Though The Vampire Next Door can’t be classified as an ordinary horror movie, it is perhaps one of the interesting films which is full of comedy, and romantic as well as coming of age tropes. It’s a very entertaining movie where there’s some light shedding of blood here and there but the special features don’t get carried away too much.
The same can be said for The Girl Next Door (2004) which has achieved cult status stars in The Vampire Next Door and many may be familiar with the name. The Vampire Next Door however, also reminds me of a film called The Party Animal (1984) which is a college comedy that has never been in the spotlight or mainstream if you like. Let’s hope The Vampire Next Door will be recognized as a better film.
The focus of attention is a young man called Cameron (Alex Matthews). While he remains a naive child in many ways, Cameron does have a lot of problems; one of his parents criticizes his weight and the other is willing to influence him strongly about career choices. A bigger problem by far, Cameron is still in love with his high school girlfriend Diane (Bella Chadwick), a beauty that most people would drool over, but he still can’t find the words to say it to her. Things only become more complicated for him after moving to the next door where a young vampire, Victoria (Jessica Ferguson), resided with her parents.
Unlike the girl next door, when Cameron sees his neighbor undressing through the window, he is mildly turned on and, easily gives in by dimming the lights in his bedroom.
In what appears to be the case of being caught in the act, Victoria does not cross the street and knock on the door of the house. She simply walks into his room and speaks to him about his sexual desire to watch her used to be clothed, and now naked.
Somewhat amused by her teleportation teleporting into his room, Cami however requests Victoria for some privacy. She however is hard to get rid of. She wishes to be dropped off and threatens to call Cameron’s parents and perhaps inform them about their son spying on people if he doesn’t drive her. Thus begins a very intriguing and peculiar friendship.
Cameron takes Victoria to an industrial unit of sorts where a man meets her at the door and welcomes her inside. some time later a man runs out claiming that he is in danger. Victoria chases him outside where Cameron approaches her in his car. Once again she lunges at him, biting into his neck from where blood spills out. Gaping at Victoria with a couple of teeth cuts settled on her neck and her mouth drenched in crimson liquid, Cameron realizes there is a blood sucking monster across the wall.
Having gained her trust, now Cameron has what he thought was a one off agreement, suddenly becomes an employment contract, when he is manipulating him to be her chauffeur for future hunting trips after she has played with him a bit.
In contrast to the neat operations in the first kill, the second kill goes without stealth. It’s gory and now, Victoria is licking blood off her fingers and around her lips. Cameron’s puzzlement fades into reason only hours later when Victoria arrives in bed with him and offers him the explanations promised so late in the day.
Cameron later became quite awestruck by this deadly woman, because she was bloody killing all the vampires from the asentarios who destroyed her lover who was also her “makar” Victor. She has been under deep cover for 200 years.
Now when Cameron understood that instead of being involved in murders, he is assisting Victoria in slaying vampires, it’s quite a thrill to be her aide. A majority of the vampires she has traced into the town are helplessly young and easy to kill. The last one on her list is an old woman, the same age as Victoria, and is bound to be tough kill. Despite that, the old woman had been the cause of death to Victoria’s master therefore retreating is not an option.
The Vampire Next Door is undoubtedly one of the greatest, if not the best films I have watched in a while. The flick’s 1 hour 50 minutes running time is a bit long. However, since I enjoyed the plot and characters so much even a longer running time would not have bothered me.
To be honest, I would assume that the film had a modest budget for its production. However, The Vampire Next Door does not bear the hallmarks of an ordinary independent movie. It has a solid and consistent story, is well made and despite many of the actors having no more than three or four features to their credit the standard of performances is quite high.
Prior to the current project, Alex Mathews worked on a couple of short films and participated in the Unearthed Tapes Sketch Show. His first endeavor into feature-length with the title The Vampire Next Door seems like an impressive initiation, behind and in front of the camera however is quite refined. Some of the expressions he created during the film along with his crazy behavior amused me several times. If you are expecting to get a shock value, you may get more disappointed than entertained. There is a minute amount of usable bloodshed, and the vampires should entertain rather than terrorize, thus putting off those who may seek a more conventional monster flick.
Jessica Ferguson is well cast as Victoria, Her only other acting credit is for a short film called Cobra City but The Vampire Next Door would not be the same without her. She could have been made for the role of the sexy bad as vampire who takes Cameron under her wing boosting his self-esteem and even teaching him how to fight back against his high school bullies.
Cameron’s heart always remains true to Diane so, as with he and Diane, their relationship never develops beyond a friendship. This does not stop the eternally attractive Victoria from making quite a few advances and ultimately flustering Cameron’s resolve time and again.
You are not required to watch the film for long before there are numerous clues that give away the fact that Diane could be waiting for Cameron to be the one to make the move first. Given how things play out that’s not the case but the story is such that he wants to help his friend Martin (Andrew Larkin) say sorry to Diane for ditching her at the school prom and try to win her over again.
I think it’s safe to say the story is filled with a few surprises and sudden changes. It is an eventful one. Victoria is able to locate her final intended target. Martin has a chance to meet up with Dianne. Lastly, when it comes to Cam, we see him maturing quite a lot, figuring what he wants to do with his life and gaining some good experience.
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