Spoiler alert ALERT! Don’t even watch the trailers! 

A group of lowlifes (led by Dan Stevens and Melissa Barrera) kidnap the young ballerina daughter (Alisha Weir) of a ruthless mafia don and, as instructed, stash the kid in a mansion so gothic that it has to be viewed as a comic element.  As they await further instructions, it becomes apparent that one of them is… a vampire! 

I liked the first half a lot. The setup. Each character is well defined, the atmosphere is oppressive, and there’s some witty oddball humor. The theme genre-jumps from a heist flick to locked-room mystery to slasher movie to haunted house tale. But at about the halfway point, when the fangs eventually come out, things get kind of over the top. Hint: you may like this flick more if the phrase “exploding meat sacks” means something to you. Gallons of blood? Barrels! 

Still, splatter fans will find an inventive, perfectly timed film with an above-average ensemble cast that drolly breathes fresh life into old vampire tropes. (109 min)

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