Director: Chris McKay
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Stuck performing menial tasks for Dracula, his faithful servant tries to adapt to a new way of looking at society with the help of a female officer trying to bring down a vicious drug gang, but when the two sides come together to force them to battle the combined force to stop his plans.
Review:
This one managed to have quite a lot to like about it. One of the main factors with this one is the ingenious setup involving the relationship between the two as a core driving force. Exploring their connection together and how he's managed to remain in the good graces of his boss while keeping him ruling over him during his reign of terror by helping him to find bodies and help him hunt. Focusing heavily on the abusive nature of their interactions as he gets bullied and manipulated into doing whatever he can to help Dracula while everything else is ignored to the point of dismissal as soon as it's brought up which requires the use of the support group to help him along.
It's this addition of the support group that provides the film with ample opportunity for some light-hearted moments and plenty of laughs. From the absurdity of trying to equate a master/servant vampire relationship with that of a people-pleasing pushover to the generally over-the-top nature of what goes on during the confrontations, the action here is quite funny while also managing to deliver a slew of impressive quips and comebacks. That it's not as constant as it would've thought and knows when to pull it back into more threatening levels as there's still a solid amount of suspense to be had within the film to counterbalance the fine comedic chops.
Most of the suspense here is handled through the rather exciting and thrilling Action scenes that are featured throughout here. Showing that vampires are superhuman and given more of an explosive strength and speed quality over regular humans, the ease with which they're able to punch through bodies, snap limbs off or just pull off superhuman feats of strength to show off what's going on. Carrying out with a solid series of kung-fu martial arts battles that are incredibly dynamic with how they're choreographed flying around the battle zone while fighting and some high-energy gun-fights that also continue the action rather nicely, there's a lot to really like here.
There are some issues here that do crop up. One of the main drawbacks of this one is the rather unnecessary addition of the corruption in the police force which is completely undervalued and doesn't serve much purpose. The whole thing involving the criminal gang running wild through the streets of the city would've been enough to make the film work with Dracula setting up his community through them which doesn't need the police corruption angle thrown in. That just adds more to the film that doesn't need to be there, which is also the case for the obvious trickery in trying to make the characters over-the-top Action heroes with the particular performers putting in moves they really shouldn't be. With the wonky special effects being utilized as well, these are what hold it back.
Overview: ****/5
A highly effective and enjoyable mainstream genre effort, there’s quite a lot to like here that manages to hold this one up quite a bit over some minor, inconsequential flaws that do bring it down slightly. Those who appreciate this kind of mainstream-friendly genre approach, are fans of the creative crew or are curious about this one while those who don’t enjoy those factors should heed caution.
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