- Directed by Joshua Nelson
- Written by Joshua Nelson
- Stars David Reyez Adamez, Ziad Alexabi, Jay Barson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
- Trailer: https://vimeo.com/753074870/813c848549
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Is it better to fight your nature or embrace it? It can be hard being a vampire. And here we have a bunch of them talking about the struggle. It’s entertaining overall, with decent acting, good direction, and interesting dialogue.
Synopsis
A group of people in what appears to be an AA meeting discuss their problems. The woman talks about keeping secrets from her husband, “but when it calls to you, you just can’t fight it.” “It takes over your soul.”I was hiding who and what I was.” She tells the story of when her husband brought over a friend for dinner. The friend flirted with her, and she “let the urge happen.” She followed him upstairs and… drank his blood. “Matt, I can explain!” she says. No, these people aren’t alcoholics. They’re vampires. Credits roll.
Two young women talk. One yammers about a cute guy that she met while the other blathers about shopping. Then the girl with the hot guy admits that she killed her guy and ate him. Suddenly it’s not a mundane conversation anymore. “We made love, and I bled him all over the bed.” The second girl wants to make a pact to stop, but they’re both still hungry.
Back in the support group, a married couple talks about going to a bar and picking up a guy or a girl to take home and feed. They adopted a little boy, and then just last week, he caught them eating someone. They don’t want the child to grow up around this.
A mother tells Zoey that she wants to help with what’s bothering her daughter. “I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made.” We then see Zoey sneak out into the backyard and start licking a dismembered limb.
One of the women in the support group, Veronica, says it’s wrong for all these people to feel guilt over their murders. She’s got issues, we’re told. Another woman says that people are going to die anyway, so maybe they’re just part of God’s plan. Veronica says it’s fine to go with it, and the leader of the group tells her not to come back.
Another couple of vampires talk about loving Twilight and Lestat, and they actually sought out a real vampire to turn them. Now they regret it.
Zoey’s mom finds a corpse in her closet and sends her to Dr. Abraham’s group. Mom asks if there’s some kind of medication, but he says no, she’ll have to fight this on her own.
Veronica talks to other vampires about stopping Abraham and his group; they deny who they really are.
Lucy deals with some workplace harassment in her own way, and her co-workers have a ball with it. One young guy “comes out” to his mother, and it goes badly.
Veronica has a plan to kill Abraham and take over. Things are going to be different going forward…
Commentary
Last year, we reviewed “Menopause” from the same writer/director, and it had a huge number of characters telling their stories until the end, where some of it comes together. We pretty much hated it.
This film is done in a very similar format, also with a huge number of mostly-unnamed characters telling their problems. This film has many of the same actors as well, but we both found this one to be a lot more entertaining. It’s funny how blood coming in with vampires is more entertaining than blood coming out with menopause, but there we are.
It’s mostly just people talking, with a lot of “vampire philosophy” thrown in alongside a few simple bloody gore shots here and there; there’s no real action here, but the story is good. It’s well-shot, decently acted, and the music is really good, which these indie films often neglect. There’s a lot of really good humor as well, and we laughed out loud a couple of times.
The film takes a different point of view right at the end that makes the whole thing end on a depressing and overwrought note, as the drug/vampire analogy was clear already, but overall we thought it was really good!