DVD Review: Nocturna

DVD Reviews, Film, Reviews, Top Story

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When you sit down to watch a low budget vampire flick with a generic name like Nocturna you don’t expect much. And if not much is what you’re expecting then you’ll get exactly that. Nocturna has some interesting ideas, but manages to be very boring.

Set in New Orleans, the world of Nocturna establishes the fact that all the seasoned cops know that vampires exist, but have looked the other way for generations. However when Roy, a new detective, comes on the beat he gets in deep with two local vampire clans before his partner, Harry, can warn him. It turns out one of the vampire clans, the Molderos are sort of like pedophiles in that they only drink the blood of young kids. The other clan, lead by a man named Brisbane, stick to murderers and rapists and the like. The detectives rescue a girl who was mean to be dinner for the Molderos and Roy ends up shooting one of the leaders of the clan in the face. This, as you can imagine, really pisses him off.

However, not all is lost for our plucky new detective. It turns out the other clan wants the Molderos gone for good and they promise to protect him if he can take them out. While on the hunt Harry falls in love with one of the vampires, Lydia, who as a child was a prisoner of the Molderos. She gives Harry her blood which doesn’t turn him into a vampire, like you’d expect, but rather gives him vampire like abilities for a few days. The only problem is when the abilities wear off he’ll die.

It’s very strange how different the rules are for vampires in this film. They must still feed on blood and must still avoid sun light, but the whole guy not turning into a vampire was very confusing. As I said above, there were some interesting ideas in this film, but despite that, in was a very boring movie. Even in the end when you have two hot vampire chicks, Lydia and Belinda Moldero, sword fighting it some how doesn’t get exciting.

The acting across the board is bad, but not laughably so. In fact, I think that’s the biggest problem with this film: while it’s bad, it’s not bad enough. It were a little bit worse it might be entertaining, but it’s not even bad enough to laugh it. I think therein lies the reason it is so boring.

The film is presented in a 16 x 9 widescreen format and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The film looks okay, for a low budget film, but the sound is very muddy. I found it very hard to understand the dialog more often than not.

There are no special features.

If you’re looking for a fun vampire film to watch this Halloween season, Nocturna should not be that film. I keep trying to find something nice to say about the film, but I just can’t find it.

Alchemy presents Nocturna. Written and Directed by Buz Alexander. Starring Mike Doyle, Estella Warren, Danny Agha and Johnathon Schaech. Running time: 92 min. Rating: Not Rated, but contains vulgar language, violence and gore, and nudity. Released on DVD: October 6, 2015.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years