Director: Taylor Martin
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
After pulling off a bank heist, a group of criminals decides to hide out in a small town motel and wait for their boss to arrive with their payment while the heat from the incident dies down, unaware that the hideout spot is a hideout for vicious vampires looking to turn on the group.
Review:
This was a solid enough, if somewhat problematic, genre effort. Among the better factors with this one is the slow-burgeoning mixture of separate and seemingly disparate elements together in something that has a lot to like about it. The first half here manages to come together well enough with the group’s arrival at the motel, and openness with the fact that they are brazen criminals is a fun time setting up the kind of criminal group that we’re going to be following as they’re far more fun and lightheaded than the more typical, serious types. The interactions in their room or with the motel owner, who’s a nervous, fidgety wreck trying to make sure the dangerous criminals don’t kill him, continue that setup quite nicely, making everything feel far more uneasy about what they’re actually attempting to hide out there in what’s slowly revealed to be a house for a vampire coven in the building.
That reveal about the true nature of the other guests’ identity turns this one from a rather fun bank heist getaway into a more overt genre fare regarding the vampires toying with and attacking everyone there. From the scenes regarding them going around taunting the motel owner about playing things straight, the attack on the leader when he shows up to get rid of everyone, or the ambush in the swimming pool on the horny member who’s looking to score with them, there are some rather fun scenes here involving the vampires coming out of the shadows to inflict their attacks on the group. The finale, offering a mad dash to escape the motel using some clever tricks to accomplish their plan, has more to like as well and gives this a strong finale, making for a lot to like to end this on.
There are some issues here that hold this one back. The main issue here is the rather obvious low-budget limitations that are present enough here to keep this one from exploring what it could’ve been. The simple setup, focusing on the group staying in one location and not doing much of anything as the girls have to come to them to pull off anything, leaves the film with the kind of confusing approach where it hardly ever explains anything at the time and skips over a lot of factors that should’ve been mentioned. How the relationship with the vampires and the motel owner, why they chose their specific victim, how the traditional methods of vampire confrontation work, or the interactions with the thieves trying to get out almost seem to occur more to move the plot along than anything more concrete since it can’t afford it. Combined with some lackluster FX work for the very few gore scenes throughout here, these all manage to hold this one down a bit.
Overview: **.5/5
A solid if flawed enough genre effort, there are some big issues here that manage to keep this one down from what it could’ve been, as there’s potentially a lot to like with this one. Those who are intrigued by this one or who aren’t bothered by these factors will want to give it a shot, while most others out there should be cautious with this one.
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