Director – Ken Roht (Angel’s Ladies)
Starring – Kevin Richardson (Backstreet Boys), Brandon Heitkamp (Death’s Door), and Brian Gaskill (A Whore Named Time)
Release Date – 2014
Rating – 1.5/5
Tagline – “Renegade strippers hunt a temperamental vampire with substance abuse problems”
Horror musicals are usually a mixed bag for me. I grew up on the classic A Nightmare Before Christmas but musicals are something I tended to avoid. I secretly liked Grease but everything else just bored the holy shit out of me. That was until I was in high school and a friend turned me on to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. This forever changed my views on horror musicals and made me crave more. Not long after that the film Repo: The Genetic Opera was released. The music was moronic and tried too hard but the film definitely had a charm about it all it’s own.
Sadly, not many horror musicals have been released since then so when I received The Bloody Indulgent to check out I had to jump on! Who wouldn’t want to see an indie musical starring a former pop star that has fell from fame? As soon as I could I tossed it in and was utterly disappointed.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows the vampire Burt (Richardson) who is addicted to blood. He turns a former friend into a vampire and then turns his anti-vampire girlfriend into one and immediately kills a club owner. Burt and his friend then go to a vampire hang out while his friend’s girlfriend discovers a gang of zombies and accidentally becomes one. Now, she is shambling around town feasting on flesh. Also, the girlfriend of the former club owner and the performers are pissed and set out to kill Burt.
They can’t afford to pay a vampire killer so they hold a fundraiser to collect the money to pay him. However, he is unable to kill Burt forcing the group of misfits to band together and face the blood hungry vampire and his kind. **Spoiler Alert**
I can really dig a musical that has music that is fun, simple, catchy, and has something to do with the plot of the film. If they don’t follow at least one of these things then the musical falls apart and forces a lackluster flick down the viewer’s throat. That is the point of a musical, at least to me, that is how I feel they should play out. They should tell a linear story through music and dance numbers instead of using dialogue. Sadly, The Bloody Indulgentis unable to pull any of those off and rely heavily on Richardson attempting to sing sexually while covered in blood…which does not work.
The acting in this film is one of the weaker portions of the film. The first eye sore of the flick is the dreadful performance from Richardson. He tries to build up this character that is purely sexual, lusting for blood, and menacing only to fail. Most of the time he is prissing around on stage and his character is far from sexual or menacing. Think Frank N. Furter but without the charm, grace, and catchy lyrics. Never mind, don’t think of that classic character at all. The remainder of the cast does a better job than Richardson and their characters could be memorable if they were apart of a different production.
The story for this one is one played out in hundreds of films spanning several decades which involves a vampire turning someone and their loved one hunt them down. This was nothing new but had so much potential one combined with a real musician and turned into a musical. With that being said, the film fails to toss catchy songs at the viewer with memorable lyrics. Instead, we get dialogue that is sung to the viewer which makes it hard to follow the story regardless of how simple it is.
Finally, the film is full of typical vampire kills that are full of blood, as well as, some CGI gunshot wounds. The practical effects are decent but the CGI is below par. Overall, The Bloody Indulgent is a film that failed to fully use the tools at their disposal. The film has a slow burning story with horrible musical numbers and a main character as flat as a cardboard cutout. Avoid this one like the plague.
