Movie Review: Night of the Vamp-Friars
(2026)

By The Mink



In the 2010s, I watched the surreal cartoon Regular Show regularly. One of its running gags was fake movies that were ridiculous but entertaining because they committed to the bit. Ello Gov’nor is about a taxi possessed by a murdered taxi driver. Zombie Dinner Party is about zombies attacking people with forks and knives. Donut Factory Holiday is about a couple trapped overnight in a donut factory who are attacked by monsters.

Watching Night of the Vamp-Friars felt like watching a fake Regular Show movie that committed to the bit for a full hour and twenty minutes.

This movie centers around an order of Franciscan monks who were executed for being vampires and buried in a secret cemetery. Centuries later, the incident has become a barely remembered local legend that catches the interest of college radio DJ Roxy (Abby Arza), who brings her punk-rock boyfriend Cole (Domenico Pugliese) and his band along to check it out. When Cole punches Warren (Joe Ambrosini), a romantic rival for Roxy, in the face, blood is spilled and the Vamp-Friars rise from their graves.

Before I get into my praises and criticisms of this movie, let me state that the best way to view it is in the theater with an audience. I caught this flick late Saturday night at the Brattle Theatre with a really receptive crowd of the drunk, high, and sleep-deprived (I was the latter). Howls of laughter at silly dialogue and ridiculous kills were a good reminder that, above all else, this movie is intended to be fun more than it is meant to be scary. Because I’ve got to admit, if I had watched this at home by myself, I question whether I’d be as forgiving.

Director Kurtis Spieler really did walk the razor’s edge between making a parody of the low-budget, direct-to-video horror movies of the ’80s and doing a straight homage to the video-nasty era, warts and all. Because of this, it’s really hard to parse out what’s intentionally bad, what’s unintentionally bad, and what’s the result of an extremely limited budget. Take, for example, a bit involving a pair of Roxy’s underwear that Warren comes across. The whole shtick is a bit cringy and inadvisable because it’s established that we want Roxy to choose Warren over Cole, and now Warren looks kind of sleazy. HOWEVER, those types of pervy jokes were very prevalent in ’80s movies, so it could be chalked up to commitment to the bit.

And then there are the Vamp-Friars themselves, the skeletal remains of the buried dead come back to life. The Vamp-Friars barely move due to their limited puppetry. During what are supposed to be climactic battles of life and death, the friars just stand there. When one of them has holy water sprayed in its face, it makes no effort to even move out of the way

And yet the friars do have a charm to them. First off, they look great, and I prefer the puppet skeletons over human actors in makeup. Even with their limited movement, they have personality. Second, every time a friar was actually able to get a kill in, I was kind of rooting for them since they were all at such a mobility disadvantage.

And if there were any signs that this was an intentional comedy, those over-the-top kills would be Exhibit A. Heads get ripped off. Bodies are split in half and hands are cut off, but it all comes off like sketch comedy rather than serious gore and horror. One particular death had me cracking up when a friar eats one of the band members’ innards because it looked like it was inhaling a Fruit Roll-Up.

I’d go so far as to say that if a small child happened to catch Night of the Vamp-Friars, they’d remain unbothered because, for all of its gore, none of it is actually convincing, and all those actors were clearly unharmed. In fact, despite all the grisly deaths of friends and acquaintances, the survivors seem barely bothered by it, let alone traumatized.

If there is one thing I think this movie captured brilliantly, intentionally or not, it was an experience I had as a kid in video rental stores. I was too young to watch them, but seeing the covers and reading the backs had me convinced every horror movie was a terrifying experience. Then, when I was old enough to watch them, I discovered the vast majority of them were ridiculously bad and unconvincing. Night of the Vamp-Friars took that experience and cranked it up to 11, celebrating that gulf between expectations and the actual film. (And if I’m wrong about this, my sincerest apologies to Mr. Spieler for the jerkiest praise one could give.)

As I’ve stated before, this movie is hard to rate, as it’s intentionally mimicking notoriously bad films and does so successfully, but it may require going in on the joke. If not, your tolerance may vary.

But for now, I’ll be keeping an eye on Kurtis Spieler if he decides to do another video-nasty homage, whether it’s something unrelated or the Vamp-Friar sequel promised at the end.

I do hope that if this movie is successful, the follow-up will have the budget to give the Vamp-Friars the Ray Harryhausen treatment!