Bogieville Review: Sean Cronin’s Low-Budget Vampire Horror Has Potential But Lacks Solid Execution

Here’s a low-budget vampire horror Bogieville that got me curious about checking it out because I’m curious to see how actor-director Sean Cronin would pull it off with limited funds and resources. Besides, a low-budget horror — vampire or not — can reap rewards if the filmmaker knows well how to make use of the funds to his or her advantage with the power of ingenuity.

Right from the get-go, Cronin already established a grim, no-nonsense tone during the pre-credits opening sequence: A young woman, who is all alone, pulls into a rest stop somewhere in the deep south late at night. Well, let’s just say she’s having her period turns out to be a deadly consequence. Here, Cronin gives us the first sight of a vampire — mean, vicious, with all the sharp fangs and bloodthirsty. The makeup effect team does a good job here, complete with an overall decent start in Bogieville.

The movie then shifts its focus to Ham (Arifin Putra), a mechanic who’s been working hard at a garage, only to find himself being let go due to the slow business. As if things aren’t bad enough, his girlfriend, Jody (Eloise Lovell Anderson), also loses her job at the bar. With both of them unemployed, they can no longer afford to pay their rent, leaving them with no choice but to pack up their belongings and hit the road. The thing is, Ham doesn’t know where he is supposed to go, while Jody has grown increasingly frustrated about their current situation.

Soon, they end up at a rundown trailer park called Madison Farm Mobile Home Park after stumbling upon a sign. From there, they meet a caretaker named Crawford (Jonathan Hansler), who later offers Ham a job managing things around. Crawford agrees to provide them food and a place to stay. He also specifically warns them not to leave the property at any cost, particularly at night, and so does the basement, which is strictly forbidden. Ham and Jody learns the nickname Bogieville, referring to the trailer park, is because of the owner’s (Sean Cronin’s Madison) love for Humphrey Bogart.

We get a flashback every now and then, detailing the fate of Madison and his family, including his wife, Tess (Sarina Taylor) and daughter Lily (Poppie Jae Hughes). Yes, they are dead and turned into vampires ever since, but they don’t wander around looking for fresh blood, with Crawford promising to take care of them.

There’s an obvious shade of Near Dark, but unlike that Kathryn Bigelow’s stylish 1987 neo-noir vampire cult classic, Bogieville is more drab both visually and tonally. Cronin prefers to play it straight and dead serious for most parts of the movie, even though he doesn’t forget to throw in some occasional humour, mostly coming from the introduction of one of the local sheriffs.

On paper, it may look promising, but the second act is such a tedious slog that it almost makes me lose interest as the movie progresses. I get that the budget is low, but that doesn’t mean the story has to suffer because of it. The pace drags with nothing much going on, and it doesn’t help either when the young couple played by Arifin Putra and Eloise Lovell Anderson are sadly underwritten.

By comparison, Jonathan Hansler fares better as Crawford, whose sombre backstory and the reason he swears to look after the trailer park and the undead family should have been given priority instead. Bogieville also feels overlong, making me wonder if it will be better if Cronin trims the excess fat in favour of a leaner 90-minute length.

Fortunately, the movie manages to pick up its pace with the violent third act. Once again, the makeup effects are on point, and so are the scenes of the vampires exposed to the sunlight and burned to a crisp. There is plenty of blood and gore on display, and for a low-budget vampire horror, it sure has its few worthwhile moments. Too bad it’s not enough to overcome most of the shortcomings. Frankly, I like the concept that Cronin and screenwriter Henry P. Gravelle present in their movie, but the execution doesn’t end up as good as I hoped for.