Four Nights in Fear Forest – review

Director: Mark Polonia

Release date: 2024*

Contains spoilers

*2024 according to IMDb, however the Blu-ray came out in 2025 and the copyright on the film says 2025

I’ve generally not held the work of the Polonia brothers in high regard, as pieces of cinema, they are definitely at the low-budget end of the spectrum. However, they have a place and a fandom and, I have to admit, I participated in the crowdsourcing of this film. The Blu-ray perk recently arrived and from there comes my review. It does need noting that there isn’t actually a vampire in this – rather an animatronic of Dracula (Jeff Kirkendall, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter, The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Bloodlust & Sharkula).

animatronics

Animatronics is a good place to start as the film title clearly apes Five Nights at Feddy’s, and the plot apes the recent rash of AI gone bad/possessed animatronic slashers. What causes the four monster animatronics to go bad isn’t definitively explored. They are at a Haunt called Fear Forest (we get a lot of documentary guest comments on the place, too many perhaps) and there is a flashback scene to 1995 where there were a group of kids killed and that is put down to satanists but, whether they managed to have the animatronics possessed is debatable. They are noted for random (dangerous) movements beyond that, mention is made of the genius builder of them (and so it could be down to him) and we also get a lightning strike in the contemporary timeline that seems to bring them to life.

prisoners

The contemporary timeline sees Fear Forest shutting down and park owner Malachi Bones (also Jeff Kirkendall) is working with prisoner rehabilitation to remove the exhibits. To that end Emma Brown (Yolie Canales, also Sharkula) has brought a group of prisoners to the theme park and their four days at the park will end or knock time off their sentences. They are Serenity (Greta Volkova, Tales of Dracula), Luca (Tim Hatch, Terror of the Master, also 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter, The Temptress & Sharkula), Skylar (Jamie Morgan, also Sharkula) and Caleb (Michael Korotitsch, also The Temptress & Sharkula). Because of their prisoner status, and because Skylar plans on running, the threat of the killer animatronics does not come immediately to light.

Dracula

I’ve mentioned that Kirkendall also plays the Dracula animatronic but the others are also played by one or more of the central cast. So, Greta Volkova and Michael Korotitsch both play the Mummy, Jamie Morgan plays the Bride and Tim Hatch plays the wolfman. The animatronics look rubbish (replete with cheap Halloween masks) but, other than comments on the exquisite craftmanship, that doesn’t matter – you can imagine them in a cheap end Haunt. The film is pretty much a slasher and it is only the fact that it is styled after a vampire that gets it onto the TMtV radar.

Jeff Kirkendall as Malachi Bones

Now I mentioned the Polonia brothers’ films at the head of the review and, startlingly, this turned out to be one of the better ones that I've seen. It doesn’t make it good cinema but it flowed that bit better. There are issues that could have been avoided; Michael Korotitsch gave an admirable performance despite the awful fake facial hair, as a for instance. Talking about performances, Jeff Kirkendall gave a weird but deliberately understated performance as the odd Malachi Bones (and the reason he looks the same age as a video from 30-years before is addressed), which was perfectly suited to him and one of the best I've seen from him. There is a place for low budget filmmaking such as this, there is a market for it. If you are part of that market I suspect you’ll get a kick out of this. 3 out of 10 reflects a realistic score but the film remains ideal for that z-grade malarkey.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

Terror of the Master – review

Director: Jeff Kirkendall

Release date: 1998

Contains spoilers

A straight to video film now on disc from SRS Home Video this was (according to IMDb) the directorial debut by Jeff Kirkendall and is full of the issues one would expect from a first effort, weirdly off framing being one such issue and just the strangest set of scene timings towards the end. Yet despite this I think it was better than some of his later films (I’ve reviewed the Temptress and the short 3 to Murder).

Maitely Weismann as Drew

It starts with a woman being chained in a cellar and, after the gun toting guys leave the cellar she tests the chains and girder she is chained to, in case she can get away, and then sees a shadowy figure – she screams. In an antique store, after hearing a radio bulletin about the latest in a string of kidnappings of women, a customer goes to the counter and believes she recognises the shopkeeper, Drew (Maitely Weismann), before realising she is also a news anchor on a local news service. The woman confides that she likes Drew better than that Dave Rydell (David Louis).

some odd framing

Why is she working the shop? It appears that it is a family business she co-runs with her sister Amelia (Jennifer Birn, The Temptress and 3 to Murder). Drew mentions her frustration with Dave to her boyfriend Jeff (Jeff Kirkendall, also The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter) and Sharkula) who councils patience, she’s only been at the station a year and she’ll get her break. He is frustrated with Amelia though, as she has been depressed since splitting with her boyfriend. To be honest there is a pap talk scene between Drew and Amelia, which was meant to establish character and relationship but just kinda dragged – and the film is only 75 minutes long.

a victim

Working in the store again, Drew seems ready to call it a night when a nervous looking woman, Beth (Kelly Chaisson Warner), comes in. She knocks over a cheap ornament, drops something and then leaves. A man’s face appears at the window. The next day Drew is doing a fluff piece for the station and, when she gets back to the office, discovers that a voice mail has been left telling her to be careful, if she goes to the police the woman will die. After she sees Dave’s latest kidnapping editorial she realises that Beth is the latest victim.

Drew, a cop and Ame;ia

She speaks to Amelia and decides to investigate – she dare not go to the police after the threat. Beth dropped a matchbook from a bar and a parking garage chitty and the game is afoot – but doesn’t last too long before Drew is kidnapped also. Amelia tracks her and Dave follows Amelia… And here is our strange timing… Drew is in a trunk of a car and taken to a derelict house… Amelia has been able to follow (but we have no sense that she is in a car)… Dave follows her and calls for a camera… as we cut between scenes it is apparent that it only takes the camera tech Lewis (Tim Hatch, also The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Sharkula and Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter) about a minute to get there. The timing is off.

Tony Turcic as Worthall

So, what is going on? Vampire Christopher Worthall (Tony Turcic, also Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter) was betrayed by vampire friend Darden Porter (James Carolus, also The Temptress, 3 to Murder and Bloodlust) over a female vampire (Shannon Von Ronne) who was a mutual romantic interest and was killed by hunters. Darden blamed Worthall for her death and poisoned him with strychnine (who knew that was a thing). Weak, Worthall got to the derelict house, to find it occupied by bank robbers and now has had them kidnapping women for him to feed on and get his strength back. Worthall has a line in hissing, long brown nails, fangs and we discover vampires can be killed through decapitation or a shot to the head. There is an ability to mesmerise also.

James Carolus as Darden Porter

The only other notable piece of lore (if you can call it that) is that before you discover his name the optional subtitles call Worthall a ghoul. The film had issues, as I have mentioned but it was actually quite good fun and very earnest. Despite the sisters' conversation moment that dragged, the short run time meant it didn’t overstay its welcome. The VHS transfer is as you would expect but, you know what, if you like straight to home video films there are a lot shoddier films out there. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from a masterpiece and 3.5 out of 10 seems fair but you could do worse.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

Halloween Horror Tales – review

Director: Jeff Kirkendall

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

Jeff Kirkendall is a budget filmmaker and I have reviewed a few of his films now. I think it a measure of the man that he commented on my review of Terror of the Master, saying that he has enjoyed my reviews of the films – they have not scored high but I always try to give an honest review and see the positives in a vehicle. He directed me to this anthology film that he released in 2018.

a victim

The quality of story varied, and they were clearly budget but it was the final segment that interests us, as that was a vampire tale called The Hunt. Perhaps not as inventive as some of the segments (I was rather taken by The Horror Hostess) it actually made the segments feel cohesive by having the Host (Marie DeLorenzo) of the anthology a part of this story, as Elizabeth, despite this being released as a short three years before the anthology.

Tim Hatch as Darren

It starts with a flash to Elizabeth, a dream of an attack on her by a vampire and being found by her husband Darren (Tim Hatch, Terror of the Master, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter, The Temptress Four Nights at Fear Forest & Sharkula) – it is his dream and he is haunted by her murder. Meanwhile cops are removing a body from a house – one of a series of murders being investigated by FBI agent Leanna Stark (Deana Demko, The Ironbound Vampire & Requiem for a Vampire).

Florence Steinberg as Camille

Graveyard caretaker Cyrus Linden (James Carolus, also Terror of the Master, The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter and Sharkula) knows more than he is letting on – something Darren has realised – and eventually spills the beans about the visit of a mysterious woman called Camille (Florence Steinberg) who he invited in without knowing what she was and is now living out of his shed. She, of course, is the vampire that Darren is determined to kill.

fangs

The story, generally, was fairly simple but was loaded with a nice twist to a motivation, What struck me more than anything was that it really felt that, whilst simple, it could easily have been expanded into a feature and would have worked – indeed the extra time would have allowed for more of an investigative side and exploration of character that would have added to the experience. Of course, it is still low budget and the segment carries that baggage with it, but it showed promise. 3 out of 10 for the segment, with a thought that if extended – even with the lack of budget and the stagy acting – it might well have scored more.

The imdb page is here.

3 to murder – review

Director: Jeff Kirkendall

Release date: 1999

Contains spoilers

When I reviewed the Temptress I mentioned that this prequel short (which comes in at 40 minutes) was on the special edition DVD. I purposefully watched this second and there was no loss to the main feature by doing so.

The film seemed to be lower budget than the feature and, in its favour, the events – which display what happened before the immediate “present day” section of the feature – not only fit but had the same cast and even continuity for the costuming. It showed us why Ronnie (Tim Hatch) and David (James Carolus, Bloodlust (2004)) where in the house with Tina (Jennifer Lescovich) and Karen (Jennifer Birn) and the fate of the victim in there.

James Carolus as David

It begins with an alarm waking Ronnie. His special magazines have been taken by his mom (Ellen Williams) and a note left to that effect – incidentally if his mom was meant to be a comedy character, in her latter appearance, it just didn’t work for me. David is checking a haul of stolen jewellery and stabs a mirror with a knife (why, we don’t know, probably to show us he is badass and able to attack mirrors), Ronnie pops round to see him and mention is made that Ronnie is single. David suggests they go meet the three women who have just moved into a long abandoned house near Ronnie’s home. David has only seen them at night so they will go the night after, that night David is “working”.

poor lighting

Working consists of him and two friends – JoJo (Jason Palmer) and Cruze (Jeff Kirkendall, also Bloodlust) – doing a home invasion, handcuffing the woman (Mary Kay Hilko) and then killing her at the end of the robbery. We then cut to the next night, and Ronnie and David spying on and subsequently meeting the girls. The girls are sat outside as though it is day and I have to say that, although the lighting was inconsistent (a scene with Ronnie and David dramatically shifts in lighting quality depending on camera angle), there were none of the poor day for night scenes that the later film had. Karen and Tina want to go out on the town with the young men but Rachael (Eileen McCashion) blows them off.

Ronnie and Karen

Another night and Ronnie manages to get them an invite over to the house from Karen. We discover David is using the opportunity to case the house for a robbery but there is no honour amongst thieves and his criminal friends decide to case it themselves – JoJo then falling into Karen’s hands (off screen) and being the victim who then turns in the following film. Of course the girls are not all they seem and, having seen the next film, we know they are vampires. This is revealed right at the end through Karen.

Karen eats JoJo

The only additional lore we get is that the vampires do have reflections that vanish when they “vamp out”. For Tina, vamping out consists of dipping her finger in blood and then zoning out in a dreamy way. The film itself didn’t have the ambitious storyline of the next one, indeed the story was fairly hidden and I wouldn’t have been surprised to have found out that this had been filmed (or at least written) after the latter film or as part of it and subsequently edited out. The characterisation was nominal, leaving the characters two dimensional, and the dialogue delivery was amateurish. I don’t really see this one standing up in its own right, which is how I am scoring it. 2 out of 10.

At the time of writing the review there is no IMDb page.

The Temptress – review

Director: Jeff Kirkendall

Release date: 2002*

Contains spoilers

*IMDb gives the release date as 2003, the DVD box states 2002.

It is sometimes difficult, when watching a low budget independent movie. Clearly you are not going to get the professional effects of a higher budget piece and the acting might be of a lower standard but there are often things that make the film stand out as worthwhile – even if it is only heart.

There were some serious issues with the Temptress – in narrative and photography primarily. However you can see that writer, director and actor Kirkendall really believed in what he was doing. The DVD I used for review is the special edition, this included the short film 3 to Murder, a prelude to this film. I watched Tempress first and wrote the review before watching the prequel (which will be subject to a further article).

felt overexposed

The film starts with a garage and Eric (Matt Kennedy, Bloodlust (2004)) is getting ready to go camping (though the full amount of gear he and his girlfriend, Tina (Jennifer Lescovich), take seems to amount to a cool box, wine and glasses, two lanterns and two sleeping bags). The car journey takes us through the credits – the music seems odd and ill placed, though a change of theme later in the credits suits the film better. The photography sometimes becomes way too exposed, perhaps indicating that Kirkendall was not au fait with the digital camera that he was shooting with for the first time (according to sleeve notes included with the DVD).

Amy Naple as Angelique

The couple get to their spot and Tina informs him that it is meant to be haunted. The story goes that, some time before, a man was tempted through the woods by a beautiful woman but then woke up back at the camp – as ghost stories go it is pretty darn lame. Night falls; we can tell as the lanterns are on because the day for night shot doesn’t even bother with a filter to try and disguise the technique… it is broad daylight but let’s all simply pretend it’s not. A woman, Angelique (Amy Naple), steals a lantern after waking Eric and draws him through the woods. She wears a sharp finger sheath ring.

Eric with lantern

They get to a building and she makes him sleep, and then awakens him straddling him. Why she had the finger sheath is unknown as she sprouts long black nails and fangs. He struggles and (at times) she appears to be Tina. Then she calls herself Tina and vanishes. It is a diversion. Tina is being fed upon and turned by Angelique and another vampire, Rose (Mary Kay Hilko). By the time Eric gets back to the camp site Tina is gone. This is followed by a scene, presumably some time later, with Karen (Jennifer Birn) being kicked out of a car (for not putting out). The previous day for night shot technique is abandoned for actual night shots (the lighting is heavy handed but the value of shooting night shots at night has to be stated). Karen is mugged, and the mugger is then killed by the vampiric Tina who has happened along (but he accidentally shoots Karen during the struggle) and so the dying Karen is saved by Tina.

feeding

Cut to the modern day and Karen, Tina and Rachael (Eileen McCashion) have taken up residence in a house. As we start Karen is talking to Ronnie (Tim Hatch) whilst Tina is getting it on with David (James Carolus, also Bloodlust). David is intent on robbing them but Karen has left a male victim to turn by accident and it all goes wrong. We then get a convoluted story of Angelique trying to get Rachael back (as a lover presumably), other female vampires vying for power off Angelique (or trying to get back into her grace and favour) and the main girls (bar Rachael who is mostly not in the film) trying to lead a life away from the head vampire.

Ronnie with stake

It’s actually an ambitiously convoluted plot but, with a 67 minute running time (some of that mis-paced with certain scenes lingering too damn long – such as Tina dancing with David) and poor narrative structure, the story loses itself and ambition falls over I’m afraid. As for lore a stake through the heart (or a vampire draining another vampire) kills – though why David stakes one vampire (Heather Blossom Brown, also Bloodlust) in the stomach, causes her to collapse, drops the stake, leaves her to get up as he hides, eventually follows her for some distance... and then he stakes her with a branch (rather than staking her when she was down) was beyond me. The vampires lack reflections, the awful day for night shots confuse us when it comes to the impact of the sun on the vampires and Angelique is a pureblood, born a vampire.

clowning around?

Effects were sparse but the staking was effective. I do have to say that, when Tina ate the mugger near the start of the proceedings, the blood round her mouth made her look like she was wearing clown makeup – a shame, but mostly the blood effects were quite good. All in all this was poor but I appreciate that Kirkendall really was doing something he believed in and that is worth mentioning as there is an honesty present, even if the quality falters badly. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Sharkula – review

Director: Mark Polonia

Release Date: 2022

Contains spoilers

One half of the Polonia brothers, you have to give Mark Polonia props for cranking out low budget film after low budget film since the 80s. Not that those I’ve seen are very good but grit, determination and perseverance are all there.

As you’ll guess, with this one we’ve strayed into the realm of a vampire shark. We’re also in a particularly poorly shot realm that had no effects budget – all things that will be discussed later.

blood spurt

The film starts with a cgi shark and then we see Dracula (Jeff Kirkendall, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter, The Temptress, 3 to Murder & Bloodlust) being chased by an angry mob. He is cornered on a cliff. One of the villagers stabs him and we get an awful cgi spurt of blood… now post-production blood can look bad at the best of time, but this looked awfully cartoonish. Dracula falls from the cliff and into the maw of said shark.

fire dancer

We get alliance talk, a suggestion that a dark power wanted Dracula to survive – and later in the film we hear that Dracula turned the shark but became the servant of the shark (don’t get how that happens but… let’s just go with it). We get some scenes (that are interspersed throughout) of a fire dancer. Her reason for being there? Possibly supplicant to the shark but the quality of the filming compared to the main filming (along with them being night shots rather than the ‘day for night’ the film relies on) suggests it might be stock footage the filmmakers thought cool. The credits had a surf music theme with the repeated lyric ‘Sharkula’ that was fun.

Arthur and John

In the modern day and we see John (James Kelly) and Arthur (Tim Hatch, also 3 to Murder, The Temptress and Shadow Track: Vampire Hunter) walking into Arkham, a small seaside town. They have been offered jobs with room and board by Vladimir Constantine (aka Dracula), which they will use to pay for college (clearly mature students). Now let’s talk photography. Just before this we got an establishing shot of a bustling port town, the photography crisp, the camera movement smooth and, I assume, stock footage. The principal camera work is jerky, the resolution poor and plagued with motion blur. It’s awful.

Kyle Rappaport as Renfield

So, they get to the motel (the Bucket o' Chum) and meet Renfield (Kyle Rappaport). They discover they have to share a room and the town, by order of Constantine, has an 8PM curfew. Their jobs are shifting crates shipped in during curfew. Obviously, things start to go wrong – John, especially, is overly curious. He has also spotted Mina (Jamie Morgan) who works in the historical society and is the object of Renfield’s perverted lust and Dracula’s twisted love. We get women chained in the cellar (one sacrificed to the shark and one turned), with Dracula’s coffin down there. Dracula seems less than pleased with the power structure with the shark.

Dracula and the shark

I mentioned the effects, especially the cgi. The practical zombie/revenant masks for the two servants of Dracula looked pretty good, all things considered. We get a tremendously crap bat (why Dracula didn’t transform on the cliff, at the head of the film, is probably overthinking it) and the shark is mostly a drawn (it appears) bat winged monstrosity and also a pair of glowing red eyes in the water (right next to each other rather than the laterally positioned eyes a shark would more likely have) and a (probably partial) rubber head for attack scenes.

Jamie Morgan as Mina

The acting is generally over the top, especially from Kirkendall and Rappaport, and I suspect they had a real laugh with their performances. However nothing will set the world alight performance wise and some is less than great (though the dialogue is somewhat stilted to stagy also). This was never going to be a great film – it’s a no-budget vampire shark movie – but that apparent absolute lack of budget and the extremely poor photography and cinematography conspire to take this out of “so bad it's good” to “just plain bad”. 2 out of 10 is probably bolstered by how fun the “Sharkula” theme song was.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK