Bloodsucking Bastards

Bloodsucking Bastards is a "B" blood type vampire movie. That's not a bad thing. This film has enough comedic and acting bite to actually represent a worthwhile watch.

The storyline is utterly predictable but that's no shortcoming as there are enough lightweight laugh's and vampire antics, to keep the story rolling along. Combine this with reasonable acting and you have a winner here. Provided, of course, you accept this films "B" credentials and associated budget.

If you're in the mood for some vampire fun you could do a lot worse than this title. My advice watch it alongside polished Canadian comedic vamp flick, "Suck", for a evenings chuckle worthy vampire fun. Six out of ten from me.

Opening credits can really set the tone for the movie. In this case, Bloodsucking Bastards nails it with the opening credits.

Evan (Fran Kranz, Marty in Cabin in the Woods) is an overworked employee, freshly dumped, and just got passed on a promotion. Life isn't going well for him, but it's about to get worse (and more bloody). Turns out that the homie (nemesis Max) that got the promotion? Vampire. Him and his bestie Tim (Joey Kern, hot guy from Cabin Fever) are now up against an office full of vampires.

We start off with some off-screen deaths before jumping into the gore. Once it gets rocking, it doesn't stop until the end.

The cubicle-based bro banter in this is heavy, but it leans on the entertaining and comedic side rather than the annoying side. You can tell the comedic inspiration was derived from Office Space. For a B horror with a low budget - there's a good cast and crew behind it. You can tell the budget from the low quality camera work, but the actors slip into their roles with ease and set the tone well. The range of personalities in the cast made for great chemistry.

It hits the mark as far as horror comedies go. The underlying metaphor of a soul-sucking office environment vs. Blood-sucking vampires is clear as day. Worth grabbing a beer and having a free watch (with commercials, thanks a lot Freevee).

Rating: Bro banter: 5/10 First half: 4/10 Kelly Clarkson: 7/10 Janitor vampire: 8/10 Exploding vampires: 7/10 Frank the security officer: 10/10 Overall rating: 6/10.

Most of the humor in the film is coming from the office dynamics in a typical cubicled corporate office. I don't know if this is still current or not (I mean, it's all about open space now, right?) but it is still funny.

Then there are vampires, which are presented in a really refreshing way. In a way it is a full circle thing: vampires, as a metaphor for noblemen sucking the blood of the working people, now updated for the corporate world which just replaced finery with expensive suits.

The acting is not stellar, but it doesn't have to be. Where the movie excels is the script, with the little funny puns and interesting dialogue. While not perfect, it was mighty entertaining.

The story of Evan Sanders (Fran Kranz), a dutiful and overworked employee stuck at a soul-killing corporation with his beautiful co-worker and girlfriend Amanda (Emma Fitzpatrick) and his slacker best friend Tim (Joey Kern). Evan's world begins to crumble when Amanda dumps him and his boss Ted (Joel Murray) hands his coveted promotion to his nemesis Max (Pedro Pascal).

The film is marketed as a mix between "Office Space" and "Shaun of the Dead". Individually, these are some high bars, and together may be impossible to match. But the comparison is fair. "Office Space" definitely seems to have been an influence. And while this may not become the cult classic of either of those two, it excels far better than most horror comedies ever manage to.

"Horror comedy" as a genre (or subgenre) is more challenging than it sounds. Some in recent years have been great, including "Tucker and Dale Versus Evil" and the aforementioned "Shaun". Many more fail. "Brutal Massacre", for example, was chock full of horror icons and tried to be a good comedy, but ends up rather flat, ultimately failing in both horror and comedy categories. "Bloodsucking B..." gets the balance right. Some of it is downright funny, and there is more blood and gore here than... well, almost any movie ever.

The comedy also works on multiple levels. Most of it is obvious, but there are enough references to keep you finding more hidden gems. Talking of "calling in sick to see a baseball game" is clearly a reference to "Ferris Bueller". But is the name Max a reference to "Lost Boys"? Probably, but maybe not.

Definitely worth a watch. Even if you do not buy a copy, at least rent it or check it out on demand.

Bloodsucking Bastards is a fun ride, has some nice gore and some actual laugh out loud scenes. The cast was good for the most part and helped keep the tone of the movie nice and light. There were a few characters on the annoying side but not enough to fully pull the movie down. One of my main complaints would be that things do take a while to truly get going, but at least there was some decent humor to keep things entertaining.

This was a nice surprising treat, I really like horror comedies but so many of them seem to fall flat. "Bloodsucking Bastards" isn't perfect and some of the humor was a little too dry but it definitely did a good job of being fun and not really taking itself seriously at all.

6.5/10