Director: Chip Joslin
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
After being released from a psychiatric hospital, a war veteran committed for the disappearance of his girlfriend originally conducted by a coven of vicious vampires sets out to find them again, and when he finds them targeting the girlfriend’s younger sister tries to stop them once and for all.
Review:
This was a solid if somewhat problematic genre effort. One of the best features here is the uneventful if serviceable storyline featuring the type of action necessary to move this one along at a solid clip. The main setup of the initial attack turning everyone in town against him to the point that he gets institutionalized rather than deal with the truth of the situation gives this a fine starting point as the series of interactions here make for a good enough piece about his condition affecting the reputation of the incidents. Since his prognosis helps out the idea of the vampires staying hidden as no one believes him, the sympathy generated here is rather nice when it becomes apparent that there’s a hidden meaning behind everything that slowly gets revealed the longer this goes on.
The other big issue here is the strong vampire action that takes place here where it’s confrontations involving the guy taking down the coven. The initial setup with the hotel party getting to wipe out the series of guests while also offering a rather likable series of setups that point him as a scapegoat for the massacre so everything is handled quite nicely as a fantastic starter. The later scenes offering his attempts to get the creatures to let him know where they’re hiding out which also serves as a way to bring the younger sister into this film has some fun with the chaotic action of the frenzied vampires going crazy grabbing whoever they can and taking them out in graphic fashion. When the finale manages to bring about some intriguing action and plenty of reveals that have a great impact on the storyline, these come together to give the film a lot to like.
There are some drawbacks with this one that hold it back. The main issue here is the fact that this one spends way too much time on the idea of trying to build up the wrongful incarceration idea and him being released to a corrupt police unit that just doesn’t have the kind of immersive setup at the beginning of this one. The whole idea of framing him for the crimes gets more context later on but it’s all so flimsy in the first half that there’s nothing inherently logical about the whole incident when the exploits of the crime became noticeable with him being held in contempt for the whole thing following this along. The other issue here which piggybacks off of that is the slow pace at the same time so it takes a while to get these features involving some underwhelming elements making this take a while to get going which bring this down.
Overview: ***/5
A solid enough if somewhat underwhelming effort, there’s enough to like here that makes for a decent watch but there are still more than enough flaws here bringing this one down. Those who are fine with the flaws or appreciate this kind of indie effort will have a lot to like here while most others out there not into this kind of film should heed caution.
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