BITS 2017: Our Review Of ‘Red Spring’

Posted in BITS 2017, Festival Coverage, Movies by - November 22, 2017
BITS 2017: Our Review Of ‘Red Spring’

This flick wears its low budget on its sleeve, because its the only choice it has. The make-up here is terrible, its vampires looking more like Party City. Although I can see that it was trying to make a contemporary version of Count Orlok. At least the movie is trying to make vampires scary again. Ray (Jeff Sinisac, who is also the film’s director) enters a vampire-free refugee shelter thinking that his family is there. Unfortunately all he sees are dead bodies, and he reluctantly rejoins a group of survivors.

They leave vampire-heavy Toronto in a van. I would have been fine if the rest of the film took place there. There they try out their one-liners. My favourite one is Ray saying ‘This is my game face,’ Sinisac doing his best to underplay those words. The actors vary in talent here. But they are, as part of their objective, on the same level as he is. They can aim for camp but they want to make a sincere film. They help build this apocalyptic world by telling each other necessary observation about these new vampires’ skill sets.

One other thing is that this film doesn’t look its best during nighttime scenes. There’s a photo-shopped quality to the way these scenes look. The interior scenes fare much better visually and writing-wise. During those scenes, these characters get to shut out the vampires and their leader (Andre Guantanamo). And we get to know the survivors, especially the gang’s new member Vicky (Elysia White). Her father has a bunker in Kincardine where they can bide their time before the bloodsuckers come. And this film doles out that tension competently.

BITS pairs Red Spring with Paint the Town Red. It’s a short film that uses vampires as a metaphor for the urban nightlife.

  • Release Date: 11/23/2017
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While Paolo Kagaoan is not taking long walks in shrubbed areas, he occasionally watches movies and write about them. His credentials are as follows: he has a double major in English and Art History. This means that, for example, he will gush at the art direction in the Amityville house and will want to live there, which is a terrible idea because that house has ghosts. Follow him @paolokagaoan on Instagram but not while you're working.
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