Tubi Friday: Son of Darkness- To Die For 2

 It wouldn't have been fair to watch and review a 2nd Movie after Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

As such, let's do one today.
My site, my rules!

To Die For is a Film that I watched so long ago that I made Channel Awesome references in it.

Regardless, all you need to know is that this woman is raising a baby that no Doctor can seem to treat.

That is, until she meets Dr. Shreck, who she falls for as well.

Well, he's a Vampire.

As one says later, Vampires 'travel in flocks.'

As such, there's a Vampire there with him- Amanda Wyss- who feels rejected by him.

That works out well for...

...his Brother, who also managed to survive the last Film.

He's followed Shreck (aka Vlad) to this small Mountain town, but he's not sure why the guy is hiding out there.

As it turns out, the baby is Vlad's.

The Mother was spared and had a hybrid baby, long before the Twilight Films.

He's trying to get access to it and turn the baby.

His Brother is not on board.

The Film has about 3 other Subplots intersecting here.

The new Mom's Brother- the guy from The Last Starfighter- is eventually seduced and turned by Wyss.

There's also another Vampire lady, who doesn't want to get involved in any conflict.

Lastly, the Hero from the last Film has come to Town after reading about Vampire killings.

The guy meets with the Vampire lady, but it turns bad when the Brother finds out and leaves her to die!

It all comes down to a very busy climax involving all of the players.

The Brother tries to save his Sister and gets Ashed (aka his head cut off with a chainsaw) by the Brother.
Wyss stakes him, but he wounds her to death as well.

Vlad is about to turn the Mom (and then kid) when the Hero stakes him and he dies dramatically.

The Mom leaves and they tease that the kid is a Vampire.
I mean...yeah, we knew that.  That was the whole Plot of this, right?

The End.

A decent to good attempt at making lots of Stories intersect.

Did the Film need this much going on?
They probably could have cut some of it- like the neutral Vampire Lady- and spent more time on other things.

Regardless, they do many things right here.

The Brother is a real delight, playing a hammy but also scary villain throughout.  The Scene where he's stalking the lady in the Boatyard stands out.

Wyss does good with what she's given as well, getting a little Arc for her Character.

The Vampire effects are mostly subtle here.  That's fine, honestly.  This way they didn't do more than they could do.

The only real problem here is that with so much going on, the Film can be a bit unfocused and thus less interesting.

Now I do have to wonder why Vlad thought appearing to her in her dreams would somehow not disturb her...

A Film with a few high points and many good Actors.  Unfortunately, there's too many Players and it drags a bit at times.

Vampires Suck: Bram Stoker's Dracula: The Love Story- To Die For

This title is not long enough!  

Seriously, this movie's title is a good metaphor for what's wrong with it.  It's a good start, but falls apart as you get further along.  

Let's get this out of the way- this is barely a Dracula film.  

The lead guy is Dracula- NON-SPOILER- and many of the characters are analogs for those from the book, but that's about it.  

It takes some odd directions from there and doesn't involve any of the story being told via letters.  The latter is not the biggest loss, mind you, but you get the point.  

I should also mention that this film is set in Los Angeles, since so many low-budget films are.  

To find out where this long-titled movie goes wrong in so many ways, read on...

Our heroine is named Kate- not Mina- and meets an intriguing man at a party.  

What else can explain this odd look on her face?

Yes, this is our Dracula.  He has all of the exotic charm of Bela Lugosi.  

By Bela Lugosi, of course, I mean Jonathan Silverman.

(Anyone remember Jonathan Silverman?)

Outside of the party, this man dies in his car at the hands of, I'm guessing, some sort of Werewolf.  

Remember that part in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Oh and, in the long run, this and other deaths amount to nothing.

Instead of the man helping Dracula look for a house, our heroine does.  

Oh- what a twist!  

Oh and her roommate is clearly Lucy, even if she's not called that.

 The real divide in the story comes from this guy on the right.  

At first, he appears only to Vlad, making me think that this is a Fight Club situation.

Well, he's not.  

He's, well, another Vampire who is following Vlad around and wants to ruin his life.

As you can see, they don't get along.  

Rawr.

"Gee, I'm sorry that my Detective character is entirely pointless to the plot.  

Oh and sorry for your friend being killed by a Vampire/Werewolf.  I'm just Nash- useless Detective."

That whole build-up to the fight between Vlad and the other Vampire.  It's over in about thirty seconds.

Pay-off- what's that?!?

Oh and Vlad decides to kill himself since him and Kate can't be together.  Naturally, his eyes disappear when his body begins to melt in the sunlight.

I'd say that this is The End, but there's a sequel out there.  The End.

Wake me up when I'm supposed to care.  

Seriously, this film is dull.  

The only conflict is the lead guy yearning to get back with our heroine after she falls for Vlad, while Not Lucy is obsessed with Vlad too.  Throw in the random Vampire guy and you have the entirety of the film.  

The other Vampire is pretty much there to create a bunch of kills that are sure to fill out the Trailer and that's it.  

The make-up effects related to him and Vlad's transformed states are neat, even if they are a bit inexplicable.  The former seems to vary between being a more monstrous Vampire and just being a Werewolf.  

Vlad, on the other hand, is a very minor change...for some reason.  Consistency is all I ask for.  

The film is just full of filler, unfortunately, making this very basic plot take longer than it should.  I would like to recommend this film more, but I really can't.  

Even this cameo by the Black Swan can't save this dull, dull movie...

Next up, an early film at the hands of Fangoria.  Will this Vampire film tweak the rules too much or just enough?  Stay tuned...