HORROR DVD/BLU-RAY REVIEWS

A family learns to protect itself when one of their daughters dies and is seemingly reborn as a vampire.

Yeah, wow, what a strange little film. Made on a shoestring budget and visibly so, this one was quite interesting, although it was a little tough to sit through at times due to its poor film quality. The strength lies solely in the story, as most of this film takes place within the confines of the Baxter home. The family is fractured to begin with, as they have a gay son, a goth daughter and a Brady-esque sister. The goth sister actually casts a curse on her sister with animal entrails and everything, and pretty much takes it back when her sister shoes up as a vampire after dying from an apparent nosebleed. Of course, this movie has its own vampire rules too- if the vampire doesn’t eat often enough, they go crazy and bloodthirsty. Can the family sustain the rebirth of their daughter as a member of the undead?

I liked this movie, but felt that it suffered a bit from the lack of anything really exciting happening. After an hour or so, the pace really begins to slow down and things get a little dull. Luckily, the characters are well written and the story is decent enough to keep you at least somewhat interested. As I mentioned before, the film quality isn’t very good and I found that the sound mixing was way off, with the soundtrack sort of interrupting the rest of the film, despite having made some good aural choices. Some of the chosen shots didn’t blow my mind either, but that’s alright- at least these vampires don’t glisten in the sunlight.

 

The only extra to be found here is an interview with Devon Bailey, who plays Helen, the vampire. It’s interesting stuff but it’s too short, running only a few minutes long. Good stuff though, as it intertwines behind the scenes footage with the rest of this. Can you believe someone tattooed Helen’s screaming face on their shoulder?

I’d watch the sequel to this movie when it came out, even if some of it didn’t always tickle my fancy. Ditch some of the hokiness of the family, fix the mixing and lose the weird vampire dude who shows up during the flick and you’re on to something. Even gorehounds might find something they like here. Check it.