The mixing of vampires and gangsters is a rather lonely genre. Nearly 20 years ago, director John Landis gave us Innocent Blood. Anne Parillaud (La Femme Nikita) sucked on the necks of half the future cast of The Sopranos. The movie didn’t spawn a hundred imitations. There’s been a flood of vampire films and gangster movies, but rarely do they mix blood flowing. Dead Cert combines English mobsters with Romanian vampires to revive the genre cross.
Craig Fairbrass has gone straight from his mobster days. He’s still in the shady businesses of strip clubs while supporting his brother-in-law’s bare knuckle boxing career. He’s ready for the big times with the opening of his classy nightclub. What could go wrong for the guy? A group of Romanian businessmen that want to buy his nightclub before it opens. He’s not in the mood to sell so quickly. Billy Murray wants the space really bad. While location is extremely important, it turns out this nightclub is locate right over the grave of a VIP vampire. They’re not talking no for an answer since they’re undead. Even after Fairbrass gets run out his club, he wants it back. He rounds up his old gang to muscle on the fangs.
Dead Cert is more like a SyFy original movie made in England. This isn’t Masterpiece Theatre. It’s a low budget film that doesn’t skimp on the muscle and dripping blood in the finale. The accents make Dead Cert a classy production instead of a normal undead gore feast.
The video is 2.35:1 anamorphic. The transfer brings out the creepy details in the various night locations. The audio is 7.1 Dolby Digital. The mix is fine so you can hear the local accents over the throat biting.
The Blu-ray comes with three extras.
Audio Commentary features Billy Murray, Craig Fairbrass, Lisa McAllister and Jonathan Sothcott (producer).
Making of Dead Cert (29:51) gets behind how they brought together the bloodletters and the blood suckers.
Original Trailer (2:30) sets up the guns versus fangs conflict.
Dead Cert is a low budget mix of London mobsters and Eastern European vampires that leads to an orgy of bullets and fangs. The movie deals with the high cost of maintaining your nightclub dreams. This is fine viewing for people who want a classy scare flick.
Studio Presents presents Dead Cert. Directed by: Steven Lawson. Starring: Craig Fairbrass, Billy Murray and Jason Flemyng. Written by: Ben Shillito. Running time: 93 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Released on Blu-ray: September 27, 2011. Available at Amazon.com.
