Thamma – review

Director: Aditya Sarpotdar

Release date: 2025

Contains spoilers

It is not the first time we have looked at a vehicle using the Indian betaal but this one certainly grounds itself in the Western vampire, whilst distinguishing itself. It is part of a cinematic universe – the Maddock Horror Comedy Universe, which includes films such as Stree and Bhediya. Bhediya is a take on the werewolf genre and we do get a visitation from the film’s lead werewolf in this.

Alexx O'Nell as Alexander

This does work as a standalone, however, and if I have a gripe it is that it is overly long. Nevertheless, it did hold me for its 2-hour 30-minutes run time. It actually starts in 323BC with an army. My thoughts went to a Roman legion until I realised it was Alexander the Great (Alexx O'Nell) and his forces – Alexander did reach India. Later in the film he is described as an Englishman rather than Macedonian (his blood is still bottled, he does not survive) but nonetheless it is his force that hear noises in the forest and his horse refuses to move forward, when a host of betaal, led by Yakshasan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), attack.

finding Alok

Cut forward to modern day and Alok Goyal (Ayushmann Khurrana) is a reporter – we see a TV stunt gone wrong that’ll turn him into a meme. He and two co-workers are camping in the wilderness and he’s told his issue is not using Instagram enough and so he marches off into the forest to take a dramatic photo – and is attacked by a bear (the cgi bear was pretty well done). The two coworkers run the other way and he is chased and, eventually, painfully but not fatally mauled. He manages to get into a hiding place.

Alok and Tadaka

The bear seems to be yanked away and a woman, Tadaka (Rashmika Mandanna), looks into his hiding spot. He passes out and she pulls him away. He awakens in a carcass of a crashed airplane, which serves as her home. She promises him that she’ll take him home, once healed, but he shouldn’t leave her makeshift home. Of course, he does and he is hunted through the forest by three male betaal. He is captured, nearly fed to the imprisoned Yakshasan and rescued again by Tadaka. They get to the outskirts of their territory and Tadaka tells him to jump from the cliff they are on (to a passing truck on the road below) but she can go no further as it is forbidden – she doesn’t take much persuasion to go with him. He gets home to his funeral (the film is an action/horror/comedy and so, given the comedy side, he has to convince his father (Paresh Rawal) that he is really him and that involves a mole on his butt).

the bhediya

The film then follows the couple as he slowly learns what she is, their eventual estrangement, his (near) death and her turning him – this is forbidden and means that Yakshasan can be freed, and she take his place in imprisonment. Yakshasan was imprisoned because he insisted on feeding from humans (another forbidden thing) and wants to take over the world. Throw in an interlude with the bhediya (Varun Dhawan) who needs to drink betaal blood to recover his powers – and a side note about the betaal and bhediya ancient animosity and then a finale against Yakshasan.

ready to drink betaal blood

The backstory of the creatures is that the great demon Rakhtbeej was granted by Shiva the boon that each spilt drop of his blood would spawn another one of him. Losing against him the Gods called on the Goddess (presumably Kali) and she fought him but each hit caused him to multiply and so she created the betaal to drink his blood and save the world. The other lore we get is that sunlight is an issue when newly turned, they are near indestructible, they cannot lie (and vamp face when they do), we see Yakshasan turn into smoke as he teleports, there is an affinity with bats and one betaal can drink another to death (we see Yakshasan do that and a spirit/demon version of him appears at his shoulder when he does so). With regards vampires a distinction between them and betaal is made and yet the 'V' word is used fairly often, as is Dracula, and many genre film tropes are used (accidental fang, for comic effect, for instance). Ultimately the pitching of vampire/betaal against werewolf/bhediya is straight out of the vampire playbook.

getting her vamp on

The film looks really nice and Ayushmann Khurrana balances dashing leading man and comic focal point really well. The cgi was well done and there was a tad of a superhero vide to this as sometimes happens with good guy vampire films. Being an Indian film I was expecting music and dance routines. There are only two dances (three if you count the one in the credits) but they are diegetic. There are other musical moments that include montage scenes and perhaps these dragged a little given the running time. Indeed, the running time gave opportunity to expands the characters – though one might argue they were no more expanded than a shorter running time would have allowed for – but it does feel too long. Nevertheless I rather enjoyed this and found it amusing. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

Vampire: A Wild Story in Scraps and Colors – review

Author: Hanns Heinz Ewers

Translator: Joe E. Bandel

First Published: 1921 (German Language)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: Vampire is the third book in the Frank Braun trilogy and originally written in the German language by Hanns Heinz Ewers and published in 1921. This new uncensored version is translated into English for the first time by Joe Bandel. The book details Frank Braun's adventures in New York prior to the United States involvement in WWI. It is a love story with a vampiric twist!

The review: Hanns Heinz Ewers wrote three books concerning the character Frank Braun, the first was The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in 1910, the second (and easily most famous) was Alurane in 1911 and this was the third. My thanks go to William who spotted it on Kindle.

I had read Alurane and, whilst some class it as having vampiric overtones, personally I didn’t notice them. It is a strange beast, driven by the mad theories of eugenics and involving the creation of a woman (by artificially inseminating a prostitute with the sperm of a hanged murderer) who is without morals or empathy. Indeed, she is pretty much a sociopath but the book itself is his most famous and has been rendered onto celluloid. However, the eugenics aspect brings me to a point I wish to address.

Like many modern readers, the fact that Ewers was involved in the early incarnation of the Nazi Party makes me uncomfortable with reading his output. That said, it is also a fact that he drew the ire of the Nazis both because he was pro-Jewish – in book Braun’s mistress, Lotte Levi, is Jewish, indeed in this volume he tries to draw the idea of Germany and the Tribes of Israel having a joint manifest destiny – and also because he displayed gay tendencies.

This volume is really rather strange. It is clearly semi-autobiographical as Braun comes to America, by way of South America, as the First World War begins. He is co-opted by fellow Germans as a pro-German speaker to try and raise money for the war effort and keep America out of the war. At one point he tries to encourage Pancho Villa to attack the US in order that the American eye is directed to its own border rather than to Europe. These, albeit romanticised and fictionalised, mirrored Ewers’ actions in real life (until the USA entered the war and he was put into an internment camp).

However the reader becomes more and more aware that Braun has developed vampirism, as an illness. Only Lotte Levi seems aware of this – Braun is himself unaware – and she feeds him blood, a transaction he blanks from memory so we do not see this occur as the book follows his point of view.

As the book progresses, we get connections drawn to a blood cult as old as civilisation, and within the pages we get specific mention of Kali as well as tying in child killing Goddesses of all pantheons. Ewers connects this with Erzsébet Báthory (though mentions no direct vampirism or blood bathing, just murder) and Gilles de Rais and his crimes. The myth of the pelican piercing its own breast to feed its young its blood (or to spill on them to resurrect them) is mentioned. Late on we get a connection with man-tigers and other forms of feline lycanthropy – suggesting that the man-tiger drinks blood.

Braun sleepwalks and, without blood, becomes listless and rather ill. He believes himself to be the victim of a disease, though the doctors can’t track it down. He gets some temporary relief through a variety of drugs, but nothing permanent. Cannibalism is listed, at one point, as being symptomatic of a disease.

The book itself meanders and is, perhaps, less focused than Alurane. However it has interesting vignettes and is an unusal beast worth reading. 6 out of 10.

Vampire Wars – review

Author: Perry Lake

First published: 2014

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: For thousands of years, ancient vampire lords ruled the Night. Their queen, the coldly beautiful, immortal, and all-powerful Lilith, ruled them distantly, ignoring their squabbles over territory and victims. Then came Vlad the Impaler, once history's most bloodthirsty fiend, now reanimated as an undead creature of the Night. Facing the vampire legions of the brutish Vardalekos, the loathsome Viy, the diabolical Jhiang-Shi, the monstrous Mmbyu, the cunning Erlik, and the seductive Nycea, Vlad Dracula seeks out allies, be they undead or lycanthropic or mortal.

You've read Bram Stoker's “Dracula”. Now see how Vlad the Impaler fought and struggled to become Dracula, the King-Vampire. A part of THE LEGEND OF DRACULA trilogy, this book is a collection of twenty short stories about the infamous Count and his undead legions as he strives for the ultimate goal—the throne of the supreme King of the Vampires!

The Review: It’s frustrating when I read a book like Perry Lake’s Vampire Wars. In the first instance I have to say it was filled with fantastic ideas but I also felt it a little lacking in the prose style – though I trust my criticisms are constructive.

The book itself is made up of vignettes, shorts if you will, which cover an expanse of time from Dracula’s resurrection through to the nineteenth century. Being shorts (and the book being one of three, which I am assured can be read in any order) there is some degree of narrative repetition but that is to be expected.

It runs on the ‘Vlad Ţepeş was Count Dracula’ premise (calling the castle “Castelui de Vlad Ţepeş” jarred as the man wouldn’t have referred to himself by the sobriquet Ţepeş) but how did he become a vampire? The beginning of the book suggests he was resurrected by Faust and held as a slave for over a decade until he seduced Gretchen, turned her and became dominant over Faust who was turned also. I liked the idea, and I do like drawing Faust into the vampire realm – a trend (I believe) begun by Paul Féval in the book the Vampire Countess. Then a later story mentioned he was turned in the Scholomance and these separate origin stories appeared to jar until I realised that he was killed post the Scholomance and it was his vampiric form that was brought back by Faust – the full story isn’t within this volume.

The vampires in this are burnt by the sun (mostly) though they can stand some exposure as they age. I liked the fact that they died during the daylight hours. There was an interesting lore around reflections, that the true state of the vampire was seen – Gretchen seeing a decaying corpse, Vlad seeing a ghostly skeleton and the reflection fading to nothing as their true form completely decayed. The invitation rule is deemed not to hold true if the house bears the vampire’s blood (ie if it is held by their mortal family). The ability to transform is not something all vampires can do and also relies on their true form to be sufficiently decayed to allow the dissolution of their body.

Holy items burn but it is not denominational – the Ganges, being a sacred river, would burn a vampire. Vampiric resurrection is achieved by applying human blood (preferably virginal and certainly not undead) to the remains under the light of the full moon. If a victim is preyed upon by a vampire and that vampire is destroyed, an occult law prevents the victim being further predated by another undead for seven years.

As well as these ideas – all of which I was impressed with – there are a cornucopia of vampires from myth, legend, literature and movies. Mostly this extended cast works, some of whom are active characters and others who are mentioned in passing. We get Ruthven, Carmilla, Erzsébet Báthory, Viy and Lilith (who is the vampire Goddess Strigoica, also called Kali). In passing we get such characters as Angelus (from Angel) and Mamuwalde (from Blacula). We get different vampire types mentioned including a vampire horse, vetal, and penanggalen. Most of the cornucopia worked well – though the tying in of Lord of the Rings was perhaps a conceit too far.

However, I said I had issues. Firstly it was within some of the language used. Lake deliberately chose to use thee and thou’s in the dialogue and, to be honest, they didn’t work, were inconsistent with the other language used for dialogue and just felt forced. Better to have avoided them in my opinion. I think the greatest failing of the book was, however, based within the short story style.

It was clear that many of the stories could and, more importantly, should have been expanded on. There was, because of the brevity of the prose, a dearth of descriptive prose and even more so a lack of characterisation. Some characters appeared to only die again in the same vignette, unfortunately still two dimensional. Others died off page (such as Faust). But there was an inability to really care as there was never a connection built with the characters. Of course they are all villains (the vampires are not good guys) but expanding the story and characterisation within the vignettes, indeed expanding the book to several volumes, would have made the reader care. At times I felt I was reading an extended summary rather than the final prose.

This is unfortunate because, as I said, there are fantastic ideas in volume and Perry Lake has a lot of story to tell… I just think he needs to take his time and tell those stories more fully. 5 out of 10 balances great ideas with a need for expansion (and the need for the loss of the cod-archaic dialogue). The homepage with an excerpt is here.

Honourable Mention: the Werewolf and the Yeti

Known, domestically, as La Maldición de la Bestia and directed by Miguel Iglesias in 1975, this is a Paul Naschy vehicle in which he once again dons the persona of Waldemar Daninsky. "Who?" you might ask, if you have not come across Naschy’s body of work before. Think of a Spanish Larry Talbot, though in Waldemar’s case each film outing tends to be a separate incarnation of the character.

This is also one of the films still on the BBFC banned list from the days of the, so called, “video nasties” – clearly because it has never been re-submitted for UK classification as it is mild compared to other Naschy outings (or indeed compared to a large majority of horror films). As a result, your best chance to see it is on a fuzzy, dubbed VHS rip to DVD-R – apologies, therefore, for the quality of the screenshots.

Sylvia and Waldemar

In this flick Waldemar is an anthropologist and Psychologist who knows the region of Tibet and speaks Nepalese (!!!) who is asked by one Professor Lacombe (Josep Castillo Escalona) to accompany him and his daughter Sylvia (Mercedes Molina) on an expedition to capture the yeti. A previous expedition had taken pictures of the beast and got a genuine Yeti scalp from a monastery before they were all killed (by the yeti). Waldermar agrees to go.

Paul Naschy reprisesWaldemar 

When they arrive at Kathmandu they discover that inclement weather will stop them using the pass they wish to take. There is another pass known only by a junkie explorer called Joel (Víctor Israel). A base camp is set up and Waldermar has gone ahead with Joel to scout the pass (a place local Sherpa are unwilling to go as it is cursed). They are overdue and Joel (as a non-character) quickly vanishes down a crevasse). Waldermar finds a cave and goes in looking for shelter. There is a statue within and a couple of women – they tell him the cave is dedicated to a God (I didn’t catch the name) who in turn is dedicated to Kali. He passes out.

fanged corpse

The girls, who have said he will make a good companion and passionate lover, tend to Waldemar, nursing him to health. They also make sure he indulges in some three-way action. When he is recovered (on what happens to be the night of a full moon) he starts checking out the caves. He sees the girls eating human flesh and also finds a locked gate now covers the cave entrance. He gets to a room with a sarcophagus, on which lies the desiccated remains of a fanged creature. One of the girls attacks him, he pulls a dagger (it looked like) from the corpse (which doesn’t regenerate – and in other Waldermar stories even a werewolf would regenerate should the silver blade be removed from its heart) and stabs her – she rapidly decays.

vampire woman

He moves on and is attacked by the second girl and she clearly has fangs. She too decays when stabbed but she manages to get at his chest. Video fuzziness meant that I couldn’t clearly see if she bit him but she leaves the pentagon mark (in Waldermar films the pentagram is replaced by the pentagon) and he is now cursed to be a wolfman. Unusually, this is a film where Waldermar can be cured (rather than just killed) but if you want some werewolf on yeti action I am afraid you will have to wait to the very end of the film.

The vampire women (and I am classing them as such due to the fangs and rapid decay on death, not to mention the penchant for human flesh) are only briefly in the film, hence the honourable mention. The imdb page is here.

Vamp or Not? Livestock

Livestock was a 2009 film directed by Christopher Di Nunzio and one would think, given its place in a collection entitled Extreme Vampires, that it should be clearly a vampire film. If only things were so simple!

The film starts with a passage about a female – the great destroyer – and it was clear that it referred to Kali, though that wasn’t directly stated. However the opening credits do then feature illustrations of Kali as well as an Indian woman and her children and Baphomet. Baphomet threw me in the credits but actually does play a role in the story’s background.

Robert Hines as Edgar

I would have said that the film centres on a man named Victor (Fiore Leo) but the film doesn’t really focus anywhere. Whilst there is a story it is scant and the characters too thinly drawn to claim that any single one is a focal point. There are interesting little moments flying around that might have developed the plot but these aren't really capitalised upon. Victor, however, sits in a car and looks very nervous. The driver, Dimitri (Slava Dorogapulko), exits the car to open the door for Edgar (Robert Hines). Edgar tells Victor what a great job he is doing and that he is to be promoted, he then takes Victor with him to deal with Ted Costa (Lou Fuoco) a man aiming to stand for Senator and who knows too much about the pack or the family (the words seem interchangeable). They kill him and Edgar covers his mouth, I assume as a fang has appeared.

Fiore Leo as Victor

Ok so far so mafia, and the term family fits in with that… however the word pack stands out like a sore thumb. Not a very often used name to describe a group of vampires, more associated with wolves. Anyway, briefly we meet Annabel (Johanna Gorton), Tina (Christina C. Crawford) and Kristen (Stephanie Spry). Annabel has just had a break-up and Kristen is only in this scene. Cut to a man called Anthony (Michael Reardon) who picks up a prostitute called Angel (Leighsa Burgin). Later we see that he has cut her legs up but gets distracted on the phone and she escapes, to be intercepted by Victor who berates Anthony for his mistake.

Annabel and Jerry

A year on and Victor has moved the pack into real estate, Tina works for politicians (who are actually the pack) and is having an affair with Victor. Annabel has started dating Jerry (Matthew Phillion) and they are going on a second date. Anthony is charged with getting the food for the "feast" – ok, let's call it what it is, human flesh. He happens to kidnap Annabel and Jerry (though the women with him, Natalia (Irina Peligrad) and Bella (Aurora Grabill, Raving Maniacs), do seem to have stalked her). They are stuck in the cellar till they are killed (and, in the case of Annabel, raped once dead).

Natalia shows fang

So what are they? As well as being called the pack Victor refers to the organisation as the Order of the 11 Wolves. Anthony and the girls go to watch the full moon – something, whilst associated with vampires in early literature, now very much werewolf orientated. However, when Annabel and Jerry are attacked we see only fangs. There are neck bites as well as flesh eating (but remember, vampires often eat flesh too) and we see no animalistic changes – perhaps a wise decision given the budget. For some reason Natalia’s fang doesn’t retract straight away, probably because she is tired, and hurts a little as a result. Nothing more is expanded on with regards this.

feeding

At the feast Edgar suggests that the Goddess Kali slept with a gypsy and then devoured him. She gave birth to a daughter called Sarah, who was banished and taken with the gypsies to Europe where she was fed blood and flesh and taught the ways of Baphomet. Edgar says they are the descendants of Sarah (suggesting a blood line) but Victor talks of turning humans and presumably that is why Tina is at the feast (we don’t know, the film brings us to that point and ends with her screaming as her friend’s head is part of the feast).

In honesty the only thing we see is vampire orientated; fangs, neck bites and the consumption of flesh and blood. I have to go vamp but suspect that they meant wolf, or a hybrid of the two myths. The imdb page is here.