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Summer of Blood Review

By David Kempler

Bloody Mess

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It's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid vampire and zombie movies. They are everywhere. Once in a while they take the form of comedy or at least have humorous moments. "Summer of Blood", starring Onur Tukel, who also writes and directs, attempts to combine humor with drama. The results are decidedly mixed.

This time the setting for vampires is hipster Brooklyn. In the opening scene, Jody (Anna Margaret Hollyman) proposes to Eric (Tukel). They have been seeing each other for some time and it's clear that Eric is afraid of marriage or any other kind of commitment. He tries to be funny while rejecting her proposal. By the way, he isn't very funny, either. She is sick of his attempts to be funny whenever a serious topic arises. His solution is that they continue to have sex. He is an annoying goofball and it is pretty difficult to understand what she ever saw in him.

After they leave the restaurant, she runs into a guy she used to know. He is tall, good-looking, and obnoxious in his own way. She leaves with him. Eric is baffled by this but has no choice but to walk the streets aimlessly. In a dark alley, he sees something but can't figure out what it is. A few minutes later he is bitten by a vampire. This results in his becoming a vampire. This breed of vampire has normal conversations with other vampires, as well as mere mortals.

Eric soon realizes that Jody isn't coming back to him, so he has a series of dates with women as attractive as Jody and with just as much on the ball as Jody. That any of them is interested in this guy who emanates loser from every pore is a mystery, but since he wrote it and directed it, it is understandable.

"Summer of Blood" spends most of its time telling lame jokes and sees Eric go through a parade of women. Eventually he figures out how to use his new powers to some degree, but it never feels comfortable as either comedy or drama. When you go back and forth this often you better be a master storyteller. That is not the case here. "American Werewolf in London" is probably the best example of this formula working. This flick, on the other hand, sadly never finds the jugular.

What did you think?

Movie title Summer of Blood
Release year 2014
MPAA Rating NR
Our rating
Summary Vampires are losers in this wannabe dramedy that never hits the jugular.
View all articles by David Kempler
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