Hold the garlic. Vamps and post-apocalyptic downers are everywhere right now, but Jim Mickle’s bloodsucker is no brain-drainer. An orphaned teen and a gruff vamp killer cross a lush America infested with undead in this soulful, stylish and savage allegory of hope’s decline in god’s country. Remnants of other films litter the way: think Malick remixing The Mist via The Road. But Mickle delivers the affecting characters, haunting images and ferocious set-pieces – neo-Aryan nutjobs drop vamps like bombs from the sky in one showstopper – needed to create an unusually full-blooded genre mash.
