''Red Snow'' is a 2021 American

horror comedy Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...

film directed by Sean Nichols Lynch. The film stars Dennice Cisneros as a supernatural romance author living in

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevad ...

who comes into conflict with

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

s over the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

holidays. The film had its international premiere at London FrightFest on August 26, 2021 and was released on December 28, 2021.

Plot

Struggling vampire romance

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

Olivia Romo is spending her Christmas holidays alone at her deceased mother's cabin in Lake Tahoe. One night, an injured

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

slams against her window. Olivia takes the wounded animal inside her garage to nurse it back to health. The next morning, Olivia is surprised to discover that the bat has transformed into a handsome vampire named Luke. Olivia stocks up on pig's blood from the local butcher to feed her new house guest and soon the weakened vampire is up on his feet and talking. The unlikely companions get to know each other and start to form a tenuous friendship, but Olivia grows suspicious of Luke's intentions as his past begins to catch up with him. Vampire hunter Julius King visits Olivia posing as a

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

and tells her he's looking for a trio of dangerous criminals, one of them being Luke. Olivia covers for Luke, but King sees right through her lies. He attempts to seize Luke by force, only to be killed in the process. Luke attempts to mend his shaky relationship with Olivia by giving her feedback on her book. Just as he's gotten back into her good graces, his vampire friends Jackie and Brock arrive on the scene, implying that he's strayed too far from his ruthless vampire roots and must kill Olivia. Jackie and Brock invade Olivia's home on Christmas Eve and Olivia barely escapes with her life in King's abandoned

SUV A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive. There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...

. While the vampires go on a late night killing spree, Olivia learns the horrible truth about Luke's past from King's records. Olivia calls one of King's associates, Simon, who advises her not to attempt to deal with the dangerous vampires herself. Nevertheless, on Christmas morning, Olivia returns to her cabin and fights the vampires, killing Brock and Jackie by

impaling Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso. It was particularly used in response to "crimes aga ...

them through the heart. Olivia then shoots Luke with a

crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an elastic launching device consisting of a bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar fashion to the stock of a long fi ...

, seemingly killing him as well. Ten months later, Olivia is a successful author of vampire fiction. Following a book signing in Los Angeles, Olivia returns to her cabin where she has imprisoned the barely living Luke in her garage, forcing him to be her

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

in exchange for blood.

Cast

*Dennice Cisneros as Olivia Romo *Nico Bellamy as Luke *Laura Kennon as Jackie *

Vernon Wells Vernon Michael Wells III (born December 8, 1978) is an American former professional baseball center fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the New York Yankees. Wells ...

as Julius King *Alan Silva as Brock *Edward Ewell as Simon

Production

While developing the project, Lynch took inspiration from some of his favorite vampire films such as ''

Fright Night ''Fright Night'' is a 1985 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Tom Holland (in his directorial debut) and produced by Herb Jaffe. It stars Chris Sarandon, William Ragsdale, Roddy McDowall, Amanda Bearse, Jonathan Stark, D ...

'' and ''

The Lost Boys ''The Lost Boys'' is a 1987 American supernatural black comedy horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Harvey Bernhard with a screenplay written by Jeffrey Boam, Janice Fischer and James Jeremias, from a story by Fischer and Jeremia ...

''. He wrote the characters of Olivia and Luke specifically for Cisneros and Bellamy respectively. Other roles were cast in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. The film was shot on location in Lake Tahoe over the course of 12 shooting days with an additional day of shooting at a bookstore in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

Release

The film premiered at Panic Fest, a horror/genre film festival in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, on April 14, 2021. It went on to screen at film festivals around the world throughout 2021, including London FrightFest,

New York City Horror Film Festival The New York City Horror Film Festival is an international film festival based in New York City that screens films from the horror genre. It was founded by Michael J. Hein in 2001. It takes place each year in New York City for a week in November ...

, GenreBlast, and

Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre (BARS) is an international film festival devoted to the genres of science fiction, horror and fantasy. It began in 2000 with a focus on independent films in those genres, and since 2004 in the form of a competitive festi ...

. The film was released through various video-on-demand services in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Korea on December 6, 2021. The film received a DVD and video-on-demand release in the United States on December 28, 2021.

Reception

The film has approval rating based on critic reviews on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Martin Unsworth of ''

Starburst MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers. History Founding and early su ...

'' rated the film 4/5 stars and praised the performance of Cisneros, saying "her wide-eyed wonder at meeting a real vampire is infectious, and she carries the role beautifully." In a negative review, Cath Clarke of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' criticized the film's comedic tone, saying "it's a black comedy with some silly splattery gore." The film won both the Audience Award and Best Horror/Thriller Feature at the 2021 GenreBlast Film Festival, as well as Best On-Screen Duo for Cisneros and Bellamy. At the

Sacramento Horror Film Festival ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

, it won the Best Feature prize while the New York City Horror Film Festival named the film Best Horror Comedy Feature of its 2021 edition. For her performance as Olivia Romo, Cisneros was awarded Best Actress in a Feature Film in the International Competition at Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and the Masque Rouge award for Best Performance at the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

Horror Film Festival.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Red Snow (2021 film) 2021 independent films 2021 films 2021 comedy horror films 2021 horror thriller films 2020s Christmas horror films American comedy horror films American independent films American vampire films American Christmas horror films American Christmas comedy films Vampire comedy films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films