Addicted to Murder 2 & 3

Addicted to Murder 2 & 3

Addicted to Murder 2 (1998)
Directed by Kevin Lindenmuth
Starring Sasha Graham, Sarah K. Lippman, Mick McCleery
VHS

I haven't seen the first installment in this ongoing saga of the young, restless, and damned, but it's director has confidence that the need is nought to enjoy these sanguine proceedings, so let's get to claret, Barrett. ATM2's plotline stretches from the 13th century all the way to the tail end of the grunge era, but most of the story occurs during Christmas time, 1992, at various stops along the Jersey turnpike. Tricia (Lippman), a doe-eyed wallflower, finds out that she's got an 'inoperable tumor' of some sort, and only has a few months to live. Determined to stretch out her marginal existence a little longer, she goes to the library and pores over a few puffball coffee table books on vampires.

Meanwhile, Joel (McCleery), a slightly portly mustache guy with poor social skills, is aimlessly driving around rural Pennsylvania with his mom's rotting head on the car floor. Seems some gothic vampire seductress has him under a blood-moon spell. This may or may not harken back to the first film, but Joel's frustrated meandering seems to tie the whole story together, so we visit him often as creeps out hitchhikers and magically changes his SUV into a Honda.

Tricia has managed to get herself bitten into vampire-in-training mode, successfully cheating death, at least for the moment. However, now comes the hard part, as she must learn to kill to survive. And after that, she has to learn how to make less of a bloody mess when doing it. Into her life steps Angie (Graham), the snippy 700 year old head vamp of this particular clan. She gives Tricia some sage advice, and the almost-bloodsucker embarks on a series of (literal) dates from hell.

Then semi-legendary trash film director Ted V. Mikels leaves his mansion full of Playboy bunnies long enough to offer up some helpful "expert" vampire lore.

Meanwhile. Joel gets picked up by a bucktoothed hillbilly that turns out to be a vampire, dispatched to kill him. But Joel, it appears, is too mean to die, and punches the demon to death.

Tricia finally get her fangs after tearing out her best friend's throat, Angie laughs fiendishly at the whole affair, and at film's end, 4 years later, Joel still can't get no satisfaction. Lost the mustache, though.

"Addicted to Murder 2" is an inventive cross between "Blind Date" and "Dark Shadows", aided greatly by strong leads and a storyline that keeps much of the action in New York City, a great backdrop for young, foxy vampires to run around in. Shot on video with a budget that could barely keep you in garlic, and devoid of either nudity or gore (save for a few quick throat rippings), this could almost play as a particularly perverse new reality show. Maybe it's even too realistic, since all the lead vamp-girls reminded me of old girlfriends. Which would explain a lot. At any rate, ATM2 is compelling video-cam cinema, more tease than sleaze, but a fun little dip into vampville, nonetheless.

Addicted to Murder 3 (1999)
Directed by Tom Vollman, Kevin Lindenmuth
Starring Mick McCleery, Nick Kostopoulos, Cloud Michaels, Sarah K. Lippman
VHS

At film's beginning, we find the hapless Joel- now graduated to sporting a goatee- wandering the streets of NYC, burdened with the thankless job of vampire hunter, a low rent boy-Buffy under the command of the mysterious "Dark Ones" (guys in Halloween space monster masks).

Meanwhile, my prediction from ATM2 comes true, as a 'real-life vampires' documentary is being shot, featuring the deadly dream girls from the last film. Their up-close-and-personal confessionals help to fill in the blanks for what's gone on since we last saw them. Seems that as the 90's wore on, vampires became matriculated into society, an exotic new breed of minority. Tricia, always a forward thinking girl, even dates regular ol' humans, and has figured out how to refrain from killing and eating them.

One of her flesh and blood boy-toys gets a little too big for his engineer boots, demanding that she bite him so that he can "do that trick where you disappear into thin air"- he figures it will come in handy for robbing banks- so she dumps him. Not to be outdone, he eventually finds Joel, who somehow or another helps him turn into a demon. Demons, it seems, can kill vampires. So, he goes back to pay his ex-girlfriend an unexpected visit.

Luckily for her, it turns out that all you need to do when you've got demon trouble is to pour salt on 'em, like a slug; they burst into yellow video effects and melt down into bloody bones instantly.

The documentary, it turns out, was all a ruse, set up by Joel to off the rest of the vampire clan. He almost completes his goal too, but just before he gets to stake Tricia, a gorilla bursts out of the closet and drags her away.

The films suddenly shifts away from the mean streets of NYC to a prison in Chicago, where Dorian (Nick Kostopoulos, a dead ringer for Steve Martin, and star of director Vollmann's "Dead Meat") is sentenced to life without parole for some murder he committed while suffering from insomnia (I think). He ends up sharing a cell with a menacing Vin Diesel type, Santana (Frank Lopez), who quickly reveals himself to be a vampire. Seems that he's voluntarily locked himself up in the joint for the lack of sunlight and general aura of evil. When Dorian squeals to the jailhouse reverend, Santana gets his revenge by slipping out to hunt Dorian's daughter. Little does he know, Dorian's got his own revenge planned...

The film ends as it began, back in New York, with Joel looking more determined than ever to rid the world of the bloodsucker plague. My guess is, he's got his work cut out for him.

Splitting a movie down the middle and letting two different directors run wild doesn't always make for a cohesive film- see the "Two Evil Eyes" fiasco for evidence- but Volmann and Lindenmuth manage to pull it off rather successfully. Both have similar small-screen sensibilities when it comes to shot composition, so it all hangs together well. Of the two stories, the Chicago saga stands out as the more engaging, simply because the performances are so over the top; in particular, Reid Ostrowski's portrayal of the crooked prison guard. This cat's a riot, channeling his inner Clint Eastwood with such intensity that he mutters all his lines through clenched teeth.

Both storylines have their charms, though. As with the 2nd film, there's no tits and little blood, but it gets by on a solid script and a handful of believable, if a little over-enthusiastic, performances. I'm even looking forward to the next one, if only to see what the gorilla has planned for Tricia.
- Sleazegrinder