Photos courtesy of Joe Sherlock, co-writer & co-director of "Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires"
by Bone Jawnson
"Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires" is a view into the heartwarming passion and family atmosphere of writer and director Joe Sherlock's productions. Having started my journey into the Sherlock-iverse with the more recent "Odd Noggins," I decided to backtrack two decades to "Bloodsucking Redneck Vampires" to check out some of his earlier work. When I initially saw a running time of one hour and forty-seven minutes, I thought I would be in for a long, drawn-out viewing session like the last week. Boy, was I wrong! From beginning to end, I was intrigued by the storyline, small-town humor, innuendos, and drunken debauchery. I actually found myself rooting for various characters! My favorite character, hands-down, is Cletus, who is a comic sidekick to a character named Junior. Cletus was played by the late Bill Bradford, who also made an appearance in the comedy short "Sightings". When I say that Bill sold his performance as Cletus, I mean that you can really imagine that he WAS Cletus in real life. His humor and punchlines were right on target; never missing a beat.
Overall, this film has a few storylines that are cleverly interlocked at the end. The overarching storyline was that a vampire appeared in the small town of Backwash, with her familiar, in an attempt to build a vampire army. As the vampire sets the wheels in motion, members of the town slowly start to turn each other into vampires. Within that storyline, you see a comical look at the members of the small town, and what they feel is important. I got so engrossed in a neighborly battle between who had the best recipe for tripe (if you are unsure what this is, go look it up. I do not take responsibility for any nausea that occurs), that I almost forgot that the town was turning into vampires! All of the, what will become your favorite, characters cross paths at the end of the film during an unexpected turn of events.
