I first heard of the Craig Railsback (Dark Classics) directed short comedy horror film Down and Out in Vampire Hills back in September of last year. Written by Dr. Heather Joseph-Witham (Vampires in the Big Easy), this brings vampires to a modern setting. While this sometimes felt a little aimless, the gentle humor and cheery world made for an entertaining short.
Penelope (Dawna Lee Heising - Garden Party Massacre, Ballet of Blood) is an ancient vampire who in recent years has fallen on hard times. Now living out of a tent in Huntington Beach California, with her human manservant Harold (Ken May - Night of the B*stard, Clown Motel 2), they try to come up with ways to make money. Penelope is a vampire however, and so whatever she tries her hand in usually results in mayhem and murder, however unintentional that may be.
There was a feel of What We Do in the Shadows to this short film, what with the immortal protagonist trying to survive in a modern world not built for her. She made for a fun character, with Lee Heising having good chemistry with May, an important factor as they are the focus of much of the film. I can't say that I found this particularly amusing, yet I didn't dislike the humour either. Jokes about sex and bodily functions are my least favourite type of humour, and so anything that doesn't resort to that is ok in my book. There are some amusing scenes here, particularly the more gore soaked ones that are played for laughs. Despite a body count, there wasn't a feeling a malice here, the world is bright and cheerful, helped by the nice soundtrack that keeps things feeling jolly. This is an indie film, so some of the effects aren't amazing, yet it has consistency to the filmmaking that made this charming. My biggest complaint was the pacing of the story, it sometimes felt aimless with where it was heading. The plot point of the two main leads having to do various odd-jobs to get by was perfectly fine, it was just that the film felt a bit meandering in how it told this story.
At twenty two minutes in length, Down and Out in Vampire Hills had plenty of variation, even if it did sometimes feel like a series of skits rather than one large story. Special mention goes to the vampire props that Penelope had. It was very simple, red contact lenses and vampire fangs, yet it was also very effective, making the character pop more on screen than if it had been more understated. With not an unlikeable character to be found, and plenty of fun moments (such as an encounter with a vampire hunter), I enjoyed watching this, a good soundtrack, and a chilled feel combined to make a feel-good, if slightly unpolished low budget comedy horror.
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