Bloody Johann – review

Director: Jakub Krumpoch

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

The connection between Faust and vampires is one that rears its head occasionally – with the earliest examples I can think of being 1856 (possible 1855) when Paul Féval connected Goethe’s volume to vampires in The Vampire Countess. This Czech film features the character Faust (Marek Holý) as an antagonist and, as we will see, a master of vampires and zombies.

The film starts with intertitles talking about the deal between Faust and Mephistopheles – who, in this, prefers to go by Mefisto (Jan Dolanský). It tells of how he controls Markéta – a note that she is named Margaret in the English subs I saw, is more often called Marguerite, and is not in Goethe’s story, even though it is mentioned in the film as a biography. Faust slaughtered her family and, in revenge, she murdered their child Helena (Martina Babisova) by drowning her. Markéta did not know Mefisto saved the child and both women were made immortal. There is a prophecy that Mefisto will return.

Martina Babisova as Helena

As the film proper starts we don’t see a winged demon, rather we see a blur where it should be. A taxi driver is phoning home, gets back in his cab and that something attacks him and possesses him – Mefisto has returned. Elsewhere Helena is in a bath, she dresses, puts on makeup and leaves her home – she is a skater girl. An old lady shops, we soon discover she is Markéta (Vera Janku), the local convenience store owner (Duy Anh Tran) helps her and she makes a crack about him not knowing how old she really is. We see, once she gets home, that she has telekinetic powers.

Faust's eyes

A teacher, Jana (Jana Bernásková), is called by her doctor husband, Martin (Roman Zach), as she takes kids to the Faust house. Helena catches up, she’s enrolled as a student. In the house they discuss Faust and Goethe’s novel when Helena starts hearing Mefisto whispering to her. She reaches out to a wall and her hand comes aways bloodied and her blood, that of Faust, releases the magician with an explosion. She (immortal) is unharmed, the class are dead and Jana is knocked down and dazed. Helena runs. The naked Faust, with eyes turned black, lifts Jana and kisses her, leaving her lips bloodied and telling her that she will live on blood. She leaves the house dazed and Martin intercepts her (the House is close to the hospital).

vampires

So, the film then follows Jana as she turns, tracking Helena and Markéta until they meet, and chronicling Faust's antics. Faust steals clothes from youths – ala the Terminator but the film doesn’t show us what he does to them – and then goes into a strip club/brothel with two prostitutes, turns them with a kiss and sets them against the employees and customers. All those they kill become what can only be described as zombies with eye shine who are puppeted by Faust. He builds an army and is found by Jana – after she murders a neighbour, his baby and stabs Martin in the leg.

Markéta's gills

Before they accidentally meet, Helena and Markéta both feed – as it turns out they are both energy vampires. Helena kills a drunk woman and Markéta a girl who robs the convenience store. The vampirism draws the victim's energy/life-force out and they absorb it through gills on their necks. The act makes Markéta younger – played by Lenka Vlasáková – though not Helena; the inference being that the daughter feeds more regularly. Faust’s goal is to kill Markéta for killing their daughter (he is unaware that Helena was saved) and then let lose an undead plague on the city (apparently as he has done before).

feed

The film works but it does have issues. Sometimes it feels like it is being prudish – not showing what Faust did to get his clothes, and all the bar attacks, after the attack on the brothel, are off screen. At others it becomes fairly gratuitous – some of the scenes of the attack in the brothel spring to mind. It seems to not make up its mind. Faust’s wish to attack the city with the undead is not explained, neither is Mefisto’s desire to have him return beyond the chaos he sows. The Jana and Martin section doesn’t overly have a satisfactory denouement. That said it was still watchable, 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Anunnaki The fallen of the sky – review

Directors: Joan Frank Charansonnet & Rubén Vilchez

Release date: 2018

Contains spoilers

I was contacted by a blog reader, some time ago, to suggest I look at this Spanish film, and I am going to have to beg forgiveness but I can’t remember who it was that gave me the tip – but thank you.

The Anunnaki were Gods described in early Sumerian texts but they also have become a focus for some conspiracy theories, with them offering their name to creatures controlling the world from a shadow government and being alien colonisers (ala Erich von Däniken’s crackpot, ‘God was an Astronaut’, theories). This is what they are in this.

Nibiru

So the opening of the film suggests they came from Nibiru (an invented planet tied into conspiracy and thought to be the cause of the apocalyptic catastrophe of 2003… wait... that didn’t happen, of course) and enslaved mankind as they used earth for resource. It suggests they merged human and Anunnaki DNA and eventually left, though some stayed. Apparently they stayed without their advanced technology (or ability to replicate it) as we never see them with sci-fi gubbins. They feed on human blood and suffering (so the later would indicate energy vampirism).

the Anunnaki anachronism

The film then moves to the 13th Century and a group of Anunnaki, led by Uruk, are in a chapel about to sacrifice a human woman. A group of knights are on their way to attack the monsters. The Anunnaki are able to kill her, gather her blood and drink it. The knights break in and there is a fight. Two things to note. Firstly, Uruk is able to “force push” the humans – this is an innate ability and not derived from tech. Secondly, he is wearing a modern leather jacket over a leather Brando jacket – as all the other outfits seem to replicate the clothes of the period it seems like the costume designers wanted to treat obviously store bought modern clothing as his and it looks awfully anachronistic.

Claudia taken

We then move to the modern day and we get a very confused plot around the sacrifice of the chosen one. They chose one victim, a model called Victoria, but soon swap her for a girl (who may or may not be her sister, that was unclear as I watched) called Claudia. All the clans have to agree but Uruk wants to sacrifice Claudia as she is a hybrid (her father was Uruk’s brother, who was executed for fraternising with a human). Claudia is sure people are following her but the police don’t believe her – until one detective does.

force push

Honestly, it’s a big old mess in a narrative sense and one never gets the feeling that the Anunnaki are in control of anything and one questions why they are against a hybrid if they were splicing the two species' DNA back whenever. Claudia is said to be the first human (or new species) who can see the fourth dimension (again, whatever that means) and can force push people also, she eventually discovers. There is another hybrid, but he is a sickly, green skinned creature who is kept locked up.

Uruk

The Anunnaki eyes can go red (and seems to be a telepathic link with each other, Claudia is confirmed as a hybrid when they cause her eyes to do the same), they can sprout fangs, appear to be extremely long lived and, as well as blood, like to eat meal worms and other creepy crawlies. They have horizontal slit eyes that they can cause to look like human round pupils. They, for supposed rulers of the world, all seem to congregate in one Spanish city and not rule very much.

Really, there isn’t much to go into with this, the film really is a bit of a mess. 2.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Honourable Mention: The Freakshow Apocalypse: The Unholy Sideshow

From director Matthew Broomfield this 2007 film is described as the first two parts in a four-part miniseries. I can’t spot the denouement film and so hope it was never done because this is really quite a bad film. The basic story is that there is a secret society, the Order of Mystery, who used necromancy to extend their lives and this practice opened doorways that they had to close every few centuries with ritual sacrifice.

There is also a circus troupe (the extreme circus stuff, all played, from what I can tell, by actual performers) called the Unholy Sideshow who want to get into the Order but this is being blocked because their magic using member is in a feud with an Order member.

biting a wrist

They do a show, kidnap most of the audience and this then leads us into torture porn territory. One of the audience members not kidnapped is down to be the sacrifice. The film’s intertitles suggest that they absorb the victims’ life force – which could be said to be energy vampirism. However the reason for the mention is a member of the Order of Mystery who has fangs, bites a wrist, sucks the blood and then spits it into a goblet for the order to drink from. He is our vampire, but his appearance is fleeting (including one when the zombie apocalypse has started and we see him bite another wrist). Avoid.

The imdb page is here.

On Demand @ Amazon US

On Demand @ Amazon UK

American Cannibals – review

Directors: C.D. Ruiz3 & John Rainwaters

Release date: 2021

Contains spoilers

This was an odd one as the conceit of a documentary crew making a film about vampires made one think it would be a found footage type film but it certainly wasn’t (no bad thing, at all, to be fair). Rather it was a film that concentrated on the crew as the primary protagonists.

The DVD starts off with a word from the actual filmmakers who suggest that many of the actors involved are members of the Rocky Mountain vampire family – meaning that many of the vampires in film are people who identify, or present, as vampires. One then struggles to see why they would make the film (baring promoting the fantasy they subscribe to) as the film runs on the idea that the documentary crew are investigating self-identified vampires (who they refer to as cannibals through film) but they really are murderous blood-drinking, flesh-eating vampires. The film actually carries a legend that suggests it is based on actual events (err… no). Indeed, an intertitle covers a tad of detail about Richard Trenton Chase (a serial killer known as the Vampire of Sacramento) as well as highlighting the number of people in the States who identify as vampires and then some suggestion that they might not just take willing donors.

demonic faces

So, the crew is made up of Chris (Donald Martin), who seems to be in charge, Mark (Michael Vincent Miceli), who is on cameras and also the second-in-command, Rick (Stephan Hampton-Valle) who is the sound engineer and finally Jessica (Masha Pichugina), who is Rick’s girlfriend and is involved somehow (her role was never clear). As the film starts, Mark is looking over footage they have filmed of an interview of a couple who claim to be energy vampires (blood, they say, is so old school). They claim they are feeding off the crew but no one would notice unless they pushed too hard… Rick suddenly collapses. As Mark reviews the footage, he sees a glitch (and Chris writes it off as such) that seems to (for a split second) distort their faces to something demonic just as Rick stumbles.

interviewing

At Rick and Jessica’s apartment two more interviewees are waiting to be filmed. Only Mark and Jessica are there and they are waiting for Chris and Rick. We discover that the crew put out adverts for interviewees but few have taken up the offer. The two mention they have a meeting once a month (the next day, coincidentally) at a place referred to as “the Cathedral” which is a bit of a vampire party, with bloodletting and a mock sacrifice. In response they are asked if anyone ever gets hurt and they mention attendees signing waivers. They suggest they might be able to get the crew an invite.

vox pop interview

At this point things get weird – they are followed by a sinister homeless guy, their footage is hacked and deleted from three separate servers, they can’t get hold of the pair (and their number seems to be out of service) and mysterious messages come to warn them off their film. With no footage they do some vox pops with people through the day and then decide to go and get footage of the Goth kids at another venue but change their minds and sneak into the Cathedral – and, of course, they are then in danger…

the crew

The trouble is, the acting isn’t great and the photography often awful, becoming lost within darkness in many scenes. With that said I did think Masha Pichugina displayed a presence, however in general I didn’t buy the documentary crew. I do recognise, however, that the film was done on a micro-budget. Certain lines in the dialogue get repeated multiple times, which is simply lazy writing and/or editing, and the scenario doesn’t feel right, with too much unanswered (suggestions that the vampires are able to hack a computer and three servers should have had more of an explanation – is a member of the ‘family’ a hacker, for instance – but then we get a warning message sent on the hacked computer but its unplugged, suggesting it is actually a supernatural intervention).

finger food

The reason for the vampires’ apparent cooperation and then blatant murder and consumption of people, in the middle of a city, made little sense. Are they supernatural – the film would suggest so. However, it wasn’t clear why the people (as in the actors) who identify as vampires in real life and who regularly state being a vampire is not like the movies, would want to then make a film that suggests that they are supernatural vampires, and murderers, and cannibals. It would seem a mixed message, at best, and counter-productive. This struggled, to be honest. 3 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Star Trek the Animated Series: The Lorelei Signal (s1e4) – review

Director: Hal Sutherland

First Aired: 1973

Contains spoilers

Star Trek the Animated Series was an Emmy award winning animation series that aired between 1973 and 1974 and was based on the original Star Trek series. More than that it featured the voice talents of many of the original actors. It seems a shame, therefore, that it was removed from Star Trek cannon but it is still fun to watch despite the fact that the animation is severely dated and the voice acting seems a tad stilted at times. It is actually the stories that make this worthwhile, of course.

This episode was the fourth of the first season and riffs upon the Siren myth (or, more accurately, the Rhine Maidens as Loreley was one of their number). It starts with the Enterprise in a mysterious sector of space where, according to talks between the Federation, the Romulans and the Klingons, several spaceships have mysteriously vanished. Indeed a ship disappears once every 27 years and the anniversary is upon them.

Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura

They receive a signal and, on playing it, Kirk (William Shatner, Incubus) and the other male members of the crew seem somewhat entranced, describing it as calling to them, though the unaffected Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols, Spider-Man (1997)) detects no such messaging within it. She eventually asks Nurse Chapel (Majel Barrett) to observe the male crew.

'Bones' aging

When they get to the source of the signal, however, Kirk arranges an all-male away party – including himself, Spock (Leonard Nimoy, Night Gallery: Death on a Barge), Bones (DeForest Kelley) and Lt. Carver (James Doohan). They are entranced by the all-female aliens they meet (who lie and tell them the males are in another compound) but feel weak and soon we see them begin to age rapidly.

all female security detail

What I found great about this episode was Lt. Uhura taking command of the Enterprise, putting female security details on the transporters (to prevent any other male crew member beaming to the planet) and leading a female security detail down to rescue the men. It spoke of a capability in the character and of her place within the rank structure, both of which should have been more widely addressed in the physical series. Of course, this episode was written and filmed at a point where gender was invariably portrayed as binary – a view that the Star Trek universe has rightly corrected in its latest TV/Stream incarnation.

one of the aliens

What they discover is that the female aliens, long before, had come to the planet as part of a colonising effort when their own world started to die. What they hadn’t realised was that the planet drained life from humanoid creatures (making the land itself vampiric). The men it drained but the women developed a glandular secretion that allowed them to both manipulate men and drain them of their energy (Bones reckons that they are aging 10 years per day). It has made them immortal, but also infertile, and they have to lure more men every 27 years.

So, alien energy vampires (and a vampiric planet) and a welcome spotlight on Lt. Uhura. I enjoyed this episode. 6.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK

Vamp or Not? Short Night of Glass Dolls

This was the 1971 directorial debut for Aldo Lado, known here for his sci-fi flick the Humanoid, and is a gaillo styled film set in Prague. It came to my attention as I read Vampires in Italian Cinema, 1956-1975 when it was mentioned as 1 of 6 Italian films following Franco’s Count Dracula, which used (transnational) co-production agreements to cushion themselves financially but also “tapped into the vampire mythology”. Five of these have been previously covered here.

As you can tell – as this is a ‘Vamp or Not?’ - things are not as clear cut with this film. I may have been tempted to run with a ‘Use of Tropes’ article but I think that strays beyond the (knowing) use of tropes and flirts with that line.

Moore in the park

The film starts, after a sweeping city shot, in a park. A worker sweeps rubbish as a crow hops around. It eventually comes across a rather dead looking individual, who we’ll soon discover is American journalist Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel). He is taken to hospital and pronounced dead when examined on arrival. Yet we hear Moore’s thoughts, he is still alive but trapped in a catatonic state (and not producing normal life signs as he is later examined, though not cooling as expected and without rigor mortis). The film is then him trying to remember what has happened to him as his body tries to awaken before anything (such as an autopsy) occurs.

Jean Sorel as Moore

So, we get the tale of him and his girlfriend Mira (Barbara Bach, the Humanoid), who he meets at the train station. She brings him a gift of a display of butterflies (I’ll come back to them) and they spend a montage of time together. He is due to move to London in a few weeks and wants her to come with – but, of course, they are in the then Communist Czechoslovakia. He suggests he knows someone well connected who can ease her movement out of the country and takes her to a party of luminaries.

Mira's body

At the party he bumps into an old Doctor friend (Relja Basic), also his reporter colleagues Jacques (Mario Adorf) and Jessica (Ingrid Thulin, Hour of the Wolf) are there. Jacques is creeping around with a rich woman (Michaela Martin), who seems out of it, and Jessica and Moore may have had a past relationship, but she certainly is jealous of Mira now. Mira herself finds herself surrounded by creepy old blokes. Moore takes her home but gets a call from Jacques in the night, a story has broken. It is a false alarm but when he gets back to his apartment Mira is gone, though all her things and papers are there.

the 1%

So Moore and his friends are warned off investigating by the police, but he does anyway and starts looking into other young women who have vanished never to be seen again and here we go to some massive spoilers… The path leads him to a secret society of elite old people who are responsible for the girls disappearances – all of this coming out of a place called Klub99 (which we discover has branches across the world) This is a place developed to maintain the power of those in charge (in today’s parlance, the 1%) but it is the hint of how they do so that interests us.

the high priest

There is an occult element to this and we see a ritual, with a naked young woman on a table as the elderly elite rut around her in an orgy. The implication is they survive off their energy – we do not see an actual sacrifice, but assume that this does involve sacrificing both the young in these rituals and also on the field of battle – keeping those below them in their place. In many way these are Voltaire’s vampires, the “stock-jobbers, brokers, and men of business, who sucked the blood of the people in broad daylight; but they were not dead, though corrupted. These true suckers lived not in cemeteries, but in very agreeable palaces.” (1764). The high priest (Fabijan Sovagovic) wears a hat that could be said to have bat wings and declares, “We need the young to stay alive.”

grey like the dead

I mentioned the butterflies and Mira describes them as creatures that cannot fly, despite their beautiful wings, but hop from spot to spot. This is, of course, describing the beautiful youth pinned and controlled by the elite. However (although likely a coincidence) the connection between vampire and butterfly is a known trope, with the butterfly or moth being a physical manifestation of the vampire’s soul. What is clear is that when we see the elite watching a chamber orchestra in Klub99 the audience do look like the living dead, many with their faces deliberately greyed.

framing Moore

So… things like the greying of the faces may have just been playing with tropes and the question is… do the elite act as vampires, feeding on the young. Had we seen a blood sacrifice this would have been easier to call – we do not, but that there is one can be assumed to sit within the text. The fact that Mira is dead, might point to that, or it might be the murder of a trafficked young woman who would not play along – and her body later used to try and frame Moore. However it really does feel like Lado was hooking into the myth and portraying the vampires of Voltaire (with a touch of occult shenanigans for good measure).

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On Blu-Ray @ Amazon UK