EAT LOCALS ** U.K. 2017 Dir: Jason Flemyng 94 mins
A group of British vampire overlords break into a farmhouse, deep in the countryside (kidnapping the residents), to hold their half century general meeting. One vampire brings along possible new blood for the groups approval to boost their dwindling numbers and they have some reinforcing of the rules to reiterate to some of the group. Little do they realise though that they are being stalked by the Army who are preparing an ambush.
This is the directorial debut for actor Jason Flemyng (Snatch/Lock, Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels) and as such has a cast of some very familiar British acting talents such as Mackenzie Crook, Annette Crosbie, Dexter Fletcher, Tony Curran, Charlie Cox, Eve Myles… the list goes on. Billed as a Horror/Comedy it is rather light on both. Almost certainly not laugh out loud more like maybe have the odd chuckle quietly to yourself about once or twice throughout the whole film. Very short on action especially the vampires themselves but on the odd occasion you do see them in full vamp mode the effects are really quite good. There is a lot of sitting around talking, arguing and trying to crack jokes. This may feature quite a few known actors but it seems to be a case of quantity over quality as he tries to cram in as may celebs as possible to the mix. This means that several of these actors are severely underutilised, Mackenzie Crook being the most obvious. I was very disappointed that he did not have a more prominent character and that the part he played was so poorly written. This hasn’t been greatly received by most and rightly so but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was awful. The soundtrack, setting and cinematography are well thought out and it has quite slick production but it could have been so much more. I neither love nor hate it, in fact I am entirely indifferent to it really. If you do want to see this movie than to save yourself time and inevitable disappointment I suggest you just watch the trailer as it contains all the jokes (?!?) and action (again?!?) all in just 1 minute 39 secs.
Review by Sarah Budd