Shudder Saturday: Blood Relatives (2022)

Written and directed by Noah Segan, who also stars in the lead role, Blood Relatives is a comedy/horror/drama with the emphasis much more on the drama than anything else. There are a couple of bloody moments, but the focus is kept on a central father-daughter relationship, two people getting used to one another, and figuring out how best to live their lives together.

Segan is Francis, a wandering vampire who has one constant in his life: his car. He is, in the way of so many other "good" cinematic vampires, fussy about who he drinks blood from, seeming to target those who are, well, let's just say they're not the nicest people in the world. That can cover a wide range though, from criminals to those who close their business 5 minutes early and stop Francis from picking up an essential car part. Things change when Jane (Victoria Moroles) comes along though. Jane claims to be the daughter of Francis. She has the fangs. She has an aversion to bright sunlight. And she likes her meat very rare. She needs guidance though, and Francis doesn't think he is the right person to give that.

Having made his way behind the camera previously with his segment in Scare Package, Segan now seems to have found the right way to make his full feature debut. I think I agree with his choices here. Although far from perfect, Blood Relatives is a good way to use some genre trappings in a way that doesn't constrain him too much. The whole thing generally looks nice, especially when you consider the relative low budget (I assume), and the father-daughter relationship is played beautifully between the two leads, staying away from many of the more obvious gags that must have been up for consideration.

That's what may ultimately disappoint some viewers though. This isn't interested in keeping you laughing, nor is it interested in spraying blood all over the place. The humour tends to come from the family dynamic being given a vampiric twist, and the very occasional moments of gore underline the "growing pains" of Jane. I enjoyed the fact that this was mostly a film about a father and daughter learning how to share the same space.

As an actor, Segan has been someone I have enjoyed onscreen now for almost 20 years (I believe I first took note of him in Brick). He's consistently interesting, a great screen presence, and his performance here is in line with everything else he's done. Moroles isn't someone I have seen in anything else, but she's equally good here, arguably helped by the fact that almost all of her scenes have her alongside Segan while the two bond/fight/live together. The film often feels like a two-hander, but there are also very good supporting turns from Akasha Villalobos, who is involved in an amusingly surprising scene, C. L. Simpson, who gives a bit of exposition and clarification, and both Ammie Masterson and Tracie Thoms appear to offer advice from different perspectives.

There's no major highlight, and nothing here that makes it feel unmissable, but that doesn't mean you should immediately dismiss it. Blood Relatives is well-made, it tries to mix a number of familiar elements into something that feels a bit more original, and it gets in and out in just under 90 minutes. The third act being the weakest part doesn't help, but I still tentatively recommend it, especially to anyone who likes Segan as much as I do.

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: So Vam (2022)

Let's rip the band-aid off straight away, quickly and with the aim to minimise any pain. So Vam was co-written and directed by Alice Maio Mackay, who seems to have made the film when she was 16. It absolutely feels like a clumsy and technically-incompetent movie that was made by a 16-year-old. That's a shame, because I really enjoyed her short from a couple of years ago, Tooth 4 Tooth (which I am now realising she must have made when only about 14, which is crazy).

I don't want to be vicious or rude to anyone involved with this film, despite the paragraph I have just written, so I will try to mention some positives in amongst the many negatives here. It's difficult though. So Vam is REALLY bad.

The main premise concerns Kurt (Xai), a young gay man who finds his life changed forever when he is attacked by a vampire. On the downside, he's a vampire. On the upside, he gains new friends, new confidence, the ability to deal with those who have been bullying him, and the powers that come with being a vampire. It's a pretty great deal, and the vampires creating their own "family unit", helping one another and accepting their "other" status, really works well as an obvious metaphor for anyone in the LGBTQ+ community finding other individuals coming to terms with their sexuality and gender views.

That's the best part of this movie, and feel free to just repeatedly read the previous sentence. The script, co-written by Mackay and Benjamin Pahl Robinson, doesn't work well when it comes to the actual dialogue, but the use of vampirism as a positive, the way vampires can be used to show any "outsider" having their chance to finally figure out just where they want to be, is excellent.

Sadly, the praise must end here. The movie then seems to do what it can to spoil the appeal of that central idea. Even at such a short runtime (it's about 70 minutes, but almost 10 minutes of that is spent showing some stage performances), it overstays its welcome. There's a lack of decent gore, the humour throughout never quite works, and the interactions between many of the characters are awful, not helped at all by a cast who deliver the most consistently dire performances I have seen in anything outwith a primary school stage play.

As they are the lead, Xai can be singled out as a prime example of the poor acting on display. The fact that I'm not going to list everyone else in the cast is down to a) me not wanting to be overly rude to the people involved, and b) me not wanting to expend extra energy on writing out a list of names of people I suspect are unlikely to carve out memorable careers in the movie industry (I could be wrong though, it wouldn't be the first time). You probably think I am exaggerating, the film can't possibly be void of ANY decent acting. I'm not exaggerating, sorry to say, and Mackay isn't savvy enough to come up with any tricks to distract viewers from her cast.

It gets one bonus point for the central idea, but that's it. I'd love to have found more reasons to praise this, (being a horror film made by, and featuring, many from the LGBTQ+ community doesn't mean that it can serve up any half-baked and amateurish nonsense) but there aren't any. I can only hope that Mackay, who has already created such great opportunities for herself at such a young age, takes some time to hone her craft a lot more before eventually working on a film that can explore an idea with much more care and polish.

2/10

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Netflix And Chill: Day Shift (2022)

It all makes sense now. Day Shift is a horror comedy that happens to be directed by someone, J. J. Perry, who has spent most of their film career working as a stunt co-ordinator. This isn't the start of some snobby criticism of the movie. It just explains why I was so impressed by the action set-pieces here.

But let's start at the beginning. This is a film in which vampires exist, and there are people who earn a living from hunting vampires. One of those people is Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx), an effective, but also sometimes irregular and messy, vampire hunter who needs to earn a lot of extra money in a short amount of time. And you can only earn the most money by working for the organised union, which means Bud has to ask a friend (Big John, played by Snoop Dogg) to help convince a manager to give him another chance to show that he can play by the rules and play nice. He gets his chance, but he also gets an inexperienced partner (Seth, played by Dave Franco). And, unbeknownst to Bud, there's a vampire with a very personal vendetta against him. One that may imperil his daughter (Paige, played by Zion Broadnax) and his ex-wife (Jocelyn, played by Meagan Good), which means that they may soon realise he isn't just the pool cleaner he claims to be.

Co-written by first-timer Tyler Tice and relative newcomer Shay Hatten (who also helped on the last John Wick movie and a recent movie series kick-started by Zack Snyder), Day Shift is a very funny and very violent work that uses the vampire movie sub-genre as a background for some enjoyably inventive fights and deaths. The interplay between Foxx and Franco is very entertaining "buddy-movie" banter, and any little pertinent details, about the plot or types of vampires, are easily scattered throughout (or info-dumped into a scene by Franco's character).

Perry mainly keeps everything moving with a great deal of energy, and the title may clue you into the fact that we have more daylight-set scenes than you would expect in a vampire movie. It's only in the third act when things start to drag, with a finale that disappointingly feels as if too many of the coolest tricks are repeated while any sense of real danger quickly dissipates. There's also a problem throughout the film with people refusing to open curtains and make better use of the sunshine, but that was easier to overlook during moments of extensive vampire violence.

Foxx is solid in the lead role, easygoing and always looking able to handle himself, and Franco works really well alongside him. It's a very standard pairing - the competent killer and the office worker being put into the field for the first time - but it's one that provides ample opportunity for some good laughs. Broadnax is a particularly likeable child star, and the script gives her a few moments to shine, while Good finds herself a bit too restricted in the "ex-partner who the lead hopes to reconcile with" role. Snoop is Snoop, and he seems to be enjoying himself, while Karla Souza and Oliver Masucci do well in the role of the main fanged foes. Steve Howey and Scott Adkins kick ass in one brilliant sequence that takes everything up to 11, Nathasha Liu Bordizzo makes a decent impression with her small role, and both Eric Lange and Peter Stormare do their bit to try and steal a scene or two.

This isn't a film to take seriously, and it's not one I would recommend to anyone looking for scares. It's a horror comedy with the emphasis on the comedy, and an extra emphasis on the potential for wildly over the top action. It works in that regard, and shaving the runtime by 10 minutes or so would have had me shouting about it from the rooftops. As it is, it's a perfect choice for any evening when you just want something that will help you avoid boredom without taxing your brain too much. Also . . . I would definitely be down for an sequel/spin-off that decides to focus on the characters played by Howey and Adkins.

7/10

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Morbius (2022)

Here we have a film in which Jared Leto has to play a privileged guy who gets himself into a position where he can abuse the trust of people around him and be creepy and menacing to anyone he decides to target. No, it’s not Jared: A True Story. It is Morbius, another superhero film given some new clothes to wear, and also another film trying to forge connections to the Spider-Man movies.

Leto plays Dr. Michael Morbius, a great scientist who has spent years trying to cure the debilitating disease that has afflicted him. If he does find a cure then he can also help his good friend, Milo (Matt Smith). As his disease is blood-related, Morbius ends up trying some radical work with vampire bats. And he gets a successful result. Unfortunately, it also turns him into a blood-craving man-bat. That is all well and good when it comes to his strength, athleticism, speed, and a new sense of echo location. It isn’t so good when he needs to feed. Maybe synthetic blood will help him, for a while anyway, but it isn’t long until exsanguinated bodies start showing up. And Morbius becomes public enemy number one, despite him doubting that he did anything wrong.

For the basics of this kind of movie, Morbius is perfectly fine. The origin story is enjoyable enough, there are decent effects dotted throughout, and a couple of action sequences work well. Leto works well in a main role that seems to fit him very well, and there are even a couple of moments that tap into the potential for some horror movie moments.

The script, written by Matt Sazama and Burt Sharpless, is decent, if fairly predictable, and I have to admit to enjoying the films, like this and the Venom movies, that have recently packaged darker and deadlier characters into movies that remain available to a surprisingly wide viewer demographic. I know that a lot of people disagree, and I also wouldn’t mind seeing darker riffs on this material, but the compromises often seem to give these films a sense of fun that they would otherwise be lacking. Morbius is actually fun at times, especially when Matt Smith gets to cut loose, and I never thought I would say that.

Director Daniel Espinosa spoils things though, deciding to overload some sequences with details and CGI that don’t really make sense. Scenes have colour added to them, but it soon feels like you’re watching the afterglow of someone drawing an image with a sparkler in a dark room. Although I did say that a couple of the action sequences work well, others don’t. You get no true feeling of danger, and there are a couple of occasions that have things happening that are only explained after you have tried to figure out what is going on (which is fine for plotting, not so good with action beats).

I have already said that Leto works well in the main role, but it feels like such a good fit for him that I would be astonished if he failed. Maybe he was just happy to have a vehicle that didn’t have him portraying the worst onscreen Joker ever, or maybe he just managed to find his character very easily. Smith is solid, although his character arc could not be any more obvious. The second half allows him to shine, but I wish he could have been allowed to do even more. Adria Arjona is a good female lead, a colleague/friend of Morbius, and Tyrese Gibson does just fine as a cop one step behind the unfolding danger. There’s also a cameo at the end that is well worth sticking around for, although I had been hoping another character might be introduced here (someone who would make complete sense in this storyline).

Although not great, and I don’t know anyone who expected this to be great, Morbius is enjoyable and entertaining for most of its runtime, and the fact that the runtime is also about 104 minutes is also a plus.

6/10

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Red Snow (2021)

I have been a bit remiss this year when it comes to my usual helping of tinsel-adorned horror during the Christmas season, but Red Snow is one of the few newer titles that I was keen to see. It's worth noting that it doesn't feel very Christmassy though, despite being set during the festive period, and also, unsurprisingly, having a lot of snow onscreen.

Dennice Cisneros is Olivia, a woman who is busy trying to tweak and refine her first novel, a vampire tale. She's spending some time in an isolated cabin, focusing on her work, but the solitude doesn't seem to be helping her. Then a bat crashes against a window. Olivia takes the bat in, looking to help it recuperate, and is surprised to find that it has turned into a man named Luke (played by Nico Bellamy). Luke is obviously a vampire. After the initial fright of that realisation, Olivia and Luke start to get along. Olivia might be able to get information and feedback to help her with her novel, and Luke might be able to stay safe while he heals from an injury.

Written and directed by Sean Nichols Lynch, making his second full feature amongst his selection of shorts, Red Snow is a bit of fun that mixes the traditional with the unique, largely thanks to Olivia first being given a revision of vampire "facts" from Luke. It may not have any real tension throughout, and the moments of straightforward horror are few and far between, but you get enough blood splattered around to make the title accurate.

Cisneros is very good in the lead role, amusingly naive at times before she has to dig down into reserves of inner strength, and Bellamy is a cold and vicious vampire, which adds to the comedy when he has moments in which he is acting "tame" and harmless. Vernon Wells has an enjoyable cameo role, playing a vampire hunter named Julius King, and Laura Kennon is your typical vampire pack leader, named Jackie.

Although he doesn't quite do enough to cover up for his limitations, Lynch puts together a nice bit of entertainment that feels like it is made by someone who knows enough to mock some of the tropes without being outright disrespectful to them. The highlights of the film may be the conversations between Olivia and Luke, making up most of the first half, but the rest is certainly not dull, even if it never quite gets the horror aspect right to make this a successful comedy (if we HAVE to use genre labels, although nobody says that we must, then this is a comedy that just happens to have some vampire characters central to the action).

Cisneros, Bellamy, and Kennon give performances that mark them out as ones to watch, but the main one to keep your eyes peeled for is Lynch, who definitely writes and directs well enough to indicate that he's not far away from making a film in the next few years that could become a firm favourite for horror genre audiences.

7/10

Red Snow will be showing as a part of the Sohoho Horror Fest - Christmas 2021 (an online event that is on a pay what you can basis).

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Scream Blacula Scream (1973)

Blacula was a big success when it was released in 1972. So, as expected, a sequel was quickly created. And it is, also as expected, not quite as good as the first film. It's not bad though. Not bad at all.

William Marshall returns to the title role, once again bringing such a great presence and certain dignity to the role. He's resurrected by a young man (Willis, played by Richard Lawson) who wants to become a leader in his voodoo circle. That doesn't go to plan. Willis is instead almost immediately bitten and ordered to stay within the confines of his own home. Meanwhile, Mamuwalde (AKA Blacula) starts to venture out into the night once more, quickly falling for the lovely, and voodoo-wise, Lisa Fortier (Pam Grier). Perhaps the magic that brought him back to life can cure him of his vampirism.

Writers Joan Torres and Raymond Koenig also return, joined this time around by Maurice Jules, and they continue to use the main character in a mixture of traditional vampire moments and also scenes that let him angrily call out situations that he sees around him (specifically when it comes to how people treat one another, as well as how valuable heritage and history are).

It's Bob Kelljan in the director's chair, taking over the role from William Crain, and he does a decent job. Although the film lacks the freshness of the first film, obviously, it makes up for that with the added voodoo elements and a handful of vampire moments that come very close to being genuinely creepy. This may be due to the fact that Kelljan had already given audiences the Count Yorga movies (which, as of this moment, I have yet to watch - sorry, not enough hours in each day). The third act is also almost on a par with that of the first film, walking a familiar path, but with just enough of a twist to avoid it feeling like a carbon copy.

Marshall is just as good here as he was in the first movie and, having recently rewatched that film (before getting to this one), I wouldn't expend too much energy arguing with anyone who wanted to hold him up as one of the best incarnations of Dracula, even if he's a successor to the title rather than the, ummmmmm, original fangster. Grier is good enough in her role, although she's not at her very best (the really good stuff is saved for her leading roles in this era). Lawson suffers from the script making him too weak and whiney, but Don Mitchell manages to even things out with his fine turn, playing the man who puts two and two together and comes up with a batty result.

I was tempted to rate this even higher, placing it much closer to the first film, but I ultimately realised that there's not much in the first hour of the film that comes close to some of the great moments in the finale. There's a lot to enjoy, here and there, but it's only the last 10-15 minutes that show how much more could have been done with the premise. Well worth a watch if you enjoyed Blacula, but it doesn't really avoid many of the standard sequel problems (especially when it comes to the plotting, which is copied almost beat for beat).

6/10

The double-pack can be bought here.
Americans can get the movies here.

Dead By Dawn 2018: Nosferatu (1922)

There are two types of movies that I find very difficult to write reviews for. The first type is the movie that everyone has seen. There are a million reviews out there already, and sometimes even full books about why they have impacted us over the years. The second type is the classic film that I want to write about, but fear my own opinion should be complemented by a full selection of facts, figures, academia, and historical context. Nosferatu falls into the second category.

The basic story is all about . . . well, why bother pretending, it's an interpretation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Instead of that Count being the main figure, however, we have a more rat-like Count Orlok (Max Schrek). Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) is the estate agent sent out to close a deal with the Count, and he ends up trapped when Orlock becomes determined to sail overseas and obsess over Hutter's lovely lady, Ellen (Greta Schoder). The rest of the film shows Orlock trying to get his own way, Hutter trying to get home, and Ellen mulling over a plan that might just save everyone in town.

Directed by F. W. Murnau, Nosferatu is a classic, silent, horror film that we are lucky to still have with us today, not least because a lawsuit brought by Bram Stoker's widow ended with a judgement for all known prints and negatives to be destroyed. The script by Henrik Galeen recreates many of the highlights of the Stoker novel and adds one or two impressive new touches (such as the way in which a vampire may be destroyed).

It's always hard to judge certain factors in silent films, with the acting being especially difficult to compare. Suffice to say that Von Wangenheim and Schoder both do fine in their roles, Alexander Granach is a lot of fun in the role of Knock (Hutter's boss who comes under the spell of Orlock and becomes quite the Renfield figure), and Schreck is iconic and unforgettable as the Count himself, helped by the wonderful make-up.

The effects hold up pretty well, there are moments that you've already seen a dozen times even if you've yet to see the whole film (Orlock's shadow creeping up the staircase, for example), and it's safe to say that this remains an influential and entertaining touchstone for the horror genre in cinema.

If you haven't seen it yet then do so ASAP. If you have seen it then remind others that they should check it out.

Note - Nosferatu was screened with accompanying live piano from Forrester Pyke, and I highly recommend seeing it in this way if ever possible. A wonderful experience, and kudos to Mr. Pyke for his talented tinkling of the ivories.

9/10

Here's a nice version of the film on disc.

Dead By Dawn 2018: Innocent Blood (1992)

A horror comedy about a vampire from the director of An American Werewolf In London? It's fair to say that I had some pretty high expectations when I first watched Innocent Blood. Those expectations weren't met, and I didn't ever revisit the film over the next couple of decades. I'm not sure whether that is a good or bad thing, because this long overdue rewatch has made me realise that there's a lot here to enjoy.

Anne Parillaud plays a vampire named Marie who heads out into the night to feed. She feels like Italian, leading to her feeding on one of the many mobsters who populate the city. Once done with her meal, Marie usually takes care of the body to stop anyone returning as a vampire, but she is interrupted when she starts to feed on a boss man named Sallie (Robert Loggia). That leads to Sal rising up again, hungry and out of sorts, which leads to bewilderment from his crew and problems for an undercover cop named Joe (Anthony LaPaglia).

Written by Michael Wolk, Innocent Blood is a fun vampire movie that uses the supermatural powers associated with the beasts to play around with the buddy cop film template and provide some fun set-pieces. There's a decent amount of bloody moments, and the script has a lot of fun lines as the vampire threat and mobster activity builds.

John Landis directs competently enough, working within his means to deliver a vision that requres some enjoyable practical effects and stunt work to fully show the deveoping situation. There are some surprisingly solid action beats, some playing around with vampire tropes, the usual selection of cameos,and one main sequence in which Frank Oz plays a coroner bemused by the liveliness of the corpse wheeled in for him is a highlight.

Cast-wise, Parillaud is decent enough in the main role. She doesn't always convince when in full vamp-predator mode, but does much better in the scenes that have her fooling people with her attempts to look innocent. LaPaglia is also decent, stuck with the more straightfoward role - the cop on the case who is seeing things that nobody else will believe. But it's the cast of criminals that make the film more fun than it otherwise would be. Loggia is a blast as the powerful criminal who starts to realise just how much more power he has gained, Don Rickles is wonderful as his legal counsel, Chazz Palminteri has a small role (but is always good to see), and Tony Sirico, Kim Coates, and some other familiar faces are a lot of fun as they watch Loggia evolving. Angela Bassett and Luis Guzman also appear in small roles, both on the side of the police.

Despite some issues, such as a few dated effects and the pacing issues, Innocent Blood is a fun time. The biggest thing working against it when it was released back in 1992 was that it wasn't another An American Werewolf In London. But what is?

7/10

This LOOKS like a decent disc for those wanting the film, but maybe another release could be on the horizon?

What We Do In The Shadows (2014)

A few years ago I saw, and enjoyed, a film called Vampires. It was a little vampire movie, done in the fake documentary style. I don't think many other people saw it. Which is why I may have been one of the few people hesitant when I started to hear the praise heaped upon What We Do In The Shadows - a vampire movie done in the fake documentary style. I needn't have worried. This is deserving of all the praise it has received so far.

Written and directed by stars Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, this is a film that mixes obvious jokes with more inventive moments, utilising some great FX work to not only create great gags, but also ensure that the horror element is also genuinely horrific at times.

Waititi is Viago, one of four vampires living in a house together. Viago is the guy who arranges the house meetings and worries about everyone keeping a normal home, despite their abnormal lifestyles. Clement is Vladislav, a once-legendary vampire who has lost his mojo in recent years. Jonathan Brugh is Deacon, the coolest of the bunch, and Ben Fransham is Petyr, an ancient nosferatu type. The four become five when a young man (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer) is turned and this newcomer changes the whole dynamic of the group, highlighting the need to adapt to life in the 21st century.

There are so many great moments here that it's hard to know where to begin. This is the kind of film that leaves you mentally picking out highlights as soon as the end credits roll: an encounter with some werewolves (NOT swear-wolves), an attempt to drain blood from someone without getting too much on the furniture, a shaming ceremony conducted when someone is ostracised from the group. These are just a few of the moments that will make you laugh.

It's also worth noting, however, that this is not for the squeamish. There are some impressive displays of bloodletting, and one or two moments that you could easily class as the stuff of nightmares. If you were faint-hearted enough.

The acting from everyone involved is perfectly suited to the material. All of the main vampires may be slightly over the top, but that isn't a problem. Waititi, Clement, Brugh, and even Fransham (as mute as his performance is) are all playing specific types of people/vampires. Gonzalez-Macuer is very much an interloper, a tourist not familiar with the ways of the locals. Stuart Rutherford is wonderful as a human who becomes a friend to the vampires, Jackie van Beek is also great as a familiar growing impatient as she anticipates being turned by Deacon, and Rhys Darby raises quite a few laughs as the alpha male lycanthrope trying to keep his pack members calm.

A real treat, thoroughly deserving of all the compliments that it's received in the past few months, What We Do In The Shadows has big laughs, a surprisingly big heart, and some big arterial spray mishaps.

9/10

Byzantium (2012)

Director Neil Jordan is no stranger to the vampire movie. He did, quite famously, bring Interview With The Vampire to the big screen, somehow managing to craft a brilliant film despite the death of one of the original cast members (River Phoenix), criticism from author Anne Rice (who eventually recanted when she saw the final result), and ridicule from everyone who thought Tom Cruise incapable of effectively portraying the vampire Lestat. Well, Byzantium may not be quite the achievement that Interview With The Vampire is/was, but it's another very good film from a director who provides viewers with consistently interesting works, barring one or two mis-steps.

Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan are the two young women being a bit vampiric. They seem to be able to walk about in daylight, and don't sleep in coffins or anything, but when it comes time to label their characters . . . . . . . . . vampire is the most suitable title. Struggling to make ends meet and avoid scrutiny from the authorities, the two seem stuck in a vicious cycle, with Arterton's character using sex to make money and help her look after the youngster. But things are complicated by a young man (Caleb Landry Jones) who takes more than a passing interest in Ronan's character. As things build up to a climax, viewers are also told more and more of the main backstory to the characters, a tale that allows Jordan to once again refresh and play with the mythology of vampirism.

Not quite as interesting or thought-provoking as it could be, Byzantium is nevertheless a solid entry into the vampire movie subgenre. Written by Moira Buffini, adapting from her own play (and, admirably, the film never feels stagey at any time), there are some very interesting ideas toyed with, including a theory about vampirism being quite a "men only" club, but not enough time given to any of them.

Jordan does his usual great work as director, but his work here is often downplaying anything that would make the story too pretty or evocative of past horror work. This is the life of a vampire shown in all of its mundanity. Sitting between the fangs-out fun of films such as The Lost Boys, and Vamp, and the grimy, downbeat likes of Martin and The Addiction, Byzantium shows just how boring eternal life can be when it means always having to move along every few years and never being able to get close to anyone.

Arterton and Ronan are both fantastic in the lead roles, with the former really making it easy to believe how men could be won over by her, and the latter doing a great job of being an old head on young shoulders. Caleb Landry Jones overdoes the strangeness of his character, and his accent/mumbling doesn't help, but there are better supporting turns from Daniel Mays, as a very sweet man who becomes smitten, Sam Riley, Uri Gavriel, Tom Hollander, Maria Doyle Kennedy, and Jonny Lee Miller, having great fun as a complete bastard.

Although this is the weakest of the recent crop of vampire movies from the past few years (fans of fangs will most certainly want to check out We Are The Night and Kiss Of The Damned), it's still well worth a watch thanks to most of the main performances, a few great visual moments, and a thoughtful script.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Byzantium-Blu-ray-Gemma-Arterton/dp/B00BJ0RLMK/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1390686045&sr=1-1&keywords=byzantium+blu

Beyond The Rave (2008)

Remember when Hammer tried to take Dracula and place him into modern times? They tried their best, bless them, but the end results were poor, and seem much more dated today than any of their movies set in a yesteryear full of quaint villages, bustling taverns and aristocrats lording over local commoners. I mention those movies because this movie, from the reborn Hammer, suffers from, essentially, the same fate.

It's a vampire film, with the vampires all setting up a big rave to catch all of their victims. Among the potential victims are Ed (Jamie Dornan), a young man about to head off for active service in Iraq the next day, and his girlfriend, Jen (Nora-Jane Noone). There are also some hard gangster types (led by movie bruiser Tamer Hassan) about to get way out of their depth.

Originally released as a series of webisodes, Beyond The Rave never shakes off the feeling that it's a number of scenes stitched together with very little thought given to the overall storyline. The fact that the movie still contains the episode numbering, appearing every few minutes, doesn't help, but there's also a real lack of logic throughout, a few characters who appear and disappear at random, and a third act that's very hard to care about, thanks to the mix of derivative moments and sheer stupidity.

The acting isn't that great, although anyone expecting Tamer Hassan to do anything other than act tough and spit out expletives really shouldn't be looking in this direction anyway, but it's far from the worst aspect. Dornan and Noone make for decent leads, Matthew Forrest is likable enough as Necro, their friend, and Sebastian Knapp is stuck portraying his vampire character in the bored, moping style. Sadie Frost has a cameo, but makes a great impression with her memorable scene, Steve Sweeney is okay as one of the other hard men tagging along with Hassan, and the rest of the cast simply pop in and out of the screen without making much of an impression.

Viewers will be unsurprised to find out that director Matthias Hoene followed this up with (the much more enjoyable) Cockneys Vs. Zombies. Thankfully, with that movie he had a much better script. Writers Jon Wright and Tom Grass really drop the ball here, apparently just content to rip off the opening sequence of Blade and fill out the rest of the movie with random moments that obviously seemed a good idea while they were struggling to stretch their weak material to feature length. Prime example, an old vampire who spends his time getting stoned and talking to ravers who bump into him in the woods could end up interesting or laughable, but instead just ends up being another diversion. If his character had a decent resolution then I must have blinked and missed it. As far as I'm aware, he just disappeared after his two main scenes.

There are some decent tunes in the soundtrack, some sexy female vamps, a few decent bits of gore, and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . well, actually, that's about it. It's not quite among the very worst vampire movies out there, because there are a lot of cheap vampire movies that are SO bad, but it's not really worth your time either.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Rave-DVD-Jamie-Dornan/dp/B003OUV1K6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1393891671&sr=1-1&keywords=beyond+the+rave

Kiss Of The Damned (2012)

Vampire movies are much like the creatures themselves, just when you think they've been killed a drop of fresh blood comes along to bring them back to life. Well . . . . . . undead life. You know what I mean. There have been some very good vampire movies in recent years to reassure any horror fans who thought that the subgenre had been sentenced to death by sparkles.  Just last week I highly recommended We Are The Night and now I can highly recommend Kiss Of The Damned.

Josephine de la Baume plays Djuna, a vampire who tries to live in harmony with humans. She keeps her emotions in check and hunts animals to quench her bloodthirst. That delicate balance is threatened when she meets, and falls for, a young man named Paolo (Milo Ventimiglia). Things are almost completely turned upside down by the arrival of Mimi (Roxane Mesquida), Djuna's sister. Mimi likes to feed when she can and likes only the best blood that she can get down her throat - human blood.

Written and directed by Xan Cassavetes, Kiss Of The Damned movie is a vampire movie steeped in the fine tradition of many that have come before it. There are many moments that are inarguably sexy, but there are also just as many moments that remind viewers of the bad side of being a sexy vampire. The addiction, the aftermath, the analogy of vampirism as a STD. The aesthetic of the film, as many others have already noted, is a blend of Jean Rollin and The Hunger, with that favourite trope of the subgenre, the brat who doesn't seem able to maintain self-control.

The cast are okay, with de la Baume and Mesquida making up for their weaknesses with their general air of European savoire faire, and Anna Mouglalis and Riley Keough doing great work in much smaller, though no less impactful, roles. As for the men, Milo Ventimiglia is very good as Paolo. The script makes his integration into the world of Djuna a smooth and believable one, and Ventimiglia seems just as easygoing and adaptable as the character needs to be. Michael Rapaport does well in a supporting role, but he's one of the few people ill-served by the script, his character feeling (albeit rightly so) that he's wandered in from another movie altogether.

Kiss Of The Damned is a quality film. It tries to throw one or two enjoyable surprised into the mix, it's never dull, the blood gets to flow and there are a few scenes that are, as mentioned above, just downright sexy. It's a very traditional mix of vampiric moments that Cassavetes somehow manages to make seem more than just tired, stale cliches.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Damned-Jos%C3%A9phine-La-Baume/dp/B00CBFB8PI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379274211&sr=8-1&keywords=kiss+of+the+damned

We Are The Night (2010)

Lena (Karoline Herfurth) is a petty criminal who finds herself chased by a determined young policeman (Tom, played by Max Riemelt) after accidentally ripping off a major scumbag. After she just manages to evade capture, Lena ends up at a nightclub where she is approached and bitten by Louise (Nina Hoss). It's not long until Lena accepts her new life and is living it up with Louise, Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich) and Nora (Anna Fischer) as the group race fast cars, pay people to let them shop in expensive department stores late at night, dance among people they can choose to snack on and generally have a great time. Meanwhile, Tom finds Lena and wants to let her know that she's not going to be in any trouble. In fact, he's hoping that they can see each other. But relationships can be as harmful to vampires as sunlight. Lena may be tempted, but Louise is always watching.

There you have it. The cold queen vamp - Louise. The spirited newcomer to the fold who doesn't want to kill - Lena. The depressed one - Charlotte. The hyperactive, fun one - Nora. Each and every one is a particular type of vampire that we've seen many times before. There's nothing original to We Are The Night. So why should you watch it?

Well, it's all done very well. And it's all given just enough energy and style to make you forgive the fact that you've already seen it done a hundred times before. Director Dennis Gansel, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jan Berger, happily picks great moments from vampire movies of the past century and mixes them into a plot that teases the possibility of a more interesting narrative strand, one that details why male vampires aren't around. Sadly, that strand is left hanging but that leaves time and space for even more fun.

The performances are all perfectly fine, with the leads all being enjoyable enough in their varied roles (I can't single anyone out for praise as I liked them all equally), and the film mixes lots of effective, cheap tricks in amongst some fairly solid, considering the budget, special effects to provide more spectacle and bang for your buck than you'd expect from such fare.

The fact that one sequence, in particular, borrows so heavily from Near Dark doesn't make that sequence any less enjoyable. It simply highlights, perhaps, what allows We Are The Night to work so well. If you're going to steal then steal from the best. My good friend, Christianne Benedict, reminds viewers (in her review right here) that this doesn't re-invent the wheel. That's absolutely true. But it does steal some damn nice alloys and take them for a spin.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/We-Are-The-Night-DVD/dp/B008RHQ12O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379095651&sr=8-1&keywords=we+are+the+night

Lust For A Vampire (1971)

Ahhhhhhhhh Yutte Stensgaard. Lovely, lovely Yutte Stensgaard.

Aaaahhhh Yutte. Yutte, Yutte, Yutte.

A Hammer vampire movie directed by Jimmy Sangster, and written by Tudor Gates (is that name real? I'm not sure, but I'll assume that it is), let me get through this proper bit of the review as quickly as possible before getting to the main reason I love this movie and rate it so highly. Though you might have already guessed what, or who, that main reason is.

Lust For A Vampire is not the best Hammer movie, not by a long shot. The tale, all about an infernal clan who can avoid death and then feed off the blood of the living, is nothing unique. Young women wander around at the wrong time, and/or in the wrong place, and start to turn up dead and rather pale. The setting (an all-girl school) is enjoyable enough for male viewers and the cast, for its time, even throws in something to keep the ladies happy in the form of dapper Michael Johnson. Others appearing include Ralph Bates, Barbara Jefford, Helen Christie and the very pretty Suzanna Leigh.

There ARE other people in this movie, but they're not Yutte Stensgaard.

But they are not the reason for me wanting to see this movie for years and years. Oh no, not at all. That dubious honour belongs to the one and only Yutte Stensgaard. A woman so beautiful that I pined for her long before my young mind knew quite what I was pining for (having only seen her in pictures - in The Dark Side Magazine, my only real source of all things horror when I was about 15 years old - and never managing to have caught her on screen). Her acting skills are quite bad, and she doesn't have much in the way of actual personality, but Yutte remains one of the loveliest women I have ever lusted after in movie form and is absolutely the right choice for a film with this title. Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but it's my eye and my decision to rate this particular Hammer horror a 7/10 based on little more than my enjoyment of the woman I have been smitten with for many, many years.

7/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vampire-Lovers-Lust-For-DVD/dp/B001AOHQ0M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370433547&sr=8-1&keywords=lust+for+a+vampire

 

Room for one more picture of Yutte? Of course there is.

Near Dark (1987)

Near Dark is a revisionist vampire movie from director Kathryn Bigelow, who also co-wrote the script with Eric Red, that didn't really do as well as it should have upon its initial release for one main reason*. The Lost Boys. I have made peace with the fact that I love both movies, but back in 1987 it was The Lost Boys that had the mass appeal, that quickly wormed its way into the popular culture of that generation (thanks to the hot stars and the cracking soundtrack) and that ruled the box office roost. Thankfully, Near Dark never disappeared, thanks to a small, loyal fanbase that would continue to recommend the film to those who had missed it while being dazzled by Keifer Sutherland and Jason Patric.

A small, loyal fanbase, however, can only do so much for any movie. What ends up gaining a film a cult following is usually one thing, it's really quite a good film. Okay, there are also terrible films that gain cult followings so there are two things. The film has to either be really good or really bad. Near Dark is really good. REALLY good.

It starts off with a young man named Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) picking up a lovely young woman named Mae (Jenny Wright). Enjoying the company as he drives Mae home, Caleb then tries his luck for a kiss. He stops and won't go any further. Mae ends up biting Caleb, and then things get strange and dangerous as Caleb gets pulled into Mae's "family", a group of vampires who initially consider just killing Caleb but then decide to give him a chance. IF he makes his first kill within the allotted time limit then he will join them. If not, he'll be killed. Confused, ill, repulsed and worried, Caleb just wants to get home.

With an absolutely fantastic cast (many of whom helpfully taken from the cast of Aliens), a nice mix of vampire genre elements with some Western tropes and an aesthetic arguably unmatched by anything else in Kathryn Bigelow's impressive filmography, Near Dark is an easy film to recommend to horror fans after something that reeks of quality. A lush score from Tangerine Dream, and other musical treats such as a cover of "Fever" by The Cramps, as well as a script full of some fine one-liners makes this just as pleasurable for the ears as the eyes. The film takes its time in between the memorable set-pieces and there are one or two ideas that may not sit well with those who like things a bit more traditional, but neither of those things bothered me at all.

Pasdar and Wright are easy to like as the ill-fated lovers. Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein are both at their best in their sorta-parental roles, Jesse and Diamondback, respectively. Bill Paxton puts his shit-eating grin (sorry, I can't think of a more appropriate phrase in this instance) to its best use as the obnoxious and dangerous Severen and young Joshua John Miller proves constantly fascinating as the young boy, Homer, with mood swings varying between a need for childish companionship and a thirst for blood. Tim Thomerson (who will always be Jack Deth to me and so many others) plays the concerned father of Caleb and Troy Evans has a very small role as an undercover policeman.

At the end of the day, this is the most important thing to remember: it's okay for you to own, and love, The Lost Boys. But you should really leave room on a shelf for Near Dark too.

9/10

*There WERE other reasons, but the simplistic approach suits my simple mind.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Near-Dark-Disc-Special-Edition/dp/B000KRNMQM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369771634&sr=8-1&keywords=near+dark

Vamp (1986)

Written and directed by Richard Wenk (who was helped by Donald P. Borchers in coming up with the story), Vamp is one of those movies that I know isn't for everyone . . . . . . . . . yet I recommend to everyone anyway. It's a favourite of mine and the more people who come around to my way of thinking, at least in this matter, the better.

After almost being bored to death while pledging to a fraternity, Keith (Chris Makepeace) and AJ (Robert Rusler) offer to get the guys anything they want instead of being made to go through the usual humiliations. The frat guys, somewhat predictably, want strippers. So our two young men borrow a car from Duncan (Gedde Watanabe), and also allow him to join them, before setting off to procure some dancing girls. After a few wrong turns, a fair bit of lost time and a run in with an albino punk (Billy Drago), they get inside the After Dark club. At last. The After Dark club is quite a place. There's the guy who looks after the place but dreams of Vegas (a superb turn from the ever-brilliant Sandy Baron), a waitress who keeps trying to get Keith to remember her (played by the lovely Dedee Pfeiffer) and a star turn from the mysterious and animalistic Katrina (Grace Jones). Unfortunately, there is a side to the club that people only see if they're not getting out again. A vampiric side.

Yes, as you may have guessed, years before the enjoyable From Dusk Till Dawn used the strip club setting for some monster mashing, Vamp had already paved the way. Was Vamp the first? No, but it remains one of the best (especially when compared to, for example, The Monster Club, which I think contains a few similiar elements).

The performances from everyone involved really help lift this above numerous other vampire movies of the decade. Robert Rusler and Chris Makepeace play off each other superbly, Gedde Watanabe is great comic relief and Dedee Pfeiffer is adorable - like an '80s Meg Ryan but a Meg Ryan that I'd actually contemplate trying to hit on. The villains are just as good, if not better. Billy Drago is his usual intimidating presence, Grace Jones is her . . . . . . usual intimidating presence and Sandy Baron steals pretty much every scene that he's in.

The special effects don't overwhelm the movie but they're very well done and the same can be said for the score from Jonathan Elias. Wenk may do a great job as director but he's helped no end by a very talented team, including Alan Roderick-Jones in the role of art director and cinematographers Elliot Davis and Douglas F. O'Neons. I don't usually mention art directors and cinematographers in my movie reviews for a number of reasons. First of all, I usually KNOW more about the cast, writer and director. Secondly, a movie is always a collaborative effort and I worry that if I start to single out too many people I end up having to go down the list of credits to include absolutely everyone (which, in an ideal world, is as it should be). But Vamp has such a unique and wonderful visual style that I have to mention the guys who helped to get that onscreen.

At times it's a surreal, off-kilter world. It's very much a cinematic horror landscape - nobody helpful is around when the sun goes down, the sets are full of deep shadows and often lit with pink and green colouring, there's a lot of dry ice around - but it's one that just uses the artificiality of everything to make things more interesting and entertaining throughout. There is always the risk that these elements can pull a viewer out of the experience but it's a worthwhile risk when the viewers that go along with the whole thing can take so much away from it.

I can still recall, even to this day, looking at that garish VHS box and being both impressed and curious. Those feelings stayed with me as I watched the film for the first time and by the time the end credits rolled I wasn't curious any more but I was still impressed, mightily so. It's a horror movie that's easy to dismiss and forget about, it's a horror comedy with some teen elements that I'm sure will annoy quite a few fans who like their horror adult and serious, it's a film that will even have some viewers switching off by the halfway mark. But it's also a film that really delivers some great vampire moments, it somehow made Grace Jones even scarier than she already was at that time (and, by god, she was already terrifying) and it made such a great impression on me that I will always step up to defend it in front of those who don't appreciate its magnificence.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vamp-Blu-ray-Grace-Jones/dp/B0041H9N4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353981297&sr=8-1

Dracula (1958)

I am about to start a long and enjoyable journey through the entire collection of Hammer movies (or as man as I can get my hands on anyway) and encourage fans of the great studio to stop by now and again. I watched a number of these movies last year but feel that I know more now, in terms of the roster of great actors and my own writing style, to be able to deal with them in a more deserving manner. Here's something to keep in mind when reading any of my Hammer reviews. There's a simple formula that makes up at least half of my ratings for these movies. If Christopher Lee is present then there are 2 bonus points. If Peter Cushing is present then are 3 bonus points. So any film featuring both stars, as this one does, automatically starts off as a 5/10 movie even before the title has appeared.

Anyone wishing to join in, you'd do well to pick up this absolute bargain of a set. You know it makes sense.

Anyway, enough of the introduction. What can be said about Hammer's first use of the most famous vampire in fiction? It's a solid adaptation of Bram Stoker's tale with some changes made here and there, some understandable and others (such as the changing around of the characters Mina and Lucy) somewhat puzzling.

Christopher Lee puts on the cape and shows his fangs for the first time while Peter Cushing is a fantastic Doctor Van Helsing. Michael Gough gets a small but enjoyable role while Melissa Stribling and Carol Marsh are the ladies put in jeopardy. And Valerie Gaunt makes quite an impression as the first vampire encountered by Jonathan Harker (played by John Van Eyssen, an unmemorable actor given less screentime than you'd expect). Stakes are sharpened, garlic is hung around and blood flows.

Directed by Terence Fisher, and written by Jimmy Sangster (adapted from Stoker's novel, obviously), this movie may seem tame nowadays but it still has some great moments and there's no denying the affection that fans of Hammer horror can have for any of their movies when the deep red starts to spill over and the characters find themselves having to show what they're really made of. In fact, blood spattering over the name of the title character is the very first image to be given the screen all to itself just as the opening credits end.

We also get some moments throughout (one involving a vampire victim trying to lure away an innocent child) that remain effective despite the age of the film. There is a mythology established that Hammer would then go on to adapt to fit whatever the future movies required and you just can't watch the film without really feeling that it holds an important place in the history of horror. It wasn't the first big genre name to be given the Hammer treatment but it easily showed that all of the classics could be entrusted to the studio and turned into icons for modern audiences. Lee is as commanding a presence as he often is, Cushing is as wonderful as ever and a climax involving the two men in a fight to the death provides a satisfying end to yet another quality Hammer product.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dracula-DVD-Peter-Cushing/dp/B00006JMP9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350068548&sr=8-1

Cronos (1993)

A smart and stylish take on the vampire mythos from writer/director Guillermo del Toro, Cronos is one of the best modern vampire movies to offer someone who claims that the subgenre is overcrowded and tired. Everything can be given a fresh coat of paint, it just takes someone to come along with the right brush strokes.

The cronos device was created many years ago by an alchemist who hoped to give himself some kind of eternal life. With the help of an unusual insect at the heart of the device and some interesting and complex internal mechanisms it would seem that the alchemist succeeded. But eternal life is only ever guaranteed if you avoid every misfortune possible, which the alchemist doesn't manage to do. The cronos device falls into the hands of Jesus Gris (Federico Luppi), a man who doesn't realise what power it has. He soon starts to put the pieces together, however, when he sees the device in action and when he is visited by someone (Angel de la Guardia, played by Ron Perlman) trying to persuade him to hand it over. Angel doesn't even want it for his own use, he's been tasked to get the device by his uncle (Claudio Brook), but he takes his responsibilities seriously when it has a chance of affecting how good an inheritance he can get. Meanwhile, Jesus starts to realise just how much of a blessing and a curse the cronos device can be.

Cronos is, to me, one of the best vampire movies of the 1990s and certainly an intelligent and interesting take on the material. It's surely no small coincidence that an insect lies at the heart of the proceedings here and that del Toro's first big Hollywood movie was the cockroach-infested Mimic. The man certainly finds bugs interesting and has made good use of them onscreen a number of times. Perhaps it's their design and aesthetics, perhaps it's how alien they seem, perhaps it's just the reaction they often provoke - whatever the reason, Cronos is a great chance for the man to use bugs in horror in a new and unusual way. It's also another movie that shows yet again why the traits of men and insects shouldn't be mixed up. We might be in territory that seems a million miles away from The Fly but the two movies are quite closely related once you start to see the themes being explored and the nature of the horror on display.

The script mixes everything quite wonderfully, balancing genuine moments of warmth and humanity with some over the top outbursts as the cronos device affects the lives of those who know all about it. There's also a great streak of macabre humour that makes the darker moments more palatable, leaving audiences free to think more about the choices being offered to people as opposed to just taking everything as it's shown.

We know now just what a great visionary director Guillermo del Toro is but people who caught Cronos back in the 90s could already see the potential for greatness there. I'm lucky enough to count myself as one of those fans who discovered a real gem (and I'm sure there are many other horror fans who were bowled over at the time) but his writing and direction are really helped by superb performances from everyone involved. Federico Luppi is so good in the lead role that he keeps you on his side from start to finish, despite some horrible and degrading moments that show just how the device is changing him. Perlman is also very good, as much a victim of his uncle as he is an occasional bully to others. Claudio Brook, Tamara Shanath and Margarita Isabel are also fantastic, fleshing out a small cast that you genuinely warm to and grow to care for.

Cronos won't necessarily barge its way to the top of your favourite movie list but it's the kind of quality, thoughtful, unique horror movie that should (I hope) be remembered and appreciated for many years to come. And it's essential viewing for fans of vampire movies.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cronos-Special-Guillermo-del-Toro/dp/B004EMS0YI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339342807&sr=8-1

Vampire Journals (1997)

An offshoot from the main Subspecies movies, this film focuses on vampire Ash (Jonathon Morris) and the man (Zachary, played by David Gunn) who seeks to stop him from biting any more women on the neck. The odds may be stacked against him but it's as good a time as any while Ash seems preoccupied with numerous other problems involving those he thought he could trust.

Once again written and directed by Ted Nicolaou (who, of course, helmed all four of the Subspecies movies and also wrote three of them), this film may run low on actual thrills or horror but it's a decent enough bit of gothic melodrama that should please fans of Anne Rice.

Characters spend an awful lot of time brooding over their past and contemplating their futures while not much happens. But it's all so degrading and horrible being a vampire, don't you know. Well, that would seem to be the case for anyone who doesn't just make the best of the situation and turn all ruthless with their fangs ever ready a la Ash.

A script that always teeters on becoming outright laughable is not helped by a pretty weak cast (the great work from Anders Hove is sorely missed in a film that stems from a franchise he towers over). Jonathon Morris does okay but, as I said in my review of Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm, he just seems so out of place because of how I grew up with his TV work here in the UK. David Gunn is a wet blanket, with the material mostly to blame for it but his performance isn't great either. Kirsten Cerre, Starr Andreef and Ilinka Goya have fleeting moments that allow them to make a better impression but the rest of the time they are consigned to the background and undeveloped. Mihai Dinvale is fun to watch (though not as much fun as he was in Subspecies 4) and that covers the important cast members.

Basically, what you get here is a cross between the Subspecies movies and a gothic video for a rocking power ballad. Think of it as Interview With The Meatloaf, if you like. Is that a bad thing? No, actually, if you know what to expect from it then it's perfectly acceptable. It's just a shame that it couldn't be a bit more creative and energetic to make up for the weak script and cast but some bloodshed occurs now and again and it all looks pretty enough so while it's nothing I can honestly call good I don't feel that it's something I can honestly call bad. Therefore, the rating is slap bang in the middle.

5/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Subspecies--Epic-Collection-Subspecies-Journals/dp/B000F6ZIJM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1337544741&sr=1-1

Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm (1998)

Continuing the saga of the evil vampire Radu (Anders Hove, who has owned the role since the very first movie) and the woman he tries to bring under his control (Michelle, played once again by Denice Duff), this movie follows directly on from the events of part three and assumes that if you've come this far then you will enjoy more of the same. There is another film that came out before this one, Vampire Journals, but  a) it's more of a companion piece than a direct sequel/prequel and b) I just thought viewing the movies numbered 1 to 4 would make for a neater presentation on my blog.

Ted Nicolaou is once again in charge of the writing and directing duties and he does slightly better here than he did with the third instalment. It may still be drawing things out much further than they need to be drawn but there are also one or two new ingredients that add some entertainment.

While Radu tries once more to get Michelle obeying him unconditionally she is helped out by a young woman (Ioana Abur) and a doctor (Mihai Dinvale) who seems to take the story of vampirism and the bloodstone in his stride. This frustrates Radu no end, of course, but he is able to take out his frustrations on some other vampires that are beneath him in the pecking order (Ash, played by Jonathon Morris and Serena, played by Floriela Grappini). Ion Haiduc also returns as Lt. Marin but is given a lot less to do this time.

I wouldn't say that this movie is full of twists and turns but it does try to pile on the drama in a number of different ways, be it Radu reclaiming what is rightfully his or the treachery shown by people seeming eager to taste immortality. The melodrama is mixed in with the horror to good effect, putting this on a par with some warped soap opera. Maybe even Dark Shadows (though I never saw the original show so I may be way off base with that comparison).

The real problems come from the strangeness of it all. Anders Hove has been strange from the very first scenes in the franchise but to see him joined by a growing group of ever-weirder supporting characters just makes for an experience that's a bit too odd to enjoy. Especially when one of those characters is being played by Jonathon Morris (arguably still best known to UK audiences for his role in the long-running sitcom "Bread"). It's not that Morris is bad, it's just that I couldn't shake the feeling that he shouldn't have been there in the first place. Ioana Abur isn't great but Floriela Grappini is a bit better so that helps. And then we have Mihai Dinvale, overacting to amusing effect.

The design work is nice when it's given a chance to shine but there are many scenes here that just feel a bit slapdash and cheap. Of course, there's a case to be made that all Full Moon Productions are slapdash and cheap but some of the better features do a good job of hiding it whereas this one doesn't. The soundtrack that often sounds like someone taking a balloon animal to the vet is another negative in a film that still just manages to be entertaining enough to scrape an average rating.

5/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Subspecies--Epic-Collection-Subspecies-Journals/dp/B000F6ZIJM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1337544741&sr=1-1