Director – Ryan Blazic (The Suicide King)
Starring – Jim O’Rear (Volumes of Blood, Nightblade), Michelle Shields (Isle of the Damned, The Dark Knight), and Luke Bonczyk (Dogman, Playback)
Release Date – 2017
Rating – 3/5
The last few movies I’ve been lucky to review were actually pretty entertaining. I went from watching an over stylized sci-fi action horror film that serves as a sequel to Death Race 2000 to the 80s buddy cop comedy centered around a Jack the Ripper style serial killer. Both films were fun but I wanted to get back to the traditional horror that I love.
The next movie in the stack was the 2017 Ryan Blazic film Monsters Among Men which was brought to my attention by mutual film Sascratch. It has been awhile since I saw a good indie vampire flick so I was excited to dive into it. It was also cool to see the film starred Jim O’Rear who also starred in and directed the last film I reviewed, Nightblade. Thanks Ryan for sending this one over!
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a young couple who are going for a walk in the woods and taking in the sights when the young man awakens in the woods with his hands tied. A young man is digging graves and intended on burring them alive. He finds a razorblade taped to the inside of his hand and is able to use that to escape.
He is able to flee and finds a cabin nearby but quickly learns that those that live in these woods are not human but a bloodthirsty creature that can be traced back to the Vietnam war. Now he is faced with fighting for survival while tracking down his girlfriend who he plans on asking her to marry.**Spoiler Alert**
I had high hopes for this film. I wanted something dark, brooding with an enticing story that would pull me in and submerge me. It has been a long time since a straight forward horror film has done that to me. Sadly, this film didn’t unfold the way I was hoping for but that doesn’t make it a bad film. Not by any means. In fact, it was a clean cut horror film that removed itself from the grit of most indie horror flicks and gave the viewer a nicely shot horror film…with blood.
The acting in this one is pretty damn good. If you read my review for Nightblade then you may have noticed some complaints I had about O’Rear and his performance. However, his performance here more than made up for what I saw in NB. The entire cast offered up some pretty enjoyable performances and very memorable characters. Kudos to the writer and the cast for their performance.
The story for this one is simple but does offer up something different in a world full of trends. At any given moment I have at least a dozen zombie films waiting to be reviewed and at least half a dozen torture porns and extreme horror flicks. Tossed in the pile is a few found footage flicks and the occasional 80s inspired slasher. It’s always nice to get something different in for review and an indie vampire tale is always delightful. Monsters Among Men doesn’t recreate the wheel or tries to bend the genre. Instead, it takes a simple story and delivers it in an effective manner. The scenes are a bit on the slow side but they do develop the story as we move on. The writing is tight and neat which is something you rarely see in a no budget horror film.
Finally, if you want blood then you will see a little here but there isn’t a massive amount of blooshed and gore. The kills we are are quick and fun but they are nothing we haven’t seen before. Most are gun shot wounds. The films uses a minimal effects to pull off the gag which shows. Nothing too extensive for those of you looking for special effects. Overall, Monsters Among Men is a well made fright flick for those of you wanting a fun vampire film. I can boldly recommend Monsters Among Men as a companion film for the likes of Fright Night and The Lost Boys. Check it out.
