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Down and Out in Vampire Hills is a fun trifle that’s more vignette than epic feature film (the film proper clocks in at just a wee bit over twenty minutes and some change) and that’s okay; not every movie is going to be The Godfather or Reds when it comes to runtimes. But what director Craig Railsback’s short story might lack in length it more than makes up for with a bloody fun time for fans of horror, comedy and gore who might just be looking for a good time with a slight dash of subversiveness thrown in for good measure.
The story of Down and Out in Vampire Hills as envisioned by screenwriter Heather Joseph-Witham is a real barnstormer of the highest order: Penelope the Vampire Queen (the always atypical and delightful acting legend Dawna Lee Heising) is contending with living in the sunny California of 2022 and is experiencing some growing pains as a result. Her faithful de facto Renfield stand-in Harold (Ken May in a sly turn) comes to the dreaded conclusion that, after a series of zany disasters, the two of them might want to attempt to locate gainful employment sooner rather than later, especially with the ever-looming chance of a pesky vampire hunter catching wise to their beat. What the most unlikely duo since Ralph Fiennes and Jennifer Lopez met cute in Maid in Manhattan do to procure said work is where the funny comes in. But there’s a little more going on here than it first seems and, for the fans willing to make the leap, as the layers of the story begin to reveal themselves it becomes clear that Down and Out in Vampire Hills has just enough subversiveness inherent in its DNA to qualify as a straight-on satire, poking at some of the hot-button issues of our times such as the homelessness problem, the impossibility of the cost of living in California (and we’d wager just about anywhere else on good ol’ Terra Firma) and the rampant fun-house mirror world of the politically correct. All of that exists in Railsback’s movie as background and is there for the picking should minds greater than Yours Truly wish to dissect it; or you can just do what we did upon viewing it: Order a pizza, pop open some longnecks and have a few guffaws during the short runtime. Obviously independent mileage may vary.
Down and Out in Vampire Hills was released on September 5 and you can check out the trailer here; tell ‘em Nick Nolte, Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss and Vents sent ya!
