- Directed by Alica Maio Mackay
- Written by Alica Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson
- Stars Chris Asimos, Emma Bleby, Jessica Burgess
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 13 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGSLuCFCdvU
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was an interesting take on the vampire mythos. It’s the first horror movie the Horror Guys have seen with trigger warnings at the beginning before it starts. A little hit-and-miss in a low-budget indie movie kind of way, but overall decently done and pretty entertaining.
Synopsis
We start out with a trigger warning and someone talking about Katherine Hepburn. Kurt talks about the value of being a drag queen. Well, at least he wants to be one. He then gets gay-bashed up by some bullies, and it’s a bloody mess. Suddenly, two people walk up, and everything stops. We hear a growling noise, and the bullies run away. Credits roll.
Kurt’s in high school, and even the mean girls bully him. When he goes home, he watches horror films on TV with his friend Katie. He compares the angry mobs in Frankenstein films to the jerks at high school.
A couple of drag queens at the drag show think they should give Kurt a chance on stage. We get a fairly long drag-dance number from one of the pros. Next morning, at the comic book shop, we get short speech about how Dracula was really just a racist metaphor by Bram Stoker, a closeted homosexual. “If you don’t like something, make it a vampire,” one customer adds. We see that Kurt is not his father’s favorite son.
He pesters Katie at work, but she can’t talk while there. As he leaves, a man with glowing eyes and big teeth talks to him in the car. He doesn’t want to go along, but he doesn’t fight back much, either. It looks like a bit of hypnotic power is being used. Suddenly, the guy grows fangs and bites Kurt. A couple of vampire hunters storm in and set the guy on fire with holy water.
When Kurt wakes up, April and Harley, the hunters, explain that he was dying, and they brought him back. They’re vampires themselves, but they don’t like Landon, the vampire that nearly killed Kurt. Kurt is a vampire now as well.
It’s broad daylight, but that’s OK. Sunlight only bothers them a little. They go to a “pray the gay away” camp for dinner. April tells him, “We need blood, so we take it from those who don’t deserve it.” After he eats, the bodies melt. Which is a mighty convenient way for the evidence to go away.
Katie starts looking for Kurt, but no one has seen him lately. She misses him, and then gets angry when he turns up. They encounter the girls from school and through the magic of camera tricks, he’s able to beat them up this time. April puts Katie to sleep so she’ll forget the fight. He was going to tell Katie about his new situation, but April says that he can’t do that. Later, Landon, who isn’t really dead, comes upon the three unconscious girls and smiles….
April takes Kurt to a vampire club, but it’s pretty sparsely attended. They all drink from a nazi they murdered. Kurt meets Andy, who talks about actual vampire hunters that are out there. At school, the three bad girls all give Kurt nasty looks.
Landon comes to Katie, and he asks her out after work. Kurt sees her with him, but he’s staked through the stomach by one of Landon’s vampire girls. Andy rescues him, and he heals. Kurt’s father reports him as a missing person. We get an angst-montage as Katie wakes up and other vamps are out looking for her.
Harley finds Katie, and she’s fine. Landon didn’t do anything at all to her; it’s a message. Katie wakes up, and she knows all about vampires now.
Landon comes in, and he fights with April. Andy and Kurt fight with the three Landon-loyal-girls with help from Katie and take care of them. The four heroes gang up on Landon and tear him apart. They all go home, covered in blood.
Later on, Kurt finally gets to go on stage as a drag queen. His father and Katie are in the audience watching with his vamp friends.
Commentary
The acting here is pretty mixed. Some of the actors are really good; others are indie-film can’t-quite-act-natural-yet actors. Actually, the beginning of the film feels really well done, but as it goes along, it starts to seem cheaper with lower production values. The story keeps carrying it though.
The idea of vampires as an allegory for gay people is far from new; it was pretty much the entire premise for “True Blood” and a handful of other well-known stories. This one is fairly short and moves quickly. The story is good and fairly original.