Necropolis: Legion – review

Director: Chris Alexander

Release date: 2019

Contains spoilers


On the surface this film, a new release from Full Moon Features, might not seem like a vampire film – indeed I considered doing a “Playing with Tropes” for it. However, it is a reimagining of the 1986 flick Necropolis, which I class as a vampire film – albeit a vampiric witch. Like the original there is some (brief, in this) evidence of energy vampirism. Plus, the blurb on IMDb describes antagonist Eva (Ali Chappell) as a “satanic vampire sorceress”.

bearing a cross

The film is also directed by Chris Alexander, whose arthouse vampire films are: Blood for Irina, Queen of Blood and Blood Dynasty. I have a soft spot for these films and Alexander’s use of symbolism and inference. I have to say there is a tension I detected in this between Alexander’s love of arthouse and Euro-horror and the need to create a cohesive narrative for a Full Moon Feature schlock-horror.

ripped out heart

Starting in the past we meet Maynard Gandy (Joseph Lopez) holding a portrait of Eva, his wife. A farm hand (Adam Buller) comes in to tell him that the barn is secure and he will make his way home. He then decides to tell Gandy about Eva, suggesting that he has seen her go in the chapel and this is not the first time. He leaves and then Gandy seems to enter a vision and the farm hand returns holding out his ripped-out heart.

Joseph Lopez as Maynard Gandy

In the chapel Eva stands above a sacrificial victim (Goldie Rocket), and flanked by two neophytes referred to as gatekeepers (Zoe Georgaras & Stephanie Delorme). Her somewhat risqué outfit reveals that her breasts have mouths, with sharp teeth, rather than nipples. This is reminiscent of Eva in the original film, who has six electoplasm-producing breasts, and (much) later this Eva’s breasts will gush milk for her neophytes. She intones about “she who must live”. She cuts the hand of the victim, licks up the blood and then holds her to a breast – the mouth seeming to suck energy from her before it gnashes the flesh for the blood – yes, it’s a rare sighting of a vampiric breast.

eyes turn white

Gandy comes in and tries to ward her by holding out a cross. She comes forward and he starts to recite (what I assume was) an exorcism. Her eyes turn white and he stabs her in the heart… Modern day and Lisa (Augie Duke) comes around from what may have been a dream. She is in a bookstore about to do a signing of her book “Beyond Darkness” but her real reason for being in the town is to research Eva. She is approached by Zia (Lynn Lowry, Mostly Dead, My Stepbrother is a Vampire!?! & Rabid), who cuts the line, to warn her of uncovering Eva’s story – even mentioning her name gives her power. Lisa, of course, doesn’t listen.

Augie Duke as Lisa

Indeed, she is staying at Gandy’s farmhouse – and we get a cut foot dripping through the floorboards and causing a beating heart to reform (rebirth through spilt blood, of course, is heavily a genre trope) as well as possession. However, I don’t want to go any further as, with a short 61-minute run-time, we are quite a way into the film. Knowing the director’s work, it was clear this was a Chris Alexander vehicle, relying on his lead actress (with precious little dialogue) to project the narrative through actions, expressing her descent physically. However, there is more dialogue in this than in his previous work. It does suffer from not expanding on the story more conventionally – we don’t see any backstory to Eva becoming what she is (was she possessed, seduced, always demonic and married to Gandy for reasons known only to her dark heart?) EDIT: Chris Alexander has contacted me to say that the Eva backstory is given in a one-shot comic.

reforming heart

That said the effects are interesting – perhaps some of the fast cut moments, designed to be nightmarish, are much as one would expect relying on the disorientating impact of the editing as much as anything, but the heart reforming (for instance) looked great (perhaps a tad too much blood for a small cut in the foot, but who cares, it looked fab). The greater use of effects – and, of course, who can resist the idea of vampiric breasts, Ken Russell couldn’t – give this a fuller feel than perhaps his Irina films.

Lynn Lowry as Zia

This has clear elements that are related to the original film but it is definitely a reimagining rather than a remake. I can’t help but think that some viewers, searching for schlock, might be put off with the more Alexander-esque elements – but conversely it was actually those elements that did it for me. That said I stand by the idea that it needed a more expressly broadcasted narrative (and it had plenty of potential running time it could have used to do so). 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK (Full Moon Channel)

Queen of Blood – review

Director: Chris Alexander

Release date: 2014

Contains spoilers

Never judge a book by its cover, but… if the DVD cover for auteur Chris Alexander’s first film, Blood for Irina, was wonderfully retro, then the poster for sequel(ish) film Queen of Blood is simply magnificent.

The film, of course, shares its name with the 1966 sci-fi vampire flick but that is all they really share. If this film shares with anything, it has to be Jean Rollin and, in particular, lead actress Shauna Henry (reprising the role of Irina) seems to be channelling Françoise Blanchard’s performance from the Living Dead Girl. But how to review… that is the question.

emergence

Blood for Irina was difficult to review. A mood piece, with little dialogue, it moved like the fevered dreams of the director committed to film. Queen of Blood has no dialogue, rather you are pushed along by the soundtrack, by the imagery, by Henry’s physical presence. I should say that the screener I had access to had an incomplete sound mix and so I am expecting the final mix to really push the viewer along as, even in its incomplete state, it was an integral and satisfying part of the experience.

first kill

Having seen Blood for Irina was very useful to the experience. I stumbled across the earlier film but I went into this with some sort of expectation of what Alexander would be doing. That said, story-wise, they are separate beasts. This seems to be (until the final segment of the film that steps into a contemporary world) set in the past, the clothes the actors wear tell a tale of the old west, perhaps. The film is split into three sections – Birth, Death and Rebirth. In Birth we see Irina emerge like a primeval spirit from a pond and, in the first instance, see her taken in by a man (a widower by the visual clues).

killing nail

She turns on him – but the attack seems without malice. Irina is simply being Irina, acting as her nature dictates. Her attack is one that sees her digging her fingers into his throat – the same method employed by Catherine Valmont in the Living Dead Girl. We note that Irina has one particularly long and sharp nail. She then walks the paths of Alexander’s dreams, killing those she comes across. Yet they are all mesmerised, placid before her. However there is more than one predator.

preparing a stake

We also see a preacher (Nivek Ogre) and he – like Irina – is a killer. We see him strangle a victim at one point. He also knows what she is, it seems. He whittles what seems like a rather thin stake, until we see that he makes a cross of it and then lashes it into his fist. The two, of course, will conflict and it is an interesting juxtaposition that sees the man of God being the immoral killer and the vampire being a force of nature, killing but not evil, welcome by her victims. There is another story that emerges out of the film but I don’t want to spoil that at all. I should also say that the visual nature of the story – and the dreamlike quality – do not lend themselves to me regurgitating the tale here either. Really it should be experienced.

sacrificial?

How to score? The film is low budget but beautiful in its construction. A dream that will turn many off, to be fair, as this is arthouse stuff and not standard horror. It is a sequel in spirit to Blood for Irina but superior I think, Alexander becoming more confident in his filmic language. I was really rather taken with it though and, if I appreciated Blood for Irina then Queen of Blood has lead me to anticipate Chris Alexander’s future work. 6.5 out of 10 is fair I think, Alexander’s film making becoming stronger with this offering and, I hope, laying the groundwork for stronger films to come.

The imdb page is here.

Space Vampire

Director: Chris Alexander

Release date: Unreleased

Contains spoilers


Writing this is quite an honour but also rather strange. This film by Chris Alexander is unreleased at the time of writing (December 2019), indeed in correspondence Chris told me that, “No one has seen it.” This is clearly why it is an honour to look at it and many thanks to Chris for the opportunity. But it is strange as it is not a film that should be reviewed, at least not in a marking it out of 10 way. Again in Chris’ words “it's not REALLY a "movie", more just a waking dream.”

blood at mouth

As such this is almost like a piece of Über-Alexander, taking perhaps his most experimental films, Female Werewolf for example, to its most pronounced. It is a full-on experimental piece with overtures of vampirism and, for some reason, it also reminded me in places of Under the Skin - though this had less (to no) narrative but there was just a feel, a spark, that felt familiar.

coalesce into the vampire

The film has an, at times, jarring soundtrack that has a sci-fi theme with an almost techno to industrial heart and, on opening, that theme dominates as we see a pattern of pink on blue shapes that become dominant pink and coalesce into the face of the vampire (Ali Chappell, Necropolis: Legion) we then get a brightness, which becomes the sun across a snowy country landscape, with her walking towards us – the sheer black catsuit and boots contrasting against the snow.

blood in shower

As Chris described his own work, it then becomes a waking dream. We see her approach a house, and a victim (Cheryl Singleton, Queen of Blood, Blood Dynasty and Female Werewolf) therein. There are moments of blood, splattered across the vampire’s face or covering it when she showers, washing it away. There is no real linear aspect; the film touching on events that could be past or even to come. The camera often swoops around her, but occasionally takes her point of view or holds her static in portrait.

swooping camera

This is where the film would be difficult to score. This is the director playing within his style, exploring the boundaries having eschewed the restrictions of a communicated narrative. I understand that the film is to be projected in a gallery installation at a future date. However the director has confirmed that there is no intention to release it in its own right (though it might yet be an extra on another Alexander release). For now, however, you’ll just have to take my brief explanation of a cinematic meditation with a vampire theme.

The imdb page is here.

Use of Tropes: Female Werewolf

I must admit that despite a soft spot for the films of budget arthouse auteur Chris Alexander, I’d let this 2015 flick gather dust – possibly because of the word werewolf in the title. This is a shame because it was released prior to the third of his Irina films, Blood Dynasty, and in many respects shows us the experimental bridge between the later films of the series.

Like the Irina films it is most definitely experimental, a psychosexual drama that explores a psychosis embodied in a female character but, in this case, the central character – billed as She and played by Carrie Gemmell, who was also in Alexander’s Blood for Irina and Queen of Blood – is named as a werewolf rather than a vampire.

fangs

I say that but the imagery and tropes through most of the film is more reminiscent of a vampire film and we must remember the words of Bram Stoker, “The Wehr-Wolf is but a variant of the Vampire.” (Lady of the Shroud). When we meet the mostly silent She (the first words of dialogue do not occur until just before the half way point) we are aware of her own sexual urging and frustrations. In a motel (by the establishing shot, though the layout is more like an apartment) she dreams of an encounter, we do see fangs within that sequence, but she wakes alone.

feeling eyetooth

When she wakes, her trip to the bathroom tells us that she feels that she is changing, feeling at an eye-tooth which is no sharper than anyone else’s. This is perhaps where we get one of the unexplained doubts – is she changing? Is it all in her head? Is she psychotic? One thing we can say is the thought of the change is something that she finds erotic, cupping her own breast immediately afterwards and, to me, the werewolf myth is less likely to have a noticeable change like a sharper tooth (outside of the transformation) and feels more like a vampire trope. The referenced eroticism is also closely connected to the vampire genre.

Carrie Gemmell as She

That said the film also connects her to the moon (originally a vampire trope – in the early literature – the werewolf connection is, of course, well established) through both the physical satellite and in her menstruation whilst in the shower. Again, the blood swirling at the plughole is a staple of many a horror subgenre. I have to mention the shower sequence as being noticeably modest, deliberately so – Alexander might be exploring a psychosexual drama but there is nothing sexploitative within it. Other thoughts that might occur to the viewer is a connection between the beast and fertility but also the popular connection between the full moon and psychosis.

Cheryl Singleton as the office worker

If this is a psychosexual exploration the erotic aspect seems perhaps cold at times, sterile even. If we take the object of desire, an office worker (Cheryl Singleton, also Queen of Blood & Blood Dynasty), they look at each other without words but the stares are almost dead and the stalked woman expressionless – as though mesmerised (again probably something more associated with vampires than werewolves). Eventually she comes, willingly if trance-like, to She’s rooms and is set upon (a comment about the TV not working one of the few dialogue lines).

seems vampiric

As She attacks, we see fangs and, watching this scene out of context and without the film title, one would immediately associate the scene with vampires. There is some clawing at the torso but this would not be out with a vampire film either. What we do not see at this point is any form of hairiness, as one would expect from a werewolf. Perhaps werewolf might be used more in the form of a killer (the moniker of werewolf and vampire have been attached to serial killers)?

transformation

There is a transformation at the end of the film and, given the budget, it is remarkably done. Using exposure, filters and (I would guess) superimposed imagery we see the wolf emerge and then it becomes clear that the head is emerging from her open mouth (reminiscent of A Company of Wolves). Yet even then we are left to wonder whether the transformation is in her head, allegorical or real. The connectivity to nature, perhaps fertility, remains but her love is for the dead.

with Irina

I have indicated that one may read the text of Female Werewolf in a variety of ways; fantasy, allegory, supernatural, psychotic. However, there is a tell in film that I missed until pointed out to me and after I had written the main body of this article. When we meet She, we become aware of her fantasies as we see, within the heavily filtered sequence, another woman. Credited as dream woman, she is played by Shauna Henry – star of the Irina cycle. In a correspondence with Chris Alexander he revealed to me that the dream woman is, in fact, Irina and she infects She – making that werewolf/vampire connection stronger, making this a vampire film (in fact, though I will stick to the ‘Use of Tropes’ exploration), and making this not only a bridging film within the Irina cycle in a stylistic sense but making it a film directly connected to the cycle.

aftermath

Like the core Irina cycle, this is not going to be the easiest of watches for viewers. For the casual viewer it will seem, vague, without narrative. For the gore-hound it will barely satisfy. For the person looking for sexploitation and titillation it will miss the mark. However, for the Chris Alexander fan it will speak volumes, it has depths to explore and consider and it marks a moment stylistically in the Irina volumes where they moved to their most experimental.

The imdb page is here.

on Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Short Film: Drakulon

Auteur Chris Alexander features several times on this blog. Though some of his work is narrative, other films are much more arthouse. The IMDb page describes this as “A conceptual, music-driven experimental psychodrama”, and that seems as good a description as any. It was released in 2025 and comes in around the 45 minute mark, flirting with feature length but still best described as a short.

The film is silent and follows an artist (Suspiria Vilchez) who, as things start, dreams of a vampire (Jessica Mucciante). Wearing her chiffon cloak and little else, the vampire might well have walked out of a Jean Rollin film. Indeed there is much I see in Chris Alexander’s films of Rollin and Jess Franco, this being no different. We can note that, in real life, Suspiria Vilchez is an artist and painted the pictures seen in film.

the model and the artist

When the artist awakes (she is in a motel, which is a transitory and perhaps even liminal space, which is often used by the director), we see a painting she has done of a woman with a bat outline over the face and also one of a vampire. Indeed, though Vilchez’ own, I thought I spotted a portrait tattoo of Bela Lugosi but the images we see all suggest an obsession (though one I’d personally say is healthy). However, when a model (Ali Chappell, Necropolis Legion & Space Vampire) comes we see that the artist seems blocked and the model eventually leaves, the canvas untouched.

Jessica Mucciante as the vampire

So, the vampire is the muse, but we are in a place where dreams and reality do seem to merge and become lost. Does the artist later murder the model or is it fantasy, daydream or full dream? Does she invoke the vampire and does the vampire bite her or is the vampire an allegory for her creativity (or for the director’s creativity, given how much he embraces vampire imagery in his films)? The soundtrack, by Chris Alexander, is superb, driving the film. The film is at the further end of arthouse and may not be everyone’s cup of team but if you are a Chris Alexnder fan (or even a Rollin or Franco fan) it is one to be watched.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Parasite Lady

Chris Alexander is back and although I am looking at this 2023 release as a short film, given its 42-minute running time, one might argue that it is possibly the most-Chris-Alexander feature to date. Regular readers will know that I have a soft spot for Alexander’s avant garde filmmaking and he has a style that, whilst reminiscent of some of the 70s genre greats, he has developed over the course of his films and, whilst I will say that some of the colour palate and photography in this drew my mind to Mario Bava’s vivid lighting structures, this was recognisably Alexander.

Arrielle Edwards as Miranda

Narratively sparsely simple the film opens inside a rundown motel, with a coffin, a window in the lid showing the occupant’s face. Though such a coffin has been used since, it brought Vampyr to mind. The occupant is a woman, Miranda (Arrielle Edwards), her features striking, indeed actress Arrielle Edwards is very striking throughout, a testimony to both the actress and the cinematography. There is a moment where she smiles later in the film that is absolutely uncanny. Her fingers emerge from the coffin, pushing the lid up. She sits…

attack

The film follows Miranda, from her moments in the room, to her ghosting through a seedy amusement park (with a Castle Dracula sign high above and a themed attraction). She picks up victims from the park and it's notable that they are blonde and reminiscent of the one who turned her, Lady Death (Thea Munster, Necropolis: Legion). Her victims seem mesmerised, walking back to the motel behind the vampire, and she opens their necks through her sharp nails. Lady Death seems to haunt her, manipulating her. Whether she is in any way there, connected telepathically or simply a delusion is never answered.

uncanny

The vampirism is passed through oral exchange of blood. Though she sleeps in a coffin, Miranda can walk in the daylight and has a reflection. When asked what they are, she says “We wake. We walk. We drink. We go on.” They can die if they want to, though a vampire can kill another vampire. The lore is limited as is the dialogue and the narrative, though simple, is skilfully presented through the visuals as much as anything. I was struck, more so than I think I have been before in an Alexander film, by the soundtrack. Discordant it matched the photography very well. This is arthouse filmmaking and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The imdb page is here.

Blood for Irina – review

Director: Chris Alexander

Release date: 2012

Contains spoiler

The blurb on the DVD suggests that this is a film “inspired by Herzog, Rollin and Franco” and that is a heady combination – as to how close the film actually got, well I’ll save that for the end of the review.

In the first instance, however, I have to say that Blood for Irina is an independent arthouse flick, virtually silent, concentrating on mood above story, is the thought of that turns your stomach and you like your vampires to be horror, action or even sparkle based… well just look away now…

motel sign

Still with me? Then we shall begin. The film itself begins with blood swirling in water as classical music plays. There are no titles for the longest time and the director certainly enjoyed lingering with shots. For a film that is only some 69 minutes long he doesn’t shy away from ponderous views, allowing the mood to infuse the viewer. Moving from the blood, the scene is replaced with a doll on the rocks of a waterfront. The influence of Rollin is apparent in the visuals and the music is replaced with an ambient drone.

Shauna Henry as Irina

We follow the end of days for the vampire Irina (Shauna Henry). She lives in room 31 of a rundown, dilapidated motel. At night she goes out looking for victims. Some she brings back, some she attacks in the streets. When they are brought back it is often a man (David Goodfellow), the owner of the motel we assume, who cleans up her mess. It is apparent that Irina is dying, the blood she takes, craves even, is often wasted as she brings it back up.

she is like me... lost

We see her past in flashback; the vampire (Jason Tannis) who – back then – seemed to be dying also, who turned her and, in turn, made her commit a heinous crime. In modern times we see a prostitute, Pink (Carrie Gemmell). Looking as though she abuses substances it is apparent that she and Irina orbit the same desperate planet. I said that it is virtually silent and the only dialogue that we get is overdub of thoughts and they are sparse (the first distinguishable words come in 18 minutes into the film). Irina says that she breathes blood and drinks blood. Of Pink she suggests that “she is like me – lost”.

blooded mouth

There is little lore given. Though Irina wears sunglasses after dark, I got no real sense that sunlight was an issue. Apparently vampires have a finite life and when they knowingly pass the “gift” on, sharing the blood, they die. However there is an indication that this need not be the case and that new vampires can be created through the act of feeding. When a body is found by the man, still moving, he stakes the victim. That said we only have our expectation that the victim was turning… a stick through the heart is just as effective against a human… and we do not know whether Irina would have survived if he had not been staked.

haunting the streets

What carries the film for me is the soundtrack, Chris Alexander has clearly worked on a budget but the ambient soundscape adds an impressive atmosphere to the film. The acting is all physical and Shauna Henry’s ethereal presence as she glides through the streets adds a lot to the atmosphere also. So; Herzog, Rollin and Franco? Frankly, with Herzog, no, I didn’t see it. His work might have inspired but left no telling mark. Franco a little but the Rollin influence shone from the screen.

feed

That said this is not an easy film to watch, and whilst Chris Alexander has created an auteur vision, the translation to screen is not necessarily perfect. The budget constraints mentioned above won’t have helped but, more, the film perhaps needed a stronger narrative (though that narrative needn’t have been delivered vocally). However, it was a very good effort, though an effort that will be hated by those who like their movies a little less experimental but, perhaps, a vision that will garner a cult following also. 5 out of 10.

The IMDb page is here.

Themed Week

I have previously looked at the three films by auteur director Chris Alexander in his Irina trilogy; Blood for Irina, Queen of Blood and Blood Dynasty. His films have been likened to Jean Rollin and Jess Franco – certainly I have seen aspects of both in the films, but they are not for everyone and are absolutely aimed at arthouse.

Marmite as they are, there is something in Alexander’s work, something that keeps me going back to them, and in many respects constantly harking back to the two directors mentioned above is understandable but perhaps unfair as mostly they are Chris Alexander films. As a director he has his own thematic direction, his own mediation and vision.

Next week on TMtV I am having a week looking at three other pieces by Alexander, starting tomorrow with a new film created for Full Moon Features and ending with an exclusive for TMtV.

Blood Dynasty – review

Director: Chris Alexander

Release date: 2017

Contains spoilers

The third Irina film, following the movies Blood for Irina and Queen of Blood, I should probably say that this felt like the most experimental of the series and if you are not into arthouse/euro-horror films you might want to look away now.

The blurb for the first film mentioned Herzog, Rollin and Franco – and, if anything, the Rollin inspiration shined through the first film and was more than apparent in the second. I felt less so with this. Almost devoid of dialogue (there are two words spoken in all), with experimentation with filters and a lack of any in-depth narrative (as though a narrative might undermine the atmosphere), this felt more like it took its inspiration from Jess Franco (though I haven’t mentioned it in the previous reviews, Irina is a name bestowed upon some of Franco’s vampires). Indeed, it felt like Burlington Ontario carried a weighty presence as much as locations such as Málaga had in some of Franco’s work. There are still nods to Rollin, for instance within a clock motif and perhaps even a touch of Vadim in Irina’s dress – reminiscent of Blood and Roses and Carmilla.

Irina with child

Spoiler for Second Film: This film starts with Irina (Shauna Henry) coming out of a pond, her dress awash with blood, holding a baby, its umbilical still attached. This was part of the climax of the second film, Irina giving birth, and I avoided that entire story thread for fear of a spoiler too far in the last review – so apologies if you haven’t seen Queen of Blood yet. The music is ambient with the cry of the baby accompanying the music. The scene ties this film to the previous however, unlike the previous film, we are clearly (by the next scene) in a contemporary time.

the vampire is summoned

In a room, in a motel is a girl (Cheryl Singleton) – note she is only credited as the girl. We follow her as she walks empty streets. Eventually she gets to the edge of the Great lake where the husk of a ship lies in the shallow. She breathes the word Irina. The vampire comes out of the water, curled, almost a rock, she rises and walks through the waters to the shore, towards the road and then the motel. The music leaves ambience behind becoming heavier, discordant, as Irina moves towards the hotel, seeming almost ethereal as though juxtaposed against the soundtrack. The girl reaches her room, dropping her glasses to the floor as the vampire reaches for her.

bite

I should say here that Alexander has chopped the film into un-titled chapters by deliberately fading into black at places. Out of the black and into the bite – Irina feeds from the girl, taking her blood. She allows the girl to feed from her wrist and drips blood from her mouth to the girl. There are deliberate uses of filters through the feeding scenes, which scream Franco. The girl perhaps becomes vampire or becomes mad – maybe both.

attracting a victim

She then goes out and finds victims. The first (Holly Riot) approaches her at a picnic bench outside the motel. She ignores the blood across the girl’s face and reaches out to her, going to the room. She seems to back away as Irina reaches for her and then goes to her. Both vampires bite her (in heavy filters). It is this unreal luring of the prey that helps – along with the filters and the evocative soundtrack – to give the film a dreamlike quality. In this Alexander is probably more successful than Franco ever was, the Spanish auteur never capturing such an ethereal feel. Alexander mixes this with nightmare both through discordant music and moments when Irina seems to lunge at the camera.

Irina and the girl

However, there is little more than this (baring a coda that will lay unexplored) and whilst the lack of narrative offers an aspect of a dream it might be too much for those who dislike arthouse filmmaking, those wanting more substance and those uninitiated into the earlier films. I am, of course, very aware of the previous films in the series and felt that this perhaps didn’t carry me as much as Queen of Blood did. That said, it did still carry me in an almost hypnotic way and it says much for the film that after a gap of a couple of years I was pulled straight into the director’s world. I understand there is to be a fourth film in the series and I think Alexander needs to pull the best from the experimental aspects of the films as they have developed but also look backwards and offer more of a solid narrative to drive his story forward. 6 out of 10 (with caveats).

The imdb page is here.

Blood Rites of the Vampyr – review

Director: Sébastien Godin

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

I was contacted by director Sébastien Godin, who’s premier for this film had been thwarted by the Covid-19 pandemic and was subsequently looking for reviews – I’m never one to turn down a view of a vampire film. Full disclosure, he also told me that he was a long-time reader of this blog - it’s always a thrill to find people who get something out of TMtV, however I have not let this influence the score.

The film was described to me as an attempt “to marry the styles of classic horror from the 20's and 30's with a 70's Euro-horror sensibility. Influences on the film include Jean Rollin, Jess Franco and F.W. Murnau”. This is quite an ambition for, what is admittedly, a micro-budget film. Certainly, as we’ll see, the black and white shot film styled itself as an art-house mood piece – though it sometimes strayed into a too narrative place for the mood piece.

Vicki Bitis as the Vampyr

It starts with a man, restless in bed. A woman (Vicki Bitis) is in the room, her face gaunt, her movements jerky. She moves her arms over him (a lot of her movement, through the film, might be described as being in the style of interpretive dance). He bolts awake. Later he tells a monk (Anthony D.P. Mann, Terror of Dracula) about the dreams that are filled with spiritual disturbance. He describes floating, no more than a point of view, in the forest, there is a grave and a sickly-looking woman who dances.

Anthony D.P. Mann as the monk

This disturbs the monk, though he denies knowing anything that might shed light upon the dream. Even so, he warns the man not to attempt to find the grave in the woods, to stay far away from it. This, of course, confirms to the man that the grave exists. After he leaves the flat, the monk offers a prayer, begging that it not be so.

spontaneously bleeding

We see the man stumbling through the woods, as though in a nonsensical daze. He reaches the grave marker and his throat opens spontaneously, spilling blood onto the earth. We see a hand emerging from the detritus and then the woman appears, led on the grave. Her eyes open and then she bites the man. She then goes to the town, where she appears as an anachronism as she walks the streets and, when in the man’s apartment, seems mystified by modernity. To note we get moments of a vampire silent movie on the TV at this point.

Steve Kasan as Blackburn

Detective Rollin (John Keech) is speaking to his counterpoint Detective Blackburn (Steve Kasan). A body has been found, drained of blood with no apparent trauma barring two small wounds to the neck (this is not the man in the woods, his body is found later). The Detective relays a story his grandma told him. When settlers first arrived at the area the land was barren but a special woman appeared at night, disappearing by day, who bled into the earth causing it to bloom – making an interesting connection between the vampyr and earth fertility.

dribbling blood

There was a price for her help, however. She demanded a monthly virgin sacrifice and when the townsfolk refused a savage beast appeared killing livestock and some children. The townsfolk captured the woman and buried her in the earth, sealing her in with a cross. Rollin is incredulous but Blackburn is happy to use the V word, insisting that time will tell if he’s correct. Meanwhile the Monk has contacted a vampire hunter (Luc Bernier, A Blood Story & Blood Reunion 3: Hunters).

a moment in red

So, I listed the inspirations outlined by the director and certainly I got the feel from this of the works of Chris Alexander, who cites Franco and Rollin as inspirations for his vampire films also. As with Alexander’s work, I see the Rollin influence in this much more than the Franco. I also was reminded, as I watched, of Lilith’s Awakening, though that was possibly within the black and white (which goes into red lighting and then colour for one scene). Where this became a tad conflicted, as a film, I think was in it grasping for the narrative when it felt like it wanted to remain a mood piece and the narrative threatened to be a hindrance to that.

attack

I liked some of the narrative ideas, don’t get me wrong, the idea that the vampyr was intimately tied to the health of the land was great, a voice-over tells us that vampires are fine in daylight, they just lose their supernatural powers, and it further relays that they hunger for (and can subsist on) knowledge as much as blood, which was really interesting. But little was done with the ideas, especially the latter, once presented and that was the conflict I perceived between storytelling and communicating a mood. Acting wise I felt Mann as the monk was a tad too over the top, but that may have been because Kasan was marvellously nuanced and understated as the Detective.

blood from mouth

Further, I liked the look they gave Vicki Bitis as the vampyr and her expressive dance movements fed into the film as a mood piece. Perhaps the pushing of ingested blood out of mouth was a tad wasteful but, again, was part of expressing a mood. I need to mention that she wore black shorts/leggings beneath her period styled dress, visible in a couple of scenes. Undoubtedly these spared her blushes in a dance moment and probably helped with warmth during night shooting at a cenotaph – however they were very noticeable and an idiosyncrasy – perhaps flesh tone might have served to not pull the viewer out of the mood wondering at the anachronism. Her meeting another night creature cemented the Rollin-esque aspect.

the beast

When it comes to effects there is little to go over. There’s lots of fake blood – with much expelled by the vampyr (and vomited at one point having eaten a morsel of cake). The black and white helped here, and the effects looked good as one or two hearts were held aloft (the removal from the chest more implied than shown). We did get a couple of flashes of what might be described as the beast mentioned in the back story. On pausing the beast looked false, but in quick cut it worked well enough and fed into the animalistic aspect described in the Detective’s story. Note that I am deliberately not listing the lore around what could destroy a vampire.

shadow of the vampire

The photography was crisp, and the Black and White worked well in enhancing the mood. Finally, I need to mention soundtrack – which worked with the more industrial pieces used during vampiric moments, but the very 80s synth styled phrases didn’t do it for me and were a tad jarring. That’s not to say that I disliked the film, in fact quite the opposite, I enjoyed my time within the film. For me it’s one that if you like the movies of Chris Alexander, then you should enjoy. So that’s the viewer who enjoys an art-house sensibility and limited narrative (notwithstanding my perception of the film’s conflicted approach to narrative). 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.