“If you want to kill a vampire, use a wooden stake. But if you want to catch it, then use a BLOOD BAIT.”
So goes the tagline of Blood Bait, a short horror film about vampires, an obsessed man of science, a defrocked priest, and the ghosts of the past that haunt them all! With its story of reason versus faith, director Sam Krass’ film debut leverages low-budget charms to enhance its elements of nostalgia, self-aware humor, and a carefully-crafted gothic style.
Blood Bait is the first “first movie” I’ve talked about in the Izzy’s Eerie Indies series, and it pays homage to a much-loved era in horror history. I think it’s a perfect selection for your late-night viewing pleasure!
What Is Blood Bait About?
A cunning vampire (Katherine Graham) has developed an Airbnb-to-buffet pipeline of victims with the help of toady Alex (Alison Dalman) and two ghoulish minions (J. Sébastien Côté and Patrick Marsh). But Doctor and Man-of-Reason Ron Burnie (Francis Moison) has tracked her down and hopes to ensnare her . . . for Science!
Enlisting the help of his estranged brother-in-law, ex-priest and current literature professor Felix (Kevin Adams), the two must sort through their personal and philosophical differences in order to put a stop to the monster’s bloodlust one way or another. If you’re thinking it sounds like a plot straight out of a Hammer production, you would be right on target.
Blood Bait ‘Hammers’ Home Its Influences.
Sam Krass leaves no question about his inspiration for Blood Bait. He credits Hammer’s Horror of Dracula (1958) for inspiring its plot, and he crafted the characters of Felix and Dr. Burnie in the images of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. But these are not carbon copies! The story and characters have a distinctive Sam Krass visual style and narrative voice.
Every scene features some shot, image, or sound cue meant to evoke the heyday of Hammer, but there’s always some funny or macabre twist.
There are creepy kids with garlic necklaces that warn of impending danger. Close-up shots of pregnant spiders climbing through cobwebs. Blood splattering on walls and ghostly visions beckoning from the woods. There’s even a version of Dracula’s servant, Renfield – a weaselly henchman called Roberge (Ryan Dalman) who has uniquely deranged predilections.
Dubbing for Laughs and Nostalgia
The icing on this Devil’s food cake is the film’s image quality and dubbing work. Both of these elements seem poor on the surface, but they were actually painstakingly designed to rekindle the feeling of watching a dubbed-over horror movie late at night on the boob tube.
The first thing that throws you for a loop is the fact that none of the dialogue matches any of the actors’ mouth movements. This has a hilarious result, particularly when one character opens her mouth and a voice comes out like a cross between The Godfather and Donald Trump.
What starts out as jarring begins to make sense and enhances the movie’s effectiveness. Here, Krass’ explanation on the hows and whys of the dubbing process are enlightening: “My first goal was to make a dubbed movie just like the ones I used to see on TV growing up, French being my mother tongue. All the actors . . . spoke their lines in French and were later dubbed. This allowed me to give them directions while filming. As a result, I had to re-create every sound and background noise from scratch, which took a lot longer than pre-production and principal photography combined.”
Low on Budget, High on Heart
As a viewer, I thought this strategy successfully recalled Hammer, added humor, and built on the movie’s unsettling and mysterious atmosphere. It pairs nicely with the movie’s image quality, of which Krass says, “I really wanted it to look cheap, having in mind the poorly rendered copies of VHS I used to watch as a kid. Actually, my VHS camera broke a long time ago, otherwise it’s the one I would have used.”
One of the things I love about low-budget movies is how creativity manifests in the midst of limited resources. It goes beyond charm and hits something deeper that can only be achieved through sincere collaboration. I’d say Krass has tapped into this and delivered something horror fans crave with Blood Bait: A creation with a heartfelt love of the genre that honors its influences and never takes itself too seriously. These are three ingredients for a spooky fun time in my book!
Watch Blood Bait now! (Full movie embedded above)
Images provided by Isaiah Swanson, with permission from Sam Krass.
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