Blade Vol. 1: Mother Of Evil – review

Author: Bryan Edward Hill

Artists: Elena Casagrande & Valentina Pinti

First published: 2024 (TPB)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: The Daywalker returns for a new era of vampire hunting! True evil is patient. A dark, ancient power has been simmering quietly for centuries. And when Blade himself is the one to unknowingly unleash it, Marvel's entire supernatural underworld comes out of hiding to demand that he handle it - or pay a pound of flesh for his mistakes! But Blade's greatest hope of success rests with the last person he wants to ask: a hostile ex! Blade must travel to Japan to meet a high-end arms dealer who may be the key to defeating the Adana, the deadly threat Blade has inadvertently released! And as the pulse of its power ripples across the Marvel Universe, a familiar friend is drawn into the fray. Bloodbaths, blackmail and Blade - you won't want to miss this one!

The review: A limited length Blade adventure, it runs for the length of two volumes and this one sets the story up and the limited run is probably its weakness as it feels rushed. It starts with Blade tricked into killing a warrior who, though fearsomely dressed, is the key to stopping the resurgence of an evil entity named Adana. By killing the warrior, and then losing the weapon he wielded, which is the only thing that can kill Adana, Blade opens the way for her to emerge, possessing the girl he thought he was protecting. Adana’s goal is the end of the world.

Blade spends the rest of the story trying to find a new method of killing the entity. This includes getting help from Tulip, the ex and arms dealer mentioned in the blurb, trying to steal Lucifer’s sword from a vampire who lives on an ever-moving armoured train and begging guidance from an unlikely ally…

The artwork is strong, and portrays what it needs to, but was shy of being breathtaking, to me, but the issue lay in the rushed feeling of the comic book. Because this is a very limited run it really crammed the narrative in but, especially as this is global and apocalyptic, it felt rushed and in feeling so it lost impact. Not that this is poor by any stretch, but it could have stood for room to breathe. 6 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Short Film: AI: Crushing a Female Vampires Heart

out of the dark

I’ve had another couple of contacts from Adijyx with  details of AI generated films they have created, and I have decided to share this one with y’all. I mentioned last time that the creation process they have described feels much more involved than simply hitting an AI with a prompt and this one looks really good.

seduction

Following a hunter who disturbs a female vampire, is stalked, seduced, stakes her and finally pulls her heart out. This is worth a look – though NSFW due to some nudity. The debate around AI will rage on, of course, but I was really impressed with the visuals with this one, indeed this is better looking than some studio cgi. You can watch it over at DeviantArt or Vimeo.

Night Carnage – review

Director: Thomas J. Churchill

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

At the end of Night Carnage I was left unsure as to whether its raison d'etre was a commentary on the influencer phenomena or just on dating. Whilst having vampires, werewolves and hunters, they seemed almost a secondary aspect, strangely.

After scenes in the city we see a man outside a door, he has an earpiece and breaks into the building. In his ear, Aiden (Mike Ferguson, Dracula Eternal), tells him to scout only. Inside he finds a coffin surrounded by candles. Instead of retreating he opens it and stakes the vampire within. A male vampire, Michael Connor (Christian Howard), drops from the ceiling behind the hunter and kills him (with rubbish CGI blood spatter – the film really had some of the worst I’ve seen). Aiden tells his boss (Sonny King, Ravenwolf Towers) that they’ve lost another knight.

Baker Powell as Marcus

The boss is bed-bound and his son, Marcus (Baker Powell, United States of Horror: Chapter 1), visits. Marcus is a bar owner with a taste for the macabre and dad tells him of his heritage. The Von Holsen’s are descended from Van Helsing, they are monster hunters, knights as they have it, and it is his birthright. VH was killed by Michael Connor and he should avenge him. Despite mentioning that Van Helsing is in horror novels, he takes this news in his stride it seems and is pretty darn calm when dad dies there and then, message delivered.

Logan Andrews as Tess

Elsewhere we see Tess (Logan Andrews) exercising on a beach, By trade she is a blogger who blogs about relationships and essentially goes on dates and then writes about them – this reminded me of the film The Night is Young but also, I guess, Sex and the City came to mind as she voice-overed a blog later. We see a disastrous date with SteveO (Nick Waters) and then SteveO being killed by a werewolf. The film distances (by silence) Tess and the werewolf for no adequately explored reason as we quickly discover it is her (and, to be fair, the werewolf practical costume looked pretty good). Also dating (and then killing dates) is Michael Connor but he is rather taken by Tess, who looks like a lost love whose portrait he has (yup, that old chesnut). Meanwhile Marcus has taken control of the knights.

vampire

Not a huge amount particularly happens. We see two dates each both ending in eating the date (Tess because her dates are dirtbags, Michael because they do not live up to his high expectations and are not his lost bride). All the dates are at a restaurant called Renfield’s – it is creditable that Marcus recognises the name as coming from a horror novel, less so that the primary source is never named. It is at the end where the three storylines converge and the film again uses pretty-darn poor cgi blood spatter – given the practical werewolf, one wonders why? Some of the photography is well done. There isn’t much to be said about the acting, it does what it needs to and there are some naturalistic moments, but this never grasps the key plot point nor makes a thriller/horror of it, and is not the greatest as a result. 3.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

From Dusk Till Bong – review

Director: James Balsamo

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

This one left me rather confused with regards release dates. It follows on from 2015’s Bite School and was released before (and seems to come before chronologically) Bite School 2. In fact Bite School 2 is mentioned as a movie, in a meta piece of Coda, and lead character Tony (James Balsamo) mentions going on to fight Robo-Dracula – which is the basic premise of Bite School 2. It was released three years before Bite School 2 but, I suspect, shot after it. It is disc 3 of the Blu-Ray set “James Balsamo’s Thrilling Three Pack”.

using a prayer scroll

So, after moments of Tony riding a bat (we’ll get to that) and a brief cameo by Eric Roberts, it starts with vampire hunter Screaming Jay Pigeons (Charles Wright) taking on a vampire. He splashes him but the holy water doesn’t seem to work (its daylight, outdoors in the dessert by the way) until Jay declares that it is holy gasoline and sets the vampire alight. As the vampire runs around in flame we see a kyonsi/jiangshi, Broccoli Bob (Bill Victor Arucan, Bite School 2 & the Last Slay Ride), hopping towards him. Also appearing is Jay’s very naked dead wife Lanorea (J.E. Scripps) saying, “Save me, Jay”. She has vanished by the time Broccoli Bob arrives and Jay has time to go through a set of prayer scrolls and affix one to his head.

Spat and Tony

Tony and Spat (a talking side-kick bat) are driving through the Nevada desert – and there is something very Hunter S Thompson/Fear & Loathing about Spat. This offers exposition (and that it is exposition is mentioned). Vicky, who turned millionaire playboy Tony into a vampire, was killed by vampire hunters – later confirmed to be Jay and his partner Father Gill O'Teen (G. Larry Butler, also Bite School 2), Her death made him become human again (he is still getting used to the idea of eating food again) and the subsequent mansion fire burnt all his money (he didn’t trust banks) and so he’s broke. At the start of the film the hunters are still after him and by the end they are allies. Tony stumbles into a vampire outbreak and Jay is collecting vampire eyes so he can “pass through the spiritual event horizon” and rescue Lanorea – who, we discover, was turned and subsequently killed by Jay.

flying by bat

There isn’t too much more to say. Tony is further aided by billionaire Bill Diamond (Robert Felsted Jr.), we get a staking by screwdriver flicked in a condom, some gratuitous nakedness, fighting vampires, and lots of crap bats including the bat I mentioned that we see Tony riding. The bat is actually Mayan bat God Camazotz, summoned in an identical way to that in Bite School 2 in a sequence that involves Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe having his flesh stripped by drawn bats. The model for Camazotz is different, however. When we see Tony riding it is when he declares he has to kill Robo-Dracula. The film itself meanders, jumps back in time and Broccoli Bob seems to reappear even having been seen to be killed (though that could just be a non-linear appearance). It is more stream of consciousness than story. Like the others in the series James Balsamo fans will know what they’re getting and enjoy it. The narrative wasn’t there for me but really that’s the point of his filmmaking – caveated that many do get it, 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Honourable mention: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated – Season 1

This was the first season of the 2010-2013 incarnation of Scooby-Doo as a serial cartoon where there was an overarching story arc. In actual fact, I did look at this season’s vampire episode, the Secret Serum, previously. Now, when I reviewed that I said “There is an estrangement between Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Velma (Mindy Cohn) – who were, it appears, an item. Plus Fred (Frank Welker) and Daphne (Grey DeLisle) seem to have issues, making the gang drift apart in different directions by the end of this – distractions; what we want is mystery solving not soap opera teen romance. For heaven’s sake we are watching a talking dog…”

vampire film

I do not take that back – the introduction of character romance (and romantic failings, in the case of Velma and Shaggy) seemed a distraction as I watched the whole thing – but there was enough mystery solving and Scooby-ness to keep me going back to it (indeed, I might be the father of an adult son but I’ll always maintain that Scooby is for all ages). In Fact, despite the more soap aspect, the season was perhaps darker than other Scooby-Doo series and, as it happens there were (beyond the vampire episode) some vampire connections through the season that were worth mentioning here.

the Bloody Stake steak house

First of all was a restaurant in Crystal Cove (the town that seems to attract fake paranormal activity at a rate of knots). A steak house, one assumes, called the Bloody Stake, which has a vampire logo. The restaurant appears in three episodes of the season and is most notable for Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby (Frank Welker) being refused any more helpings on the "All You Can Gorge" night.

stake in hand

We see Shaggy and Scooby about to indulge in the Vincent Van Ghoul (Maurice LaMarche) movie marathon at one point. Due to this we see a tad of a vampire film staring Van Ghoul as a vampire hunter, stake in hand, with the implication that he is fighting off an army of vampires. Van Ghoul is, clearly, based on Vincent Price and I understand that Warner Bros received Price’s estate’s permission to use his likeness and voice.

vampire bust

Van Ghoul actually appeared in the 13 Ghost incarnation of Scooby-Doo and, in this season, his fans Shaggy and Scooby actually meet him when they win a competition to have dinner with him (which is a set up for a new ‘scare’ reality TV show Van Ghoul has, but leads them to saving him from a monster). In the house we see a Poster for O’Vampy, one of his films, and a vampire bust/mask out on display in the horror icon’s mansion.

teen Vamp literature

Lastly, the gang becomes embroiled for a second time with professor and horror author H.P. Hatecraft (Jeffrey Combs, Holiday Hell, Frightmare, Necronomicon: Book of the Dead & Dark House) – as an aside, Hatecraft is obviously modelled on Lovecraft, who Combs played in Necronomicon. In their second encounter Hatecraft is being ousted by Regina Wentworth (Kari Wahlgren), author of Teen vampire series Dusk (made up of Dusk: Forbidden Love, Dusk: Early Evening and Dusk: Just Before Bedtime). There is a cut-out of the main vampire character causing Daphne to muse at what Fred would look like with “fangs and skin the color of boiled pork”.

Daphne dates an actor

So, there we have the additional vampire references in Season 1 of Mystery Incorporated. Note that in Season 2 there was the reappearance of the Bloody Stake a couple of times and Daphne dating the actor from the Dusk films – but no real vampire reference otherwise. The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Short Film: The Vampyr: A Gothic Horror

A little over 15 minutes in length this Will Nutter directed and written short was released in 2025. By the language and visuals, set in the 19th century, it certainly looks great. The black and white photography sets the atmosphere – though it does go, deliberately, very dark in places.

It starts with Edmund (Steven Hardie Colgan) narrating, as he composes a letter to his mother. He has left England and is sailing in pursuit of his love Mira (Skye McVie), who has been taken by a vampyr (Liam Robertson). Once ashore he finds someone to aid him in his hunt, known simply as the Hunter (Donnie Baxter) and together they set off to the castle.

The hunter and Edmund

Of course, one has to assume everyone is on the level… and to discover if they are, you’ll have to watch the short. Colgan carries the film, earnest but bumbling, though Baxter’s Hunter is a gruff, believable veteran of vampire hunting. The castle used for filming (I believe Lennox castle in Scotland) was a great location – though I think I may have tried to scrub the little bit of graffiti caught on camera in post-production. A minor point.

The imdb page is here.

Empire of the Dawn – review

Author: Jay Kristoff

First published: 2025

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: From holy cup comes holy light;
The faithful hands sets world aright.
And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight,
Mere man shall end this endless night.

Gabriel de León has lost his family, his faith, and his last hope of ending the endless night – the Holy Grail, Dior. With no desire left but vengeance, he and a band of loyal brothers journey into the war-torn heart of the Augustin Empire to claim the life of the Forever King.

Unbeknownst to the Last Silversaint, the Grail still lives – speeding towards Augustin’s besieged capital in the frail hope of ending Daysdeath forever. But deadly treachery awaits within the halls of power, and the Forever King’s legions march ever closer. Gabriel and Dior will be drawn into a final battle that will shape the very fate of the Empire, but as the sun sets for what may be the last time, there will be no-one left for them to trust.

Not even each other.

The review: It’s strange, when I came to pull up the reviews of the first two books of this trilogy (this being the third book), I realised that although I reviewed book 1, for some reason the review for book 2 (Empire of the Damned) never happened. Well it is too late now and let it suffice to say that I really enjoyed it and so really anticipated this volume. Firstly, let me cover off that the actual physical hardback is as gorgeous as the others in the series. Illustrated through – with pictures that are meant to have been drawn by vampire historian/inquisitor Jean-Francois Chastain as he draws out the story of how Gabriel de León fought against the Forever King (leader of one of the vampire bloodlines and, we come to discover in this volume, author of Daysdeath – the catastrophe that has almost totally blocked out the sun). We know, from the previous volumes, that Gabe killed the Forever King and that the Holy Grail – actually a living decedent of the Redeemer named Dior Lanchance. Chastain goes between Gabe and his sister Celene, the Last Liathe – a mysterious vampire sect who cannibalise their own kind to save their souls – and there is no love lost between the pair. However between the two the historian hopes to pin down the truth for his Highborn vampire mistress.

Going too deep into the story will be pointless for those who have not read the first two books (like those, this is a mammoth volume) but the world the story is set in is a fantasy one that has a religion similar to, but not actually, Christianity. The characters are drawn in an adult way but beautifully written. One of the concepts I really liked in this was the idea that the capital of the human Empress had furnaces that burned so hot (for smelting and smithing) that they were used to keep the waterways unfrozen and, to attack the invading vampire army they turned up the heat, producing rolling banks of steam that the priests bless – so holy steam rather than water. The story spins from twisted betrayal to twisted betrayal as it speeds towards the end, though the final twist, the final set of falsehoods both work but also feel a tad glib in the execution leading me a little torn over the ending – but that is likely me. A great ending to the series. 9 out of 10.

In Hardback @ Amazon US

In Hardback @ Amazon UK

The Immortal Hunters – review

Director: Paolo Bertola

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

It is a bad sign when I watch a film (incidentally subtitled The Renegade on the Tubi stream but not on IMDb) and have to drag myself kicking and screaming to the keyboard because it is just so poor.

Now, when I say poor, I don’t mean 'so bad its good' poor… not even so bad it isn’t good but at least I can laugh at it… I mean so bad that I was deathly bored whilst watching, bad. So bad that I can’t write a review that, at the very least, is entertaining.

fangs on show

Oh well, so we start with the information that, some time ago the dead started being blamed for bringing disease and there was a move to neutralise them – stakes, bricks in the mouth, cut the corpse up were all used but people were only safe when they were reduced to skeleton state (this is all pretty folkloric to be honest).

the vampire lover

Cut to Romania in 1944 and a battle. The narrator, Vladamir (Ruben Maria Soriquez), is a lone survivor. Injured and doomed he crawls when a woman comes to him and decides he is too young to die and bares fangs… Athens in the present day and he is there with his lover and they serve the King of the vampires, Count Ţepeş. Now, Vlad Ţepeş was not a Count and would not have gone by the sobriquet Ţepeş, but hey, ho… The vampires discover *they* are here (Catholic clerical vampire hunters) and the lover is killed.

a goat based diet

They run off to the Philippines and live in the middle of nowhere – Ţepeş has some form of condition and he must have blood once a week. Some are suspicious of Vladamir as they don’t see him feed (he actually only feeds on goat blood). The clerical hunters show up and one of the nuns (apparently undercover) is the spitting image of Vladamir’s erstwhile vampire lover (though clearly not a reincarnation as she has only just been killed).

hunters

And that’s the story, but I didn’t really care. The thing I noticed the most was the really poor dialogue delivery. The film is in English, but sounds dubbed, though possibly by the original actors as they have Italian accents. But it is just flat throughout. The story didn’t hold me, the characters are instantly forgettable. I’m sorry, I just wasn’t moved in any way – indeed staying awake was a challenge. 1 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Marvel Zombies – review

Director: Bryan Andrews

First aired: 2025

Contains spoilers

Marvel Zombies was a limited (4 episode) animated series released in time for the Halloween season. It follows the Zombies episode of What If…? As such it is in an alternate timeline to the primary MCU. When we hit the first episode it is five years after the outbreak, the Earth has more or less fallen and is isolated from the universe by atmospheric energy interference generated by the Wakanda Event (the destruction of the infinity stones when Zombie Thanos threatened to use the infinity gauntlet).

young heroes

It starts with three young heroes; Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) aka Ms Marvel, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) aka Ironheart and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld, Sinners) aka Hawkeye, who have the repurposed AI driven ironman armour named F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Kerry Condon) with them. Every time they leave their base to enter the city for supply runs they encounter and are hunted by the zombie Hawkeye, AKA Clint Barton. This time they see a Quinjet go down and find a miniaturised transmitter swallowed by the zombified pilot. They ascertain that it is a transmitter to help save the planet and need to get it to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base.

Khonsu

It is during that journey that all three look about to lose their lives, however Hawkeye and Ironheart sacrifice themselves to save Ms Marvel (with F.R.I.D.A.Y. flying her out of the immediate area before returning to Ironheart) but she looks likely to die too until she is rescued by Blade Knight (Todd Williams, the Vampire Diaries). So, this is Blade but, after the previous avatar became zombified, he has become the avatar of Khonsu (Piotr Michael), God of the Moon, with the Knight in his name coming from the fact that the avatar is normally Moon Knight. 

Todd Williams voices Blade

He has fangs and was clearly the daywalker before this happened, but comments later call him a vampire (rather than dhampir, but we have no reason to believe he is a full vampire), with another suggesting he no longer drinks blood. This is unlikely down to his serum and more likely him being sustained by Khonsu. The other thing to note is the voicing by Todd Williams. The MCU Blade movie has been stuck in development Hell, though Mahershala Ali was cast as Blade and voiced him for a line in the Eternals. Whether this casting means Ali is no longer connected and Williams is, Ali was unavailable for this, or that the project has been finally abandoned, is unknown as I write this.

the Queen of the Dead

Another thing to note is Blade Knight is in all four episodes and represents a major Deus Ex Machina – due to Khonsu – so not the cameo of the character we saw in Deadpool & Wolverine. The series sees Ms Marvel, Blade Knight and those they gather round them being chased across the globe by the Queen of the Dead, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) – the zombified version of the Scarlet Witch, who was a central aspect of the What If…? Episode and who has gained the ability to connect to zombies psychically and is building a horde.

the Blade Knight

This was fun. Blade Knight gets to have plenty of sword play, and there are loads of Marvel heroes (either in flashback or present day) both zombified and still living. If I had a complaint, it was that it felt like lurching from one crisis to another. In a longer built series they would perhaps have had moments of calm to balance it out. That said, the scenario meant that perhaps it would have been relentless. There are moral ambiguities drawn in at times but perhaps not too much of that and the heroes tend just to be heroic. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story – review

Director: Natasha Kermani

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

This Dracula related film was based on a Joe Hill short story and is set in an alternate ending to Dracula. Jonathan Harker died (how is not revealed) and Van Helsing (Titus Welliver, Kindred the Embraced) married Mina (Jocelin Donahue). No mention is made of Quincey – so presumably Mina and Jonathan did not have a son – rather Mina and Abraham have two children, Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey).

Titus Welliver as Van Helsing

Van Helsing left London for Holland and then moved the family from there to America, settling in California. This is to keep away from those things that may come in the night. The boys have been brought up with tales of the vampire and Mina’s blood is said to still be tainted to the point that she is, at times, ill and Van Helsing suggests that *they* can detect her through it, when close.

opening scene

Having opened with an intertitle from Van Helsing’s medical journal about vampirism and the virulence with which it spreads we find ourselves in 1915, some 18 years after the death of Count Dracula. We see a woman who begs a horseman for a ride as she needs to get to town (the interaction and reaction put my mind to Red Dead Redemption 2 and probably suggests I played the game a tad too often). After he has ridden past a black blur tackles her to off screen.

Brady Hepner as Max

One of the issues with the film is that it is ponderous. We get time with the family – Abraham is hard on Max as he seems not to apply himself to his lessons, whereas Rudy is wilful. Near the homestead surveyors plot for a branch to the railway – and an accident brings them into Van Helsing’s orbit as he has to render medical aid. The boys wonder what is in the forbidden study and Rudy complains that there are noises in the night (and, so what if *they* need inviting in? What if *they* are inside already?)

Mina bitten

We get vampiric moments in Max’s dreams where he sees a pale man (Forrest McClain) but are the dreams born of the stories he’s been told or more prophetic in nature? Mina gives some lovely turn of phrase when describing the past, “The others never saw his true face. He held me so close. I could feel his cold breath on my cheek. So strange to have cold breath. Long, white limbs, white teeth, and a terrible, thin, soft mouth… …He moved like a ghost.” She becomes more and more ill, though Max wonders whether his father’s treatments do more harm than good.

burying the undead

Inevitably Van Helsing wants to train his children in the ‘family business’ whether they wish to or not. Via this we get some lore, as he explains how to stake the undead and suggests they can “pass from shadow to shadow.” We also get a visit from Arthur Holmwood (Jonathan Howard), though he is a man wracked with guilt and doubts, and all that is to say that we drudge through this without a tension building that we need as a viewer. It is a shame, as a tension could have been found and would have kept the viewer's attention as the film slowly builds to its denouement that explores the nature of monsters. However, without that tension 4 out of 10 is generous.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: The Wrath on Evil

This 12-minutes film was directed by Roman Rivera and released in 2022 and is, I suspect, as much a proof of concept as it is a short in its own right.

It follows Father Rafael (Nicholas Nadashvili), a priest and vampire hunter, who is talking to camera at the head of the film. One of the primary parts of his dialogue is speaking about the use of holy water and the efficiency of the blessed liquid against vampires. There are a couple of moments within that standout as interesting but never elaborated on. One is him casually mentioning hunting for 300 plus years – so what is he? The other is the idea of bringing them all back to Hell – a strange phrasing, when more typically the phrasing would be sending, rather than bringing.

Olegs Vlaskenko as Dracula

The film then has him walking into a church and being attacked by a vampire whilst another watches from the altar dais on which he is enthroned. The watcher is, from the credits, Dracula (Olegs Vlaskenko). He despatches the vampire and turns to Dracula and the film then goes back in time a year, to a vampire hunting monk (Marvic Pascual), which hasn’t much context. Then to an exorcism, which Raphael enters addressing the demon by name and forcing out with some punches to the possessed girl’s face and pressing a rosary to her head. He then goes to where the monk had been…

vampire

So, not a lot of narrative, rather hints of story and depiction of fighting, and I have to mention the sound. Some of the dialogue (with vocal effects) sounded dubbed and said dialogue, plus some of the sounds, where too loud in the mix. As a proof of concept, however, this likely works as a way to draw in budget to make a better version. However, as stands, it is on Fawesome TV currently.

The imdb page is here.

The Night is Young – review

Director: Patrick Rea

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Patrick Rae, who was behind the interesting indie werewolf film “I am Lisa”, turns his attention to vampires and we are in the world of influencers – or content creators as main character Nora (Sarah McGuire) describes herself. This is an interesting world to dip into and I look at it, in part, in my chapter They Have Changed Their Faces, part of the volume Toxic Nostalgia on Screen.

hunter's base

After an intertitle telling us we are in Kansas, we see a hooded woman at a map, vampire hunting gear and the hunters going out on the prowl. This is being filmed by another (unnamed) content creator and late in the film we discover he found the hunters on Reddit. However, after that, the film moves back several hours to Nora and her re-doing an intro that explains why she hasn’t done much content recently.

Jake and Nora

Her content is filmed by her brother, Jake (Jake Jackson), and consists of her going on dates and looking for love, under the title Nora’s Infinite Gaylist. Nora is a lesbian and we see some of the latest dates, one with Bianca (Nicole Hall) who, it turns out, is married to a man (who then turns up on the date), another where the date suggests moving in (on the first date) and then about one that went well and they dated for two weeks until she ghosted Nora. She is due to go out on another date.

meeting

She gets to the bar, but her date is not there (we notice that another woman at the bar, Amelia (Valeri Bates), keeps looking over to her). Eventually they decide that Nora has been stood up, but she is approached by Amelia, who offers to buy her a drink. They hit it off. Eventually Amelia is walking Nora to her car when a man grabs Nora intent on mugging her (the fact that this is being filmed by Jake begs a question around criminals, content creators and constant filming, which isn’t for here but struck me as I watched). Amelia growls, Nora is thrown against a door and knocked out and Amelia bears fangs and attacks the mugger.

blood at mouth

In a strange room, Nora comes round. Jake says they were brought there by Amelia and shows Nora the footage. They move to leave the apartment and find a box with several passports and some photos including an old one of a woman who looks like Nora (later we discover she was Amelia’s maker, there isn’t any discussion on reincarnation and the film relies on the viewer knowing the trope). They continue to leave but Amelia is in front of the door, her mouth still bloodstained. She says she isn’t going to hurt them and they talk for a while but then Amelia senses the hunters (they found her bag, left on the scene) and they leave but Amelia is injured by a holy water projectile…

staked vampire

The rest of the film follows them through the night. The hunters are specifically after Amelia as she is an ancestor of theirs (why, beyond this, is never really communicated) and this is the issue with the film. The narrative is often shorthanded. Why would a pair of vampires betray her? Because the hunters have promised them amnesty for cooperation – we get that much but the emotional impact is low as the connection between them and Amelia is not explored. Why Jake and Nora do not just walk away is not explored. This doesn’t make it bad (and is kind of necessary due to the found footage style) but stops a deeper exploration by the viewer and makes it susceptible to notwithstanding study. As a single, found footage style watch, its ok. It will probably not withstand multiple watches. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.