The popularity of vampires on screen seems to be as eternal as the creatures themselves. From Nosferatu and Dracula to the more recent Jakob’s Wife, there’s barely been a year when we haven’t had at least one vampire-themed movie cast into the world. This year we seem to be being treated to a bumper crop of bloodsuckers with Chris Baugh’s Boys From County Hell being just one of them. Set in the rural Irish village of Six Mile Hill, Boys From County Hell blends horror, comedy, and drama with mixed results.
Six Mile Hill’s only claim to fame is the local legend that Bram Stoker once spent a night in their public house. It is also home to the gravesite of Abhartach, a legendary Irish vampire some believe to have inspired Stoker’s famous novel Dracula. Eugene Moffat (Jack Rowan) is one of the many residents of Six Mile Hill. He’s a young man who spends his days drinking in the pub and pranking tourists who come to visit the gravesite. When a personal tragedy forces Eugene to go and work for his gruff no-nonsense father (Nigel O’Neill), he finds himself on the site of a controversial new road development that threatens to destroy the town’s livelihood. But strange events unfold when Eugene and the crew tear down a famous cairn believed to be the final resting place of Abhartach and they soon come under attack from a sinister force that has infected one of their workmates. As the night closes in, the boys must fight for survival while discovering the true horror of a myth that hits much closer to home than any of them realise…
Boys From County Hell opens cold with a bickering couple whose boring night in gets interrupted by an off screen terror, before rewinding to two months earlier where we first meet Eugene. It’s a technique that’s been used many times before, one that hardly ever fails to grab the audience’s attention, and here is no exception. The viewer instantly wants to see what the menace is, and by dialing it back, Baugh is able to slowly build up to the reveal that the audience knows is coming. Baugh takes great delight in teasing the viewer about when the monster will be unveiled, littering the way with red herrings and near misses, before finally revealing his hand. The reveal doesn’t quite live up to the anticipation, but still demonstrates solid work and won’t leave anyone feeling too short changed as the vampire lore here is pretty unique.
Tonally, Boys From County Hell tries to juggle horror, comedy, and drama. It’s not a new mix of genres, but it is one that is hard to accurately balance. Neil Marshall’s Dog Soldiers is a great example and Baugh’s film is clearly trying to emulate the cult classic. For the most part, Baugh succeeds in his mission, the story morphing into a similar ‘survive till dawn’ siege affair part-way through. The humour is also primarily kept more in the background than your typical comedy horror, the more dramatic elements getting the time in the spotlight. The occasional wobbles come through the instances where the comedy is pushed over the drama. Were this to be more comedy-led like Shaun of the Dead, these moments wouldn’t raise much of an eyebrow, but when surrounded by this rather sad story of grief and guilt, it feels a little odd.
Baugh has cleverly made an Irish vampire movie from the same mould as Marshall’s Scottish werewolf story. A fun film that sadly isn’t quite as funny as one may hope, Boys From County Hell still manages to just about work within the constraints of the comedy horror marriage.
Boys From County Hell will be released in UK cinemas on 6th August 2021.
Boys From County Hell
Summary
An Irish vampire horror that channels the spirit of Neil Marshal’s werewolf classic with added bite.
