This
sequel to the previous horror anthology
After Midnight sets around a funeral home
to the death of a woman named Andrea Dean
Van Scoyoc as the Reaper (Joel D.
Wynkoop) takes her book and tells some
creepy tales from his cauldron of evil
with his mistress on some real life evil
events.
First
up is the chapter titled The
Bronze Princess about a
man named Master Tolon (Warren Madden)
who tells a tale about vampires and
people taking over their land to rid them
but a bronze princess (Nancy Feliciano)
that Tolon was looking for was sent miles
away as he goes on a search for her by
trying to sense in his vision if she is
okay and safe from the head vampire.
Next
up is I Would Love to be
a Vampire of a woman
named Jenny (Laura Giglio) who is
fascinated at becoming a vampiress to
impress her boyfriend Jake (Johnny
Monotone) as all he thinks about is
sleeping with her and tries to find a way
if there are vampires. Finally she gets
her wish and gives her boyfriend the time
of his life.
In the
third chapter titled Tainted
Blood we have a
troubled man named Ray (Robert J. Olin)
who almost attempts suicide after he
claims that he was just bitten by a
vampire as he hates the lifestyle of
leading one but his wife Melinda (Toni
Draggon) who is a vampiress tries to
support him as much as she can.
However, he lied about being bitten as he
has tainted blood on the side of his neck
and is a secret agent who plans to
destroy vampires.
The
fourth one Kill Her
Arnold is about a
mentally ill man named Arnold who says he
has voices in his head and the voices
tell him to kill his girlfriend Debbie
and tells her she's a vampiress and will
breed with other people so that vampires
will take over the world unloess he puts
an end to her.
We somewhat have a funny beginning titled Andreas Revenge involving a funeral home as things looked campy by all the moments that we see here as well as a cute shot on a cat sitting on one of the chairs as I had to laugh when I saw this.
Plus we have the character on the wraparound story whom is the Reaper looking like a drunk and pushing the chair of the cat to get off which was also funny to watch but was annoying on how he was reacting to stuff.
Interesting look on the corpse though as well as the speech about this persons memorial but alot of cheesiness going on as well as the Reaper running outside and is feeling trapped with a dog growl in which this looked corny to watch.
Then we get into the wraparound story with the Reaper as well as #1
Andrea Fan having a discussion on a story as well as what looked like a cauldron with dry ice as this looked low budget and the surroundings which was like someone doing it in a rec room but it looked fitting for the budget that this one carried. It was fun to watch for an Up All Night type of film to watch.
The first
chapter The Bronze Princess just shows mainly a person almost telling
a documentary story on the history of
vampires and a princess and it's a total
bore as it looks very improv with no
story idea. Not only that it was used on
a very old home video camera. It's totally
not a closed set when you watch this chapter and the camera shots are
terrible too. However some odd moments when the title character Master Tolon senses stuff as he spots a lustful woman and then a scene with a vampire creeping up in a shower but of course his fangs was a cheap Halloween outfit and looked like they were falling off too.
The
second chapter I Would Love to be
a Vampire improves much much
better as you know these were short films
made during different times when they had
more money but not alot. There's nice moments during a dream
sequence with the character Jenny running in the woods and a reaper vampire
coming after her.
There's a moment with Jenny in the shower and exposing her fangs as they were you guessed it a cheap costume and could tell these one's were ready to fall off too.
Good moments with her watching TV and we spot a black and white news report on vampires as this looked interesting to watch the arguments on all of this.
A corny moment with someone coming in and biting her neck when she's sleeping always hoping she would turn into one as this was quite silly to watch.
Also a moment when she tempts her boyfriend Jake to come to the couch with her and a good shot on her about to bite his neck even if the vampire teeth were phony looking.
This one was one of my favourite chapters as it's very clever and imaginative
which makes up for the bad quality of the
scenes. A nice one for a fun Halloween
night.
The third
chapter Tainted Blood is ultimate favourite as it's romantic yet
shocking and sad and touching in the end. The two main characters Ray and Melinda looked quite romantic with a good lustful sequence in the story.
We do have an impressive beginning in the story with Ray about to commit suicide but Melinda tries to talk to him as this looked good and dramatic to watch. Yet you can tell the bridge where he threatens to jump is near shallow water.
We have an effective moment when he insists towards her to turn him into a vampire which looked strong when he hesitates. Also a good moment when he sinks her teeth into him as this worked in well. The battle between them looked great too after she found out what will happen to her.
Then we have the ending scene which looked sad when she is dying and him talking to her as well as this looked effective to watch. Makes you want to cry for him betraying her.
The last
one Kill Her Arnold was
very annoying yet the writing has all
sorts of twists and turns to it which
you wonder what's going to happen but
again you can't wait for it to happen as
the plot it's irritating. It was supposed to look challenging while watching this but it misses by a longshot. It's incredibly hokey between the characters Arnold
and Debbie as a married couple and freaky things happening. Ho hum.
But the hallucination scene's look
amusing and twisted. There's some interesting hallucination sequences with others telling him to kill his wife. There's one scene that borrows heavily from the Psycho shower scene. Also we have creatures in various moments as you can tell that they are silly Halloween costumes. But again this film lacks a decent budget so they had to get what was in their price range.
The ending was really lame brained and couldn't wait till it came to an end and stuff being unravelled. This scene was terribly written.
Bottom Line: When I
first watched this film I knew it was
made on nothing and I was right as the
wraparound story was irritating yet looks
like a nice show to watch late quiet
night when you have nothing better to
watch. Otherwise it's pretty bland folks. However it was the best budget of the Midnight trilogy anthologies. Also independently released on a limited DVD from a former site.
The
acting in the wraparound story is bloody
awful as narrator Joel
D. Wynkoop (The Reaper) is very
annoying and tiresome introducing each
chapter. However he can look fun if you're in the mood for a trashy flick with a group of friends or wanting to watch something late at night for kicks. He's over the top I will tell you that.
It gets worst with the
first chapter The Bronze Princess performed by lead actor Warren
Madden (Master Tolon) whom is not at all convincing
at playing a master as I nearly threw up. He adds a seriousness to his role which is the only thing that I will give him credit for. Otherwise he was wooden all the way through and a born amateur.
The acting picks up with
the second one I Would Love to be
a Vampire as we have a descent
performance by Laura Giglio (Jenny) with
her obsessions at wanting to become a
vampiress. Her attitude for being lustrous looked okay too for it's no budget but it's very watchable. She is silly as always but this looked fun to watch offering a ton of spunk into all that she did here. Had the right looks for her part as someone who loves to party or get into the adventure of things.
Actor Johnny Monotone (Jake) who plays
her boyfriend however lacks with his
character. He was stiff in everything that he did but at times seems to try and pick up some energy. Yet nothing to brag about as he slumps later on. He doesn't cut it at all.
We have a cameo by former R&R member on this
site Owen Keehnen as a news
reporter and dressed well for it. He does his lines very sharply and knew on how to get discouraged in the argmentive scene's. Focused well onto everything and deserves a good pat on the back.
The third one has the best
acting in this anthology Tainted Blood as we have a solid and serious performance Robert J. Olin (Ray) as he shows a convincing depressed type of vibe and his serious speaking while talking to soemone else and showing a good focus within all of this. Plus he does well getting into a happy and romantic mode. Shows a great convincing attitude when he insists on being a vampire. Plus does a good betrayed type of behavior near the end of his performance showing a perfect cruel seriousness. He was a great character actor.
Toni Draggon (Melinda) got into character a great deal as well and trying to be convincing and helping her fellow actor not to take his life and coming across as a convincing problem solver. Adds a nice charm and romantic type into her part as well as delivering it powerfully. Plus was good at trying to talk someone out of being a vampire adding a good concerned attitude. Does well with her motives when about to bite someone on the neck. Plus offers a great viciousness when attacking as she was incredibly powerful while doing all of this. Plus does well choking out her words of upsetness when she is slwoly dying. Yes she studied her role inside and out.
Now the
last one flops but not as bad as the
first one because although Joel Wynkoop (Arnold) tries to bring character he's too over
the top as he always is in films. When he reacts he is too much and incredibly annoying. He can't pull off a character whatsoever. Sorry he doesn't do the trick with whatever he did. HGe was very off when strangling someone as this didn't look close to being intense at all.
His
wife M. Catherine Holseybrook-Wynkoop (Debbie) shows
no character at all whatsoever as she
just says her lines. Yet does okay while being on alert with stuff so she shows energy that way and getting on top of things. Just can't pull off a character.
However, Ed Walker Jr. (Dr. Maxwell) who plays
a shrink seems to breeze through fine. Shows a good motive with his speaking and showing good concerns. Plus seemed to do okay acting crazy showing wide eyed expressions during the hallucination sequences. Tried really hard with his work here.
In The Bronze Princess Nancy
Feliciano who plays the princess
takes off her top and her breasts are
fully revealed. Then she lies naked on
her bed.
In the Tainted
Blood chapter Robert J. Olin takes off his clothes and there is a butt
shot of him while he hops in the shower.
Toni Draggon takes
off her top and is fully breasted. Then
she gets completely naked from top to
bottom when she walks into the bathroom
to join the shower scene. She shows off
her breasts towards her close to death
scene too.
This film was so cheap with
no budget there wasn't much gore in it at
all but during the intro to Tainted Blood there are film
clips of vampire's having stakes driven
into their hearts and spitting out blood.
Then after Ray is bitten on the neck
blood trickles down his neck.
Green goo spits out of Melinda's mouth.
We have
some lame synthesizer tones for the home
made video chapter The Bronze
Princess by artists like The
Crypt Keepers, Delta Time and The John Matheny Band
However
for the second one I Would Love to be
a Vampire we have a nice score
with the synthesizer sounds by Total
Sound
During Tainted
Blood, we have some interesting
guitar twanging and saxophine playing
along with some nice jazz music by Peter
John Ross as it was useful for a lustful sequence. Plus a good low horror sound when a vampiress sinks her teeth into someone else as it adds some great timing. To top it off, we have good wavy synthesizer music too.
We also
have a songtrack titled "Nekoda's
Theme" in the Kill Her
Arnold chapter composed by Stephan
Weismueller and Mike Johnson along
with the original music score by John
Matheny which sounds wicked. Also interesting wavy sounds for the hallucinations as this seemed to fit in nicely.
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