Friday 20 July 2012

The Dreaded

"The Dreaded" (1990, Horizon Productions, Chris Robinson) is an amateur vampire movie featuring a vampire wearing awful cardigans.

I picked it up for £1 as a double feature with an equally low-to-no-budget vampire film called "Project Vampire" back when I was about 17.

The producer was only 20 when he did this film, so we can forgive it's lack-luster effects (please note lack of the word 'special'). The plot is thin, the sound is annoyingly bad quality (but that may be more down to the disk), the acting is wooden (but again, I say, it's an amateur film) and on the whole, this film is just terrible. And that's why I still own it, I am afterall the scream-queen fangirl of the most terrible B-movies!

Stealing some plot from Dracula, but cunningly setting it in 90s America, a vampire comes into ownership of some land and a house in a small town. He moves in and wreaks some mayhem.

Melanie Parker (Lisa Watts), a librarian, and her detective boyfriend, Mark (Todd Jones) break up.

Melanie becomes involved with Andrew Frazier (Tim Cobb), the vampire I was describing earlier. Mark is obviously upset by this turn of events, and decides to snoop on Andrew. Discovering that Andrew's a vampire, Mark sets about trying to slay him in true wannabe-Van Helsing style.

Andrew's creepy, but more in that pervy man way and less in the classic, creepy, sleazy, vampire way. And the characters are on the whole dismissible. But character development tends to cost money, so I can see why this film is the way it is.

There's some key attention to detail that I appreciate; no reflection in the mirror! But the scenes can be quite harrowing and long-winded and a few of them were definitely shot in someone's livingroom! The dialogue also leaves a lot to be desired...

All in all, I like this film. It's not a film I'd show many friends, but it's just the right kind of terrible to bring a wee smile to my face. There's also a confusing twist which I'm still never 100% sure on at the end.

Hilarious! But not on purpose.

[Picture: Horizon Productions]


Hani 

2 comments:

  1. Was this film a film student project or something 'cause it sure felt like i was watching a bunch of friends, family & teachers all playing at being cops n vamps! lol!
    Hilariously bad & i loved it as much as i did Project Vampire on the flipside, which by comparison looked like Citizen Kane! lol!
    Nice to see i'm not the only connoiseur of fine trash out there! :)

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    1. Yeah, you know I think it was! The director admits to only being about 20 when he made it, so it must have been a student effort.
      I don't think anyone's even producing DVDs of it anymore, so I'm glad to hear that there's someone else out there who's seen it and appreciates it for the, as you say, 'fine trash' that it is! Low-to-No-Budget gold!

      Thanks for the comment! :)

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