Cinnamon

Cinnamon feels like somebody took the open-world mayhem of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, tossed in Vampire: The Masquerade series to fill the streets with vampires, added a healthy dose of blaxploitation attitude, and then turned the whole thing loose after dark. The result is a violent piece of urban undead genre filmmaking

At its center is Cinnamon, played by Sabreen Marie, a young dancer/stripper who finds herself caught in the sights of Freddy (Freddy John James doing his best Yaphet Koto look) and his vicious gang of bloodthirsty vampires. What begins as a nightmare quickly becomes a revenge story, as Cinnamon and her Dancer friends join forces with a seasoned group of vampire hunters led by Isadora Ortega’s vampire hunter Jo. One learns of a cult from a mysterious book that reveals Cinnamon’s past family were undead hunters throughout the ages.  From there, the movie embraces the pleasures as they see it of hunting, revenge, nightlife, comments about clothes, and bloodshed

This is a modern urban vampire movie populated primarily by people of colour, rather than another variation on the familiar image of the tortured Caucasian vampire kid wandering around with social problems. The film understands that the undead can exist in a very different cultural landscape; in this case, the look of an urban video game setting.

The closest film comparison might be From Dusk Till Dawn, particularly in the way it throws together crime, nightlife, sex, violence, and vampires. But Cinnamon pushes that formula toward something resembling a contemporary Russ Meyer movie. The larger-than-life heroes, glamorous and voluptuous women, exaggerated personalities, and deliberately heightened visual style all announce that subtle realism is not the objective here. This is simply exploitation cinema of people who mostly are behind the camera, new actors with a story to tell in a setting that appeals to them. Much like the somewhat infamous film Blood Sucking Freaks, where you had working Broadway female and male actors shooting this film at night on a limited budget, totally different from their work in theatre both on and off Broadway.

A dancer studies her reflection in a bulb-lined dressing room mirror in Cinnamon.

“…a mysterious book that reveals Cinnamon’s past family were undead hunters throughout the ages.”

Cinnamon’s soundtrack is another major part of its identity. The throbbing bass-heavy music, combined with slow-motion shots of dancers moving through the club environment, makes it very clear who this movie is aimed at. The nightclub becomes almost another character: loud, sweaty, colourful, and dangerous. There is a definite music-video sensibility running through the production, reminiscent at times of the wild visual excess associated with Charles Band and Full Moon’s exploitation universe only transplanted into a contemporary urban setting.  No cool funk or live music performing on stage in this one like in Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite and its sequels.  Hammer films tried the mix in the debatable Sixties swinging London crossover vampire picture Dracula A.D . 1972 with odd fang-in-cheek results

And that’s ultimately what makes Cinnamon interesting. It isn’t embarrassed by its exploitation roots. It wears them proudly if unknowingly. There is a little bit of everything here: blaxploitation, vampire horror, revenge thriller, urban nightlife, action movie, and grindhouse spectacle. It occasionally feels as though the filmmakers simply decided to throw every ingredient they loved into the same blender. Most importantly, kudos to the filmmakers for getting the movie made and giving this audience a vampire film that looks and feels like its world.

The picture is simply Grand Theft Auto if the city were overrun by vampires, mix in From Dusk till Dawn, filter the whole thing through modern Russ Meyer-style exploitation filmmaking, and with that you’ve got a pretty good idea of what Cinnamon is serving. Best line: “She died defending her strip club”.