Director: Travis Stevens
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Desperate to find fulfillment in her life, the wife of a small-town preacher starts to find it following an attack by a vampire that turns her into one as well, but as he tries to come to terms with the change in his wife’s behavior and personality forcing them to come together like never before to save her.
Review:
This one ended up quite a fun overall effort. One of the strongest elements present here is the wholly impressive storyline that mixes together the varying storylines involving her separate changes in personality and appearance. Contrasting the opening where she comes across as a dutiful if repressed minister’s wife who’s unsatisfied with her housewife routine and goes through the motions of her relationship with him and the rest of the parishioners at the church to how her life opens up following the vampire attack where she starts to be more assertive and less restricted with social decorum creates a fairly strong and enjoyable storyline throughout here.
As well, when this one goes for the horror scenes to help back up that change, there’s a lot to like here. The idea of her outward physical changes being the most prominent aspects of the change creates some fun times here with her pale skin, sunken features, and increased supernatural energy. From hiding her features under extravagant clothing that’s a far cry from her normal appearance, lusting after blood of any kind she comes across and, in general, becoming more dominant and assertive with herself leads to a rather fun difference between these varying aspects as they continue on throughout the film.
The other impressive aspect of the film is the strong amount of vampire action that’s on display. The opening attack in the darkened mill is a chilling sequence with the creature kept off-screen until the last moment and even then a completely unrecognizable blip is all we get. The later encounters with the turned creatures in the building have a lot of graphic and gory fun with the over-the-top blood splatter in the kill sequences. Seeing the later encounters with the two going up against the various creatures now coming out into the fray against them allows for great make-up work on the appearance of the vampire queen and the action involved gives this a lot to like about it.
There isn’t much in the way of flaws for this one but it does have a minor issue. The main problem overriding this one is the sudden change in writing towards the husband in the second half where he seems to veer widely between various different personalities and goals throughout the section. Initially unconcerned with the vampire side of her and wanting to find a way to put the main vampire down, he then turns into a coward at the sight of confrontation and finally gets brought back onto wanting to defeat the vampire with very little reasoning or motivation. It all screams of plot convenience rather than the actual storyline about the main vampire which is also quite underwhelming, leading to the real issues with this one.
Overview: ****/5
With only a few minor issues and some absolutely fantastic positives that are rather impressive in the long run, this one manages to be one of the better entries of the year as well as one of the top vampire films of recent memory. This is absolutely recommended to anyone interested in the style or genre as well as fans of the creative crew, while those who don't appreciate those elements should heed caution.
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