A group of friends meet again in the quiet small town where they had shared a terrible secret. Together, they will discover the ancient curse of Kaisha and have to face the demons of the past. Literally.

Written and directed by Roberto D’Antona, who also stars, The Last Heroes is a fun and clever take on some classic cinema ghouls — vampires, zombies, and witches. It balances horror with Italian humor in order to tell a familiar story of friends battling with a summoned witch, but in an original way that seems unlike other Italian films. With its 80s vibe in music and filming style adding character to a movie that is already full of unique and funny characters, The Last Heroes has just enough explosive blood to please gore-hounds and more than enough humor to capture a horror-comedy audience.

With bullies hot on their tail, a group of children decides to take refuge in a seemingly abandoned manor where they find ancient and powerful beings — a White Witch battling a dark a vampiric witch who is hellbent on destroying everything. The sight of these beings petrifies the children, and though they escape that night, the experience changes them in irreparable ways. Having moved onto their separate lives, the friends find each other again 20 years later, when they all end up back in their hometown by happenstance, however, after the reunion their past swiftly comes back to haunt them. The evil witch, who had been slumbering since that fateful night, is awakened by a loyal follower. Immediately, the townspeople begin to be picked off one by one, prompting a police investigation but to no avail. The friends realize that they must overcome their childhood fears and face the ancient curse of Kaisha together, as well with the help of some unlikely allies.

I personally am on the edge with The Last Heroes. It begins like it will be a serious and scary movie, so I was drawn into its building plot of a shared traumatic childhood event. However, somewhere in the middle of the film The Last Heroes steps in a big pile of cheese and then for the rest of the movie it can’t seem to stop laughing at itself about it. At first, I was disappointed by this change in tone because the film was showing the potential to be truly scary and it seemed like a cop-out to turn silly, however, towards the end the cheesiness at least became laughable in a fun way. I was also disappointed by the use of CGI for visual effects, which was used for the witch’s power-balls and sometimes used for blood — it looked cheap when used, so no CGI for these elements would have looked better. The parts where D’Antona chose to use real blood were often visually striking though; practical effects blood is always best!

Despite its cheesiness in premise and aesthetic, the film had some thrilling action sequences and fun fighting scenes. Also, The Last Heroes seems to take notes from some great horror/adventure movies — It, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter come to mind. It seemed as though a lot of string instrumental was used in its score, and at their high-pitched and abrupt melodies, an orchestra of violins set classically suspenseful moments… before all the silliness of the second half. The only problem here was that a lot of the time, this wonderfully unsettling string score was used to trick people into anticipation — nothing would end up happening, causing the suspense to fizzle out. Another aspect of the movie that was not put to good use was its actors. The cast was at the mercy of the script, which had a crowded story-line, cramming witches and zombie/vampire-like creatures, folklore, crime investigation, an archaeological mystery, a couple of romances, and childhood trauma into one sitting. It is not the kind of movie with much character development, with Francesco Emulo making his character Leo into a Jar Jar Binks-like character for comic relief, only given funny one-liners. The supporting female, Mia played by Erica Verzotti was under-used as well, who was only given the sassy or naggy lines. The acting performances were well enough for the story-line, but their characters sadly turned out to be mostly surface due to the film’s many subplots.

Are you into witches, zombies, and/or vampire films? Have you ever thought to yourself, hmm wouldn’t it be great if Indiana Jones went up against them? Do you also get a little giddy when a character says the name of the movie at some point in the movie? Then The Last Heroes may be a fun watch for you. I feel like if you like Army of Darkness you would enjoy this movie; The Last Heroes‘ humor was unbounded as it progressed and it trudged unashamed into some downright silly territory. Other than Suspiria (1977) and Tenebrae (1982), I am not well versed in Italian horror films, but The Last Heroes feels very different, like a bad B movie out of America. Released November 19th, you can follow the adventure in The Last Heroes via DVD, BluRay, and digital platforms.