Director: Adam Randall
Year: 2021
Country: United Kingdom/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Living in a part of Boyle Heights, a young student takes over his brothers’ chauffeur business for the evening escorting several girls around to various parties in the city, but when he discovers they’re vampires trying to start a territory war during the night he has to decide where his loyalties lie.
Review:
This was a decent enough if overall flawed genre effort. Among the better features is the fact that the main setup here provides some enjoyable elements. Featuring the dual plotlines of the brother hunting the vampires down for breaking the truce while he’s out escorting the girls around fully aware of who they are, this setup provides the film with a perfect launching pad for the festivities to follow. The action of the hunters tracking down the remains of the rampage in a race against time to finalize their mission before the night ends as well as staying ahead of the hunters leading to encounters at the mansion draining the victims in front of him or the shootout at the nightclub that features some solid battles between the girls, the hunters tracking them and the guards attempting to stop them all come off quite nicely.
There’s also quite a lot to like here with the way their relationship develops over the film. As it's quite obvious how they’re going to end up as a couple from the very beginning, there’s a lot to like with the way they both tend to develop over the course of the night which is quite nice to see play out. From the subtle flirtations to the back-and-forth quips hinting at an attraction to the way they both slowly enhance his confidence to be able to be at ease with the war going on and providing assistance during their battles, it’s all generally enjoyable. None of this comes off as forced in the slightest and manages to actually feel earned where the finale comes into play which has some really impressive work here looking into how they manage to confront the killer at the end, this section of the film comes off rather well which gives this some likable enough features.
There are some big issues with this one though. The main drawback here is the films’ rather clumsy structure which focuses on their plan to break the truce which makes no sense. The initial start of everything comes off in such a slipshod manner that it’s almost impossible to believe the system was put into place to begin with, much less trying to make sense of their plan using the chauffeur service that’s being utilized by their target all along leaving the whole plan frustratingly underwhelming. As well, there’s also a decided lack of urgency here with the reveal being made so early and instead leaning into the romance rather than fright as he’s aware of who they are and what they’re doing pretty early on so a lot of tension regarding how he’s going to survive s dropped or never even brought up at all. These here are the factors that lower this one overall.
Overview: ***/5
A fun enough idea wasted with some big issues in its lack of cohesion and some utterly confusing moments, there’s still enough to like that holds it up somewhat but not much more than that overall. It’s really only for the most die-hard vampire genre fans or those who appreciate the creative crew involved while most others will be turned off by this kind of effort should heed caution.
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