Director: Timothy Friend
Year: 2008
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Hiding out in the countryside, the notorious outlaw couple trying to find a safe space to wait for a new score end up confronting a mad doctor and his assistant in the middle of experimenting on bodies for a captive vampire and must find a way to stop their deadly plans.
Review:
This was quite an enjoyable enough effort. One of the better aspects of this one is the fact that it manages to really play up it's silly and somewhat anachronistic storyline to the fullest for an enjoyable time. The idea of the famous duo coming upon a mad scientist in the middle of the countryside is a rather goofy premise already before bringing along all the different experiments and the outcome of their work makes this one even more crazy in how they get together. There's a lot of fun in how the two sides mesh, with the gangster story coming into play showing their struggles between being on the road and the stress of outlaw life which shows up in how they interact during their time in the farmhouse hiding out before their initial interaction. That coincides with the oddness shown in the laboratory with the experiments being conducted by the mysterious doctor who has a quirky habit of wearing the towel over his head with the single eye-hole or his dim-witted assistant who runs around with a goofy disposition conducting radio plays with dolls which adds a nice bit of intentional comedy during the proceeds.
Once the film gets going into the final half, that's where it really gets going with some fun as it manages to offer some enjoyable elements from this setup. Starting with the dinner party and carrying over into the horde of vampires attacking in the various aspects of the house, it ends up leading to the better encounters where the creatures are involved in the battles which is rather enjoyable. Full of battles not just with the swarm taking over the house leading to them taking over and overpowering the initial loner before showing the turned assistant dealing with the remaining parts of the house and then getting to the big fun of them cleaning out the house filled with the creatures. Although it doesn't really go for traditional vampire lore by having them taken out with regular gunshots instead of wooden stakes or such, the action comes off far more enjoyable for that reason by having the scenes where it's full guns blazing and offering a few nice moments in that manner.
The cast here is decent enough for this type of film. Tiffany Shepis is her usual fine self as Bonnie, alternating between sultry, sleazy and vulnerable which makes for a compelling type of heroine even though this isn't all that hard of a role for her. She does exactly what's asked of her and it's a lot of fun to watch her going through these scenes and helps to ease into this one. Trent Haaga as her partner Clyde does a decent job here, which is a finely-performed one-note role where he's the low man on the totem pole thinking he's doing a job way over his head and trying to adjust. He does a solid job with what he has to work with but it's not that impressive of a role so he doesn't impress as much even though the two have great chemistry together. The two villain roles aren't that impressive and really don't even deserve mention with the lone exception being Jennifer Friend as Annabel the goofy assistant. Graced with a lovable quirkiness by talking to her dolls like a TV show and being guilty only of wanting to be free of the experiments being conducted despite the condition she's in, she's sympathetic and nearly steals the show. These here hold it up over it's few minor problems.
Among the few flaws here is the fact that there's not a whole lot of actual vampire confrontations between them which is somewhat disappointing. Rather than actually engage in a series of back-and-forth encounters between gangsters and vampires, this one tends to focus on them as two separate storylines featuring the vampire actions and then the gangster family dealing with their own issues which aren't all that well-defined in dealing with the potential of having them mixed together for the whole time. They don't even get together until the final minutes of the film and it really seems as though there's two separate films cut together into being one film yet have nothing in common with each other because they're so differently matched for so long. There's also the film's rather obvious inability to hide it's low-budget limitations, going from the cheap and flimsy setups to the low-budget tone and feel that really highlights those issues. These here are what hide this one the most.
Overview: ***/5
While it has a few minor issues that are somewhat disappointing, this one has quite a lot more to like here that it's not all that bad. Definitely give this a look if you're curious or enjoy the creative team involved here, while the only ones who won't be that into it will b those who look at this and are turned off by the title.
Comments
Post a Comment