Film-maker Steve Sale decides to investigate vampire mythology and the current nature of the vampire sub-culture, crossing continents to get the lowdown from make-up artists, vampire hunters and US Presidential candidates. Yes, really.
*****
Further evidence that meagre resources need not mean mediocre end product, Steve Sale gives us his take on vampirism and the sub-culture that revolves around it. In essence this is little more than Sale taking to the streets and the internet with his cameraman and seeing what he can find, but that is not intended as a criticism – some of what he uncovers is pretty mind-boggling. We meet a modern day vampire hunter who collects, compiles and sells vampire hunting kits, a self-proclaimed psychic who had a role in the investigation of the Highgate Vampire many years ago and a special effects technician who makes fangs to order.
This could all have been far too haphazard and free-wheeling but Sale has the good sense to keep his investigations and interviews tight and focussed. As one interviewee tells him about someone (for example modern-day vampire Father Sebastiaan) he tries to find them and interview them before continuing on with the trail of breadcrumbs wherever it may lead. At one point he meets up with someone (referred to only as “M” and whose identity is kept secret) who is looking for a regular or one-off donor. M turns out to have fed on a rabbit that had been mauled by a dog when he was a young boy and despite drugs, psychiatric evaluation and Electro-convulsive Therapy, continues to seek out willing donors (of whom many seem to exist). He candidly tells Sale that he needs blood, otherwise he gets grouchy.
Sale travels to the US to meet up with Jonathan “the Impaler” Sharkey, who has put himself forward for the 2012 presidential elections. He turns out to have been raised in an abusive home and now regularly drinks blood from willing donors, as well as often associating with problematically and worryingly young women/girls.. Back in the UK we meet Damian, an admitted blood-drinker, who has three donors on the go at any one time so as not to drain any one of them. He claims to blister in the sun and suffer from receding gums that make his teeth look more prominent.
All of this could end up very anecdotal and disjointed, but Sale maintains the clarity of the connections between each person he meets or speaks with and dips into vampire mythology with visits to gothic bars and a reading of the Vampire Bible (an interestingly and conspicuously slender volume). One interviewee breaks down the different types of vampire, including psi-vampires (who drain your life energy) and sanguinarians (who drink blood) and eventually there is a considered analysis of the medical condition porphyria and how it intersects the history of vampires and vampirism. Sale is much to be applauded for the efforts he goes to in order to meet and speak with his various interview subjects and his interest in the subject and his dedication to film-making is clear to see. With the very definition of zero-budget to work with he has crafted something curious, compelling and informative and although there will be plenty of people out there who are familiar with what Sale uncovers, many others will benefit greatly from his hard work.
You can pop over to Sale’s website to see the trailer and contact him for more information if you want to check out Suck Buddy. Fascinating stuff.
[Rating:3/5]
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OrTNiO0V1o’]
