While movies about vampires in New York City boroughs are nothing new, and neither is using them as metaphors, Vampires vs. the Bronx cleverly relates them to gentrification in an amiable way and brings a fresh audience to the horror-comedy genre. With people starting to disappear as fast as vintage furniture stores, and vegan ice cream trucks are replacing staple businesses, “Lil Mayor” Miguel (Jaden Michael, Wonderstruck), and his best friends, Bobby (Gerald Jones III, Blue Bloods) and Luis (Gregory Diaz IV, In The Heights), begin to believe that the Murnau company that’s buying up all of the property might be sucking the life out the neighborhood in more ways than one.
Vampire films were popular long before they sparkled in the Twilight series, got slayed by Buffy, or even gave interviews to Christian Slater, and writer/director Oz Rodriguez along with Blaise Hemingway were able to incorporate everything from Nosferatu to What We Do In The Shadows into crafting the lore for their movie. It’s difficult to put a fresh spin on the genre, but the homage blended with new elements like using boiling holy water to detect vampire presence is satisfying enough. The trio of friends, essentially raised in a neighborhood bodega by its friendly and funny owner Tony (The Kid Mero), turn to the teachings of a Blade DVD to learn the ropes, and creatively put their new skills into practice to defend themselves and the neighborhood they care about.
It’s definitely a movie that will serve to represent this moment in time, between the jokes about kale and flaxseed, a character (Imani Lewis) live streaming throughout, and the popular Gen Z slang of today. It has a lot of playful tropes like writing things in a notepad, a battle preparation montage, and visually seeing text messages, to help balance its significant message with its intention to also be a very fun movie, and it does well to convey both.
The horror aspects of the film are scary enough to not be overly campy, but there is no interest in gore or tiresome jump scares. The special and visual effects created by Johann Kunz and Diego Rojas are tremendous, giving their vampires look, and their deaths a familiar feel, much in the same vein as what Buffy the Vampire Slayer was going for, had they had the software and budget of today.
Extremely well-acted all around, everyone fits the tone of what it’s going for, from Sarah Gadon (True Detective) playing Vivian, a sweet white lady who just relocated to the Bronx to everyone’s bewilderment, to Coco Jones (Five Points) as Rita, an older teenage girl that Lil Mayor clearly has a crush on. Method Man (The Wire) even appears in yet another Netflix production — against type this time, as Father Jackson, and various recognizable comedians and writers fill in the neighborhood, all lending their individual charm and laugh-out-loud moments.
It was most essential that each of the boys be cast correctly, which they were, and they play their parts brilliantly. They give you the impression that they have grown up together, demonstrating the chemistry you need to see on screen for their bond to be believable. All three are on different paths with Lil Mayor focusing his attention on saving the bodega, Luis recently having moved away with family, and Bobby being recruited by local gang member Henny (Jeremie Harris, Legion), which lends itself to a cool payoff in a scene with Frank (Shea Whigham, Homecoming), the man seemingly running Murnau. Despite their differences they choose to be fiercely loyal, and that mindset also embodies the Bronx as a whole.
It’s full of in your face metaphors, but also style, witty dialogue and the kind of best friend camaraderie that we have come to expect from these kinds of films. Vampires vs. the Bronx certainly isn’t groundbreaking by any measure, but it is a fun watch and communicates a thoughtful point, albeit comedically.
