HollyBlood

No idea why this doesn't have a higher average rating unless it's because Twilight fans can't take a joke. I, personally, LOVED how the "HollyBlood" movie within this movie pokes fun at the Twilight saga. Especially how it loves shirtless men acting all aggro and buff.

The only thing I loved more than that was Javi's dad, Fernando. The recently divorced dad energy was so well played. His encouragement to Javi, after assuming his son is something other than straight after seeing the HollyBlood site on Javi's laptop, is so funny but also a genuinely endearing attempt to connect and show a child that you love them regardless of their sexuality. Jordi Sánchez acting, his expressions and body language, was just perfect for this story and he absolutely stole the movie for me.

The subplots with Diego, the wannabe vampire hunter, and Carmen, Sara's "disabled" friend are so good that going into any more detail about them would spoil how delightful they were. Isa Montalbán played the character of Sara so well and Óscar Casas was priceless as Javi. The weird little gym teacher and ridiculous dance sequence in gym class was hilarious. The real vampire was good, but that's where the movie starts to plateau for me.

The Manu bully storyline was my least favorite, but teen movies of this sort do always have an obnoxious bully so he serves his purpose well. The ending also falls flat for me. With so many moments that made me laugh out loud throughout the movie, I just think there could have been something more to parody how these teen movies typically end instead of having the exact same kind of cheesy happy ending. The "HollyBlood" fight scene from the movie within the movie was priceless, though.

Tonight I decided to watch something silly whilst the football was on. I settled on Hollyblood. I'd had it on my watch list for a while, but kept putting it off because I wasn't in the mood for a silly horror film. It was silly, very very silly. Its a film that has a parody of a film in it, the titular Hollyblood. The scene from that are cringeworth, but also in some parts laugh out loud funny. Its clear from the outset that Hollyblood is a spoof of Twilight, and thankfully it only shows us two scenes (one where the main male characters are shirtless and growling at each other). Getting into the film itself, its about a girl (Sara) who loves Vampires, a new boy (Javi) who likes her and a hapless Vampire hunter. The script itself isn't the best, and the acting is patchy but the scenes between Javi and his Dad are pretty funny, just bordering on cringeworthy.

No pun intended - you have to suspend your disbelief, but you have to get in line with the style of humor this throws at you. Humor is always something that may work for someone and not work for someone else entirely. Especially when it is as silly as it is here.

Add the horror factor into it and you may feel cheated in a way the movie did not intend to cheat. We get a feeling that the main character may be telling stories - and it is quite obvious, but he has the heart in the right place. When he is not lying that is - can you really blame him though? I guess you can - but also again, it is a silly comedy. Something that I don't think is meant to be a bluepring on how to behave. Not to mention that certain things are not even possible (and plausible) in the real world anyway ... sit back, relax and let this wash over you. Otherwise you'll likely be annoyed.

It's a parody of Twilight that arrives about a decade after Twilight stopped being relevant. Since Twilight's already been parodied ad nauseum the basic premise of this movie instantly feels a bit stale. The cast is affable and there are some funny moments, although they're too few and far between to sustain any kind of comedic momentum. (To be fair I watched with English subtitles, which undoubtedly threw off the timing of some of the dialogue-based humor.) The movie doesn't quite manage either the outright silliness or the sharpness its concept demands. Too often it feels like a straight remake of a teen romcom rather than either a zany send-up or a subversive indictment.

Hollyblood is full of clichés from the vampire subgenre and has to deal with actors who are forced to portray characters that they don't fit at all. For example the main character Javi is played by a good looking dude who seems to be the complete opposite of what his character is supposed to be, a shy and nerdy weird dude with no confidence at all. There are other characters that I think were miscast, because the acting in general was not convincing, especially from our main protagonist. The movie also leans a lot towards the comedy genre and while some jokes or characters really worked in that aspect many of the scenes were just straight up unfunny. I personally really enjoyed the scenes with our protagonists father and some scenes with the young Van Helsing wannabe. And in general I thought some of the characters, even though they were really cliched were at points interesting. But overall the movie was more of a teen drama with some comedy aspects than a horror movie and like I said there were many aspects of the movie that didn't work for me and took a lot from the overall enjoyment. Only recommend if you are a hardcore vampire comedy movie fan. [4,3/10]