I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

Is It A Companion To A Series Or An Outright Ripoff?







True Bloodthirst aka Vampyre Nation (2012) SyFy Original Movie

I will apologize in advance for this one. I have never seen True Blood although I know it is extremely popular, simply because I don't get the channel it's shown on. So I didn't know if the above movie was an explanation of the series, or an outright ripoff. So I had to look up True Blood in wiki. It's based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels by Charlaine Harris about the co-existance of vampires and humans because of the creation of synthetic blood, and so an uneasy truce exists that I'm sure has many complications. 

If I may suggest another read on the co-existence of humans and vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, etc. try Laurell K. Hamilton, one of my favorite authors, who has a huge series based on the adventures of Anita Blake, vampire hunter/zombie animator (you have to read it to understand) who's view of what she thinks is right and what is wrong is changed by her experiences. Laurell has also committed several of the books to comic books, and you can bet I've got every single one.

Okay, back to this... thing. You will have to decide whether this is a rip off of the series or not. Instead of being set in Louisiana, we are in Bucharest, Romania (although this was filmed in Bulgaria) where vampires have recently become legal citizens (about ten years) because of the invention of synthesized blood supplied by the Romanian government (okay, different location, same situation).


But because of the uneasy co-existence the vampires are all confined to 'Section 5', described as a type of camp (reminiscent of District 9). Those who used to hunt them, called vampirdzhiya (say that three times fast) and pronounced something like vampireicha, now are criminals and in jail. That's where we meet Johnny Harker (Oh come on, couldn't they use a little creativity for the name? Why not call the detective Van Helsing while we're at it?), played by Andrew Lee Potts, another face you may have seen several or many times but never known his name. 

He's also British believe it or not. This time instead of a ancillary character who's usually laid back with longish hair we get a tough very experienced fighter who's in the forefront of the entire movie. He is joined by Detective Derricks (Neil Jackson), his sister Celeste (Heida Reed) and girlfriend Katya (Claudia Bassols).

Somebody is providing infected blood to the vampire camp. The result has degraded those infected into nasty vampire bats instead of halfway normal looking humans. These bats don't discriminate, they kill both vampires and humans. So they enlist the help of the son of the 'leader' of the camp I guess, Nikolai (Ben Lambert) who has a special interest because the head bat is his brother (very obvious plot device).

And on we go. We've got betrayers, lots of vampire and human slayings, uneasy partnership with Nikolai and his bodyguards, and sneaking around for like forever. This is Sy Fy after all, they've got to fill those two hours.

Eventually all the betrayers are exposed, and we discover the head of the law enforcement for Romania is responsible for the tainted blood (another obvious device) and wants a war between humans and vampires to wipe out all vampires forever. He has installed transmitters that, when activated, drive the bats nuts and they come out in droves, killing indiscriminately.


So, the obvious ending comes. We lose Katya, we find out Derricks' wife was dying and he had her 'turned' without her permission, Celeste is shot and dying and Nikolai, who of course she has been falling in love with, turns her so she can 'live'. The head of law enforcement is made to put in the code that makes only the transmitter on top of his building send out the signal, drawing every bat to the building where they have planted enough C4 to blow the top three floors. 

He is then handcuffed to a piece of furniture and given the detonator so he has a choice since he's on the top floor - blow himself up, or let the bats tear him apart. You already know what choice he made, it's too obvious.


Nikolai and Celeste go back to Section 5 and Derrick goes with them to be with his wife who does not blame him for wanting her 'alive'. As they leave, Johnny Harker looks out over the city which is in turmoil, and hopes things become more normal from now on. I've never seen True Blood, but if I made a guess, I'd say this was a blatant rip-off.