Director – Osmany Rodriguez (Saturday Night Live, The Last Man on Earth)
Starring – Gerald Jones III (Blue Bloods, Miseducated), Jaden Michael (Odd Squad, Dora the Explorer), and Gregory Diaz IV (b00, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)
Release Date – 2020
Rating – 3.5/5
Netflix and the fan film Never Hike in the Snow really helped get me out of the slump I’ve been in the last few days. Aside from being sick I was feeling down by number of bad movies I’ve seen this month. It seems like several movies were getting rushed to store shelves with no quality testing. Regardless, this Halloween season has not been too kind to me. Hubie Halloween and #Alive were solid watches so I turned to Netflix again for something else. This time I took a dive into Vampires vs. the Bronx and was not disappointed.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows three youths in the Bronx that are watching all the businesses they grew up visiting close when a giant corporation moves in and buys them out. They attempt to raise money and save the Bronx but soon learn that the corporation taking over their neighborhood is actually a front for a clan of vampires that want to turn their homes into their nests. **Spoiler Alert**
I had heard a lot about this one and how many were comparing it to films like The Lost Boys and The Goonies. I can kind of see where they are coming from with those comparisons but this one wasn’t like those to me. It was it’s own movie but I really enjoyed what it delivered.
The acting in this one is solid but I found myself not caring for the characters at all. The three youth’s the film follows is likable enough but all the subsequent characters are really hard to like. You find yourself almost wanting them to get bit on the neck.
The story for this one is pretty straight forward but follows the same story as so many 80s and 90s movies aimed at children. We follow a group of kids who must stop the wealthy bad guy from buying their neighborhood. We have seen so many movies dealing with this same story following someone rich like a businessman, bank, and so on from buying someone’s grandparent’s home, apartment complex, town, and so on. The only flipside to this one is that the bad guys are vampires. I actually enjoyed this little spin and hope that we follow these three in more hijinks like this.
Finally, this one does have some blood but nothing too crazy. The practical effects work but my favorite part of the film was the make-up effects and design of the vampires. That is one of the few aspects that did remind me of The Lost Boys. Overall, Vampires vs. the Bronx is a fun watch you can throw on with your kids and enjoy yourselves. The film has some blood and light language but a perfect Halloween watch for the whole family. Check it out.
