The extremely rushed nature of the story causes a no attachment to the characters.
Added to that, the supposedly intended mix of comedy and horror leaves you flabbergasted and confused. You never fully know if you are meant to laugh or be scared. A clear example of that are the performance of Douglas Booth and the appearances of the “little people”. Those can only be defined as hilariously bad.
Its wide array of singular characters is the only thing that makes this film slightly enjoyable. In special during the initial part of the movie where the characters are divided in sub-groups on their way to the location of the party.
Otherwise it is an unnecessary exposition fest with a standard teenage party turned into a non-sensical and underwhelming confrontation against the “infected”.
It has a nice wrapping with Cage covering the comedic horror, and Hoult and Awkwafina the ludicrous gory action.
On the other hand, it lacks substance being quite over the place with multiple underdeveloped storylines which become uninteresting: Renfield’s co-dependence, Dracula’s world domination, Rebecca’s work and family issues, and the mobsters and their shady business.
Simply entertaining. Nothing else.
Although having a good trigger point for the mystery, its extremely generic score, kindergarten-level script (with outrageously simple dialogues, foolish characters, and filled with plot holes), and cringy overacting and over romanticism make of this movie simply a bigger budgeted crappy TV movie.
Nice look into the idea of tourists believing themselves to be above the law of the hosting country.
The beating score provides a great feel of impending doom and perversion tight from the start.
Unfortunately, the first act is so good and detailed that makes the rest of the film, and in particular its twists, quite predictable.
Nevertheless, its attractive visuals, either via traditional framing or kaleidoscopic sequences, keeps you quite attentive to what is happening on the screen.
