Boys from County Hell reimagines vampiric lore

 

(Image courtesy of houstonpress.com)

Not since Stephenie Meyer tried shovelling dung over Bram Stoker's legacy and pulling a Tolkien on the horror legend has any other writer or director tried to reimagine and reintroduce the vampire mythos to a public audience. To be honest, there have been various other authors and directors that have tried it, but they've always stuck close to Stoker's original concept. i.e. Let the Right One In, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night etc.

Now enter Boys from Country Hell, a B-grade horror comedy movie about a little village in Ireland that was supposedly the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula who based it on the hovel's own vampiric hometown legend, Abhartach. 

Apparently in Ireland, finding random human skulls is considered a normal, casual Sunday morning. (Image courtesy of cineurope.org)

The movie first introduces Eugene Moffat, a local layabout from the sleepy Irish town of Six Mile Hill, who has no prospects for the future, and does the odd job now and then just so he can pay to get shit faced at the town's local pub dubbed, The Stoker. One day, while drinking at the pub, Eugene offers to help guide a pair of Canadian tourists to the grave of Abhartach, who legend has it was a vampire and inspiration for Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" when Stoker passed through the village decades ago. 

The land where the grave is located (marked by a pile of rocks and a ram's skull) belongs to his best friend's family William Bogue. One night as they leave the pub (a recurring theme in this movie) and walk through the Bogue land (it had An American Werewolf in London vibes), William gets into an altercation with Eugene and dies (after getting rammed in the gut and pinned against the stones by a rogue bull). There's a scene where the blood seeps into the ground around the grave and gets sucked into the earth. 

Afterwards, all hell breaks loose in the village as a few people start to turn and it's up to Eugene; his father, Francie; William's ex-girlfriend, Claire and their other friend SP to stop turned villagers and a newly risen Abhartach. 

(Image courtesy of youtube.com)

Boys from County Hell is not exactly a slow burn movie as the scenes shift at a moderate pace, but the script writing and banter between characters just makes it feel very sluggish. However, towards the middle of the movie, the pace starts picking up and it gets very entertaining in terms of action and comedy. Although the script was lengthy, it was necessary to introduce the characters, their personalities, relationships and sets he general pace and feel of the movie. 

The movie quality was splendid with many choice scenes being shot really well and if you can get past the thick Irish accent, it's quite an enjoyable movie. Each character was written well and their development was satisfying to say the least, especially Eugene. You can tell from the banter each character has with one another differs and the acting was solid. 

The creature design for Abhartach and the turned villagers was really satisfying as well and the reimagined lore of the vampire was written in subtly but made for one good vampire movie experience, especially the transmission and siring process. 

You have to understand that this movie was written to indicate that Stoker stole the vampire mythos from Abhartach, and the realisation that Stoker highly exaggerated the myth and the effect of that was palpable in the final reveal. 

(Image courtesy of starburstmagazine.com)

All in all, it's such a good homage to vampire movies and the very fact that the villagers hated that Stoker took credit for the idea but still tried to milk the franchise was so hilarious and satisfying. 

Asian Does Horror gives Boys from Country Hell 👻👻👻 ghost emojis out of five.