LIVING AMONG US (2018)

Studio:       Vision Films
Director:    Brian A. Metcalf
Writer:       Brian A. Metcalf
Producer:  Thomas Ian Nicholas, Brian A. Metcalf
Stars:     William Sadler, Thomas Ian Nicholas, James Russo, Esme Bianco, Andrew Keegan, John Heard, Jordan Hinson, Hunter Gomez, Chad Todhunter

Review Score:

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Summary:

With vampires living openly among humans, a documentary film crew interviews a mysterious family claiming to be undead.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

In the wake of an exposé revealing that supposed vampires have been subsisting on supplies from blood donation facilities, vampire sectional leader Samuel endeavors to publicly spread a message that vampires are not murderous and wish to coexist with humans. Through an arrangement with Samuel, KMNBR TV station manager Aaron Stafford assigns his eager brother-in-law Benny to team with accomplished documentarian Mike and Mike’s girlfriend Carrie for a vampire family interview.

Mike, Benny, and Carrie arrive at a house and meet vampire Andrew Pritchard, his wife Elleanor Grey, and their “sons” Blake and Selvin. Andrew instructs the crew that they cannot enter the basement, they cannot film vampire rituals, and they are not to disturb the family while they sleep during daytime.

Anxious to portray vampires as pacifists, Andrew dispels common beliefs about vampires as myths while explaining their physiology in medical terms. Elleanor claims that Andrew saved her from a fatal illness by turning her into a vampire.

Rebellious and narcissistic, Blake recounts how Andrew made him a vengeful vampire following his troubled youth. Andrew’s presence during his interview causes Blake to hold back on enthusiastically discussing killing humans.

Selvin’s odd behavior disturbs Mike, Benny, and Carrie. Blake explains that Selvin nearly went mad and became partly feral after being imprisoned in darkness for 30 years.

While the crew sleeps that night, Selvin sneaks into their bedroom and sniffs Carrie. The next day, Mike plants hidden cameras throughout the house before having a videoconference with Aaron. Blake demonstrates how sunlight burns his arm.

Carrie gets a nosebleed at breakfast. After spending the afternoon sleeping, Carrie becomes cold and pale, forcing her to remain in bed.

Samuel arrives at the house that evening with two blonde women that he introduces as his daughters Rebecca and Sybil. With Mike and Benny secretly recording via hidden cameras, the vampires allow Mike and Benny to witness the sacrifice of a prostitute as they drink her blood.

Mike and Benny spy Samuel’s daughters making out in the pool. Intending for Mike and Benny to document the slaughter without Andrew’s knowledge, Blake and Selvin take Mike and Benny to a house where they behead, slash, and dismember three stoners.

Back at the family’s house, Mike and Benny discover surveillance footage indicating a possible romantic link between Samuel and Elleanor. Mike and Benny come to suspect they are being targeted for death when additional footage shows Andrew berating Blake for allowing them to witness more murders.

After an uncomfortable conversation with Andrew and Elleanor, Mike and Benny arm themselves with weapons for combating vampires. They then collect Carrie, who is severely weakened with bloody wounds all over her back. While trying to fight their way out of the house, Mike and Benny seemingly kill Blake with holy water and a silver knife.

Mike and Benny flee with Carrie through basement catacombs lined with corpses. Benny notices a royal painting of Elleanor, indicating that she may actually be an ancient vampire elder.

A horde of dweller vampires attacks Carrie. Realizing that she is turning undead anyway, Carrie sacrifices herself by running off alone to create a distraction for Mike and Benny.

Selvin attacks. Mike shoots Selvin dead with silver bullets.

Back upstairs in the house, Mike and Benny confront Andrew and Elleanor. Following a fight, Benny ends up holding Elleanor at knifepoint while Andrew holds Mike. Acting on his suspicion that she is an elder, Benny slits Elleanor’s throat, which harms Andrew in turn. Mike pulls back a curtain. Sunlight combusts both Andrew and Elleanor.

Mike and Benny escape to their car outside. However, Blake reappears in the backseat and murders them both.

Samuel appears on a newscast to dispute allegations that murderous vampires were involved in the documentary team’s disappearance. Aaron ambushes Samuel with the secretly shot footage of the murders, publicly proving that Samuel’s claims about vampires are lies.

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Review:

When the world learns that vampires are not only real, but living alongside humans, Samuel (William Sadler) embarks on a minor media campaign to assuage understandable fears.  As a mouthpiece for promoting purported pacifism, Samuel wants the public to know vampires aren’t out to murder mankind.  They are actually as average as anyone else.

That’s the first problem with “Living Among Us.”  These vampires are almost as yawningly ordinary as everyday people.  And the mockumentary documenting their daily lives feels as flatly uninteresting as any other forgettable “found footage” film.

Despite shaggy hair, glazed eyes, and visibly clammy skin perpetually making him look as though he just did a bump in the bathroom, Mike (Thomas Ian Nicholas) apparently has credibility as a Ken Burns-caliber documentarian.  For a job as important as filming an in-depth exposé on a vampire family, it naturally makes sense that Mike’s station manager Aaron (James Russo, billed third despite appearing in only three scenes, two of which are via video) pairs Mike with his inexperienced brother-in-law Benny and the saddest selection of “professional” recording equipment anyone has ever seen (the Hi8 camera is essential for its night vision mode, we’re told).

Oh, Mike’s girlfriend and professional partner Carrie comes along for the ride too.  Then she takes ill and remains in bed for much of the movie, making her inclusion entirely negligible.

Mike and Benny, and Carrie technically, meet head of the vampiric household Andrew (John Heard), his wife Elleanor (Esme Bianco), and their pseudo-sons Blake and Selvin.  The movie muddles its mythology here a little bit.  Vampires have been out in the open for some time, yet Mike’s interviews start on science-minded details like how sunlight affects their skin, how it is possible to live for several centuries, etc.  In a world where humans coexist with the undead, I’d imagine a Discovery Channel special would have rendered such basic questions obsolete by now.  Nevertheless, this tiny news team explains the fiction’s “rules” for the audience’s benefit all the same.

If you’re thinking “Living Among Us” sounds like “What We Do in the Shadows” (review here), you’re both right and wrong.  You’re right in that “Living Among Us” follows the same conceit of vampires smilingly participating in a tell-all meant to dispel false notions about who/what they are.  You’re wrong in that “What We Do in the Shadows” features charismatic characters, biting dialogue, and appealing entertainment value while “Living Among Us” includes none of those things.

Remember the creepy cool “Salem’s Lot”-inspired Nosferatu from “What We Do in the Shadows?”  His feral Renfield counterpart in “Living Among Us” is just a guy in an Old Navy hoodie.  Where “What We Do in the Shadows” has a dapper gentleman dandy, “Living Among Us” puts Andrew Keegan in a leather jacket to look like Eric Balfour doing a poor Johnny Depp impression.

Commenters on another website who suspiciously sound like people associated with the production wish to make it clear that “Living Among Us” began filming in 2013, before “What We Do in the Shadows” premiered.  That valid defense against copycat criticisms inadvertently says more about the film by revealing it took over four years to finally land a release date.

“Bad” isn’t a fair word to encapsulate the acting, although performances don’t complement the “found footage” frame.  Dialogue exchanges are clearly scripted with the cast visibly reciting rehearsed lines.  Convincingness thus tends to be directly dependent on the person’s relative experience, as actors fend for themselves to find personalities.  For instance, veterans William Sadler and John Heard fare better at appearing in the moment while Thomas Ian Nicholas and Andrew Keegan look locked into “off book” autopilot.

Feelings of phoniness carry over to technical execution.  “Living Among Us” disappointingly resorts to an always-annoying digital corruption and audio hiss masking transitions.  Someone says something along the lines of a video feed being affected by transmitter distance, yet curiously, these glitches conspicuously occur every time an effect like a decapitation, dismemberment, or some other action refuses to be presented cleanly.  A montage of newscast clips similarly smacks of cheapness with green screen backgrounds and actors who wouldn’t be believable as man-on-the-street interviewees, much less anchors at a desk.

Arriving too late and with too little substance to have any relevance as a mockumentary or as a vampire movie, a low budget, lame conception, and zero-intrigue setup drain “Living Among Us” of any color or creativity.  The only notch the film has above other indie horror or “found footage” flops is a cast of actors that audiences have actually heard of.  If not for those names, no one would ever have heard of “Living Among Us.”

Review Score:  35

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