The recent release of television shows like Let the Right One In and Interview with the Vampire, as well as movies like Day Shift and The Invitation, prove that stories about vampires will always be in style. Our obsession with social media like Instagram and TikTok has made it possible for almost anyone with a camera and a platform to become a celebrity, so Influencer culture is also very much in style right now. When you take a group of influencers and force them to battle a vampire syndicate, you have the recipe for a modern horror comedy.
Written by Zack Imbrogno (The Shadow Diaries) and K. Asher Levin (Dig, The Shadow Diaries), and directed by Levin, Slayers tells the story of a self-proclaimed vampire hunter named Elliot Jones, played by Thomas Jane, who teams up with a clueless, spoiled group of YouTube celebrities who are being targeted by what Elliot describes as the vampire illuminati. Slayers succeeds at being a campy, blood-splattered good time, while also gently poking fun at the influencer lifestyle.
Haggard, bearded Elliot Jones (Jane) decided to devote his life to hunting vampires after his daughter was killed by a group of vampires posing as record executives. When he discovers that a group of influencers known as the Stream Team is being pursued by the largest vampire syndicate in the world because they all share a rare blood type the vampires need, Elliot sets out to save them and stop the syndicate from taking over the world.
The Stream Team is made up of equally self-absorbed Liz (Lydia Hearst) and Jack (Jack Donnelly), who are planning their wedding, as well as Jules, played hilariously by Abigail Breslin (Scream Queens), Jack’s sister Flynn (Kara Hayward), and their manager David (Ash T). David has arranged for the Stream Team to collaborate with Stephen and Beverly Rektor, played by Adam Ambruso and Malin Akerman (The Final Girls), to promote a vaccine that makes you immune to everything. The deal would make the Stream Team millions of dollars and because Stephen is terminally ill, the Rektors have also promised to leave their massive company to the group of internet celebrities after Stephen’s death. If this all sounds too good to be true, that’s because the Rektors have been stalking the streamers and only want them because they all share a rare blood type—one that would not only save Stephen’s life but would allow the Rektors to eliminate humans and rule the world forever.
Elliot tracks down the Stream Team, who are traveling by bus to the Rektors’ mansion to finalize the deadly deal. The only member of the team who takes Elliot seriously at all is Flynn; Liz and Jack are completely consumed with their outrageous wedding plans and Jules is busy preening and streaming for her millions of followers.
If you’ve seen Scream Queens, you know that Breslin is great at playing scatterbrained, self-involved characters and she doesn’t disappoint in Slayers. Akerman is fantastic as the sinister Beverly Rektor, who instructs her fanged minions to attempt to drain the influencers one by one of their precious blood. The story is interspersed with Elliot’s narration of famous, successful vampires in history, and even though not all the jokes in the film land, the ones that do work are delivered by Jane as the grumpy, exhausted, self-appointed vampire hunter who just wants the whole thing to be over with as quickly as possible. Elliot and Flynn eventually team up, armed with vials of liquid garlic, to try and stop the Rektors from carrying out their evil plan, while Flynn live streams the entire ordeal to the Stream Team’s followers.
While the influencers are painfully self-infatuated, Slayers is a melodramatic, stinging satire, and hilariously self-aware. Jane is marvelous as the beleaguered Elliot and Breslin and Akerman both give sensational performances as the Stream Team is forced to battle to the death against the vampires who can walk up walls. Even when the jokes fall flat, Jane makes Slayers silly, bloody fun.
The Avenue releases Slayers in theaters, on demand, and digital October 21.
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