Dead Serious is anything but; a humor infused action film that's a bit like Versus in it's ultimate match-up - only instead of Vampries vs. Zombies vs. The Yakuza in the haunted woods, Dead Serious gives us Homosexuals vs. A Christian Coalition vs. Vampires in a Brooklyn gay bar. It's a little action, a little televangelism, a little punchy dialog, a little parody and a lot of fake blood. It's also quite fun.

The movie's success is largely due to the core cast of unlikely heroes, and their ability to play the script straight (no groaning!) while the production so clearly has its tongue firmly cheek. Still, no small amount of credit must be given to Tom Cahill, whose over-the-top, villainous Dr. Bruno Gant (who suffered from the unfortunate Super Villain disease: Before I Kill You Let Me Detail My Plan and By the Way Did I Tell You I Have One Secret Weakness-itis) seemed inspired by Christopher Lee's Hammer Horror days, coupled with Caesar Romero's Joker. Such cold poise, such well-swept hair - such a rictus grin.

Don't expect too much from Dead Serious by way of special effects; it's mostly good old-fashioned fangs and make-up effects, which are quite effective (although the film does provide one or two surprising, if not altogether convincing CG effects late in the film, which I feel it could have easily done without). In the end, it's not really about the monsters anyway. At least not of the bump-in-the-night variety. For all its silliness, Dead Serious is a movie with a message. And although it's evident in the subtext (such as it is), it's also in the text as well. In fact, the film is very keen that you get the point, so it goes about repeating it several times over. Usually I find myself very irritated with a film that doesn't trust the narrative to get its point across, but I was so busy giggling at Dead Serious that I forgot to be aggravated.

The festival preceded Dead Serious with a short called Dirtyglitter 1: Damien, a short about a self-obsessed junkie which I will admit I did not entirely follow. However I was immensely impressed with the slick and imaginative look of it. A combination of live action, animation and CGI effects, it struck me as having a very video game sensibility to it. It's a style I hope to see more of, and one that would be well suited to the movies that deal in magic realism.