Summer of Blood works pretty well as a comedy, and not much at all as a horror film. It's never really even *trying* to be a horror film, so I don't hold that against it. What did bother me a little is that it uses vampirism as a means of just having something happen (our hero turns about 30-35 minutes in). Summer of Blood doesn't use it to say anything noteworthy or do anything interesting. It just kind of happens because the movie needs a hook - and vampires are as good as any, yeah?
My Synopsis: 40 year old schlub Erik is a big ol' NYC slacker - he doesn't take anything seriously, he's sick of his job, and he's afraid of commitment. He passes on his girlfriend's marriage proposal, they break up, and shortly after he's bitten by a vampire. He then becomes a vampire and does vampire things.
Elaborate Genre: Vampire Slacker Comedy
Overall: Enjoyable as a scruffy comedy, although the vampire stuff is pretty weak.
The first act of the film is the strongest. While Erik is kind of a self-centered asshole, he's kind of a lovable self-centered asshole. His dialogue feels like it came from an updated Clerks universe; it's writerly and is littered with too many references to feel realistic, but more often than not it's clever and entertaining. A lot of it is Erik just sort of riffing on stuff, and while it feels a bit aimless, writer / director / star Onur Turkel has a sort of hangdog charisma that makes it work.
So seeing Erik fool around at work, wander about town, and going on dates or whatever is mostly fun. Then, he stumbles across a vampire, and our "adventure" begins. And our "adventure" here is mostly Erik going on second dates with the same women, and showing them how he's changed. Mostly by being slightly less of a dick and suddenly being good at sex. The only real bit of drama is that Erik is at first concerned about whether his potential victims have families or not, but that's not explored with any real depth and eventually gets tossed by the wayside.
The actual vampire business is not well explained, and it feels sort of half-baked as a concept. You kind of want to see some sort of secret vampire society or something, and while it's mentioned you never see any other vampires besides the one who bit Erik in the first place. Also, the lack of any sort of police presence is sort of troublesome. You'd expect a bunch of bodies, drained of blood, with their throats torn out, would be a bigger deal. But Summer of Blood seems to mostly avoid any conflict not directly related to Erik's relationships, so I guess it's not much of a surprise.
And most of his relationships involve turning women into vampires so they can have vampire sex. Which is problematic. Vampirism here is presented as a curse, so it just seems like a jerk move to turn people. But that's the big issue with the film. Erik is a self-centered jerk before he's a vampire, and slightly less so right when he becomes one. But once he gets used to it, he's even more of a jerk - now he's just taking advantage of people using vampire hypnotism. There's not an arc or a journey of any kind for Erik. Usually, you like to see vampires in a film stand for or mean something. In Summer of Blood, it just feels there because something has to happen, (it's a movie, after all) and indie slacker vampire comedy is a little more marketable than just indie slacker comedy.
So it just doesn't work as a horror film, but I don't think it's really even trying. (Although the gushing blood effects, even as they are played for laughs, are pretty decent.) But Summer of Blood does mostly work as a comedy. Turkel writes some snappy dialogue and is consistently entertaining. It's not a comedy where you're going to get a bunch of belly laughs, but it's clever enough to get a chuckle or two every scene or so.
But honestly, the thing that put it over the top for me was the film's depiction of New York City. It was nice to see the less populated/non-Manhattan areas of the city represented. I always assume that a lot of people don't shoot in NYC (because it's so fucking expensive), so it was nice to see. Or maybe it's pretty common and I just don't watch enough indie dramas or Lena Dunham-esque stuff. I visited there recently and was surprised how much I dug the more neighborhoody/less glossy parts of town, which is what you see depicted in the film. And while Summer is a dark (i.e. mostly taking place at night), presumably lower-budget film, it's got a nice look to it.
While there were a few things I didn't care for in Summer of Blood, the good outweighs the bad here. Just don't expect much of a horror film. But if a crass/slacker comedy with a little blood sounds up your alley:
I would recommend this film.
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