Blood Bait was written and directed by Sam Krass. It is about Kevin Adams, an educator on a crash course with vampires after an old friend reaches out to him. Its primary influence is Hammer horror. 

The acting is fundamentally flawed. Many things inhibit these performances. One is that the dialogue is dubbed over, and the voice actors perform like they’re working on a cartoon. I love Kung Pow! Enter the Fist. Bring on the comedy. This is not a comedy. It has comedic moments here and there, but the dialogue is not comedic. The performances of the actors being dubbed over are rarely comedic. There is a dissonance here. One advantage to dubbing over performances is you can do it in optimal conditions. You can do it inside, with a good mic, with the audio software up, and account for any issues before applying those voice lines to the scene. Some audio performances still sound like they have an echo to them, and others sound as if the lines are being read directly from the page for the first time. Most of the characters are as shallow as can be. Kevin has the most depth and the only character relationship worth mentioning, but the execution of this is far from flawless. Kevin is way more interesting conceptually than he is to watch. The dialogue is acceptable most of the time. There are little things I don’t vibe to, but the dialogue is not the real problem. The dialogue is the victim. 

Blood Bait has nine minutes of set-up before we’re introduced to Kevin. That’s not unusual for the type of horror it’s inspired by, but given the circumstances, I would have appreciated it if things were faster-paced. The tonal dissonance prevents it from being suspenseful, funny, thrilling, or sad. There is no harmony. These elements are boxing one another. The lighting is bad, and the night scenes are awful. I could barely make out what was happening at night. The biggest compliment I can give the visuals is they faithfully use shots and compositions that echo older horror films. The visual effects are often underwhelming, and there are sound effects that are too silly. I don’t feel like I understand the rules of these vampires. My experience left me with questions, such as why “vampire A” is a sitting duck but “vampire B” isn’t. Maybe it isn’t a lack of explanation; maybe it is a lack of continuity. In either case, stuff like this hurt the story. 

It doesn’t matter what angle Blood Bait takes. It doesn’t matter if it’s horror, horror comedy, or horror-themed comedy, it fails regardless of what genre I try to put it in. I worry people might watch this and come to the conclusion that Hammer horror isn’t worth seeing. The biggest compliment I can give Blood Bait is that it is ambitious, and it is a shame to see such ambitions blunder this badly. 

1 out of 10