TV Series Review: Castlevania 2

Castlevania (2018) (season 2) Directed by Sam Deats and written by Warren Ellis (Contains Spoilers)

After waiting a year the second season of the brilliant series Castlevania has arrived! The end of season 1 left many fans asking for more, and now fans got what was asked. Not only did we get more episodes (8 instead of 4) but also more gore, more action and more characters. The first season felt more like a prequel.

The story doesn't start really where we left off but introduces us to a flashback telling more of Lisa's tragic story. We see her as a successful doctor living alone in a house helping a sick old woman. She says that her husband is traveling. It is implied that some time has passed and that she is married to Dracula. She sent him out into the world to better appreciate humanity. Unfortunately the bishop and his men barge in her house and accuse her of witchcraft, despite her innocent pleas it is obvious these men will not listen to reason. As they take her away and burn her house, she warns them  that her husband will seek revenge and they should let her go for humanity's sake but it is too late and we all know from season 1 that she burns at the stake thereby dooming the human race.

Later after the events of season 1, we see Dracula as he has rounded up several vampire overlords and proclaims that humanity must be exterminated. He doesn't care how as he has fallen into a depression and is filled with anger. Dracula used to enjoy killing as we see in a gory flashback but he was tamed by Lisa. She was his tether to the human world and since he lost her, he has lost both his killing nature and faith in humanity. His intentions felt a bit confusing at first but later it becomes clearer what he wants.

The overlords agree to join him and we are introduced to new vampire characters.Many are from other countries such as India and Japan, I thought that was cool but they sadly don't speak at all.

Among the interesting vampire characters is Godbrand who  is a viking vampire and is voiced by the great Peter Stomare, so fitting as he is Swedish. The viking is keen to join Dracula but worries that if humans become extinct then the blood supply will be gone and vampires will be left to starve. The next vampire is Carmilla, she is of course inspired by the character from Sheridan Le Fanu's famous novella. She is voiced by Jaime Murray. Carmilla is manipulative and strategic, she has a massive army and her own agenda. She of course will betray Dracula.

While plotting with Godbrand, she reveals how she killed the vampire who sired her after he became old and mad, deeming Dracula has become the same and unfit to lead them. Godbrand agrees with her and states that Dracula is committing suicide by seeking humanity's destruction.

Dracula, much to the surprise and disgust of Godbrand, has hired two human men to help him. Hector and Isaac, who are both necromancers and share a hatred of humans. Hector is voiced by Theo James, a fitting role as he was last seen in the recent Underworld film. He has the power of resurrecting dead things and a habit of keeping undead, rotting animals as pets. He came from an abusive family and agreed to work with Dracula with the promise that there would be a humane cull of humans instead of a genocide. Dracula of course lied to him. Isaac is African and was once a slave who was saved by Dracula, he also possesses the power of raising dead things.

We  get to see more of Alucard or Adrian in action and how he fits in with the heroes who are bent on destroying Dracula his father. In one scene he easily kills the demonic vampire creatures with his magic sword. There's more information on the Belmonts as we are introduced to the estate and the hidden library where Sypha researches spells and Trevor gets a super sweet weapon: a new whip called the Morning Star. With that new weapon he destroys more vampire creatures in awesome action scenes.

The level of gore and violence is just as good as the first season. There's one particular scene where a group of vampire overlords led by Godbrand slaughter a village to feed and the Indian female vampire picks up the body of a headless woman and lets the blood trickle down her mouth.

There's an interesting scene where vampires talk about a certain weakness they may or may not have. It is implied that vampires cannot cross or come into contact with running water. A weakness that has been mentioned in many folklore but rarely touched upon.

The dialogues are great and the chemistry between characters such as Sypha and Belmont is good. There's no romance between those characters  but  maybe a subtle hint can be felt.

By the end the heroes are victorious, but the show doesn't end there. Episode 8 shows Adrian picking up the pieces in his father's castle and seeing memories of his childhood with his mother while Trevor and Sypha set off across the world to use their gifts to defeat evil. That was interesting as left the show open for possibly a third season as Carmilla is still around and Hector and Isaac as well.
I'm curious to see how Season 3 will be like.

Overall a good season, the first one was a great appetizer to the main course that is this season. Gamers and fans of the games where not disappointed. 

                                                   
                                                      Godbrand the Viking Vampire

              Carmilla

Eat Locals (2017) directed by Jason Flemyng. Starring: Charlie Cox, Freema Agyeman, Tony Curran, Vincent Regan, Eve Myles and Mackenzie Crook.

During my summer in France in 2017 I came across this film on Netflix and was intrigued by the stellar cast.  This is a vampire comedy horror with very well-known and talented from the UK that I’ve seen in many films and TV series.

Synopsis: Facing difficult times and with their glory days long gone, the eight undisputed British vampire overlords gather up for their semi centennial meeting, however before the break of dawn, there will be blood and corpses, lots of them.

First of all this film has a lot of dark humour and something called ‘gallows humour’, it is a form of humour about very unpleasant, serious or painful circumstances. Any humour that treats serious matters such as death, war, disease and crime, in a light, silly or satirical fashion.  

This might affect or be confusing to people unfamiliar with vampire and horror films.

The film starts off with the big eight vampire bosses meeting in a farm house far away in the countryside. Unfortunately a group of humans find out about this meeting and surround the farm with a militia. The rest of the film is violent, gory and hilarious, it should even be re-titled ‘Vampires vs Soldiers’. There are scenes very similar to a typical home invasion film with guns and killings. 

The vampires are trying to recruit a new member with the unsuspecting gullible Sebastian who Vanessa (Eve Myles) seduces and invites to the farm. She even picks him up in a car with a license plate that reads ‘Bram 1’, a funny little nod to Bram Stoker. The action and killing scenes are fun and the characters well developed. The vampires are all different and with their own personality and witty dialogue. There’s even an old lady named Alice  (Anette Crosbie) who uses her old age to trick the attacking soldiers and lure them as she slowly walks outside using a walker while one of Thatcher’s speech is playing in the background. There’s typical British humour and witty dialogue, the character of Vanessa explains that she likes her food ‘organic’.  To add more to the craziness of the film an Asian vampire attacks using Kung Fu moves!

The actors are brilliant of course with the sexy and cute Charlie Cox as a ‘vegetarian’ vampire who only feeds on animals, somehow I suspect that was intentional to make fun of ‘Twilight’. ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘Torchwood’ star Freema Agyeman and Eve Myles are perfect as deadly female vampires. While the other old vamps are arrogant assholes such as the great Tony Curran, not unfamiliar to vampire roles, given he was Markus in Underworld: Evolution.  Unfortunately these old vampires who are supposed to be at least thousands of year olds are not very smart when it comes to protecting themselves.

There is a serious lack of sex and nudity for a vampire film.

Overall the film is not super great but it is an interesting effort with the story in trying something different with the vampire genre and popular horror comedy tropes.  It remains a wacky funny and entertaining film.