Director: Alice Maio Mackay
Year: 2022
Country: Australia
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
Desperate to get out of his small-town home, a bullied teen eager to embrace his dreams of stardom and performing on stage, but after being attacked by a vampire and turned into a vicious bloodsucker tries to balance keeping his human life intact while fending off the creature that made him.
Review:
This was a rather intriguing and somewhat enjoyable genre effort. Among the more likable qualities here come from the engaging and sympathetic build-up to getting the various subplots out here. Firmly placing us on the side of the bullied teen whose effeminate persona rubs the rest of his classmates the wrong way to the point of wishing death threats against him for daring to embrace those qualities in his quest to be a performer in a drag show, we see that he's a generally nice guy who's in the wrong town for a person like he is. That his friends get dragged into the situation forcing them to come to his rescue which results in a fantastic sense of longing once we find out what's gone on with his disappearance and subsequent transformation. As well, the further openness of the film reveling in the queer lifestyle here by making the vampires' powers an extension of their freedom to live their lives openly and freely in connection to the drag-queen lifestyle they masquerade as that has quite a lot to like here.
There are some issues to be had with this one. The biggest issue with this one is the decidedly unsympathetic turn the lead goes through after being turned which is supposedly based on him getting revenge for past transgressions but doesn't come off that way in execution. It feels far more like an abuse of power, especially with the first encounter being just a random attack on the counselors at a gay conversion camp he witnesses in passing with no build-up or pay-off which is the case with most of the encounters where he gets to show off his powers. This arrogance continues throughout a vast majority of the rest of the film he's barely a main character until the end which makes it lose a little of the sense of identity and owning one's self that had been at the core of the film until then. As well, with the film's resources are on full display with some shoddy production work, ineffective make-up, and lackluster action scenes that are effective enough to keep this entertaining if only to remind of the limitations upon it, are enough to drag this down.
Overview: ***/5
A decent enough indie-based vampire effort, that there are a lot of positive aspects here somewhat undermined by its flaws making for an intriguing if not essential watch in the genre. Those who enjoy this kind of genre effort or are intrigued about the material in this one will be the main target audience for this one while most others who don't appreciate those factors will want to heed caution here.
This review ran as part of our 2023 Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out the rest of our month-long celebrations including various reviews and interviews:
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