Director: Tim Sullivan Release date: 1999 Contains spoilers A shot on video flick from the late nineties, this is ghosting around on VHS (and had a DVD release at one point) and it is really from the low budget stables. It looks dreadful nowadays but there is a suggestion that the lighting was interesting once-upon-a-time, at the very least, and it has some interesting plot aspects. It starts with headlights and a sign that suggests an open house viewing but only at night. The car comes to a halt and Frank (Richard Marks, The Malibu Beach Vampires) gets out of the car and knocks at the d ..read more

Director: Fred Olen Ray Release date: 2022 Contains spoilers This one was suggested by my friend Leila but I did already have it on my Tubi watch list. In fairness I can see a fair argument to suggest this is not Vamp. We get flesh eating, but not particularly blood/fluid/essence eating and the transformation might be likened as much to a fish-like lycanthrope as a vampire. But I have decided to accept it, for no other reason that it contains vampiric breasts. Also the director is Fred Olen Ray, who is a stalwart of both low budget horror generally and vampire films specifically and so I ..read more

From the Junji Ito Collection comes this short anime recreation of the manga Rumors This episode first aired in 2018 and, as I mentioned in the look at the manga, the majority of the story follows Soichi making up rumours about himself and spreading them around school. Part of this involves him pinning up a lipstick advert in the schoolroom that features Miss Fuchi, the unheimlich or even monstrous model who made her first appearance in the manga Fashion Model. The impact on the schoolkids is immediate and creates fertile ground for Soichi to spread rumours that she is in town and terrorisi ..read more

Now the wendigo (or windigo, in this) is an odd one in that it originates from Native American myth and thus is not the standard, undead, vampire. It is, however, cannibalistic and whilst sometimes drawn as an antlered spirit is also sometimes drawn as a person. It is safe to say it has crossover into the vampire myth/archetypes, especially when drawn by filmmakers, and is worth looking at on a case-by-case basis. When it comes to this 1981 Canadian film, directed by Jim Makichuk it is more difficult as the film is more a slasher than anything else and we see little of the windigo (John Mac ..read more

Director: Jemaine Clement First aired: 2022 Contains spoilers A return to Wellington Paranormal a spin-off series of What We Do in the Shadows. Season 1 had a vampire episode and this episode comes from season 3 and features an energy vampire (though one very different to Colin Robinson from the more famous, vampire-based spin-off that kept the name What We do in the Shadows). Wellington Paranormal follows the cops O’Leary (Karen O'Leary) and Minogue (Mike Minogue) who, under the guiding hand of Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu), form the Paranormal Unit of the police force (a very unofficia ..read more

Director: Donald Farmer & ors. Release date: 2023 Contains spoilers This is an anthology film, as well as a nunsploitation, and the IMDb page lists a whole load of directors including schlock meister Donald Farmer. Given that the segment I’m reviewing this for was recycled into (I assume, though this could be the recycled piece) Farmer’s flick Debbie Does Demons then I assume he was responsible for the segment. stake After an opening with a medieval warrior carrying a pendant, running through woods and finished off in a stream by (revealed to be vampire) nuns, the segment ..read more

Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Nikki Foster-Kruczek and Catherine Pugh the Chapter Page can be found here. This entry into the Handbook of the Vampire looked into the psychology of vampirism and so like ‘Beyond Humanity’: An Expedition Charting Non-Human Identities did touch into those who identify as vampires, though I felt this had an edge of critical thinking that was less obvious in the other chapter. The authors took a particularly Freudian view of the subject, using the work of Ernest Jones quite extensively. Because of this they looked at arousal through bloodplay, which was ..read more

Director: Carys Lewis First aired: 2024 Contains spoilers The programme Father Brown has featured on TMtV before and, like that time, Ian contacted me and told me that the latest episode of the programme had a vampire theme – though more so than last time. The series is set in 1950s Britain, where the amateur sleuth is a Roman Catholic Priest, the eponymous Father Brown (Mark Williams, Being Human (UK)) and, to be honest, I’ve never watched it after the last episode I featured here. at the grave In this we begin with a gentleman, Bernard Ross (Nicholas Woodeson), going through ..read more

Director: Eduardo Sánchez (segment) Release date: 2022 Contains spoilers Another portmanteau film, this one features segments directed by Latinx directors and Hispanic themed stories with a wraparound that sees the Traveller (Efren Ramirez, Constantine: The Saint of Last Resorts) the lone survivor of a massacre. As the police question him it is revealed that he is an Aztec and an immortal and the segments are the stories he tells the police. This includes the segment we’re interested in, entitled El Vampiro. Hemky Madera as El Vampiro Starting at a Halloween party, where ther ..read more

So, Number 1 son and I went to see the new big screen vampire release, Abigail. This is from Universal and the opening (and recurring) musical theme in the film is Swan Lake. This, of course, ties the film back to Dracula and I have seen press suggesting this is either a remake of or connected to Dracula’s Daughter. Let me scotch that right now, from its narrative it is not in any way, shape or form related to the 1936 film. Indeed, despite the musical call back, there is nothing in this to suggest that the paternal vampire (for there is a vampire dad (Matthew Goode, A Discovery of Witches ..read more