Short Film: Love at First Bite

At a scant 5-minutes, Audrey Zane’s 2024 short movie is a succinct little piece that starts off in a Halloween party. Christine (Kiara Petrucci) is dressed as a vampire – and you’d be forgiven for assuming that this is a film with characters acting like vampires. Clearly bored, she heads into the bathroom and discards her drink. Looking towards the mirror she produces fangs, which she can’t see as she casts no reflection. Yes, she’s a real vampire…

showing fang

On her way out of the building she sees another lady, Lilah (Elizabeth Baker), sat in the corridor, apparently drunk and dressed as a vampire. Christine approaches her and asks which vampire she is. Lilah says she is one of Dracula’s brides and Christine responds that it’s a coincidence as she is Dracula. As Christine explains that Dracula doesn’t need to be a guy, my mind went to some recent contention with a genre commentator railing against gender swapping Dracula. It seems to me that a creature who has mastered shapeshifting into wolf (or dog), bat and even “floating moats of dust” could happily shift between genders at will and as desired.

Lilah and Christine

Getting back to the short, Lilah noticed Christine in the party and noticed the social walls she erected, saying as much and Christine is impressed with her observational skill. Perhaps Lilah is doomed to be a meal rather than the bride of this Dracula but what if they were both vampires who were pretending to be vampires?

The imdb page is here.

The Beta Project – review

Directors: Brett William Mauser & Dane Berkshire

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

Based on a one-off webisode called The Project, as far as I could tell, this was an interesting little film that resolved in a way that was a tad unsatisfying (as I’ll explain) but did an awful lot right despite the low budget. From a TMtV point of view, whilst there is talk of demons, and we do get Lilith (Dane Berkshire) as the Mother of Demons, there are monsters within, referred to as crusties, that have fangs, can turn and can be staked through the heart.

Lana in the storage area

It starts off with Lana leaving a building and going into what looks like a large storage area. We see a head pop down behind her in the dark and eventually she finds herself surrounded by two men and a woman. The older man starts a sales pitch, essentially, offering her life, happiness and eternity. This is observed from the shadows by Mike (Brett William Mauser) who is slightly startled when Rose (Katrina Nash) comes up behind him.

offer accepted

Mike confirms there are three crusties and he was about to introduce himself. Rose stops him. Lana has been offered a choice and so they can’t intervene – Mike hates that rule. The film has a lot to say about free will and destiny (and the mutually exclusive nature of the two things). Lana accepts the offer and is bitten, falling to the floor. Mike and Rose go in, she taking on the younger pair of crusties with a sword and Mike going after the older one. He shoots him and then puts a bullet close to the heart (enough to slow but not kill). By the time he gets info out of the crusty – Lilith, thought dead, is back – Rose has despatched the other two and, after Mike feigns letting the third go, she kills him.

Lilith and Colleen

Six months later and an operation is in place, led by Hank (Trey Bayer) for the Project. They have used Stan (Brad Scribner) as bait. He is in a warehouse, where he has been beaten for four hours. This is at Lilith’s behest and watched by Colleen (Jane Dare Haas) – I didn’t pick up on exactly who Colleen was but it is inferred she has political ties – Lilith takes over the interrogation using femininity (and, one guesses, demonic power) to try and find the location of the Desert Rose (at the end of the film revealed to be a sword). Stan, of course, doesn’t know but he does spill he is working for the Project just as they are making their entrance. Colleen and Lilith look, separately, to get out and Lilith kills all the agents. Interestingly Colleen, after this, stabs Lilith with a small blade that causes the Demon Mother an injury and, we discover later, is magical in nature as monsters that can spontaneously heal fail to do so when injured by it.

Mike and Rose

Having failed to eliminate Lilith, Rose initiates the Beta Project – which involves pulling a team of four women together. These end up being selected as Mehnkah (Gidget White) – an accountant at the Project chosen at random by Mike, Ajay (Cristina Cruz Rodríguez) – a smuggler, Worm (Allie Smith) – who is in a crew with Ajay, and Joy (also Dane Berkshire) – a rogue DEA agent who is described as a banshee (but unaware of this, it seems). They manage to pick up Ajay at a deal gone south but Worm is captured by Colleen’s people and Joy is captured by Lilith, posing as a cop…

dusting a crusty

All of which is great and there is some nice character building with regards Ajay and Joy – with actress Dane Berkshire working with herself really well, with both characters feeling unique and the interaction feeling totally natural. Where the film left me unsatisfied was in the end where the rescue missions end and so does the film itself. It felt more like the first act of the film rather than the first film of a series. It is, however, testament that (as it comes in at feature length) the film did not drag despite only feeling like the first act. So, the film delivers an opening premise but with a huge amount left to explore. A strong 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Breakfast with Dracula – review

Director: Fabrizio De Angelis

Release date: 1993

Contains spoilers

First of all, a technical note. I got an Italian Blu-Ray of this film. I have two main players on my PC, the better one does not take screenshots but the other both takes screenshots and is multi-region. This disc just wouldn’t play on that second player due to undisclosed technical reasons and so I couldn’t take screenshots. If that is the case I will try and find a trailer, for screenshots (I couldn’t find one), or look for screenshots on the internet. There were VHS quality screenshots from Kim Newman’s website but I eventually decided to just go with no screenshots with this review.

This is partly because it won’t be a long review. There isn’t much of a plot going on and this is an Italian comedy – such films as Uncle was a Vampire and Young Dracula not offering that much of a pedigree, I’m afraid. The film follows Vlady Drak (Daniele Liotti), who follows his dreams by hitching to Miami with a view to becoming the next great male model.

Unfortunately, he isn’t very patient and every time he goes to an agency he leaves if there is a queue of potential models. He spots an ad in a paper for a room and visits. The house is massive and the butler, Bud (Scotty Daffron), was expecting him, it seems. There is a roof collapse that kills Vlady but he dreams of the past and wakes in the coffin. Bud serves the Dracula family, Vlady is the last male heir and this is his inheritance/destiny. But he still wants to be a model.

He gets a background spot on a commercial – but his fangs emerge. The director hates the main model and gets Vlady to try the main role – it’s a perfume ad and he is meant to be intoxicated with a woman’s scent. His draw to her neck and his fangs are, the director thinks, sensational and he becomes the next big thing. He starts sleeping/necking his way round Miami but needs virgin blood to survive (not an easy ask in Miami). The manager of the agency hates him but the owner falls for him… and she happens to be a virgin… oh, and falling in love cures vampirism. Not much of a story and pretty much cinematic fluff. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Short Film: Orlock

Coming in under 10-minutes this is a silent homage to Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens, directed by Kevin Forte and released in 2011.

The film has a near sepia tone and a deliberate fuzzing and added film degradation, which is meant to harken back to the days of silent movies and nitrate film and which also allows the filmmakers to hide any issues. That said, when we see him, the makeup work for Orlock (Michael Licatese) looks pretty good.

Amy (Lori Pirone) conducts a ritual, including cutting her hand and drinking her own blood, to try and summon Orlock. A note here, whilst the IMDb page calls him Graf Orlock, the intertitles (on more than one occasion) say Count Graf Orlock… Graf, of course, means Count and it is a little faux pas. Eventually Amy puts her ritual candles out and goes to bed.

Amy turned

Some time later, Mist rolls down the side of the house and Orlock arrives. He enters the building and feeds from Amy – a scene that has a fair amount of fake blood – and turns her. She awakens vampire… and that’s it, though the intertitles do give us a tad more of an insight into the workings of her mind. The film is an homage, as mentioned, and clearly a labour of love for Forte, who would go on to bring us A Vampire’s Heartbreak.

The imdb page is here, the film can be watched on YouTube.

Interesting Short: Luella Miller

“CLOSE to the village street stood the one-story house in which Luella Miller, who had an evil name in the village, had dwelt.” Thus begins the story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, first published in Everybody's Magazine in December 1902 and then her collated collection The Wind in the Rose Bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural (1903). We are dealing with an energy vampire – perhaps unknown to herself – and maybe even a vampiric building.

The main part of the story is as narrated by Lydia Anderson, who lived opposite Miller. However, when she came to town (with the Maiden name Hill) she had become a teacher – and a poor one at that. It is noted that one of the students, named Lottie Henderson, actually taught for her but Lottie died within the year. As it was, Luella had caught the eye of Erasmus Miller, who married her and Luella stopped teaching. The boy who helped her in the school after Lottie’s death went crazy a year after she married. Also within the year Erasmus’ health had declined so much he died – the story connects this to consumption (which is intimately tied into American vampire folklore).

There then follows a series of people who become obsessed with Luella and do everything for her, with her claiming she was unable to do the slightest household chore. The way she drew a victim seemed supernatural in and of itself. Anderson seems immune and indeed states “There was somethin’ about Luella Miller seemed to draw the heart right out of you, but she didn't draw it out of me”. The townsfolk do mention witchcraft and the ending indicates that the spirits of those killed by her stayed with her, still serving her.

At the head of the article, I mentioned a vampiric building and that would be Miller’s house. The house stands unheimlich in the town, causing children passing by to shudder and had not had a tenant since Miller had died, except one hale and hearty old woman who took up tenancy and “in seven days she was dead; it seemed that she had fallen a victim to some uncanny power.” Not conclusive, of course, but it is implied that the house holds something of what made Miller so dangerous. Just to note, there was a 2005 New Zealand film of the same name but, at best you could say, they borrowed the name. The film is more a sexual cuckoo in the nest story and has no hint of vampirism.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK

Marvel Zombies – review

Director: Bryan Andrews

First aired: 2025

Contains spoilers

Marvel Zombies was a limited (4 episode) animated series released in time for the Halloween season. It follows the Zombies episode of What If…? As such it is in an alternate timeline to the primary MCU. When we hit the first episode it is five years after the outbreak, the Earth has more or less fallen and is isolated from the universe by atmospheric energy interference generated by the Wakanda Event (the destruction of the infinity stones when Zombie Thanos threatened to use the infinity gauntlet).

young heroes

It starts with three young heroes; Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) aka Ms Marvel, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) aka Ironheart and Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld, Sinners) aka Hawkeye, who have the repurposed AI driven ironman armour named F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Kerry Condon) with them. Every time they leave their base to enter the city for supply runs they encounter and are hunted by the zombie Hawkeye, AKA Clint Barton. This time they see a Quinjet go down and find a miniaturised transmitter swallowed by the zombified pilot. They ascertain that it is a transmitter to help save the planet and need to get it to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base.

Khonsu

It is during that journey that all three look about to lose their lives, however Hawkeye and Ironheart sacrifice themselves to save Ms Marvel (with F.R.I.D.A.Y. flying her out of the immediate area before returning to Ironheart) but she looks likely to die too until she is rescued by Blade Knight (Todd Williams, the Vampire Diaries). So, this is Blade but, after the previous avatar became zombified, he has become the avatar of Khonsu (Piotr Michael), God of the Moon, with the Knight in his name coming from the fact that the avatar is normally Moon Knight. 

Todd Williams voices Blade

He has fangs and was clearly the daywalker before this happened, but comments later call him a vampire (rather than dhampir, but we have no reason to believe he is a full vampire), with another suggesting he no longer drinks blood. This is unlikely down to his serum and more likely him being sustained by Khonsu. The other thing to note is the voicing by Todd Williams. The MCU Blade movie has been stuck in development Hell, though Mahershala Ali was cast as Blade and voiced him for a line in the Eternals. Whether this casting means Ali is no longer connected and Williams is, Ali was unavailable for this, or that the project has been finally abandoned, is unknown as I write this.

the Queen of the Dead

Another thing to note is Blade Knight is in all four episodes and represents a major Deus Ex Machina – due to Khonsu – so not the cameo of the character we saw in Deadpool & Wolverine. The series sees Ms Marvel, Blade Knight and those they gather round them being chased across the globe by the Queen of the Dead, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) – the zombified version of the Scarlet Witch, who was a central aspect of the What If…? Episode and who has gained the ability to connect to zombies psychically and is building a horde.

the Blade Knight

This was fun. Blade Knight gets to have plenty of sword play, and there are loads of Marvel heroes (either in flashback or present day) both zombified and still living. If I had a complaint, it was that it felt like lurching from one crisis to another. In a longer built series they would perhaps have had moments of calm to balance it out. That said, the scenario meant that perhaps it would have been relentless. There are moral ambiguities drawn in at times but perhaps not too much of that and the heroes tend just to be heroic. 7 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Midnight Feature – Special Delivery – review

Director: Jackie D Brown

Release date: 2024

Contains spoilers

This one really does contain spoilers. Midnight Feature is a short anthology series available via Amazon and this is the first episode of the first season. The twist at the very end is that a woman is a vampire and so, by dint of being here, the episode is spoiled – sorry. Getting to that denouement is not the best of journeys, I’m sorry to say, ironic as the episode is within the world of car shares.

The series is linked by a host, the Curator (John Potash), and the episode then goes into an advert for Friend Ships, a ride share company, highlighting “Captain” James (Joshua Myron McKinney). We are then with James (and we move into an unnecessary found footage mode) as he goes to work. A call from his girlfriend out of the way and he starts picking up rides.

ride share

The section with him picking up rides is too long in a very short run time (29 minutes, including credits and series link) and does not offer any character development as James communicates in the absolute false language of the US service industry He eventually gets a ride with an attractive girl (Becca Anne) who puts bags in his boot. When at her destination, she is getting her bags when he gets a call from his girl, accusing him of cheating and dumping him. Without thinking he reverses, into the girl.

tied up

Assuming she is dead, he sticks her in the boot and drives home to get a shovel. When he gets back to the boot he realises she is still alive and drags her into the garage and ties her up. When she comes round, she starts asking him to release her, her father is a powerful man and James will be in big trouble. He takes himself away for a moment and, within his angst, decides to kill and dispose of her but, as he is about to strike, a man (Michael Rock) with two bodyguards speaks. He soon allows his daughter to feast on James – and she codes as vampire.

vamped

And that’s it – the biggest problem being the found footage is unnecessary and moves the film into too dark and too shaky territories. The other issue is the service-speak overwhelming any character development. It would have been better to move straight to her ride and then extend dialogue in the garage to build his character. Unfortunate. 3.5 out of 10.

The episode's imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK