What do you get when you mix Lesbian Vampire Killers and Social Media Influencers? A poorly-written and ultimately uninspiring and bland horror/comedy named Fanged Up.
Directed by Christian James (Stalled) and co-written by star Daniel O’Reilly (known predominantly as the controversial Dapper Laughs), Fanged Up centers around cocky playboy Jimmy Ragsdale (O’Reilly) who, after an altercation at the club he works in, finds himself inside a prison run by vampires who feast on the inmates. Together with Russian brute Victor (played by former WWE Superstar Stu Bennett) and host of other truly throwaway characters including Alex (Youtuber Huw Samuel) and former flame Dr Makepeace (Danielle Harold), Jimmy must survive the weekend inside the prison turned larder.
From the very first scene of a long-winded and ill-acted opening chase scene with over the top panicking, one was aware of what may come throughout the rest of the 90 minute runtime. However, the remainder of the opening act surprisingly shows a glimmer of potential before swiftly being shot down once the “jokes” start to rear their ugly head. One could certainly tell that the gags, both audio and visual, were crafted by a former Viner and Instagram “celebrity” (see the joke about how being a virgin is embarrassing and would ruin his reputation with “the lads”). The typical one-liners which could be classed as relatable humour and crass lines of dialogue in an attempt to shock just honestly felt cringeworthy in places. Couple that with remarks such as “get to the chapel” which sounds a lot like “get to the chopper” and you can see what kind of humour we are dealing with here.
Towards the final act of the film, there are hints of what could have been as one scene in particular is quite well portrayed and heartfelt, only to have that emotional moment tarnished with yet again more unwarranted and untimely jokes rather than attempting to develop Jimmy as a character with an arc. At one point, it is revealed that a character is gay in a throwaway line which makes you feels like O’Reilly felt that he had to put him into the story in order to not offend, but could not think of an effective and respectful way of doing so. Along with the shoddy screenwriting in terms of the comedy element, the characters (or lack thereof) in regards to their development is laughable at best.
Nobody expects intricate and deep characters in this genre in particular, but you at least want to have some relatability or sympathy towards the ones who will ultimately perish at certain points throughout the narrative. The only character who has any kind of arc or history is Victor, played rather brilliantly by Bennett who puts a lot of his fellow cast members to shame. His comedic timing and facial expressions far surpass what one would expect from this film.
Even with all of these negatives, Fanged Up is still a watchable horror comedy effort as director Christian James manages shows that he is at least a competent filmmaker. The production values are a lot higher than you may predict, and the practical and special effects far exceed expectations too. Connect that with adequate editing that keeps the train moving and you can say that the film is somewhat passable.
With everything taken into account, Fanged Up had buckets of potential but unfortunately missed the mark with an extremely woeful script coupled with stilted acting, and would most definitely have been better suited as a long YouTube sketch collaboration considering the amount of content creators that made an appearance.
FANGED UP / DIRECTOR: CHRISTIAN JAMES / SCREENPLAY: NICK NEVERN, DANIEL O’REILLY, DAN PALMER / STARRING: DANIEL O’REILLY, DANIELLE HAROLD, STU BENNETT / CERT: 18 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
