Sean Parker
Bogieville was one of the films I was really hyped up for at this year’s FrightFest. I love a good vampire movie. Who doesn’t? The preview offered a no-holds-barred fight between two factions of feuding undead creatures of the night. I don’t know if other people do this with movies, or maybe even different color M&M’s or Skittles, but I was building myself up for Bogieville so I could immerse myself in Director Sean Cronin’s film without anything else plaguing my mind. I was genuinely excited to have good, dirty vampire fun.
Viewers entering Bogieville knowing nothing about it will be thrown for a loop with the film’s first few minutes. A cold open sequence takes place even before the production company titles begin to play, showing a vampire “sniffing out” a woman having her period. In correspondence with Cronin, he said about the scene, “The opening of Bogieville has potentially perhaps slightly ‘taboo’ subject matter, in that our vampires know when it’s a woman’s time of the month (although we have toned it down considerably from the original cut) it’s kind of like when a shark smells blood in the water, our vampires have similar senses, something that has never been alluded to in vampire movies gone by.” I’m inclined to agree. Though it was slightly alluded to in Run, Sweetheart, Run and explicitly sexualized in Anne Rice’s novel Memnoch, The Devil, the notion has never been addressed like this in film form. It may not appeal to everyone, but it is shockingly unnerving and attention-grabbing.
As Bogieville resets after this nightmarish vision of vampires, it centers on the relationship between Ham (The Raid 2’s Arifin Putra) and his partner, Jody (The Bastard Executioner’s Eloise Lovell Anderson), two residents of the southern states of America having a tough economic go of it. When they both lose their jobs on the same day, it feels like a sign to Ham to ease down the road to greener pastures. What they find is a rundown trailer park named Bogieville. Ham is offered a job helping the park’s caretaker, Crawford (Jonathan Hansler), look after the place, but with several ominous caveats. The largest being if they leave, the vampires have Jody’s menstrual scent and can hunt the couple down.
Though the movie focuses on Ham and Jody, at the heart of the film is a story about family and the inability to let go. Crawford feels he owes a debt of gratitude to his brother Madison (Cronin), who took him and his Lily (Poppie Jae Hughes) in when they had no one else. Returning the favor, Crawford now looks after Madison and his wife Tess (Sarina Taylor), who are, in turn, looking after his daughter after they all become vampires. Crawford then volunteers to become a Renfieldesque character, keeping his family safe and looking after the vampire trailer park that is Bogieville. Ham and Jody seemingly appear on his doorstep as if angelically sent to answer a desperate plea. It’s never said aloud, but there are hints suggesting Crawford needs the help, speaking to his daughter that he’s getting older and can’t take care of the nest forever. Additionally, the fact that Bogieville is seemingly under siege on a nightly basis may also feed into the character’s decision.
However, in establishing Crawford as the day watchman, viewers mostly get the tour. Crawford talks around the subject to a fault, and it’s a relief when Ham finally gets him to spit out the V word. It then finally feels like the movie is about to open the gory floodgates as Crawford shows Ham dusted remains outside of a trailer with sleep-interrupted vampires ready to pounce. The thing about it is Bogieville has trouble rounding that corner. We have a brief encounter with the utterly superb makeup effects by Tequila Carter’s team (who makes me a little more excited for the upcoming Poohniverse movie Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare) when we see Lily out for a snack. Bogieville then goes back into exposition mode, extensively detailing Crawford’s situation.
The third element that joins Bogieville is the investigation aspect. Doctor Carol Mills (Angela Dixon) and Sheriff Jim Barry (Daniel P Lewis) find a slew of bodies left in Ham and Jody’s wake and think the two have gone full Natural Born Killers during their departure. As evidence mounts that vampires exist, the town gets involved to take back their community, more and more characters begin to convolute the film, and Bogieville gets messy.
Having directed a good number of films already, Cronin is no amateur behind the camera. Bogieville is extremely well-shot. I have to figure that means Cronin and his DP, Daniel Patrick Vaughan, must have had one crazy game plan for the shot list, given some of the film’s tight locations. The film is visually impactful, and honestly, it was the image of Ayvianna Snow centered between overhead lights, sneering viciously through remarkable vampire makeup as blood and saliva poured from her chin, that drew me to Bogieville in the first place. The visual language of the film is well done, but the narrative feels as if it’s pulled in too many directions.
The unfortunateness of Bogieville is that by the time the film finds the chaotic fun, the audience has effectively tuned out. The breadcrumbs it attempts to leave for viewers aren’t enough to sustain their bloodlust. Many of the early vampire moments, the killings and turnings, happen off-screen, granting no payoff or satisfaction to the viewer. Cronin and writer Henry P. Gravelle try to make this up to them through the dramatic tragedy of Crawford’s backstory and the parallels Ham and Jody face at being caught in the middle of the trailer park turf war. As the film attempts to bring more characters in, it also alienates the audience. There’s no rhythm, though a few sequences along the way, including a vicious fight at the end of the film, help provide a pulse. Alas, Bogieville just doesn’t stick the landing.
Where Bogieville winds up is in a very strange place. Many of the bold aspects of the effort are admirable, like that divisively shocking cold open that sets a tone it never finds its way back to and the fantastic quality of the production as a whole. But I think the movie doesn’t know what lane it wants to be in and has trouble navigating the narrative because of it. The film feels strikingly similar to Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark, with many sequences suggesting a foray into action horror. Yet the characters are heavily tragic and mired in drama, and the pieces just don’t fit together the way they’re intended.
Ultimately, Horror movie fans who love vampires are going to really dig Bogieville’s makeup effects and see the artistry of Cronin and Vaughan’s cinematographic dexterity. Bogieville screened on August 25 at FrightFest.
BOGIEVILLE ‘Even God knows not of this place…’ 60 second teaser
BOGIEVILLE TAG LINE: ‘Even God knows not of this place…’ An American Vampire Road Movie. A young couple on the run come across a derelict trailer park, BOGIEVILLE. Convinced to stay by the sinister caretaker ‘Crawford’ they soon learn that he is a guardian to the residents of Bogieville, a pack of Vampires headed by the formidable Madison.
