Boys From County Hell (2020)

Boys From County Hell gets off to a great start and sets out the scene perfectly. A typically sleepy Irish village whose only claim to fame is Bram Stoker allegedly stayed there once and used a local legend as inspiration for Dracula. That local legend being Abhartach a vampire whose grave is set to be demolished by a new bypass. It drips with local charm and we have everything you would expect to see, sleepy pub (aptly named the Stoker), a group of friends resigned to their small village fate and disgruntled locals angry at the bypass plans. Soon that Irish idle is disrupted by the violent death of a local farmers son and strange events up at the Cairn.

This is a good film, the performances are good , the direction is good and the story is good, however there is something missing. I think its the pacing, as I said the film starts really well, the second act progresses at a pace but then all of a sudden at the midway point we seems to have slowed to a crawl by which point you are just waiting for the big bad to be revealed so we can move on to the finale.

Its not full of jump scares, there are no plot twists but the kills are good and the Vampire creature is well done, its just a shame he doesn’t get more than 5 minutes screen time. The humour comes in the deadpan delivery of the lines more than the dialogue itself and that simply adds to the charm of this film.

Verdict: 6/10 – Put simply this movie is a good fun watch. The plot (unlike our construction crew) doesn’t break new new ground or expand on the vampire myth but it does provide some genuine laugh out loud moments and just about enough horror elements to hold your attention for its 88 minute run time and if that’s not enough you’ll have fun spotting the nods to some classic horror movies.