I, like a lot of people, tend to watch a movie that I don’t know anything about based on certain things like who’s in the cast, the director or because of the films subject matter (based on a book etc). I mention this because that’s the only reason I watched this one. I had previously caught Fran Kranz in a movie called Cabin in the Woods (2011) and really liked his performance. So, when I caught word of his next project, Blood Sucking Bastards (2015), I figured I’d check it out. Then I saw the poster for the movie and it had a guy holding a blood-covered coffee cup with the tagline “Work. It sucks the life out of you.” my curiosity was firmly hooked. As it turns out, I’m glad I decided to catch it because I would have missed out on a pretty cool flick.
Bloodsucking Bastards is a comedy/horror with an eighty-six-minute runtime. It was directed by Brian James O’Connell and written by Dr. God and Ryan Mitts. It’s rated UR (unrated) but has language and violence. The story is about a guy named Evan who works a nine to five in an office building and recently, kind of, broke up with his girlfriend Amanda. Working every day with his ex-girlfriend and getting passed over for a promotion, how could things get any worse? How about adding some… vampires to the mix?
Now, before we get too far into the review I’m sure a few of you took a second look when you saw Dr. God as one of the writers, least I did. So, I got curious and looked into who Dr. God was. Come to find out, Dr. God is a five-man comedy group based out of Los Angeles that’s made up by Sean Cowhig, Neil Garguilo, Brian James O’Connell, David Park, and Justin Ware. Apparently, as a group or individually, Dr. God has created stuff for Relativity Media, Cartoon Network, and FOX to name a few. As performers, they’ve appeared on Comedy Central, MTV and quite a few other places.
I loved the idea of the story, throwing vampires into a workspace, and I liked that they went the comical route with it. We have so many run for your life vampires are attacking flicks out already, that it was nice to see something different. I gotta say, I really dug the writing in this one. The script is full of wit and humor. Yeah, there are some low brow jokes scattered throughout the movie, but for the most the jokes are witty. By no means is this a serious vampire movie. The writers just took a great idea of work-life sucking and threw in a twist. I read this one described as “The Office meets Shaun of the Dead” and I think it’s spot on.
The playthrough was really entertaining. Between the story and the cast, I couldn’t stop laughing as everything played out. Yeah, things go a bit overboard at times with the cheese, but that actually adds value to the movie and what makes it so enjoyable. It was almost like watching the movie Office Space (1999), but with vampires.
Some of the cast is Fran Kranz (Cabin in the Woods), Emma Fitzpatrick (The Collection), Joey Kern (Super Troopers), Justin Ware (Deerskin Lake), Neil W. Garguilo (Bloodsucking Bastards), David F. Park (Deerskin Lake), Marshall Givens (Bloodsucking Bastards), Joel Murray (God Bless America) and Pedro Pascal (Kingsman: The Golden Circle). Liked I said, I watched it because of Fitzpatrick, but the rest of the cast quickly won me over as well. I thought everyone had great timing and delivery when it came to their lines. This was the first time I had seen Garguilo, Park, and Ware, from Dr. God, do any acting, but the guys were really good and I’m looking forward to watching more of their movies.
Since it’s a vampire movie be prepared to see some gore. Most of the time it’s just buckets of blood that fill the scenes, but every now and then you’ll see some people get ripped into. Since I’m talking about all the blood, the special effects looked good and I liked that practical effects were used, but keep in mind it’s a low budget flick so don’t expect high budget effects.
Side note: The film was limited released in September 2015, and through VOD (video on demand). So, while it’s had some time to float around and find an audience it’s not had the big push a lot of other films have had. Basically, if you’re not looking for the movie, most likely… you wouldn’t even know it’s out there, which makes this one a bit of a hidden gem.
Overall, it has tons of humor and over the top blood filled scenes as the living try to fight off the dead, which makes this one worth checking out.