THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL

“AH! You dirty damping bastard!”

THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL has done what many movies have the opportunity to do, but don’t because of the formula that exists in the horror genre to tell a vampire tale. Out of pride in their land and in spite of Bram Stoker, they have decided to tell a very funny and different Irish vampire tale.

After a mystifying and deeply unsettling opening, we find Eugene and his friend William in a bar trying to run a con on a couple of visiting Canadians. The two from the Great White North have come to Six Mile Hill’s local pub, The Stoker, to seek out the source of the legend that inspired Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula. What they don’t realize is that everyone there is thoroughly sick of the man and his novel. William relates the tale of Abhartach to the unsuspecting maple leaf adorned couple and the friends have a bit of a laugh at their expense. The town of Six Mile Hill really doesn’t have any other attraction for tourists to visit, so the local pub has fake spider webs and Drac influenced decor to capitalize on Stoker’s legend year round. The town’s cairn of Abhartach is in the way of a bypass, so the local legend is now in jeopardy from development. But as the Moffat family’s road crew makes preparations at the bypass site, gruesome and strange happenings start to make road building a whole lot more difficult and dangerous. It’s now up to a group of slackers to save Six Mile Hill from an ancient evil and maybe get a couple of pints while they’re at it.

THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL was directed by Chris Baugh (BAD DAY FOR THE CUT, TIN STAR) and written by Baugh and Brendan Mullin (BAD DAY FOR THE CUT) and is filled with witty and insightful dialogue and action. It is built on the idea of what if a sensible and stoic sort of people who avoid large shows of emotion suddenly had to deal with a terrifying monster? This makes for natural comedy and the plumbing of the depths of the familial and friend relationships of the leads explores some interesting territory. You’re used to people screaming in terror in horror films when confronted by a monstrous evil, but what if people really didn’t even know how to react that way? There’s also the tension between the people who despise showing certain emotions and those who are more sensitive, one of which is the main relationship between Eugene and Francie Moffatt, as son and father. The film has really good character work and relationships which grounds the horror aspects. The script is well written and uses those different ideas to explore other facets of vampire lore making great comic use of that possibility. It’s not a new idea because other films have posited that vampires who aren’t Christians would not be affected by a Christian cross, but BOYS questions nearly every one of the accepted rules of the vamp which makes for many funny moments. In a certain sequence, the scene turns from a very Samuel Beckett style comedy to horror instantly. I went from laughing to having to turn it off for a moment because the humor opened me up in a way that made the horror completely blindsided me.

Jack Rowan (Peaky Blinders) as Eugene Moffat is the antithesis of his father Francie played by Nigel O’Neill (THE BOOKSHOP) who considers him soft. The work of the actors is seamlessly believable as their relationship, the bickering, and love seem genuine. Louisa Harland (Derry Girls) as Clare McCann gives a warm yet emotionally restrained performance that is wonderful. She’s strong, but running underneath is an emotional life. She hides it, but you can see that she feels what’s happening under the surface. John Lynch (THE BANISHING) and Fra Fee (ANIMALS) as George and William Bogue both have an emotional resonance in their eyes that goes straight to the heart. They both have sad eyes despite their engaging personalities. Michael Hough (Chapelwaite) as SP McCauley is a gift. He’s the fun devil may care one of the group who’s always there to make things a little less heavy and dispense some stealth good advice. I have to say good words for the casting director Carla Stronge (The Fall, Game of Thrones, Derry Girls). The ensemble of actors is uniformly good and they give lived in and fully believable performances right down to the characters who are only in one scene or who appear in only a couple of scenes, but have key moments in both. Well done.

Ryan Kernaghan (BAD DAY FOR THE CUT) is the cinematographer and has done beautiful work. The beauty of Ireland and its almost impossibly green fields is gorgeous in his lens, but there’s also those same fields in the dark that are still sharp in shadows and a specific blue-purple lighting for when the Abhartach or vampires are near. The warmth of the lighting in the Bogue home offset with the rather cold lighting of the emotionally stifled Moffat homes. The lighting helps tell the story and gives emotional clues to the story and characters. It’s exactly what you want in a film like this. Top work.

Then there are the creature effects for Abhartach. They really do the job. Abhartach is a humanoid, but not human bloodsucker. The vamp is fully believable as an immortal and indestructible inhuman beast. Millennium FX is responsible for the oddly glistening undead fiend. The color of the monster’s skin is also set up for a very timely joke. Neill Gorton designed the creature and Kate Walsh was the producer at Millennium. It was created with the work of a lot of effects artists that I will list at the end. In horror comedies, it’s important to make sure that the monster is something that serves the needs of the genres. Usually the emphasis is on the scares, but the filmmakers and artists have done a good job of making Abhartach serve the comedy side as well. Another aspect of the overall effect of Abhartach as an antagonist is the sound design. The creature has a certain sound that is very creepy. Always remember that without sound, many effects, stunts, and action wouldn’t be as effective as they are. Credit to Aza Hand: re-recording mixer & sound designer: egg post production, Eoghan McDonnell: foley artist.

Steve Lynch did the music and the score is graced by both orchestral strains with strings and horns that exude menace and foreboding as well as Irish rock and punk that both complement the action and characters. I had to go back and watch a third time to pay attention just to the music, because his work was so well integrated to the whole of the film, as to unobtrusive on the surface, but most effective underneath.

THE BOYS OF COUNTY HELL is a rambunctious and hilarious romp about the dangers of Irish vampires and life in a small town. The film touches on how what most people consider progress (the bypass) has a human toll and ruins a place’s history, but also with how people deal or don’t deal with their own issues. BOYS has a dry wit that never winks at the camera. It’s played absolutely straight, so it is the most irresistible type of horror comedy and the most successful kind. It’s got a real kind of vampire and real people. The humor comes from the humanity. THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL is now streaming on Shudder. Recommended.

Here’s that list:

Sarah Blair: makeup artist trainee (as Sarah Blaire), Charlie Bluett: creature effects artist, Anthony Davies: creature effects artist, Amy Dudley: creature effects artist, Hazel Fearnley: creature effects artist, Christopher Goodman: creature effects artist, Amber Hertzberg: creature effects artist, Morgan Kimber: creature effects artist, Magda Kulig: creature effects artist, Penny Latter: creature effects artist, Sara Matos: creature effects artist, Rob Mayor: creature effects artist, Anthony Parker: creature effects artist, Tim Quinton: creature effects artist, Jody Stanton: creature effects artist, Nick Tyrrell: creature effects artist, Cliff Wallace: creature effects artist.