be fair this was one story where the character the reader takes is successful and survives – she is rather elated when out of the story.

Mario Bob as Dracula

However, the segment does very little. It is style over substance. As I mentioned at the head, the anthology, as a whole, was worth a watch but this segment did so very little that only its stylistic elements (rather well done for a low budget) drag it up to 3.5 out of 10 and as regular readers will know, with anthology/portmanteau films I only score the vampire segment.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest: Season 1 – review

Director: Kinji Yoshimoto

First Aired: 2019

Contains spoilers

Arifureta is an iseka anima (one in which a central protagonist is transported to another world, ordinary in theirs, they become powerful in the new world). The protagonist in this case is Hajime (Toshinari Fukamachi/Matt Shipman) who was one of a group of schoolkids (and their teacher Aiko (Ai Kakuma/Emily Fajardo)) transported to a world by that world’s Pope, to fight as heroes in the war between monsters, demons and humans. The world is a fantasy type world.

Hajime as we meet him

At the beginning we see Hajime thrown from a bridge during a battle with monsters in a deep level of a dungeon. The class were transported deeper into the dungeon than they should have gone and, in flashbacks, we eventually discover that Hajime – who had a low-level transformation magic and no warrior skills – was targeted by a classmate, Hiyama (Minoru Shiraishi/Orion Pitts), who was jealous of the attention he got from Kaori (Saori Ônishi/Skyler McIntosh). It is assumed that it was an accident and Hajome is dead.

growing stronger

Indeed, he should have been killed – but he managed to use his wits to survive at the low levels of the dungeon (though, before he emerges he loses an arm and an eye). Part of his survival is down to feeding on monsters, which brought Delicious in Dungeon to mind though this was – for the first few episodes definitely – a lot darker. As he eats the different monsters, they transform his DNA and bestow powers on him. This causes his hair to turn white but also improves his odds of survival.

Yue trapped

Eventually he finds a young woman, Yue (Yûki Kuwahara/Tia Lynn Ballard) trapped in a contraption. He is going to leave her trapped but eventually releases her – in flashback Hajime is a pleasant young man but after his experiences he becomes abrasive and cynical, which was a nice direction of character to be honest. Yue is the last vampire (and a vampire princess) and becomes his companion, feeding from him and fighting by his side. They do fall in love but, as powerful as Hajime becomes, he is still 17 and both shy and clumsy in this regard. Eventually they discover that the dungeons are tests, left by a group called the Liberators. The god of the world is not a force for good and manipulates the war eternally for his amusement. Hajime resolves to solve the dungeons and gain their powers, not to fight the god but to get back to Japan.

worthless rabbit

The tone of the series turns mid-season when they introduce Shea (Minami Takahashi/AmaLee), a beastman from a tribe of bunny people (she looks human but has bunny ears and a tail). The series then takes on some comedy and chibi elements and also becomes a harem series, with Hajime collecting several female companions in love/lust with him as well as a young meregirl who refers to him as Papa and who he becomes paternal to. However, the Hajime character remains cynical and, frankly, a tad unhinged after all he has been through.

Yue's magic

The animation in this worked well and, to be honest, I enjoyed the ride. There was quite a bit of action, Hajime was ruthless and happily kills those who gets in his way and the comedy/chibi/harem elements stopped it from becoming too dark throughout. Yue, makes it a vampire series and is in every episode from number 2 onwards. The UK Blu-Ray also contains two very short OVAs (and also keeps the catch-up episode mid-season). 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Classic Literature: The Vampire: Novel from Bulgaria

The fact that Hans Wachenhusen published this in 1878 has led me to posting this under the “Classic Literature” label rather than the “honourable mention” it should be. Though titled The Vampire there is little in the way of vampires in the book until the final chapter – so it is more a fleeting visitation. The 2023 translation was by Rade Kolbas.

The first chapter reads like a travelogue and indeed that is what it is – Wachenhusen was known in Germany as a travel writer. But the yarn then spins into a tale of Government corruption (on the part of the Ottoman Mudessarif) and politics, dashing heroes and love. The first almost reference to vampires was in calling the Ottoman Pasha a bloodsucker – but this was in relation to him siphoning off wealth.

The next mention is about actual vampires and a suggestion that they are associated with a particular place in the mountains. They are described as holding nightly meetings there, where they were able to “suck new life from the moonlight”.

As I mentioned, the final chapter is concerned with a vampire describing a certain character, thought killed by the hero, returning and attacking a bride on her wedding night. Whether he is, in reality, a vampire or is just assumed to be by the locals, as he was left for dead and unburied in the mountains, is really left to reader interpretation but it does appear he was going to bite her neck before being stopped and killed (again?), after which the good local folk stake him through the heart to prevent any further visitations. A big thanks to Sarah who got me this for my birthday.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK

Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt – review

Authors: Various

Artists: Various

Release date: 2024 (tpb)

The Blurb: Collects Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1-3, Amazing Spider-Man (2022) #49 And Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2023) #21-22.

Marvel's Spider-Men swing into the BLOOD HUNT! Vampires are running rampant through New York City - and while the Avengers are caught in the middle, someone has to take care of the citizens of the Big Apple. That person? Peter Parker, the spectacular Spider-Man! But if only things were that simple. They never are, and that means Spidey has a massive role to play in the nightmarish saga - one that involves Morbius, the Living Vampire! But will Morbius be fanged foe or friend this time? And will Peter need to take him out or save him?! Meanwhile, the world's greatest vampire slayer, Blade, has a plan - and his only hope for victory rests with the young Spider-Man, Miles Morales! But Blade's mission comes with a massive cost Miles may be unwilling to pay!

The review: The second tpb to be released in the Blood Hunt event – this one concentrates on spider-men, with a Peter Parker story and a Miles Morales story. It starts with Parker, fighting vampires and rather enjoying himself fighting monsters, when he gets a text from a criminal, Kareem, asking Parker to get Spider-Man to help him. When he gets to him he discovers that Kareem's partner in crime, Rabbit, has been turned and he needs the hero's help. They find the vampire who bit Rabbit – he has chained himself, ashamed of what he has become and begs Spider-Man to kill him. Suddenly he realises that the vampires are not just monsters, but Kareem stakes the vampire anyway and Rabbit (and Kareem who was turning, having been bitten by Rabbit) are cured. With the shine taken off vampire hunting, Spider-Man is suddenly confronted by Lizard (who is somewhat rough about getting his attention). Lizard and Misty Knight are trying to track down Michael Morbius who has been kidnapped and this leads to a vampire corporation. The Morales story stands aside from the Amazing Spider-Man story, shows us Blade turning him and then a team up with Hightail, and later Blade’s daughter Brielle Brooks, to defeat energy vampire R'ym'r.

Tonally lighter, for the Amazing Spider-Man part of the TPB at least, this was still a welcome foray into the Blood Hunt event – with a much more street level focus. Whilst both stories featured vampires (the Morales one, being energy ones of course) the action occurred with the main Blood Hunt as a wider event and these stories occurring separately – albeit sundeath offering a starting point. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK