By John Duarte
I dig vampire movies ever since I was 9 years old when my sister showed me “BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA” taped from HBO in 1993. Vampires have always been cool to me because I grew up when they were fun movies such as THE LOST BOYS, VAMP, THE HUNGER, FRIGHT NIGHT LIFEFORCE just to name a few. That completely changed when TWILIGHT came out. Oh boy, I don’t want to give myself a headache thinking about those movies. Anyways, Where was I? Oh yeah, I have to write a review about this brand new vampire movie that’s now on Shudder called BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL.
Let’s dive into the plot:
Welcome to Six Mile Hill, a sleepy town whose only claim to fame is that locals say Bram Stoker once spent a night in the local pub. It’s home to Eugene Moffat, who spends his days drinking pints with his friends and pranking tourists at the gravesite of Abhartach — a legendary Irish vampire who may have inspired Stoker’s infamous Dracula. Sinister events unfold when Eugene and his father’s construction crew knock over Abhartach’s supposed resting place. When an infected workmate attacks them one night, the fight for survival begins. But stakes and garlic won’t defeat this primeval force. Eugene and the Boys must rally their wits to save the town and send this bloodthirsty monster back to hell.
When I first read the plot I was super intrigued by it and was looking forward to seeing how cool it’s going to be. But unfortunately, I was a little bit disappointed. The film is a slow burn with some good ideas, but I’ll tell you one thing I liked about it: the Make-Up Effects work in BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL. There’s a little bit CG enhanced effects but most of it is good ol’ practical. The creature and gore effects were well done and were the big highlights of the movie. The acting from the actors did a good job but nothing to write home about also, here were a few jokes that kind of fell flat to me. Early on in this review, I said that this film is a slow burn for a 90 min movie. It doesn’t pick up speed until the last 30 mins.
I tried to give this movie a chance. Maybe I was expecting more than I thought but I should’ve lowered my expectation I guess. At the end of the day, BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL is a movie that isn’t going to blow you away but the effects are really good though.
BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL is now streaming on Shudder.