Deafula

I loved Deafula! This movie was made for Deafies, not the hearing. They do not and cannot understand us! I would rather watch this film (our deaf community film) than any captioned hearing movie. It's old, but for us ... it's a classic. If the hearing don't understand us, they shouldn't discriminate against us with their mocking. The Deaf look at the world in a different way and they should not be ashamed of it. Watching Deafula always makes me feel good, like I belong. When I watch hearing movies, I always feel like I am an outsider watching the hearing world from a distance. I know my Deaf friends feel the same way. True Deaf Classic ... for Deafies Only!!

The story of "Deafula" focuses on Steve Adams,a young theology student who just happens to turn into a vampire from time to time,but has no memory of doing so after the fact.After a chat with a friend who is investigating the bloodless corpses turning up around town,Adams begins to have flashbacks to his childhood-including one scene in which his bloodlust causes him to rip out the throat of his puppy.Having previously believed he had just been an unusually anemic youngster and the son of a simple minister these memories prompt Adams to investigate his past;he finds that he is actually the son of Count Dracula himself."Deafula" is a perfect cure for insomnia.It's silly and pretentious flick with plenty of psychotronic weirdness.The special effects are bad and the action moves at snail's pace.4 deafulas out of 10.

Diagnosed with a rare disease when born, Steve Adams (Peter Wolf) requires monthly blood transfusions from his father Reverand Adams (James Randall); failing that, he transforms into the vampire Deafula, for Steve's real father is none other than Count Dracula!

Produced for deaf and hard of hearing audiences, Deafula's cast uses sign language throughout (with a voiceover for those of us who don't understand sign language); this makes it an undeniably unique viewing experience, but one that I found extremely tedious, the whole movie being cheap and amateurishly made, with a terrible script, crap acting, a leaden pace, an embarrassingly naff vampire (that fake nose!), and long periods of total silence.

Deaf viewers may appreciate the effort made, but I imagine most people will struggle to stay awake. For me, this ranks up there with William Shatner's Incubus (which is entirely in Esperanto) as one of the strangest yet most boring horror oddities.

Good film that was done in sign, make-up was a downfall to the movie but understandig that this was the directors first film on his own. I can understand some of the mistakes. Visually the movie is shot in black and white giving this picture a classic look. For a fist time film, I have to give this picture a 10 for sheer attempt at something new, since this is the first film ever shot in american sign. The film from I understand is in the New York Film Institute. They reconized this picture as do most of the hearing-impaired culture as the first film in american sign, try to find a copy at SignScopePictures.com, I heard that a 30th annivesary ed. will be comming out later this year or next year.

I had zero expectations when viewing this film however I was quite amused throughout. The deaths throughout this film were cheesy however I really enjoyed watching this. Definitely meant for those more immersed in the Deaf community though!