Black Water Vampire   Starring: Bill Oberst Jr., Danielle Lozeau, Andrea Monier and Anthony Fanelli Distributor: Image Entertainment RRP: £12.99 IMAGE4004 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 24 March 2014

Andrea, Danielle, Anthony and Robin are filmmakers who travel to the Black Water Creek area to investigate the brutal killings of four young women. Raymond Banks has been charged, locked-up and diagnosed criminally insane, but even after interviewing him and seeing some of that psychotic behaviour, Andrea doesn’t believe he is guilty. All the evidence seems purely circumstantial. And then there are the large, so-called animal bites, and the bodies drained of blood. So, after talking to some locals, they head off into the woods to locate the scenes of crime. Almost immediately they hear a distant animal cry, unlike anything they have heard before. They lose their way, and one of their number goes missing. But when they turn up again, naked and not exactly what they were, events take an even more sinister turn. Just what is in the woods...?

What is in the woods??? Silly question, really. The title rather gives it away, doesn’t it? So, here we go with another Blair Witch Project-like ‘found footage’ film. As with Troll Hunter and many others of recent years, everything seen is being filmed by one of the cast film crew (supposedly). It’s a relief to discover there is a reveal; meaning we do get to see and experience the actions of the perpetrator. Not only do we get to see the vampire, but I was so thankful it wasn’t some teen hunk bloke. I’m sick to death of the Twilight and Vampire Diaries stuff. Vampires should be evil abominations. This is a nosferatu creature which is entirely wild, as opposed to a sinister but gentlemanly humanoid, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

This is obviously a low budget film, but the vampire itself is very impressive, and so it’s obvious where the available money has been spent. However, unlike many of these types of films, the characters here are at least a little more fleshed-out than is normally the case. Robin, the sound man, is perhaps the most believable in his reactions to events. Reticent to even embark on the investigation, he voices his reservations at almost every opportunity, and admits his fear. After all, who in their right mind would traipse through the territory of an unknown beast killer?

In retrospect, this bunch is pretty much like the Scooby Gang, with the sensible and intelligent girl with glasses, the confident girl-about-er… woods, the putting on a brave front jock, and the scared of his own shadow hanger-on. Of course there’s nothing wrong with this; it works, and that’s all you can hope for. Of course, like all ‘found footage’ feature films, this one pretty much just stops, rather than coming to a fitting conclusion. The ending here has a little of The Hills Have Eyes about it. It’s sort of okay.

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Ty Power