Very Frightening Tales – review

Director: Dale Fabrigar

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

Very Frightening Tales is an anthology made up of what seems to be a series (of 5 episodes, according to the series IMDb page) supplemented with a couple of shorts from the same filmmakers – the segment, the Delivery seems to have an IMDb page as a short under the title Lullaby. None of the segments are overtly vampiric but we do get close enough in two segments for me to review the film.

the package

The first I want to look at is the aforementioned the Delivery. Now this is the flimsier of the two, as regards it being vampiric, and it might have been a “Use of Tropes” article had it not been for the second segment. After an intertitle tying the segment to a Philippine heritage, it begins with a mother (Noreen Lanie) putting her baby down. She hears knocking and ringing at the door and opens it to find a package left on the step.

perhaps an aswang

The package has Philippine stamps on it and inside it has packaging in leaf, with something wrapped in leaf also and tied with twine. Unwrapping that she finds a fetish. She rings her mom (Roczane Enriquez, Vampariah), the connection is bad but she describes the statue and mom says not to touch it (too late) as it contains an evil spirit and warns about the baby. We have seen movement and the baby monitor shows movement. She rushes and gets the baby but then we see the lights go out, her eyes glassed over and a flash of a face with sharp teeth and long tongue. This reminded me of aswang, hence looking at the segment, and the ending suggested possession as she weaves before a shrine created with the fetish.

Madison Ekstrand as Melody

The second segment to look at is Dinner Rush. The boss (Eric Roberts) is sat as a restaurant table and Melody (Madison Ekstrand) pours him some wine. She asks if he needs anything else before her shift finishes and he asks how she likes her job, suggesting she stay and learn more – how the sausages are made. In comes a man, Mike (Christopher M. Dukes), who describes the job he has just done for the boss – and it is clear it was a hit. Melody brings out a bowl of food that Mike takes a spoonful of.

sharp teeth

There is something in it and he draws it out of his mouth and then realises the dish is made up of body parts. This, it becomes clear, is the boss’s way of telling Mike he is to be retired. The telling parts here are that he suggests Mike could be turned, made into something like the boss and also Mike empties a clip into the boss, to no ill effect, only to apologies for a force of habit. His retirement is to be provided by the other patrons, who all develop sharp teeth. Flesh eating, immunity to conventional weaponry and sharp teeth – these could well be either vampires or ghouls, the latter being closely related within the genre as mentioned in other reviews (they are credited as creatures).

Eric Roberts as the boss

The full film is some 57 minutes long, meaning that it doesn’t outstay its welcome. There is a general maintained level of quality between the 7 sections (though the creature in Fortune was perhaps a let down after an interesting premise) but they are perhaps too short to be fully narrative in every case. The review scores for the two vampire(ish) segments and I think they deserve a solid 6 out of 10, with the caveat that they are more vignettes than full stories, both.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Satan’s Menagerie – review

Director: Gary Griffith

Release date: 2001*

Contains spoilers

*Actually shot in 1995 but not finding a release until 2001, this is a budget straight to video affair but, you know what, it was really enjoyable. A tad convoluted perhaps and the poor transfer and photography hid some of the excesses but, nevertheless, it had a certain something that punched above its weight.

Andy Zeffer as Arcon

As the film started the scene seems to be a hellscape with Satan, as per the title. Actually it seems like it was more a temple on Earth millennium past, where the demon god Jeramin (Kyle Derek) held court. Explained later was the idea that his high priest, Arcon (Andy Zeffer), betrayed him and so was skinned alive – he is the mummy-like figure we see – and Arcon’s love, Lenora (Alexia Kouros), was killed. Subsequently the other priests bled and banished Jeramin and, drinking his blood, became the progenitors of the monsters.

Thomas V. Powers as Craymore

Dr Craymore (Thomas V. Powers) is a psychologist, parapsychologist and believer in monsters. He has been working with Gustav Markov (Arthur Cwik), a man with amnesia but whose re-emerging memories are about monsters. There is a claim that he can detect them and hunted them in the past. A nearby cemetery has been the scene of disturbances and the guard claims to have seen a monster. Craymore intends to test Markov’s alleged powers. Markov won’t be manipulated and used, he says, but the presence of Veronica (also Alexia Kouros, and later we discover she is Lenora’s reincarnation) persuades him.

the ghoul feeds

He has already sensed the monster but, en route, he has a mental flash of a vampire with a woman – we later discover this is a memory. The monster is in a nearby cave and is a ghoul (Anthony Timpone), which they kill. Markov is torn by this, although he was a monster hunter once he now realises he (a warlock) is a monster (one of the blood) and does not want any part in killing them. As such he tricks the cemetery owner into looking in a crypt for treasure.

vampire awakens

In the crypt is a coffin and, in the coffin, the preserved corpse of Elektra (Wendi Winburn). The grave robber clearly has never watched a vampire movie as he removes the cross laid over her breast and soon she is awake and feeding on him. Elektra was Markov’s lover, turned as revenge against him – he couldn’t bring himself to stake her and so trapped her with the cross. It was her, with the vampire who turned her, that we saw in his flash of memory. A bath in blood later and she restores her beauty.

Alexia Kouros as Veronica

Veronica wants to use Markov to find monsters and we get segments looking at them. There is a fishman, Brax (Chuck Szatkowski), held as a freak and (it is implied) gladiator who manages to escape but finds that the oceans are too polluted to return to. There is also the curmudgeonly, wheelchair bound Vietnam vet Stavros (Peter Papageorgiou), who is a werewolf (and thus has mobility when the moon is full). Veronica is able to summon Arcon, who is bound by love to obey her request to bring Jeramin back to earth in a rite involving the monsters.

bathing in blood

Despite being a tad convoluted this was great fun. The print was horrible, and the photography betrayed the budget, yet despite this it remained watchable. The cgi would have looked pants when filmed and certainly does now, and yet it fit the aesthetic of the film – indeed that aesthetic is one that a modern budget filmmaker might try to ape but was natural to this. The practical effects were at times rubbish too (though the same aesthetic point stands) and yet some worked well – a regrowing hand that had been blown off was one where it was obvious how they did it but it still looked pretty cool.

Arthur Cwik as Markov

The acting chops varied across the cast but Arthur Cwik stood out for me as the forlorn warlock. This, as I said at the head of the review, punched well above its weight. It should not be as enjoyable as it is, but it was a romp of a monster mash. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

The Ezzera & Gore-Girl Horror Anthology – review

Director: Brandon Rhiness

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

Another anthology made of shorts, although in this case the shorts were all previously directed by Brandon Rhiness and he is bringing those together into one vehicle.

The surround sees a woman looking through the belongings of her deceased parents and finding a video of a cable TV show hosted by Ezzera (Julia Van Dam) and her sidekick Hellenore the Gore-Girl (Paige Hounsome). Making the shorts fit the VHS nature and cable sourcing does help hide some of the budget issues with this and the stories tend to the interesting, though some are too short for their own good.

the date

There are two that particularly interest us. The first is Bloodbath, which sees Victoria (Julie Whelan) and her unusual condition. The first time we see her she is on a date with Roland (Rohit Kataria), which does go well. There is an unspoken timing stipulation to her dates, which we become aware of as she wakes in his bed. He asks, shocked, what has happened to her face (we don’t see).

the solution

Her condition only gets worse, first there seems to be spots or sores and eventually we see that she seems to be actively rotting. There is a cure, of course, and the clue is in the title and there is a reason why we are looking at the film here. This is, then, a riff on the Erzsébet Báthory story. Beyond that the segment does nothing new or shocking but it is always good to see this story tackled.

suffering from the hunger

The second segment that interests us is The Hunger. Cora (Sarah Louise), a young woman estranged from her mother (Cathy Long), has just split with her boyfriend (Riley Andrews). She is asked if she is ok, looking pale, and replies that she has a hunger. As the segment progresses she is eating obsessively but can’t seem to satisfy it. Strangers seem to be approaching her telling her that she is hungry and should eat… There is a way to satisfy it and, suffice it to say, this relies on The History of Sidi Nu’uman, from the Arabian Nights, and its Western reinterpretation by Hoffmann, Vampirismus.

Julia Van Dam as Ezerra

The two stories work but are not the most interesting in the film. They do belie their own low budget, especially The Hunger, which has a great sense of unease as the strangers approach Cora. I think 5 out of 10 for them is fair. The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Mr. Midnight: Beware the Monsters – My Class Vampire – review

Director: Sean Masterson

First aired: 2022

Contains spoilers

Mr. Midnight: Beware the Monsters is a Singapore originating series, filmed in English primarily and aimed at teens. It concerns itself with a group of friends who become aware of strange supernatural goings-on in their town, Tanah Merah, and set out to investigate. Mr Midnight is a mask wearing avatar they use to post videos about their exploits.

The friends are Tyar (Idan Aedan) a young man who is, by birth, a dukun, but who is unaware of his heritage. A dukun is a shaman of sorts who spirits are attracted to. His friend Ling (Chen Yixin) is the daughter of Uncle Tan (Yu-Beng Lim), who runs an antique store and is the source of their knowledge of the occult. Third is Nat (Caleb Monk), who is used frequently as a comedy character but who also wears the mask and acts as Mr. Midnight and finally there is English exchange student Zoe (Nikki Dekker).

lamppost leap

One of the issues I had with this episode is, because I look at one-of vampire episodes as standalones, it was light on plot, relying more on the wider story that was being built in the season to carry it. Great in that context but perhaps weaker as a vampire episode. In the episode before, the gang had been embroiled with a ghoul who had lured Zoe off and locked her in a coffin. Though they rescued her, at the end of the episode we see the vegetarian eating raw meat. This episode begins with a scene of a man in a car park at night, down from a lamppost jumps a thing, clearly in the funeral garb preferred by the kyonsi.

Zoe vamping

In the morning we see Zoe plastering makeup on, eating a sliver of raw meat and then acting strangely, and seductively, towards son of her host family, Ben (Maxime Bouttier), before leaving the house. The news is full of the murder of a man, exsanguinated and found in the car park. At school Nat is practicing with the cheers squad when Zoe enters the gym and starts dancing. The dancing is infectious. Everyone bar Tyar are affected, and he breaks the spell for Ling. The gym students collapse at the end of the dance, Zoe pushes Ling to the floor calls Tyar dukun and leaves with Nat. We’ve seen that her teeth have sharpened.

stiff limbs

School is cancelled due to the mass hysteria (of the dancing) and unable to contact Zoe or Nat, Tyar and Ling go for a coffee, hear more about the murder and decide to sneak into the morgue. They manage to look at the corpse when he awakens and comes after them, his limbs, as he pursues, stiffening and he beginning to move in the famous hop from Hong Kong cinema. They manage to escape, get supplies from Uncle Tan’s shop to deal with Chinese vampires (and make the point that they react to things differently from Western vampires) but then Nat and Zoe lure the other two to where they are…

prayer scroll

Why the kyonsi is in Singapore is not discussed. Prayer scrolls will paralyse the vampires, bagua mirrors force them back and vinegar burns. Sticky rice aids the journey of the trapped spirit at the core of the vampire. What is less clear lore-wise is the hopping. The main kyonsi seems quite fluid of movement, the newly created one in the hospital quickly becomes the stiff corpse of the traditional depiction. However, Zoe shows no stiffness and all I can think of was that she was bitten (unseen in the previous episode) but not killed. This is probably why she could be turned back when the main kyonsi is defeated.

bagua mirror

There was so much more they could have done with this episode – indeed in referencing Hong Kong movies, as they did, I expected some more set pieces (like a holding the breath set piece). The episode wasn’t terrible but probably does not hold-up as a standalone. That said I was rather taken with the series as a whole and, for an audience of the target demographic, it seems like good fun. For the vampire episode, as a stand-alone, however 4 out of 10.

The episode’s imdb page is here.

Terror of the Master – review

Director: Jeff Kirkendall

Release date: 1998

Contains spoilers

A straight to video film now on disc from SRS Home Video this was (according to IMDb) the directorial debut by Jeff Kirkendall and is full of the issues one would expect from a first effort, weirdly off framing being one such issue and just the strangest set of scene timings towards the end. Yet despite this I think it was better than some of his later films (I’ve reviewed the Temptress and the short 3 to Murder).

Maitely Weismann as Drew

It starts with a woman being chained in a cellar and, after the gun toting guys leave the cellar she tests the chains and girder she is chained to, in case she can get away, and then sees a shadowy figure – she screams. In an antique store, after hearing a radio bulletin about the latest in a string of kidnappings of women, a customer goes to the counter and believes she recognises the shopkeeper, Drew (Maitely Weismann), before realising she is also a news anchor on a local news service. The woman confides that she likes Drew better than that Dave Rydell (David Louis).

some odd framing

Why is she working the shop? It appears that it is a family business she co-runs with her sister Amelia (Jennifer Birn, The Temptress and 3 to Murder). Drew mentions her frustration with Dave to her boyfriend Jeff (Jeff Kirkendall, also The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter) and Sharkula) who councils patience, she’s only been at the station a year and she’ll get her break. He is frustrated with Amelia though, as she has been depressed since splitting with her boyfriend. To be honest there is a pap talk scene between Drew and Amelia, which was meant to establish character and relationship but just kinda dragged – and the film is only 75 minutes long.

a victim

Working in the store again, Drew seems ready to call it a night when a nervous looking woman, Beth (Kelly Chaisson Warner), comes in. She knocks over a cheap ornament, drops something and then leaves. A man’s face appears at the window. The next day Drew is doing a fluff piece for the station and, when she gets back to the office, discovers that a voice mail has been left telling her to be careful, if she goes to the police the woman will die. After she sees Dave’s latest kidnapping editorial she realises that Beth is the latest victim.

Drew, a cop and Ame;ia

She speaks to Amelia and decides to investigate – she dare not go to the police after the threat. Beth dropped a matchbook from a bar and a parking garage chitty and the game is afoot – but doesn’t last too long before Drew is kidnapped also. Amelia tracks her and Dave follows Amelia… And here is our strange timing… Drew is in a trunk of a car and taken to a derelict house… Amelia has been able to follow (but we have no sense that she is in a car)… Dave follows her and calls for a camera… as we cut between scenes it is apparent that it only takes the camera tech Lewis (Tim Hatch, also The Temptress, 3 to Murder, Sharkula and Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter) about a minute to get there. The timing is off.

Tony Turcic as Worthall

So, what is going on? Vampire Christopher Worthall (Tony Turcic, also Shadow Tracker: Vampire Hunter) was betrayed by vampire friend Darden Porter (James Carolus, also The Temptress, 3 to Murder and Bloodlust) over a female vampire (Shannon Von Ronne) who was a mutual romantic interest and was killed by hunters. Darden blamed Worthall for her death and poisoned him with strychnine (who knew that was a thing). Weak, Worthall got to the derelict house, to find it occupied by bank robbers and now has had them kidnapping women for him to feed on and get his strength back. Worthall has a line in hissing, long brown nails, fangs and we discover vampires can be killed through decapitation or a shot to the head. There is an ability to mesmerise also.

James Carolus as Darden Porter

The only other notable piece of lore (if you can call it that) is that before you discover his name the optional subtitles call Worthall a ghoul. The film had issues, as I have mentioned but it was actually quite good fun and very earnest. Despite the sisters' conversation moment that dragged, the short run time meant it didn’t overstay its welcome. The VHS transfer is as you would expect but, you know what, if you like straight to home video films there are a lot shoddier films out there. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from a masterpiece and 3.5 out of 10 seems fair but you could do worse.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

Hellsing Ultimate – review

Director: Various

First Aired: 2006-2012

Contains spoilers

In my review of Hellsing, I gave a background that explained I had watched the original anime prior to starting this blog. Later I got the first 4 DVDs of the OVAs that make up Hellsing Ultimate, which is 10 OVAs in all and then I stalled as the further OVAs did not seem to emerge in the UK. Eventually I picked up a Malaysian set with the full OVA series and was all prepped to watch through Hellsing Ultimate.

Alucard

Before that I re-watched Hellsing, wrote a review (and subsequently sat on it for quite some time) and then started watching the OVAs. For the first four, everything was running smoothly but then, in the Malaysian set, the subtitles changed from the professional translations used in parts 1 to 4, to literal translations and, with the series almost watchable, I stalled again. Recently, I found that a UK Blu-ray had been released of the 10 OVAs (including loads of extras) and I got back to it…

Sir Integra

And I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Every episode was properly subtitled (and voice acted if you prefer a dub) and the print quality was (as you'd expect) so much better on Blu-Ray. The Hellsing Ultimate storyline follows that of the Mangas much more closely than the original series and this means that whilst the first couple of episodes follow the earlier anime story fairly closely it soon diverges – with a story that sees the Last Battalion – World War Two, vampire Nazis – both behind the initial events and the focus of the episodes going forward, whilst the Incognito storyline is completely expunged.

the Major

The OVAs soon have an invasion of the UK going on and a counter invasion by the Iscariot Organisation on behalf of the Vatican, which they deem a crusade, one where they are as happy to kill British civilians as the vampires are. The leader of the vampires, an unvampirised Nazi Major (Nobuo Tobita) has very specific reasons for invading, partly the song of war and partly to do with Alucard (Jôji Nakata). The series is very bloody, much more rounded and has better character backgrounds.

Walter and Seras

One of my thoughts, rewatching Hellsing, was how unrounded Walter (Motomu Kiyokawa), the butler and assassin, was. He is better rounded in this, though in truth we get a tad more from the additional Hellsing Dawn, which were three short episodes, of which the first is an extra in the set (why the other two are missing is a mystery and a shame). Likewise, Seras Victoria (Fumiko Orikasa) was still used for both comedy and some low-level fan service, but was given a character development, had a dark background that was exposed late on and had much more in the way of kick ass moments. Seras did not become a ghoul when turned by Alucard because she was a virgin, and only virgins will turn into full vampires – a lore position that feels challenged later in the story by implicit elements.

Alucard and Anderson

The character that really did benefit from the longer run was Alucard himself. Definitively exposed as Count Dracula, and Vlad Ţepeş, there is perhaps less focus on his “locked” power levels – though they are still there. He is almost chthonic, able to become inchoate and, we eventually discover, he holds the souls of every victim – and there are many – each adding to his power. This is not a unique idea but the scale of this in Hellsing Ultimate is wonderfully chilling. We discover that Mina Harker was the one person whose blood he drank and then allowed her to drink his (Seras is offered his blood early on but does not take it). The better character and story development, coupled with superior animation does make this version the ultimate one in my eyes. 7.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK

Hellsing – review

Director: Kohta Hirano

First aired: 2001-2002

Contains spoilers

This is a review of the first Hellsing Anime series – the series of OVAs that followed/rebooted the story would come under Hellsing Ultimate. First a little background. Although I am posting this review in 2024 (and, as I'll explain in a forthcoming review, wrote the review some time ago), I actually first watched (and had the DVD set) of Hellsing before I started Taliesin Meets the Vampires. I never re-watched the series, after the blog started, for review and therefore didn’t review it.

Alucard

Following the series, OVAs were released and I had the first four on DVD but wanted to review the run of OVAs when they came to an end – in all there were 10 OVAs produced. Eventually I found a Malaysian set containing the original series and all the OVAs. For completeness for the blog I decided to re-watch Hellsing (reviewed here) and then the OVAs (reviewed separately).

Alucard and Sir Integra

All that background leaves me in a place where I am sad to report that had I reviewed Hellsing when I first watched it, I think it would have got a much higher score than I am giving in this retrospective review (or maybe I just have rose tinted glasses). Main character Alucard (Jôji Nakata) is all kinds of cool but the show itself is lacking. Set in the UK, the Hellsing organisation is a secret, private agency run by the Hellsing family – currently headed by Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing (Yoshiko Sakakibara), the fact that she should be Dame Integra, not Sir, is idiosyncratically cool.

Father Alexander Anderson

The Agency has its own private army and its sole purpose is to hunt down freaks – or vampires. The family have a secret weapon in that the powerful vampire Alucard is a sworn servant of the head of the family. In some of the episodes we see the protestant organisation at odds with vampire hunters from the Vatican – the Vatican make it very clear that they do not use vampires as Hellsing do.

Serras Victoria

In the first episode there is an infestation in Cheddar village and the police sent in have all been turned into mindless ghouls (the victim of a vampire can be fully turned into a vampire or left as a zombie-like servant of the vampire who killed them) bar the young female police woman Serras Victoria (Fumiko Orikasa) – I assume, with Serras, the writers used the Japanese standard of placing the familial name first. At the end she is held hostage by the vampire priest who faces off against Alucard.

Incognito

Alucard gives Serras a choice – dying as he shoots through her to kill the vampire (his guns use silver bullets smelted from a church cross) or living on as a vampire. She choses the latter and the series primarily looks through her lens at the events that then unfold. The story meanders somewhat, starting with artificially created vampires (turned using freak chips – bio-engineering chips implanted into the host), through traitors in the ranks (low and high level) to a powerful ancient vampire, Incognito (Takumi Yamazaki), trying to summon a demon to destroy England.

black arts

In the last paragraph we have the two main issues I have with the anime – story and characters. Alucard is, as I say, all kinds of cool and we do get a conflation of him with Vlad Ţepeş at the very end of the show. We know (because the reversed name is almost clichéd) that he is Dracula. What we do not know is the extent of his powers (he has restraints on his power that he releases in levels dependent on the power of his foe) or why he is sworn to the Hellsing organisation. We get zero background.

Walter

We do get some backstory for Sir Integra – though it fails to round the character and just about every other character is so two dimensional as to be entirely without character. The retainer Walter (Motomu Kiyokawa) is another who needed expansion desperately (and was cool despite lack of characterisation). As for Serras she is simpering at best, more often than not looking dumbfounded and whispering “Master” than actually doing anything. The catholic vampire hunter Alexander Anderson (Nachi Nozawa) again is cool but we never find out why he is a human regenerator (healing rapidly from terrible wounds) and he vanishes from the story almost without a trace.

Ghoul army

The stories all kind of peter out. The freak chip – is the big main thrust, a lab is found in Hong Kong and then they just kind of vanish out of story. The storyline is addressed in an intertitle at the end, but only to say that there is no conclusion. The fact that Incognito also has a human master is not addressed (so we know he has one, but not who and why they have sent the vampire to destroy London. The whole anime also has quite an outdated feel to it also, it just doesn’t feel like it has stood the test of time.

All kinds of cool

Despite the negatives, perhaps born out of age and when compared to newer anime, one cannot take away the cool factor. Alucard is all kind of cool and, whilst we might not know the full extent or source of his dark powers the effects are great in their graphic rendering. There is a nice layer of gore through the animation, it just could have been so much more (and did seem so a couple of decades ago). 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Honourable Mention: Screech of the Decapitated

Directed by Michael Tarzian and released in 2005, Screech of the Decapitated is low budget buffoonery of the highest order that is deliberately so. Below grindhouse standard, it revels in the paucity of its effects and the campy knowingness of the deliberately pantomime acting. And, because it does all this, the film manages to raise itself up by its own bootstraps.

It follows showgirls Raquel (Brittany Petros) and Wanda (Shannon Noelle Garrigus), international showgirls, strippers (not that the film plays the nudity card, to be fair) and part-time jewel thieves and agents. They are in Buenos Aires (actually Burbank, but let’s not quibble), driving along and squabbling when they see a man on the side of the road with an axe. Convinced he might be the serial killer known as the Decapitator they stop the car to confront him – after all he is killing in alphabetical order and only up to “E”.

werewolf

The man seems to be in a trance but then suddenly drops to the floor, starts sprouting hair and then becomes a werewolf (and the werewolves are created by the sfx of plain old, cheap end rubber masks). It will transpire that the werewolves are clones created by the alien Nadir (Ed Flanagan, Way of the Vampire) and his concubine Queen Maquzita (Debbie Rochon). So werewolves, aliens… but where are the vampires you might ask.

old fanged ghoul

After escaping to a windmill and bashing the werewolf with an axe, the women find an old man in the building. Getting him to turn around he reveals fangs and so there are more whacks with the axe. Now he has yellow gunk for blood and is credited as Old Fanged Ghoul (Marvin Morgenstern) – but the lines between vampire and ghoul are blurry and he looks the part. Later they end up in a wrestling match with luchadors and one of them turns into a werewolf but the other turns into a bat – indeed there is also a bat attack when Raquel showers that is described as a vampire bat also.

vampire

The other appearance seems to be at the end when the women pick up a handsome hitchhiker, whose eyes glow red as he shows fangs. Enough, through this, to suggest that we have a fleeting visitation of a vampire or two and some definite crap bat moments. I said this was knowing and it was so knowing that it was just likable all the way through, the leads were incredibly natural and clearly in on the joke but it is probably consumed with a side of your favourite beverage and a group of mates.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK