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

Director: Robert Hartford-Davis Release date: 1968 Contains spoilers This is another film where medical processes are used in a vampiric way – this time to restore beauty, which makes it analogous to Atom Age Vampire, indeed like that film the disfigured woman’s scarring is on half her face and like that film the mad doctor undergoes a Jekyll and Hyde like transformation – the difference here being that his transformation is not physically into a monster but mentally through the stress of the position he is in. leaving theatre It starts with an operation and the lead surgeon is ..read more

This is a short film that director Sean Genders released in 2018 and comes in around he 7-minute mark. I have to thank friend of the blog and correspondent Billy for making me aware of it. There is not too much to say about this one, after an establishing castle and bats shot, we see four vampire hunters enter the castle and an Orlock styled vampire, credited as Nosferatu (Jac Charlton), high above them. Inside the castle is a captive woman (Elena Renn) and the hunters have come to save her. They carry pretty steampunk inspired weaponry, for instance a steam powered stake thrower and an il ..read more

Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Jerry Rafiki Jenkins the Chapter Page can be found here. Opening with the thought that “Blaxploitation film history… …is, in part, “a vampire story””, Jenkins' chapter proves to be a solid look at the Black vampire film and the ideas, explored within, of Africanism Vs African American and the concepts of Black Maleness and Femininity. The texts that the author uses are, for the primary ones, Blacula, Scream, Blacula, Scream and Ganja and Hess. Within those there would seem to be more a social connection between Scream, Blacula, Scream and Ganja and Hes ..read more

Director: Dave Castiglione Release date: 2005 Contains spoilers This is a budget flick that has had the Blu-Ray treatment by Vinegar Syndrome and has a respectable score on IMDb, which as you watch you wonder why? In some respects I fear being harsh, after all it was early work by inexperienced filmmakers and writer/director Dave Castiglione came up with a concept that became a brave attempt at, evidentially, biting off more than he could chew. On the other hand, it is a blooming difficult watch. divers The film begins with a couple of divers looking around a shipwreck. Kudos t ..read more

Director: Jeff Kirkendall Release date: 1998 Contains spoilers A straight to video film now on disc from SRS Home Video this was (according to IMDb) the directorial debut by Jeff Kirkendall and is full of the issues one would expect from a first effort, weirdly off framing being one such issue and just the strangest set of scene timings towards the end. Yet despite this I think it was better than some of his later films (I’ve reviewed the Temptress and the short 3 to Murder). Maitely Weismann as Drew It starts with a woman being chained in a cellar and, after the gun toting guy ..read more

Director: Shahram Mokri Release date: 2017 Contains spoilers This film is the third feature by Iranian auteur Shahram Mokri and it carries themes and techniques from those earlier films as well as creating a hypnotic sci-fi/noir vampire movie. It is thoroughly arthouse and, if such films are not your scene, then you may wish to turn away now. For those still with me the three films all deal with non-linear storytelling where we see the narrative in temporal loops. What this shares with Fish & Cat (2013) is that this was filmed in one take. Abed Abest as Ali It opens with a ..read more

A short film from director Blake Ridder, who was behind a short Morbius Fan Film (which I’ll feature in the future), this is a 4-minute short and was released in 2022. It starts with Jess (Sorcha Verey) in a car park, on the phone. As she hangs up, we can tell she feels nervous, aware of a presence. She gets through two sets of fobbed doors into the lift area and, as the lift comes and she gets in, it sounds as though a fob is being used. However, the door shuts and she ascends the building. When she gets out, she steps onto an open area and a figure moves behind her, she spins baring fang ..read more

Written for Handbook of the Vampire by Adam Owsinki the Chapter Page can be found here. This was always going to be a tough one for me to look at objectively as it examines those folks who claim to really be vampires. Now, I am cool with people being who they want to be, and I will say it is well written by the author, but my honest opinion is that such folk may have a belief that they are vampires (though some clearly are role players) but the reality is that they are creating a construct and they do not physically need blood. The author ties them in to the general “Otherkin” heading – whi ..read more