Honourable Mention: Folktales Of The Cryptids – The collected edition

Writer: Joseph Oliveira

Artists: various

Release date: 2026 (collected edition)

Contains spoilers

Another comic book from indie publishers Afterlight Comics and they do tend to do quality releases. This volume is the three volumes of Folktales Of The Cryptids collected into one. There are two cryptid tales that have caused me to give this an honourable mention.

The first is a tale entitled Remember Me, which was drawn by Adrian Manuel Garcia and coloured by Bethany Varni and is a bittersweet tale of an elderly farmer who cares for his wife, who is suffering from dementia. We see him caring for her but, one night, he hears distressed sounds coming from his cows. Out to investigate he finds one down and bloodied and is attacked himself by something… which we see is a chupacabra – the honourable mention, as opposed to a review, is given because not enough is offered to the reader that distinguishes between this chupacabra being a bloodsucker or a general predatory creature (albeit a cryptid one).

The second story to mention is Hide and Seek, which employed the talents of artist Francesco Iaquinta. The start of the story sees a family picnic with Adrian playing ball with his dad, as his pregnant mom looks on. His dad is attacked by a popobawa, a one-eyed manbat (popobawa literally means Bat Wing) that hails from Zanzibar, Adrian is the only survivor and, some twenty years on, returns to avenge his family. Again, this is a creature that will feed on people (the comic suggests a once a year harvest), and the vampiric aspect isn’t really explored but being a man-shaped bat, albeit a cyclops, there feels like at least a genre crossover.

Grindsploitation – review

Director: Various

Release date: 2016

Contains spoilers

Coming from Troma, Grindsploitation was sort of an anthology based around exploitation cinema. I say sort of as most of its 2.5 hour running time was made up of fake trailers for films. There are a couple of shorts in there, but mostly it’s the trailers. Some of the later volumes of grindsploitation (I believe there are 14 at the time of writing) had a few more shorts that this one did, balancing the trailer to short ratio better.

The Girl Who Once Drank Blood

The vampire orientated parts of this looked at first to be all trailers. The first was for a fake film called Arbor Day, directed by Jim Towns, and was possibly more genre interest than anything. The film purported to be one of plants becoming aware, mobile and deadly and it gets on the radar when the question is asked, “Trees don’t drink blood?” We are in the realm of vampiric vegetation. Then there was the Shane Ryan directed The Girl Who Once Drank Blood – again, ostensibly vampiric the girl (Amelia Rose) does apparently drink blood. There needs to be a mention of the Alexander Emmert directed The Wendigo, because of the crossover that can happen – though this seems to be the antlered variant (we only see the antlers).

Cannibal Vampire... From Outer Space

The next trailer to look at, by Tony Masiello, was definitely vamp, however. For the fake film Cannibal Vampire Call-Girl Hookers From Outer Space Part 3, it was well into the exploitation camp and I wouldn’t blink if I actually found a series of films with that name. Then we got the first vampire related short in the form of Ruben Rodriguez’ No Strings Attached. A lonely girl (Andrea Castro) has placed a personal ad looking for a vampire and is on a date, in her apartment, with a guy (Chris Riquinha) dressed as a vampire. She is less than impressed and when he suggests getting it on (sooner rather than later as he has to get the costume back to the store) the date is over.

turned hungry

One he has gone, however, a woman (Marilena Rapalo) appears at the girl’s balcony door but when the girl threatens to call the cops the woman vanishes and then appears behind her. Fanged, she is the real deal and has a proposition. She will give the girl what she wants and make her a vampire, all she has to do is consent… which she does. The turning occurs by a spell and the girl is a vampire, the woman is mortal again and I liked the idea of passing the curse and freeing yourself. Unfortunately for the woman, the girl is hungry… and then the man returns as he has left his fangs behind…

Jimmy Olea as Uno

The final part to look at is another short, listed as Uno, directed by Reyna Young, it is subtitled in film as Uno: Badass Mariachi Vampire Hunter. Intertitles suggest that Uno (Jimmy Olea) hunts vampires with his sister Luna (Reyna Young) and brother Roberto (Adam Richardson). But Roberto has been kidnapped and the others are out to rescue him. We have seen Roberto bound with duct tape over the mouth and the rescue section consists of fighting four vampires – which the supposed badasses make heavy work of, especially as Uno insists on shooting vampires, which clearly has no impact. The last one tells them Roberto is dead before being killed. And that’s it…

Marilena Rapalo as a vampire

So, of the two shorts I was really impressed by the first but the second fell a little flat. The Uno character was clearly comedy orientated, and done in an exploitation manner, but the short suffered for having little story content – something that can impact short films of course. The full package, as it were, was a mixed bag but the heavy focus on the trailers overwhelmed the format a little and a better balance with shorts would have helped. It scores, of course, for the vampire bits and I think, on balance, 4 out of 10 is fair.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mentions: Scary Movie

First, a full disclosure, I have never overly fancied the Scary Movie films but, from the trailer, I knew that this one, directed by Michael Tiddes and released in 2026, drew from Sinners and thus I wanted to check it through. Actually the 6th film in the Franchise, there is a blink and you miss it vampire moment but also two scenes lifted from Sinners.

The first of those sees a car pull up at a church as we hear “This Little Light” being sung. Ray (Shawn Wayans) enters the building and approaches the pastor. This is taken from the opening of Sinners and whilst, in that, Sammy is injured following his encounter with the vampires, in this it is centred around Ray’s sexuality and renouncing men, with jokes surrounding that.

arriving at the party

The second scene is when a Halloween party is being held and main characters Sara (Olivia Rose Keegan), Tuesday (Savannah Lee Nassif) and Jack (Cameron Scott Roberts) arrive in period dress, with instrument, and try to gain entrance by being invited (and refused). This, of course, riffs on the Sinners’ scene where Remmick tries to get invited into the Juke Joint – though the characters here are not vampires. As an aside, Jack’s appearance on the movie poster is from this scene and he has a vampire bite on his neck.

the substance

Before going to the vampire I need to mention a riff on The Substance, a film I have looked at due to its use of tropes, where there is an injection of “the stuff” into news anchor Gail (Cheri Oteri) in a process taken over by Ghostface. Out of her back comes an unredacted set of the Epstein Files and then her “younger self” is revealed to be one of the White Chicks from the Wayans’ film of the same name.

Count Brolock

Finally, we get to the actual vampire and it is easy to miss as it is in a mid-credit scene in which we get a fake trailer for Brosferatu, a take on Nosferatu (2024) . It riffs on being from “the studio that brought you every black version of a white movie”, and sees Count Brolock (Marlon Wayans) visiting Elle (Ruby Snowber) and gaining the ire of three black women watching the scene unfold. There is a shadow dick gag and the scene is very easily overlooked given its placement. And that is it, a fleeting visitation and other than that referencing a vampire film.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Patience: Vampire – review

Director: Maarten Moerkerke

First Aired: 2026

Contains spoilers

I think it true to say that, generally, vampires get everywhere and so it wasn’t a shock when Ian contacted me to say that the first season 2 episode of crime drama Patience was entitled Vampire. I was unaware of the show but quickly found out that it is a crime drama, set in York, where the main character Patience (Ella Maisy Purvis) is an autistic woman, working in criminal records, but embroiled in police cases as the detective inspector has discovered how sharp her investigative mind is. I later discovered that this is a remake of a French series, Astrid et Raphaëlle, which is in its sixth season (at time of posting).

Ella Maisy Purvis as Patience

Being unaware of the series, coming in cold as it were, can make it difficult as you are unaware of some of the goings on, the character traits and interactions etc. It is just the hope that the vampire tale is strong enough to carry a genre interest – unfortunately the vampire aspect was not played on as much as it might. It was, I discovered, a time of flux for main character Patience as the DI who drew her in has moved on and the new DI, Frankie Monroe (Jessica Hynes), doesn’t understand why a non-copper is in her meetings and has even less knowledge and understanding of autism.

moody shots of York 

The episode starts with moody shots of York – a perfect setting for Gothic Horror that isn’t exploited really – and then we see a woman, Marina Murray (Jeany Spark) – obviously a riff on Mina Murray – enter a dimly lit photography exhibition. She is looking for artist Jonathan Starper (Julian De Backer) – again a riff, this time on Jonathan Harker – and finds him, with a wooden stake through the chest. She screams.

bites?

When the police are at the crime scene it begins to look like he has been drained of blood and Patience spots the two incisions in his neck – as an aside, these seem to be there and not be there in different shots, I can’t make my mind up whether it was an unfortunate angle thing or just poor continuity. There is commentary around this point around needing garlic. Later the medical examiner ascertains that the wounds were created posthumously and that the blood (which is completely drained) was taken through ankle incisions as he was strung up. It is also discovered that he was blood type Rh-null – the incredibly rare, so-called Golden Blood. This then directs the investigation and there is no further mention of vampires. We do get Patience carrying and returning to the library a copy of Dracula and a medical company, where blood is procured for a sickle cell patient, called Helsing. When the case is cracked, they don’t even return to the posthumous fang marks.

staked

And that is disappointing. There are plenty of vampire related episodes of shows set in the real world that exploit a willingness to believe in vampires – this did not. The vampiric aspect is window dressing and flimsy at that. I actually did enjoy the depiction of Patience, an altercation with a motor bike (its presence unnoticed until a near miss partly because of her noise cancelling headphones) and the nicely done panic attack, showed an insight to autistic reaction. I loved the neurodivergent self-help group we briefly see as they try and navigate a neurotypical world. But the vampire aspect left me disappointed (and that’s impacting the score as I am looking at it from a vampire genre point of view). This is based on a season 3 episode of Astrid et Raphaëlle, which I intend to watch to compare and contrast. 4 out of 10 reflects a lack lustre use of vampires within an otherwise interesting episode.

The imdb page is here.

Use of Tropes: Katharina

I’ll be honest this Anglo/Romanian ghost story, directed by Florian Zapra and released in 2022, was somewhat excruciating. However, it definitely uses some pretty darn obvious tropes – mostly location and character backstory – and is of genre interest as a result. It centres round a load of Romanian kids (I guess they were supposed to be late teens, but some seemed somewhat younger) in Bistrița, and an English exchange student Raul (Raul Szanto). The Romanian kids decide to take Raul into the Carpathians for some camping fun.

arriving at Hotel Castel Dracula

To get there they hire a ride, and several sneak into the hatchback as too many are travelling. The driver (Florian Zapra) is a drunk but gets them to the hotel that marks their starting point. En route they establish that he does not speak English. The hotel is the real life Hotel Castel Dracula, which is some 3.5 KM from the Borgo Pass. In that respect the drive is almost parallel to the journey in Dracula - indeed when at the hotel exterior, the camera lingers on the statue there of Bram Stoker.

with the ghost

This is the nearest Raul gets to vampires, something he had been interested in, but the uncanniness begins here also, with the driver who doesn’t speak English warning Raul in English to beware of the woods (a sensible warning for forest with a large bear and wolf population, to be fair) and Raul realising that the driver has vanished from a group photo he took. This, of course, makes him as mysterious as the Count’s coachman in Dracula. As they start their hike, Raul hears something calling him and wanders off, ending up in an abandoned building – suggested later to be the shell of a hotel. Within there he sees a ghost, Katharina (Ely Ciotmonda).

Ely Ciotmonda as Katharina

The Romanian lads find him and undertake to catch the ghost – to become rich. They eventually find and speak to her and ask her to come with them and essentially assimilate into the modern world and she agrees. There is a makeover later, where her clothes are exchanged for modern ones and makeup disguises her pallor. The other genre connection the film offers occurs when she tells Raul that she is 549 years old, named Katharina (but wants a new name) and was married to Vlad Dracul (which would have been the father but I suspect they were suggesting Vlad Ţepeş). .

the gang

And that’s it, all the vampiric connection. The kids try and assimilate Katharina into their world, she ends up invading their dreams (or nightmares as they die in each dream) and then they essentially scare her off with harsh words. It doesn’t do much, generally, the acting is amateurish, in honesty, but there was at least a nub of an idea and some genre interest.

The imdb page is here.

Die drei ??? - Erbe des Drachen – review

Director: Tim Dünschede

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

In English, The Three Investigators – Heir of the Dragon, this is a kids’ film about three young amateur detectives from Rocky Beach California and based on the long running American book series. This is based on the German editions and therefore Jupiter Jones was renamed Justus Jonas (Julius Weckauf), Peter Crenshaw was renamed Peter Shaw (Nevio Wendt), with only Bob Andrews (Levi Brandl) retaining his original series name.

The Three Investigators

At the head of the film, it is the day before the boys take a trip to Transylvania. Justus is helping his uncle Titus (Florian Lukas) and his Aunt Mathilda (Jördis Triebel) wants him to get her actor Steven Yates (Gedeon Burkhard) autograph whilst over there. Bob is working as a library assistant and is given a go-pro by librarian Miss Bennett (Dela Dabulamanzi) for his trip – she got it from lost and found. Finally Peter is at a race but his father (Mark Waschke) is a no-show to watch it, that is because he is busy making finishing touches for the trip – they are interning with him whilst he does sfx on a horror film. Peter sees the end of a video call where a hysterical maid, at the castle, is screaming about Vlad.

acting the vampire

The Vlad they mention is, of course, Vlad Ţepeş and we get a little history about Draculea but mostly it is fictionalised, talking about a maid he fell in love with and the tomb he made for her that myth suggests contains his treasure – which is a blood red ruby. The movie being filmed is a vampire movie (indeed a Dracula one). When the film crew are welcomed by the Countess (Gudrun Landgrebe) the lights blow and she explains that the castle is old but caretaker Repta (Valentin Popescu) does his best to keep it going – Peter comments that the man is pale as a vampire. There is a commotion when the maid leaves the castle screaming about a family curse.

Mark Waschke as the dad

So, there is a curse, a fear of vampires/Dracula, a hidden treasure and then the mystery of the Countess’ brother vanishing in the 1950s when being forced to stay in the castle crypt overnight as part of being initiated into a Vlad obsessed secret society (and heirs, one guesses, to the Order of the Dragon). However, there are tensions between Peter and his father, which lead to tensions amongst the investigators themselves. This main mystery has a genre interest due to Vlad Ţepeş and a belief in vampires (mostly on Peter’s part and, of course, the departed maid). Beyond this we get acting as a vampire, with Steven Yates playing the vampire in the film, with a classic look bedroom scene and a stabbing a cross with sword, causing it to bleed, scene lifted, of course, from Dracula (1992).

Vlad and his dead bride

The film itself is ok. It is a kids’ movie and so peril is mild, and the young actors hold their own and manage to stay on the right side of the annoying line. However, it doesn’t do anything overly special either. Maybe one for die hard fans of the books, but certainly one for German speaking kids who like detective flicks. Perhaps not so much for those who fall outside of those categories. But it is perfectly competent. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Use of Tropes: Savage Love

Savage Love is an Olaf Ittenbach film from 2012, and I went in expecting the usual Ittenbach gore but it felt a tad gore-lite. I was watching the German Blu-Ray and, it turns out, 5 minutes of gore has been removed from the film’s domestic release (I’ll link the, apparently, uncut version below). International releases are therefore going to be more splatter than what I saw. Whilst technically not a vampire film it certainly did play around with tropes, not least because it seems directly inspired by From Dusk Till Dawn.

held by the mob

The film starts, however, in the middle ages and a witch, Linda (Sarita Bradley), is pulled through the forest by a knight (Andreas Pape) leading a mob. He demands something off her and she refuses, so he kills her but not before she’s spoken with an effect on her voice and cast a curse. Creatures (likely demons) appear and kill the knights and mob – she reappears glowing. Just a note about her name, she is listed as Lady Nadja on IMDb – this may be her modern-day persona and I missed the name change but she is definitely referred to as Linda in the subtitles for the opening section.

Marc and Lukas

The film proper follows two guys – hitmen, apparently – called Lukas (Philippe Jacq) and Marc (Dustin Semmelrogge, Montrak). They have scored tickets to a swinger event in, what appears to be, a brothel. The film grounds itself in pretty low-brow humour with plenty of drug references and misogynistic humour until Hell breaks loose.

Sarita Bradley as Linda

This is started by Linda preparing drinks for the ladies present by dripping her blood into champagne. This subsequently turns them into demons – though to be fair the monster type might be interchangeable between demons, vampires and zombies. However, it is important to note that they are specifically turned due to ingesting blood and this feels like a vampire trope, of course. It turns out that Linda is no ordinary witch – rather she is the actual daughter of the devil.

demons

So the plot is that she is seeking the blood of 666 victims (with Judeo-Christian names) to summon her father to earth. This might sound like satanic sacrifice except for the throwaway line that she needs to drink the blood – and brings us back to vampire genre tropes. The men fight back due to a priest there (who had spent his time looking like Andrew Eldritch up to the demons appearing) who is carrying oodles of weapons. He has also trapped many of the demons outside by sealing a perimeter with holy water (they were out attacking a teen party in the woods).

ready to rumble

This siege feels like the aforementioned From Dusk Till Dawn – though in this Lukas and Marc are able to go outside and stand calmly before the horde, with the holy water barrier between them, and start shooting them. Bullets do seem an effective countermeasure. There isn’t much more to say about the plot – it is simplistic and, in many respects, derivative – and I’ve covered off the tropes used (back from the dead, turning through blood, holy water apotropaic, aiming to drink victim’s blood and a general lift and shift of plot points out of From Dusk Till Dawn). It is, with these, of genre interest.

The imdb page is here.

Cut version on Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

Uncut on Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

First Impression: Various Vampires at Grimmfest 2025

I have just got back from Grimmfest 2025 and have set to writing up my first impressions of the vampire and vampire adjacent films I saw over a great festival weekend. However, firstly, a shout out to the festival organisers and volunteers who make it such a great event year after year. A shout out to Hellbound Media, particularly Mark Adams for the chat, and also to Catherine Green who was at the festival on the Saturday. I will, of course, offer full thoughts when the films become available for home viewing.

The first film I want to offer an impression of was Landlord, which was the most traditionally vampire-genre film of those I intend to cover.

Directed and written by Remington Smith, the film follows an unnamed bounty hunter (Adama Abramson) and one of the strengths of the film was in the great characterisation with this unnamed protagonist. She arrives at an apartment complex on foot and rents a room for a week, no questions asked. She is there tracking down someone, or more accurately a briefcase he carries, but soon notices strange things.

Investigating, what sounds like, a domestic disturbance she is blocked by manager Christopher (Lance Gerard), who seems in cahoots with the local sheriff (J. Barrett Cooper), and the next day follows the manager as he removes the apartment contents and takes them to a farmstead owned by the Lawrence family. She discovers that the residents of the apartment have been dismembered and are being fed to the pigs.

Alex and the Bounty Hunter

Back at the apartment complex she discovers that the apartment with young resident Alex (Cohen Cooper) has been targeted. She enters, too late to save Alex’s mother but intervening in an attack on Alex himself. It is, of course, a vampire attack. The conceit of this being, as listed by Grimmfest, “If vampires can’t come into your home without being invited in, what would happen if they owned your housing?” The vampire, John Lawrence (William McKinney), owns the apartment complex and many residents are transient in the slum housing, easy to disappear. There is a commentary here about the landlord class as vampiric.

bitten

The bounty hunter and Alex become loose ends to tie up, of course. A nice touch came about in her not even recognising what the vampire is - despite getting up from a head shot and biting her neck, Alex is the observant one, though their knowledge of lore is limited. I liked the grittiness of this and, as mentioned, the characterisation that was built around the bounty hunter. If I had a criticism, it would be in the lighting, as I felt that the night scenes were overly dark – though that might be a screening issue rather than a production issue. The imdb page is here.

The next film to mention is Spanish offering Lily’s Ritual, directed by Manu Herrera. Possibly best described as “vampire adjacent” it starts off as a witchcraft film with three witches, Lola (Patricia Peñalver), Leo (Elena Gallardo) and Laura (Eve Ryan) taking Lily (Maggie García) out into the countryside for initiation into witchcraft as their fourth – which, of course, has overtones of the Craft. Unlike that, however, which had a power corrupts theme, these witches already had a darker purpose in mind.

Lilith

Rather than initiation, Lily was to be used as a centrepiece for a dedication to Lilith – this could be a spoiler except it is listed in the film’s blurb. As to whether they will succeed and whether Lily can survive – well that is a spoiler too far. However, I will say that this was probably my favourite film of the festival and, of course, the use of Lilith makes it of genre interest. The imdb page is here.

The third film to mention is Jake Myers’s Kombucha. I did not go into this expecting a vampire element, although the film does aim at the vampiric nature of corporations. It follows Luke (Terrence Carey) a struggling musician who is tempted – due to pressure from girlfriend Elyse (Paige Bourne) and a recommendation from ex-bandmate Andy (Jesse Kendall) – into signing up to a corporate job. The corporation, Symbio, is more than a little cult-like and forces everyone to drink a specific kombucha.

As Luke starts to change, Elyse meets the mother (Charin Alvarez) of a previous employee (Magdalena Conway) who believes that the corporation is made up of vampires – and it is that belief in vampires that puts this firmly on the radar, as well as the use of a tropes such as blood in the kombucha and the efficacy of garlic as a weapon to combat the sentient scoby at the heart of the film. A genuinely funny side-swipe at corporate mentality. The imdb page is here.

The final film to mention is Sergio Pinheiro’s Wormtown. This very much uses tropes and the Grimmfest synopsis suggested it had “just a pinch of classic vampire lore and a sly tip of the hat to Richard Matheson’s I AM LEGEND.” Set in a town where the vast majority of inhabitants are infected by worms, which have infiltrated their entire system, with a large “heart worm” that feeds on their blood and “brain worms” that alter their minds, the worms that burrow and infect are reminiscent of the blood worms in the Strain.

caught in the sun

The worms are impacted by loud sounds, modern signals (such as Bluetooth) and bright light. This is one of our tropes as being caught in the sun is deadly, with the worms quickly turning on their host. The similes with I am Legend mentioned are there and, more so, I felt a homage to the Omega Man in the scarring of infected flesh, the retreat from technology (although not as radical), and the cult-like behaviours. I also felt it tonally had a bit of a feel of Stake Land and I did really enjoy this one. The imdb page is here.

Use of Tropes: The Twilight Zone: The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank

The Twilight Zone was one of the great anthology series and this episode, directed by Montgomery Pittman, which aired in 1962 came from the third season. Certainly, one that dealt with the restless dead (or just a premature burial) this wasn’t so much about a vampire but does mention the V word in its run time.

The place is the southern end of the mid-west, sometime in the mid-1920s, and a church service is being held for the funeral of Jeff Myrtlebank (James Best). The Reverend Siddons’ (William Fawcett, The Munsters & The Return of Dracula) suggests that God must have had a reason for taking him so young. The lid of the coffin lifts and Jeff sits up.

awakening

The congregation runs out screaming and Jeff follows bemused. There is his Ma (Helen Wallace) and Pa (Ralph Moody), as well as his sweetheart Comfort (Sherry Jackson) and all of them seem scared witless of him. Doc Bolton (Edgar Buchanan) is defensive, he pronounced him dead but concedes that there is a rare illness (that has only had 30 known cases in the last 1500 years) which can look like death – later he concedes he made this up. However, Jeff’s little sister Liz (Vickie Barnes) hugs him, and they all calm down.

Edgar Buchanan as the Doc

As things go, however, his mother starts to get suspicious. Jeff only eats two eggs for breakfast (he always ate three) and he has suddenly developed a work effort, where before he was verging on shiftless. Rumours spread – taking these minor (and positive, in the last case) things and building on them. The townsfolk suddenly start suggesting he might be a haint.

James Best as Jeff Myrtlebank

Haints are restless spirits and in this it is qualified to suggest that one such restless spirit might have taken over Jeff’s vacated body. Haints came up in the film Sinners, where they are suspected until vampires are identified. In this Jeff actually says that people “treat me like a vampire”. However, we do also get him taking flowers to Comfort and they have wilted though he only picked them that day. The death of flowers does sometimes follow in a vampire’s wake – especially energy vampires – and this is one of our tropes, along with being accused of being the restless dead.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Use of Tropes: A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse

As a bakeneko (or ghost cat) film, A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse has some strange and unusual aspects but, of course, here at TMtV we look to the vampiric aspect and the bakeneko genre usually requires consideration on a film-by-film basis. In this case it, to me, might have been listed as being of genre interest (simply for being a bakeneko film) and of course it carries the generic bakeneko tropes. But there was a genre connection I saw that was subtly done.

reporting the change in law

The Kazuhiko Yamaguchi directed film was released in 1975 and veers away from the more traditional period stories (or modern with period flashbacks) and sets itself in a more contemporary part of the past, 1958. This was the year that the anti-prostitution act was introduced in Japan and this law is the catalyst for the film and is mentioned in a newspaper headline at the head of the film.

Yukino and Kuro

In one such brothel, about to be shut down, the manager Genzô (Taiji Tonoyama) has thought of a way around the act and intends to turn the brothel into a Turkish bathhouse (which will have the girls working in it and will have extras). His wife, Utae (Tomoko Mayama) – known to the girls as Mama, asks them if they are prepared to stay and all say yes bar Yukino (Naomi Tani). Having been reminded that any debt might have been forgiven by the act (as debt bondage was used to hold women to the brothels) but it was still a dishonour to not repay it, she leaves anyway taking her cat Kuro.

pretend gangsters

Her reason for leaving is that her boyfriend, Yûzô (Hideo Murota), is moving her in with him. He puts wedding rings on them when back at their new apartment and she asks him to move her country living younger sister Mayumi (Misa Ohara) in with them. They are in a clinch when gangsters (presumably yakuza) break in and demand he pay the money he owes – which he bought the apartment with. To protect him, she offers to take the debt and pay it off – having to return to the bathhouse (at first part time and, after he acquires more debt, full time).

Misa Ohara as Mayumi

Actually, it is all a big scam cooked up with Mama, and the gangsters were his men acting. He and she split the money Yukino earns and he was even given a fee for returning her. He is, all-in-all, a bad guy. He starts an affair with Mama, (rather graphically) rapes Mayumi and, when Yukino tells him she is pregnant (and has refused to have an abortion) he and Mama torture her (again in a rather gritty, graphic scene) during which she miscarriages and dies, they then wall her body up in the basement. It also becomes apparent that he works at the bathhouse (and presumably the brothel before) as a manager – how/if Yukino was unaware of this isn’t addressed. The second act is 6 months later and sees Mayumi (no longer innocent) start at the bathhouse, quickly becoming the highest earner, which draws the ire of the other women.

the blood appearing

So far, no bakeneko action. Indeed the film goes on with its graphic violence (we get another rape, leading to a suicide, and a murder) and intersperses that with an exploitation level of nudity. Kuro, the cat, is watching proceedings and intervenes to save Mayumi from a beating by flying through the air and scratching faces. We also see its shadow loom large behind paper walls. However, it is after the cat is decapitated that we get our bakeneko action. The plaster, behind which Yukino is walled, starts to have blood appear on it, spreading outwards and quickly taking the shape of a body. This is the subtle trope, more often than not in these films the cat licks blood and becomes a bakeneko. This blood pattern becomes the blood connection, creating the bakeneko with the corpse behind the wall.

flying bakeneko head

The wall breaks up and we see Yukino’s corpse perfectly preserved. We then see her head fall and, as she rises again, she has become the bakeneko. This means it is a bakeneko film where the corpse is possessed by the cat spirit, rather than the cat shifting form to look like a human. There isn’t much in way of blood drinking, she is after revenge, but we do get the flying disembodied bakeneko head biting into a neck that then offers a really nicely gory blood spurt. This one might be a tough watch, bearing in mind the rape scenes and is certainly full of sexploitation as well but, despite holding off on the bakeneko action for way too long, I rather enjoyed it and it is definitely something that is of genre interest, at the very least.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK