The long and the short of the upcoming fright flick Morbid Colors goes as follows: a duo of freaky foster sisters set of an a quest to put the stalk n’ slay on a rich-as-balls socialite. Seems like a rather standard trip down our beloved Revenge Road, but the filmmakers have included one hell of a terror twist here cats n’ creeps; it seems the older sister is of the fang-bang set, and these ghoulish girls believe that Richie Rich mentioned previous is the vampire what done it!
Along with that nifty preternatural premise up yonder, writer/director Matthew Packman has created a suitably cold and dreary world for this arcane action to go down in. Filled with leather jackets, slate-grey skies, underground metal bands, eyes hidden behind sunglasses, and an environment that is as bleak as the story set in it, this is one hell of a low-budget flick, and the careful choices of visuals and mythology sell the picture like gang-busters!
The closest thing I can say the aesthetic of Morbid Colors is akin to is the art created by Tim Bradstreet for the ol’ Vampire: The Masquerade role-playing manuals, and that ticks all the right boxes with yours cruelly!
Also of note is the strong acting on display throughout, and the artful presentation of some of the scenes… it’s obvious Packman has a great visual sense, and one can only imagine what he’d do with a larger budget, which brings us to some (very minor) negatives inherent in this film…
While definitely a visually interesting film, Morbid Colors is certainly a low-budget affair, so Hollywood gloss makes no appearance here… now your mileage may vary there, but as for me that is precisely why I love indie horror above all else. The other problem here is length; for me the sweet spot is nearly always eighty to ninety minutes run time, and this flick clocks in at one hour and forty-four monstrous minutes (with credits).
I honestly believe Packman n’ the gang were not trying to pad things out, rather they became mega-absorbed in the world they created and wanted us to see it in it’s entirety so we get things like band performance sequences that run longer than they should. Not a huge problem, but one that stood out to my putrid peepers.
All in all, Morbid Colors is a fangtastic vampire pic that presents a cold world full of revenge and metal that horror hounds should embrace!
