So we have to talk politics when discussing this movie, because the movie certainly wants to talk about it. This movie deliberately takes swipes at more right wing social political attitudes. So even before discussing the quality of the movie you have to decide if this will be a problem for you. This movie IS preachy, and can be accused of having hard line left leaning attitudes, with little counter balance . For the interests of transparency my political stand is centre right . So yes i did roll my eyes a few times in this movie (not as much as main star Nicole Maines who literally rolls eyes back in every other shot). But i'm not going to critique a political opinion that isn't one i share. Out side of the political side of things, i still somewhat enjoyed the movie.
In actual fact this movie i'd say this movie is almost a spiritual successor to the great 80's movie the lost boys. Im not saying the movie plays like that. But the lost boys were all about the outsider attitude and living to their own rules, and this movie succeeds in doing this, but for a very different time period with a different outsider mindset . In addition Diana Hopper's Duke (the main leader vampire) if effortlessly cool and leads the gang just like David did in the Lost boys. She is alot of fun to watch. The effects are pretty good with some decent gore effects & kill scenes.
What doesn't work. Nicole Maines acting is pretty poor , as mentioned , count how many times the character rolls back their eyes in this movie. If it were a drinking game you'd die of alcohol poisoning . The character comes across as petulant, unlikable and selfish (the later, the character's own brother calls them out on) I personally think this is more stunt casting as they are a real transgender person , rather than acting ability. Also the 'Vlad' character is somewhat miscast, and why not just call the name Dracula as it's in the public domain . The rest of the vampire gang either gets little , or no character development . The movie is also unwilling to fully pull the trigger on it's own political posturing . The word transgender , never comes up and it's amusing watching characters talk around it without actually saying it. It feels like the movie doesn't have the strength of it's own convictions , and the whole mantra of the vampires only turning females , then the the fact they turn a trans person is simply waved away , in what could have been an interesting dramatic set of circumstances. As i recall there was a similar set up in Supergirl TV show that also stars Nicole Maines. I do think this movie deliberately tries to antagonize right leaning internet folk, as the vampires literally state they hunt not criminals or anything like that , but internet trolls and the types who make right leaning content om social media. This to me seemed very hypocritical and out of all the social political shenanigans this was the thing that maybe bugged me , as it's very typical of 'cancel culture' and very un progressive ironically. I feel the film makers a making a point to try and ruffle feathers to create a 'controversial marketing buzz' for this movie.
All that being said, you can still have some fun with this decently paced , well shot vampire flick with decent effects . But most people will have to decide if the political element is something you can watch or not
Review of Bit
