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Sleepless Nights (2022)
An entertaining low-budget vampire flick....
This vampire flick is obviously a labor of love, created by fans of the genre who have been able to compensate for their meager budget by infusing their work with ingenuity and imagination. With its atmospheric music and earnest performances, it takes an old-fashioned approach to the material and manages to deliver something we don't see much of these days: a low-budget genre film which relies more on its involving plot and interesting characters than on excessive gore. That's not to say the film doesn't have some genuinely gruesome moments. But what makes Sleepless Nights work is its screenplay, a solidly crafted piece that is several notches above the average for films of this type. The film is also well served by its cast, an attractive group of newcomers led by Jacqueline Anderson, Matthew Thomas and Richard Ryan. Anderson, a glamorous presence with great sex appeal is ably supported by Thomas and Ryan, two handsome, talented actors we expect to see more of in the future. Also making an impression is Duke York, who plays the villainous Lord Malgaard in a delightfully campy style that brings to mind Vincent Price in his scenery-chewing prime. Malgaard has in his thrall a dog collar-wearing mortal named Stritch, entertainingly played by Adrian Alvarado, who, with his intense expression and emphatic line readings, comes across like a Latin Udo Kier. To be sure, the telltale signs of Sleepless Nights' tiny budget are evident in the sets, costumes and special effects, leaving us to wonder what it would've looked like if the filmmakers had had some real money to work with. But it's a mark of the producers' courage that they attempted to make a film as lavish as this on such limited funds and it's to their credit that they've succeeded as well as they have. And so, while vampire fans are waiting for the next Lestat installment or the next incarnation of Dark Shadows, they might sample this intelligent little flick. At its best, it provides some genuinely pleasurable moments of escapist entertainment, something which--in the horror genre, at least--is in short supply these days.