Sean Patrick Flanery is Harry Balbo, an introverted nobody at a nothing job where he constantly mocked by the unfunny office clown. One night, on his way home from the convenience store, he sees a female vampire rip off a homeless man’s head. No one believes him, and his feelings move from frustration to terror when, a couple of nights later, he sees her at work again, and she scratches his face, marking him. He turns to crippled vampire investigator Michael Biehn for help, and eventually captures the vampire. Unable to bring himself to kill her, he is torn between sacrificing himself or others to her bloodlust.
This is a film that finds its strengths in its incidentals. Harry’s depressing work environment, the tossed away dialogue from minor characters, the little humiliations of his life and his eccentric little obsessions all work well, and are very funny. The actual vampire storyline isn’t quite as fresh and witty, though nestled in such an enjoyable context, it works well enough.
Audio
The sound certainly gets by all right, but in a rather uninteresting way. The dialogue is clear, the music sounds fine, and distortion on all counts is effectively nil. The surround elements, however, are disappointing, in that they are barely there. The result is a disc that comes across as rather cheaper than it needs to be. Granted, there’s much of the film that is sufficiently dialogue driven that there isn’t much of an opportunity for flashy sound design, but the fact remains that there rarely is much on the track to make one sit up and take notice.
Video
The colours look good here, as are the contrasts. So the plentiful nighttime street scenes are neither murky nor washed out. The image is sometimes a bit on the soft side, especially during the night scenes. This is when the grain and pixellation are at their most noticeable, to the point, unfortunately, of being rather distracting. The presentation is confusingly described on the box as “16:9 anamorphic full frame” and is, in fact, 1.78:1.
Special Features
Nothing here except a copious amount of trailers, including the feature’s.
Closing Thoughts
A rather agreeable little horror comedy. Think of it as a pleasant surprise from the bargain bin.
