Horror Movie Review: Sunset Society (2018)

Going down the film within a film route, Sunset Society is a messy, low-budget and ugly vampire flick that stars some of the famous faces of rock and metal. The movie opens using animation showing Lemmy Kilmister (the late Motörhead frontman) playing a game of poker that goes wrong. Called Ace, he discovers his opponents are vampires and after fighting them off he takes a shot of their blood becoming one himself. This intro is narrated by Lemmy in his deadpan way and while it implies he is the star, his parts are few and far between.

The movie properly begins now as Charlie (Ben Stobber) returns home to his Hollywood mansion with two drunk girls on his arm. It’s pretty obvious that he has more then sex on his mind though as he makes puns about his vampire nature which the girls take as playful flirting.

Unfortunately for Charlie his fun is spoiled by Mr Cross (Robert Donavan). He is here because he believes Charlie knows where a film is. A film that would out the Sunset Society to the humans. Charlie insists he knows nothing but Mr Cross doesn’t believe him. Even when Charlie tries to point the finger at another vamp called Frankie played by porn-star, Ron Jeremy.

Frankie supposedly destroyed all copies but when Sophia (Phoebe Dollar) enters the room she reveals to everyone that she has the tape. She hands it over to Mr Cross who then forces them all to watch it…as well as us.

The movie within a movie is a kind of documentary that shows the vampire nature of Ace and his Sunset Society gang. The other members include Dagger (Dizzy Reed of Guns N’ Roses) and Gage (Tracii Guns of L.A. Guns).

Ace constantly insists that the gang keep themselves hidden and do nothing to expose the society but the rest aren’t so careful. In particular, Gage who causes problem after problem while Dagger is tired of vampire life and wants to be human again.

All of the vampire antics are captured on camera threatening the end of the Sunset Society once and for all!

This is a rough watch. It’s way too long for starters coming in at just over an hour and a half. Phoebe Dollar doesn’t just act in it either, she is also the writer and the director, the latter her debut. Her inexperience shows though as the pace of the movie is all over the place and the lack of budget is hard to ignore at times.

Putting Lemmy, Reed and Guns in the main roles might seem like a cool idea if you’re into rock and metal but as actors these guys really don’t have enough experience. The best of the bunch is probably Reed who plays his bored vampire/wanting to human role pretty convincingly.

Elsewhere, Ron Jeremy gives another solid performance. As he often does especially with how little he is given to work with here. He’s comedy gold in a movie that really lacks in laughs.

These are the highlights in a movie that has a lot of lowlights. The plot is so thin and stretched to breaking point resulting in a lot of yawns and time-checking. The effects are hit and miss. Some of the bloodier sequences are imaginative but then there are moments where things just seem off. Vampires bite necks but end up looking like they’re giving hickeys.

It all just adds to the overall B-movie feel of the movie. Something that I normally wouldn’t mind but the poor plot and overly long run-time sticks in the craw.

[amazon_link asins=’B07BF25F9S,B07FR39BVD,B07DL8NHRW,B07DXN3YHG’ template=’UseThisOne’ store=’g0e5b-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’abd6aab4-a7ed-11e8-9882-0ff8a200d28c’]