''There's No Such Thing as Vampires'' is a 2020 horror film that was directed by Logan Thomas. It is based on a script written by Thomas and Aric Cushing, who also starred. The film premiered in the United Kingdom and United States in August 2020 at the film festivals FrightFest and

Dances With Films Dances With Films is an annual independent film festival located in Los Angeles, California and was founded by Leslee Scallon and Michael Trent. Lineup Taking place every year since 1998, the festival is dedicated to representing true independent ...

, respectively, prior to its release in 2021.

Synopsis

Joshua interrupts a showing of ''

Nosferatu ''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' (German: ''Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens'') is a 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who preys on the wife ...

'' in order to warn the viewers that vampires are very real, only to be taunted by a cowled figure, Maximilian. With Maximilian in pursuit, Joshua flees to the desert and gets involved in a motor vehicle collision with Ariel. The two flee after Ariel experiences a vision of her dead mother. They head to a friend of Ariel's, David, in hopes that he can help them evade potential harm and death.

Cast

* Emma Holzer as Ariel * Josh Plasse as Joshua * Aric Cushing as Maximilian Maddox *

Meg Foster Margaret Foster is an American film and television actress. Some of her many roles were in the 1979 TV miniseries version of ''The Scarlet Letter'', and the films ''Ticket to Heaven'', ''The Osterman Weekend'', and ''They Live''. Early years Fo ...

as Sister Frank *

Raphael Sbarge Raphael Sbarge (born February 12, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Jake Straka on ''The Guardian'' (2001–04), Jiminy Cricket / Dr. Archibald Hopper on ''Once Upon a Time'' (2011–18) and Insp ...

as Detective Warren * Will Haden as David *

Judy Tenuta Judy Lynn Tenuta (November 7, 1949 – October 6, 2022) was an American comedian, actress, and comedy musician. She was known for her whimsical and brash persona of "The Love Goddess", mixing insult comedy, observational humor, self-promotion, ...

as Barbecue Becky * Scott Lindley as Peter * Brian Huckeba as Jojo *

Maria Olsen Maria Olsen (born July 22, 1966) is a South African film producer and actress known for her many roles in horror films. These include ''Paranormal Activity 3'', '' The Lords of Salem'', '' Gore Orphanage,'' and ''Starry Eyes''. Non-horror role ...

as Sigfreda * Chiquita Fuller as Detective Lowery * Tom McLaren as Detective Sykes * James Adam Tucker as Officer Davis * Matthew Dennis Lewis as Cameron

Production

Director Logan Thomas worked with American actor and writer Aric Cushing to pen the film's script. The two had previously worked together on the 2011 film ''

The Yellow Wallpaper "The Yellow Wallpaper" (original title: "The Yellow Wall-paper. A Story") is a short story by American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 in '' The New England Magazine''. It is regarded as an important early work ...

'' and Thomas did not want to make a similar film for his follow up. Cushing suggested several plots, all of which Thomas declined until Cushing suggested one about "a couple of people being out in the desert, basically being stalked in the desert by a Nosferatu or possible vampire". Thomas wanted the film to be a road movie and to "add something new to the vampire myth", so he wanted to "combine the other stuff that I would rather do, something closer to the original ''

Mad Max ''Mad Max'' is an Australian post-apocalyptic Action film, action film series and media franchise created by George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with ''Mad Max (film), Mad Max'', and was followed by thre ...

'' or ''

Terminator Terminator may refer to: Science and technology Genetics * Terminator (genetics), the end of a gene for transcription * Terminator technology, proposed methods for restricting the use of genetically modified plants by causing second generation s ...

'', and bring that idea and level of myth to it." Other inspirations for the film came from the film ''

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 80s horror films in general. Casting for the movie took about six to ten weeks and principal photography for ''There's No Such Thing as Vampires'' wrapped in 2017.

Release

''There's No Such Thing as Vampires'' had its United Kingdom premiere at the August 2020 digital edition of FrightFest on August 28, 2020, followed by its North American premiere at

on August 29, 2020. The film had a reduced number of screenings at other film festivals due to multiple festivals cancelling that year's events due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Reception

''There's No Such Thing as Vampires'' holds a rating of at review aggregator

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 ...

, based on reviews, with an average rating of .

Sequel

Thomas has expressed interest in continuing the film via a sequel or a soft reboot miniseries via a streaming provider such as

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 3155720 2020 films 2020 horror films American vampire films 2020s chase films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films