The Horror Show
Summer of Blood
by Onur Tukel
I guess after watching the last horror/comedy I reviewed, Life After Beth, I was in the mood for some more laughs and gore. So I stumbled upon a little gem entitled Summer of Blood. No, it’s not another zombedy, but rather a vampedy… see what I did there? Is that already a thing? If not… remember where you read it first.
Onur Tukel writes, directs, and stars as Erik Sparrow, the film’s chubby main character. Erik is dating the beautiful Jody (Anna Margaret Hollyman), has a decent job, and lives in New York City. What could be wrong with that picture?
Erik Sparrow himself, that’s what’s wrong with that picture. Sparrow is portrayed as an overweight, over-the-hill and past him prime hipster. Imagine the local coffee shop kids if they never grew out of their irony phase and went into their forties. Yep. You might be picturing Erik. And Erik has some serious commitment issues because when his long-time girlfriend proposes to him, he actually says no.
So then that’s when the depressing downward spiral of Erik’s love life begins. Jody begins immediately seeing someone else and in an attempt to ease his pain, Erik tries connecting with women that he meets online. Well, it couldn’t go any worse, because rather than seeing his flaws and where he went wrong in his last relationship, Erik continues to be the bumbling, outspoken idiot that he is.
On his way home one night he meets a mysterious stranger, and that’s when things start to get particularly interesting. That stranger happened to be a vampire, and Erik has now joined the ranks of the immortal undead. He’s now super suave, super smart, good in bed, and irresistible. The only problem? Jody is still not back in his life… oh yeah, and he has this insatiable craving for blood… forgot to mention that little tidbit.
What I loved about this film is that it started slow in order to truly develop Erik’s character. He’s adorably unlikeable and you’re torn between rooting for him and rooting against him at the same time. Without that slow build, I don’t think the film would have sat so well with me in the end, because as you all should know by now, I’m all about character development. And dialogue, which this film has plenty of. And the majority of it is hilarious.
Now you might be wanting to ask, “Stevie, where is the horror in this vampire comedy?”
Well, as with all horror comedy, if the actors can’t pull off the scene, it doesn’t work. But everyone in this film pulled it off wonderfully. From the moment Erik stumbled upon the dying man in the street, standing over him and rambling incessantly about some other unimportant issues as blood flowed from his neck, I knew the film was going to be satisfying. Each and every sex scene is filled with gratuitous amounts of blood and comedic gore as Erik satisfies his lovers, sates his hunger for blood, and “turns” his women into lady-vamps.
It makes me sad to see that this film has a rating on IMDB of only 5.4. There was a perfect mixture of both the expected gore and supernatural elements that one expects from a vampire film with the witty dialogue and silly scenarios one would expect from a comedy.
I’d recommend this film to any fan of comedy meets horror and if you’re looking for a light-hearted entertaining film that also brings the fangs to the feast, then definitely check out Summer of Blood.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
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