Everybody’s working for the vampire weekend in the strung-out-on-blood found footage horror feature Familiar, written and directed by Bird Rogers. It is shot in Astoria, Queens, with dialogue that seems like it was improvised by the actors. The opening montage shows the rise of The Winecast, a podcast put together by Bird (Bird Rogers), Ellis (Ellis Charles Hoffmeister), and Trench (Justin Mendoza) while they were in college. The three dudes drinking wine and talking about nothing were a campus sensation that spread like wildfire. As the podcast’s popularity grew, so did tensions between the co-hosts, until the whole thing imploded. A little over ten years after the last episode of The Winecast, Bird is married with a cat named Ruby. While his wife (Emma Gryce) is out of town, Bird has invited over Ellis, after not seeing him for years, to possibly reboot what once was.
Bird leans in close to the camera in a dimly lit room in Familiar.
“Bird finds out that Ellis has stolen some blood from a Cuban revolutionary vampire, who he had falsely promised to be the familiar for.”
Ellis looks terrible to the point that Bird suspects he is back on the cocaine train again. During the podcast, they get a call from Heather (Heather Velazquez), who accuses Ellis of stealing something from her. She lets them both know she will be there to take it back once the sun sets. Bird finds out that Ellis has stolen some blood from a Cuban revolutionary vampire, who he had falsely promised to be the familiar for. Ellis takes a powder and disappears for days, leaving Bird holding the jar of blood in the fridge. As Heather keeps showing up at night, baring her fangs and demanding her blood, Bird calls in the other podcast host, Trench, to help. Due to all the bad blood between Trench and Ellis, Trench wasn’t invited to the podcast reunion and is pissed. They find a Cuban vampire slayer, Ted Chaquita (Eduardo Machado), who says he has been waiting 58 years to face Heather. But vampiric Heather has other plans for everyone…
Who likes making movies for free? Chances are the answer is everyone reading this, as Film Threat has always been a bastion for the penniless wonder. The burning belief that a little imagination triumphs over a big budget is what guides us to the street-level side of the screen. Familiar immediately would wear its poverty on its sleeve, if the funds had been there for a sleeve in the first place. Even the vampire fangs look like they came out of a Dollar Tree. The whole thing is shot in the same room, pivoting to the outside deck occasionally. It is reminiscent of the homemade horror films made during the camcorder on weekends with your buddies, except this looks like it was done in one weekend. And you know what? It all works, resulting in a good movie out of thin air.
"…shows a lot of storytelling range for a dimestore Dracula flick."
