At this point, it’s tough to do anything all that innovative with a monster as known and well-used as the vampire. So, writer/director Scott Deschaine  deserves credit for attempting to give life and laughs to the undead with his horror comedy Draculaw. In this film, the big bad is a lawyer who feeds off of people’s time and gets off on creating overregulation and bureaucracy.

The film’s opening resembles the blood contract that Jonathan Harker signs with Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, a sequence that’s been filmed and rehashed countless time. Only this time, the client has mounds and mounds of paperwork to sort through. This all leads to more lawsuits, and eventually, the client ages prematurely and literally has the life sucked from him.

Initially, we only see The Counselor’s (James Donahue) pale hands and hear his voice. It’s a fun set-up that sparks anticipation for the eventual reveal of the main vamp. Through the rest of the movie, half his face is covered, and he sports cheap white make-up with dark circles under his eyes. No, he doesn’t look all that menacing, but that’s not the point. He’s more annoying than anything, drowning clients in paperwork and creating overregulation that ignites frustration over new, burdensome laws.

The Counselor meets his match in the form of a young lawyer named Arc Gabriel, played by Joshua Greene. Arc gets pulled into a battle of good versus evil after he meets Sarah Dewey (Sarah Dewey), who cares for the client shown in the beginning of the film. She meets Arc in the nursing home, and this eventually serves as the film’s love story.

From there, the film plays more for laughs than it does scares. This is not at all a horror movie with lots of blood, despite it technically being a vampire movie. This film leans into the comedy far more than it does the scares. While some of the jokes certainly land, and while Dewey, Greene, and Donahue especially serve their roles fairly well, the film’s concept and jokes grow tired a bit past the halfway point. Still, the film does deserve some accolades for attempting to do something different with such a well-worn subgenre.

The film also feels limited by its budget. This is very much an indie movie. Yes, it does have heart, but some of the make-up and special effects sequences likely would have benefited from a slightly larger budget. Still, the cast and crew made use of what they had, but the low-fi quality may hamper some viewers yearning for a little bit more.

Draculaw is very much what the name implies. It’s a horror comedy featuring a lawyer vampire that feeds off of people’s energies and frustrations. Half-masked and sporting cheap make-up, Donahue plays the role of the big bad well. Though the jokes eventually tire and feel lifeless, at least this film attempts something different.